James Cameron’s high grossing epic; Avatar often draws comparisions to movies like the Last Samurai or Dances with Wolves, but heavy.com is claiming that there’s a really strong resemblance between Avatar and a comic story that showed up in 2000 A.D. The story in question; Firekind showed up about a year BEFORE the earliest script treatments of Avatar were announced and Cameron has been known to draw inspiration from other writers before, so this is where it gets kind of hazy. According to heavy.com’s analysis of Firekind:
Botanist Hendrick Larsen arrives on the planet Gennyo-Leil, to live among the native Kesheen and explore the world – home to the Firekind, huge dragons full of miracle drugs that make humans young and virile again. Larsen needs to wear something called a Filter:Mask at all times, since the atmosphere of Gennyo-Leil kills humans. After watching the Kesheen have weird, unsettling alien sex practices, Larsen is blamed for several massacres and cast out, to die alone. What happens next is the weird drugs in the atmosphere re-wire Larsen’s brain, letting him join a tribe of outcast natives (outcast for having kinky sex, in case you needed to know) and share in their psychic link. Pretty soon a band of sadistic mercenaries show up (having framed Larsen for the earlier atrocities, intent on killing all the Kesheen and stealing their dragon-drugs. Backed into a corner, Larsen has no choice but to summon the destructive all-god of the planet, turning wildlife and a massive colossus against the human fleet and turning his back on his own species.
Or to make it easier, check out this chart they made:
AVATAR: FIREKIND: THE PLANET: Pandora, a lush jungle world with mysterious floating rock formations and an atmosphere toxic to humans. Gennyo-Leil, a lush jungle world with mysterious floating stone slabs and an atmosphere toxic to humans. THE WILDLIFE: Lots of weird stuff, plus big dragons for the natives to ride. Lots of weird stuff, plus the firekind: big dragons for the natives to ride. OUR PROTAGONIST: Jake Sully, a washed up Marine who goes against his own species when they go too far. Has a lot of furry otherkin sex. Hendrick Larsen, a washed up botanist who goes against his own species when they go too far. Has no sex. THE NATIVES: The Na’vi, blue-skinned aboriginals with a planet-wide neural net connection. The Kesheen, blue-skinned Aboriginals with a planet-wide psychic connection. RELIGION: The Na’vi worship Eywa, an animistic nature deity who is summoned against the invaders with devastating results. The Kesheen worship Asha-Kadarine, an animistic nature deity who is summoned against the invaders with devastating results. THE INVADERS: Marauding colonialists bent on exploiting Pandora’s unique resources: “Unobtainium”, a rare and desirable miracle compound available only in the planet’s unique geology. Marauding colonialists bent on exploiting Gennyo-Leil’s unique resources: “Hexacrin”, a rare and desirable miracle drug found only in the glands of the planet’s mysterious dragons. DOES IT HAVE WEIRD FLOATING ROCKS: Yes. Yes!
