During the development process of creating the fourAvatarsequels, a lot of new ideas and stories were created and discussed.One such EPIC original story idea that didn’t make it into the sequels was James Cameron’s original story—“The High Ground.” Cameron shared what he had written with Dark Horse Comics and it is now beingadapted by award-winning author Sherri L. Smith (The Toymaker’s Apprentice,Orleans), and illustrated by Brazilian artist Guilherme Balbi. Plot [ ] Issue 1 [ ] It has been almost a decade since the humans were forced to leave Pandora - but now they're returning - with an armada of heavily-armed starships! After years of peace, Jake Sully has settled down with Neytiri and raised a family, so for him, the stakes are even higher than when he first went to war against the corporate might of the RDA. Ok, this is hilarious, Neytiri is behaving like Spider is that rebel bad boy who is coming to take her saint daughter’s virtue LOL. She is too psychotic. The child is not to blame for the sins of the father. Also, isn’t she been a little too much hypocrite? She is married to Jake, a human, maybe not in body, but he still has his human mind.

What is a trait that Jake can't shake out about being a human? He was a marine. What is the Marines' motto? No man left behind. So how do you expect me to believe that Jake asked Spider THAT? No! Bullshit! But no! I think it worked better in the movie, Neytiri is no marine. Kiri is so stubborn, all that happened at the end was her fault. Just because she couldn’t let Spider go with the McCoskers. She put herself, her family, and the entire clan at risk for that (wasting resources, equipment, and maybe lives). It’s not like Spider was going to be in danger, he would have been with the humans, and probably, eventually, he would have escaped and returned to the forest. Because I believe he loves the forest so much that’s what he would have done. Also, she is so useless, Spider has to rescue her ALL THE TIME! It has beenover adecadesince the humans were forced to leave Pandora—but now they’re returning—with an armada of heavily-armed starships! Now, about the story… I know Kiri has a connection to Spider, but she is pushing the “orphans” theme too much. I’m starting to think it would have been better if Jake and Neytiri didn’t tell her the truth in the first place. She is so stubborn to call Spider family when clearly her parents do not consider him their kid. I mean, it’s ok to love someone so much, but she is forcing her entire family to comply. I mean, I can’t believe Lo’ak here was the only kid with common sense. Kiri put herself and her siblings in danger. Lo’ak here is younger, so, yeah, no doubt why he’s the rebel one in The Way of Water, he’s just doing like Neteyam and Kiri.

Avatar: The High Ground Volume 2

Speaking of Lo’ak, he’s a cinnamon roll here. He’s looking for Tuk, trying to give some common sense to Kiri, and wanting to be a good son in his father’s eyes. Give him a hug. I didn’t like Jake being so obsessed with war before the humans returned. That’s not the vibes I got from the movie (ATWOW). I mean, I get he may be concerned, but seriously they made him sound so paranoiac here.

But that’s exactly why the graphic novel is the perfect medium to explore ideas like this. It’s perfect, low-stakes, over-the-top AU fun. In addition, the art was gorgeous, though it wasn’t always easy to tell the children apart; they didn’t resemble their film counterparts as closely as their parents did, but that was my only gripe. The landscapes, flora and fauna were all distinctly and recognisably Pandoran, and the dialogue was fine, though not as tight, natural, and imbued with character as James Cameron’s is.

Become a Member

I think I really only started enjoying comics and graphic novels when, like anime, I realised that the inherent ridiculousness is part of their charm - and embraced that aspect, rather than expecting comic tie-ins to be tonal extensions of their parent media. I was undecided in V1 and V2 if High Ground was canon, but now I can say: It’s not. It’s more like a “What If” scenario.

PC/Console: Avatar: The Game (2009: PC/360/PS3 · Demo · Wii/PSP · NDS) · Frontiers of Pandora (2023)

Finally, I just going to tell you how much I love stupid Jake. He gave the helmet to Neytiri, of course, but his plan was to hold his breath IN SPACE! That’s just plain stupid Jake, badass Jake, lovely Jake, and I just love Jake. Issue 2 [ ] Humans have returned to Pandora with an armada of starships but Jake Sully and the Na'vi are ready for them! Knowing this day would come, Jake has trained his Navi warriors with a plan that should make it too costly for the humans to try again ... if the plan works. But, any chain of events is only as strong as the weakest link, and in this case the weak link is human nature. As the plan unravels, Jake and Neytiri must race against time to return to Pandora and save their children before the starships land. If it was any longer I would have DNF'd it. Boring and confusing. Terrible pacing. The narrative jumps around a lot. The characters' motivations are a mystery. There are a lot of characters whose role in their society, and their purpose in the story, are unexplained. Yeah. Na’vi in space. It sounds cool, but there’s a reason this idea was cut and reformed into the sequel we got with Avatar: The Way of Water. It really stretches your suspension of disbelief in a way that doesn’t mesh with James Cameron’s total immersion philosophy, something that has always been at the core of this franchise, even before it was a franchise. I’m also very confused with Kiri and her ikran. She was a child! Like Tuk’s age. Did Kiri have her ikran before Neteyam? I thought Neteyam has been the youngest to complete the Iknimaya rite in the whole story of their clan so far. It’s not like they take children to the rite. When Jake got Bob (his ikran), Tsu’tey also took two trainees probably a lot younger than Jake, but they were not children, probably teens, so why is Kiri so young?