June 30th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
This issue’s cover shows Amethyst is sitting in the middle of some shattered crystals filled with the reflections of Prince Topaz, Lord Garnet, Citrina, her mother and father, Princess Emerald, and Lady Turquoise.
The mysterious Emissaries of Varn are at the Diamond Sanctuary. The Emissary in the green cloak begins to inhale.
The Diamond Priests sense that their magic is leaving for a higher plane of mystic unity. One of the priests comments “Then the day of oneness is achieved! The day of death!”
Most of the Diamond Priests welcome their fate, but one senses that they are under siege from evil forces. He wants to fight.
The Emissaries of Varn swallow up the Diamond Sanctuary. The Emissary in the yellow cloak spits it out again, leaving a pile of rubble.
In the meantime Amethyst and Topaz have been sitting up all night talking around a campfire. Topaz is feeling guilty that he hasn’t been thinking about his father.
Amethyst talks about her anger over Granch’s death and says that her father told her when her grandfather died that no one you love is ever dead.
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June 23rd, 2008 at 10:34 am
Here it is, the big wedding issue! The cover shows the wedding procession taking place underneath Dark Opal’s cloak. Amethyst is reaching out her arm in protest and Opal brandishes his sword.
Gemworld royalty start to arrive for the wedding of Prince Topaz and Lady Sapphire. Lord Aquamarine’s ship approaches the cliffs. Lord and Lady Moonstone are announced at the door, as are Lady and Princess Emerald and Lady Turquoise.
Lord Garnet and Amethyst are observing all the activity in the Well of Vision at Castle Amethyst. Amethyst wonders why it is so important that she and Lord Garnet stop the wedding and Citrina points out that Princess Topaz is loyal to Dark Opal. Prince Topaz’s marriage to Lady Sapphire, another Opal ally, ensures that he will lose his claim to the Topaz throne. Citrina doesn’t want them to lose a potential ally. Garnet and Amethyst hop on their flying steeds and head out to the wedding.
In Topaz Keep Lord Topaz is ailing. Princess Topaz ministers to him along with some special attendants she assigned to him. Evil green attendants who just happen to be Dark Opal’s minions!
Not only do the green men not help out Lord Topaz, they surround him as Opal works some bad mojo from a distance. Opal was supplied with a piece of topaz from the princess. As Opal holds the gem in his hands he utterly possesses Lord Topaz.
Prince Carnelian demonstrates that he’s an incredibly annoying wedding guest who likes to get drunk and bore people by talking about himself too much. Lady Turquoise takes a swig of her drink and thinks that his stories don’t match up with his cowardice as a little boy.
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June 16th, 2008 at 12:54 am
Tons of stuff happens in this issue! As you might guess from the cover, Amethyst finally gets her very own winged unicorn.
That has to be a great compensation for finding out that you’re adopted and being forced to go to a mystical realm in order to fight the evil Dark Opal.
As the issue opens, Amethyst is flying away from the junior high with her parents. I don’t know what the flight is doing to Mr. Winston, but he looks absolutely deranged.
At home, Amy explains that she has to go back to the Gemworld in order to fight for her people. Her parents say that they always knew something strange would happen due to the way they got Amy.
Mr and Mrs Winston were in the hospital having just lost a baby when Citrina appeared before them, handed them a baby girl, and rearranged the doctor’s memory so that he thought Mrs. Winston had given birth to Amy.
Amy says that she’s obligated to leave, and promises to come back when everything is over. Her father tells her to do whatever she needs to do. Amy steps through the portal to the Gemworld.
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June 9th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
The fifth issue of Amethyst Princess of Gemworld shows what happens when worlds collide. The cover features Amethyst standing in her junior high classroom as Granch leans down from a Gemworld portal, pleading for help as he struggles with his demonic siblings.
As the issue opens Granch is struggling with his siblings. Some of them are gnawing and clawing at him, which must feel terribly uncomfortable.
He tries to reason with them, saying that he hates Dark Opal just as much as they do, but they are a little put out by the fact that he’s been hanging out on the Gemworld for twenty years while they’ve been trapped in the dark dimension. Reason doesn’t appear to be one of their stronger qualities.
Granch sees the amethyst fragment floating above him, and he uses one of his brothers as a stepladder in order to reach the gem. He grabs it and decides that he’ll try to use his own magic to resonate with the amethyst in an attempt to get back home.
His siblings recognize the purple magic and say “Amethytht!”
Enunciation is also not one of their stronger qualities. Granch reminds them that Lady Amethyst (Amy’s real mother) waged war against Dark Opal.
Granch is able to use the power of the stone to subdue his siblings and open a portal. He hopes that their combined power will enable them to finish the evil reign of Dark Opal.
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June 2nd, 2008 at 11:13 am
Amy flees from Dark Opal on the cover of issue four, surrounded by an elaborate golden frame bedecked with gemstones.
As she returns to the Gemworld again, she remarks that each time she goes back she’s not quite sure that she’s really going to change.
She can sense something wrong at Castle Amethyst, and as she arrives her loyal retainers suggest a divination spell so she can find out what’s wrong with Citrina. Amethyst senses Dark Opal’s influence.
Fauna (she’s evil!) encourages Amethyst to approach Citrina’s abandoned body. Amethyst peers into Citrina’s eyes but sees a scary lizard coming out of her mouth.
The lizard transforms into a hideous creature, and she hears the words “Stay Back!”
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May 26th, 2008 at 7:09 am
The cover of the third issue of Amethyst Princess of Gemworld features plenty of fashion and fighting. Granch is fighting a horrible lizard dude who is wearing some disturbing orange pants. Amy is wearing a fetching Pac-Man t-shirt while being menaced by a serpent. None of these events actually take place in this comic, but that’s ok.
As the issue opens Dark Opal casts a sinister spell. I’m doubting that he knows any kind of spell other than sinister, but this one is particularly yucky. He’s weaving a mystical web and his body and face grow more and more spider-like as the spell progresses.
Prince Carnelian visits his arachnid father, bringing a citrine to him. He asks why Dark Opal needs such a weak gem, and Opal replies that he stole the stone from the witch-mother years ago and he’s going to use it to trap both Citrina and Amethyst.
Amethyst and Taffy are running across the border between worlds. Amy’s enjoying herself but she can see that Taffy is clearly not happy about enduring all of these magical adventures.
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May 19th, 2008 at 7:30 am
In the second issue of Amethyst Princess of Gemworld, Amy is kidnapped by Prince Carnelian. He’s Dark Opal’s adopted son. As you would expect from anyone related to Dark Opal, he is sneaky and conniving. He’s also one of the funniest examples of Gemworld royalty due to his total lack of self-awareness. Prince Carnelian is a legend in his own mind, and he fancies himself as quite the lady killer.
As the issue opens Carnelian demonstrates some fancy knifework by cutting Amy off from the source of her mystic power when he steals her amethyst pendant. Amy asks Carnelian what he wants and he replies that what he wants isn’t important. It is Dark Opal’s desires that she needs to worry about, and he can’t speculate as to what Opal intends to do because “the possibilities are too grisly for my delicate sensibilities!”
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May 12th, 2008 at 11:36 am
New blog feature! Every week I will attempt to post a few scans from Amethyst Princess of Gemworld and an issue summary. Amethyst had a couple of short-lived mini-series in the 80s which detailed the adventures of an ordinary girl named Amy Winston who finds out that she’s actually a princess from a magical world.
Reading this series at a young age partially explains why I continue to enjoy magical girl shoujo manga to this day. Although I usually don’t look upon the mangaization of existing comic book properties with much enthusiasm, I wish DC would make a manga version of Amethyst. It has all the elements a shoujo manga needs; 13 year old girl transforms into 20 year old princess with the aid of some nifty jewelry, flying unicorn sidekick, evil guys with goatees, and an intensely traumatic love triangle. It is very unfortunate that there isn’t a collected edition of Amethyst available, but it isn’t hard to find a complete run of the individual issues on Ebay.
The cover of the first issue shows Amethyst ready for action, working the rather daring combo of a turban and large earrings. Personally, I think that most women don’t really want to be wearing a turban until they are at least 50 years old, but Gemworld fashion is a little whimsical.
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