Reviews - The Legend of Korra: The Mystery of Penquan Island

72 reviews for:

The Legend of Korra: The Mystery of Penquan Island

Kiku Hughes

4.13 AVERAGE

laauraaaa's review

5.0

Mako being like his mum is so so so special to me

robin_roronoa's review

2.0

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This definitely feels like a retcon of the brother’s backstory and seems to regress both of them back to earlier season dynamics that were already addressed in seasons 3 and 4 of the television series. Where “The Search” answered a long-held mystery of the main series, this goes back to try and add mystery to a story that’s already been explained. It feels unrealistic because it takes away from the original narrative that Mako and Bolin were simply victims of random violence and had to learn to cope with that, and help make the world a better place in spite of the evil done to them. This comic doesn’t address any new themes, but was still mostly enjoyable.

indeedithappens's review

3.5

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

r0g0melec's review

4.0

informative lighthearted tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

leemothyjones's review

3.5

Me: Sure I’ll pick up a new Korra comic, maybe some korrasami crumbs if I’m lucky

Comic: We’re going to be critiquing the toxic Japanese work force and racism and nationalism, okay?

Me: Oh… Okay!

I think this story was a solid okay, I think there were some things that felt weird like the islands Misogyny when the Fire Nation in the lore doesn’t really care about that stuff? All for the metaphor of irl places I guess.

I found Mako inconsistent, but at this point being inconsistent is his character and not bad writing. RIP.

As for the art, while it’s well drawn, I felt the paneling of everything a bit eh. Maybe nitpicking but if you’re art form is a comic, stuff like composition and paneling is a major part of it.

baldnerwin's review

3.0

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

urfavestemme's review

4.75

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

OKAYYYY MAKOOOOOOO!!

It’s taken over a decade, but we finally got it y’all: MAKO-CENTRISM! This took some turns I was not expecting.

I’m so happy for my bitch, Mako, finallyyy getting time to work out why he’s so addicted to being a detective. Bolin getting time to shine as well was so so nice. People need to remember Bolin is smart sometimes too and Mako listening to Bolin is top-tier! Them islanders calling Mako and Bolin slurs for being mixed / bi-racial tho?? My jaw was on tha floooorrrrr. Shit was crazy!

No surprise that this felt short but I knew going into it that this was a stand-alone comic. That one

Korrasami panel on page thirty was 2000% fan service (cuz let’s be fr: ain’t nobody eva had to watch Pabu until now allo the sudden? 🧐🏳️‍🌈) and I’m so here for it! That writing room said, “okay, if we don’t make a Korrasami appearance after three years since Patterns In Time, the fans will hunt us down”! And it provided so much! Like,, Asami wears the hair down more these days! Omg! Korra and Asami still can’t go anywhere together without holding each other close!

These are the things we’ve always wanted to know! I hope you sleep tight tonight, Kiku Hughes and Alex Monik! Doing the lord’s work!

Seriously tho, I really do love Mako and Bolin’s brotherhood stuff and I wish more people appreciated it. One of the many things I love about Korra is how they kept the importance of Mako and Bolin’s sibling relationship at the forefront in each season in some way and emphasized familial importance. This is rich coming from me but;

I really love Mako having a story not involving romance! Soooo happy he is working through his familial issues (generational trauma question mark?) before throwing him into another romance. Bolin needed this too! Bolin loves seeing Mako not killing himself at that damn desk 🤧.

I really loved this comic,

Naoki died for ur sins, in an alternate universe she prolly a lesbian (trust), a queen gone too soon 👑.

Now let’s do a prayer circle for the next official Korra comic to be a plot-heavy Korrasami trilogy (stand-alone works too, but make that plot crunchy like RoTE was) and for it to release in the next two years or less 😁🤞🏿

Content Warnings