Author Gene Yang has announced that a new comic series called Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Rift, focusing on the character of Toph, will be released next year.
A new comic series, Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Rift will be coming to comic book stores on March 5, 2014, according to Comic Book Resources. The news comes from a San Diego Comic-Con interview with Gene Yang, author of the previous Avatar: The Last Airbender comics The Promise, and The Search, which is currently ongoing.
Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Rift will take readers back to the newly-founded settlement of Republic City, focusing on the building and development of the independent city. Though the details of the storyline have not yet been shared, Yang did reveal the fact that “Aang and Toph will be the center of this one.”
Team Gurihiru, who will again provide the artwork for Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Rift, clearly utilized that exciting fact in their design of the comic’s first cover:
Though Toph is one of the most beloved characters from the Avatar: The Last Airbender TV series, her role in the comics has been somewhat marginalized, as the character does not appear in The Search at all. Yang shared his excitement (certainly echoed by fans) to return the tough, blind earthbender to center stage.
“Now that I’m writing it, [my favorite character is] Toph,” he said. “I liked Toph before, but now I love Toph… I missed having [her] in The Search!”
Fans of The Legend of Korra may be able to guess at how Toph becomes involved in the shaping of Republic City, as her character is well-known in Korra’s time for founding the city’s metalbending police force. We also can’t help but speculate whether or not Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Rift will shed any light on a popular mystery from The Legend of Korra – who the father of Toph’s daughter, Lin BeiFong might be.
Yang also hinted that Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Rift will not be the last installment of the sequel comic books. “I think it will just continue,” he said. “The characters still [have] a life after that last episode [of Avatar: The Last Airbender], and we’re going to keep going on that idea.”