My Incredulity Concerning Avatar

From time to time I've mentioned that I enjoy the 2009 film Avatar. It's definitely not fashionable to admit it, considering the plethora of online articles I see which are incredulous that the film was the #1 box office success of all time. I've heard the criticisms and don't much care for them; I like the film and watch it about once per year.

Where the sequels are concerned, I'm a little skeptical - it's unproven whether the concept of the film can sustain itself over multiple pictures. Maybe it won't - maybe Avatar II: Na'vi Boogaloo will be the franchise-killing flameout much of the internet would like it to be - but then again, maybe it will work. I'm skeptical but optimistic.

This, on the other hand...

Next January, Dark Horse Comics will begin publishing the mini-series Avatar: Tsu'tey's Path, celebrating Avatar's 10th anniversary. Incredibly, Avatar II has been filmed but isn't scheduled to debut until 2020! You could see this comic book as an effort by the filmmakers to keep the Avatar property in people's consciousness, but...

...Look, I don't see myself buying this comic - no offense to the creators involved, but I don't typically buy comic books which are adaptations from another medium. If you put 10 people who like Avatar in a room and asked them, "Who's Tsu'tey?" I think you'd be lucky if half of them remembered: "Oh yeah, the guy who lost his girlfriend, mantle of leadership and life within a week all thanks to Jake Sully."

This is a prequel to Avatar telling what Tsu'tey was up to prior to the first film. If this had been released around 2009-2010 that would be a pretty good hook for your typically-inconsequential Dark Horse film tie-in product, but 10 years out? At this stage, who is interested in a prequel about one of the film's second-tier characters? This would be like Dark Horse putting out an Aliens prequel in 1996 which told us Hudson's very interesting backstory (please don't tell me if Dark Horse did this).

On some level, I feel like the primary reason this comic book exists is because Dark Horse has been steadily losing the licenses which used to be their bread and butter (Star Wars, Conan) and are flailing about for something which has a built-in following.