The Legend Of Korra Book One “Chapter Three: The Revelation”

Well, if it was possible to dismiss the threat of the Equalists before, it sure isn’t a good idea now.

I find this development intriguing.

Allow me to elaborate.  I mean, if you got this far, you know I am going to anyway, so here goes.

Korra, now a member of the Fire Ferrets team, has something going for her in that at least Bolin likes her.  Mako?  Not so much.  But it turns out the brothers are orphans who grew up in the hardscrabble life on the streets of Republic City.  The problem, right now, is even though their team qualified for the pro-bending tournament and Tenzin no longer objects, they still need to raise some money to cover the entrance fee, and the three of them have, well, none.

I did like the small detail that Korra admits she never really needed money before because people tended to just give her stuff.

Now, Mako goes off and gets some work firebending at the local power planet.  Good, honest money.  Bolin, with his pet fire ferret Pabu, tries becoming a street entertainer when an old acquaintance offers him a lot of money if he does some light guard duty for what turns out to be a crime boss.  Bolin, obviously, says yes or there’s no episode.

And he and the whole triad are captured by the Equalists.  Korra and Mako manage to track them down with Naga, but then something interesting happens:  the pair lose a fight to a pair of acrobats with no bending.  They know what looks like Ty-Lee’s chi-blocking ability, and they seem to have some neat tech in the form of gas bombs and motorcycles.

So, here’s what I like about the Equalists as adversaries:  they make up for what they lack in bending with what looks like more advanced technology.  The ones Korra and Mako take on are talented fighters and the only reason Mako and Korra remain free is Naga scares the bikers off.

Now, Korra and Mako are smart people.  They go undercover to see “the Revelation,” learn there are a lot more Equalists out there than they thought, and then Amon shows up to…strip the captive mob guys of their bending.  Bolin is next unless Korra and Mako can figure out a way to save him.  And they do because of course they do.  It involves Korra bending some steam after she uses old fashioned fisticuffs to beat the snot out of a guy.

Except…Amon has a lieutenant voiced by…holy crap, professional scary guy Lance Henriksen…and he has, well, high voltage cattle prods that make Mako, Bolin, and Korra all look like chumps.  Once again, Naga has to save everybody.  That and Amon decides to let the Avatar go because she’d be the perfect person to spread his message of…well, fear to benders from the looks of things.

Indeed, Tenzin is spooked since only the Avatar can remove bending powers.

This is getting a bit more intense.