Amy Reeder

I originally read the classic Amethyst comic when I was about 12. It had, as Amy gleefully says in this volume, everything a girl could dream of. Magic powers, secret royal, cool friends - it was everything a kid could want.

Until the series went straight off the rails and Amy sort of became like Bastian in THE NEVERENDING STORY (that is, drunk on power).

I didn't read Christy Marx's recentish reboot (Sword & Sorcery) either, but Reeder picks up after the first classic series so it doesn't seem to matter.

The first issue does a good job laying out the bare bones of what a new reader who can't find the original series needs to know. Which is good because other then the Showcase Presents OOP collection DC has never collected this series. Seems odd, as there's some truly phenomenal work done and they've brought the character back throughout the last almost 40 years soooo what's up DC?

Mostly the first issue works - we see Amy with her adoptive Earth parents, see her pining for Gemworld and then we're in Gemworld and like everything else in life it doesn't live up to the hype.

We're not given a real idea of how long it had been since Amy had been to Gemworld, she makes vague references to "its been a while", but she's also fully expecting a birthday gala so she had to have been back recently right?

What follows is a confusing jumble of scenes with Amy narrating "this isn't right!" to the reader, but unless the reader has previous knowledge I'm not sure it makes sense. Seems kind of...common sense that folk are tired of going to war? Sure its weird her entire Kingdom disappeared, but then again its not happening to anyone else soooo?

By the end I was trying to figure out who the bad guy was, why they were the bad guys, where exactly Amy went wrong (or if she even did) and if any of it mattered because far as I know this was a limited series and does not effect ANY main stream title.

Amethyst wasn't a JLA member, didn't work with the Titans, her world (Gemworld) has fallen by the time the Legion of Superheroes come about (in the 30th-ish century) and is now known as the "Sorcerer's Homeworld" (which barely has any impact on the DCU outside of White Witch/Mysa Nal, the younger sister to famed Legionaire Dream Girl/Nura Nal).

So I'm left wondering - what was the point again?… (mer)

I feel like I need to give this comic series two separate ratings. The first half was brilliant, exactly what I wanted and more from this. It took me straight back to growing up in the 80s with the whole retro 80s animation vibe. Then what happened to the second half? It just became this sudden rush to cram an ending together? I'm not even sure what happened at the end there with the bad guy. Suddenly he was there, they were fighting?! The final part was just so rushed. It was so delayed and it was still a massive mess.… (mer)