‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Fans Need To Read Fantasy’s Best Martial Arts Epic

For nearly two decades, Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA) has left fans chasing the same feeling; not another elemental fantasy or another coming-of-age adventure, but another story where the action means something. Every bending duel in Avatar reflected a character’s personality, culture, and values just as much as their fighting style. Politics mattered. Family mattered. Even the biggest battles were usually about people before they were about power.

That’s exactly what makes Fonda Lee’s Jade City such an easy recommendation. On the surface, they look very familiar. They have a lot of East Asian influence, and both stories revolve around combatants who first acquire their awesome fighting abilities by years of martial arts training, rather than being naturally endowed with the ability to use magic freely. However, while Jade City draws on these elements, they are not what make it a great story to read, nor is it because it is reminiscent of Aang’s story, but that it realizes that in having power, also come the responsibilities, traditions, and impossible decisions associated with wielding that power, which is also evident in Avatar.

‘Jade City’ Treats Martial Arts as Culture, Not Just Action

Image via Fonda Lee

A key aspect of understanding Jade City is that jade not only replaces bending but also enhances the already trained abilities of Green Bone warriors on the island of Kekon; they have their strength, speed, reflexes, and senses increased by wearing jade. However, it is dangerous when used improperly by someone untrained or unable to handle jade, and it is also a very powerful item. Not everyone can safely wear jade, and therefore must undergo years of training or practice to control its use so that it does not overtake them.

That relationship with jade feels remarkably similar to the way Avatar approached bending. Neither content treats extraordinary abilities like flashy superpowers handed out for spectacle. They’re cultural traditions shaped by discipline, history, and expectation. A fight isn’t won because someone unlocks a convenient new ability. It’s won because they understand themselves — and their opponent — a little better than before.

Lee writes combat with the same philosophy. Every duel feels physical and deliberate, whether it’s a clean blade fight between rival Green Bones or a street brawl that erupts without warning. The action is exhilarating, but it’s never there simply to fill pages. Every punch, knife strike, and impossible leap changes relationships, shifts political alliances, or pushes a character closer to becoming someone they never wanted to be.

The Kaul Family Carries the Same Emotional Weight as Team Avatar

Image via Nickelodeon

For all the praise Avatar receives for its world-building, its greatest strength has always been its characters. Fans fell in love with this show because every member of Team Avatar brought a different perspective on duty, loss, forgiveness, and what it meant to build a better future. Lan assumes a leadership role during a tumultuous time as peace continues to erode; as he leads with compassion, he also has to make hard decisions called for by his current role. His brother Hilo is a famous warrior, and loyalty to his family is both Hilo’s greatest strength and his biggest weakness. Likewise, their sister Shae returns home to avoid clan politics, but finds that family obligations always pull you back in. Anden is also one of the strongest characters in the book, grappling with his identity and sense of belonging.

None of these characters fit neatly into the role of hero or villain. They make mistakes, lash out, and protect each other even when they’re furious with one another. Their relationships evolve naturally, and that’s what gives Jade City its emotional punch. It’s the same reason Zuko’s redemption remains one of fantasy television’s defining character arcs. Growth isn’t presented as inevitable, but it has to be earned.

One of Avatar‘s smartest decisions was refusing to separate personal stories from political ones. For instance, Ba Sing Se was fascinating because every political decision affected ordinary people living inside the city. Jade City‘s central conflict is a struggle over the future of Kekon itself. Foreign powers want access to the island’s most valuable resource; tradition collides with modernization; old heroes give way to a younger generation that no longer agrees on what their country should become.

If those themes sound familiar, it’s because they’re the same questions ATLA and, later, The Legend of Korra repeatedly asked. How much should a society change? What traditions deserve preserving? When does protecting your culture become holding it back?

Lee never pauses the story to lecture the reader. Those questions emerge naturally through boardroom negotiations, family arguments, gang rivalries, and spectacular martial arts confrontations that always have consequences beyond the fight itself. This story doesn’t attempt to repeat or recreate bending, nor does it introduce another chosen one who will save the world; instead, it gives the characters enough agency and power that they carry the full weight of the narrative, and builds a fantastical world in which, for example, loyalty to one’s family can be as dangerous as a weapon and every victory has a price. This is also how Avatar: The Last Airbender has become an unforgettable animation in its storytelling. Jade City tells the same kind of story, but from a different point in life, and it is an equally compelling narrative.