Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld

Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld is a comic book series published by DC Comics in the 1980s. The series tells the story of a teenage girl named Amy Winston who discovers that she is the orphaned princess of the magical Gemworld. Amy learns that an evil ruler called Dark Opal is out to destroy her and travels to Gemworld to overthrow him.

Publication history

Amethyst's premise was initially pitched to DC comics under the title Changeling, as its main character was left on earth as an infant. This name, however, was then in use by another DC teen hero, Beast Boy. Dan Mishkin decided on "Amethyst" as a replacement, which in turn inspired the jewel-themed naming of other characters in the series and nature of Gemworld as a whole.^[1]

Amethyst first appeared as a special insert in Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 2) #298 (April 1983).^[2] Her original story began shortly afterward in the twelve-issue Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld limited series in 1983, written and created by Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn with Ernie Colón as the artist. The initial 12-issue limited series (identified by DC Comics as a "maxi-series") establishes Gemworld, Amethyst's identity, and introduces several of her recurring villains. The limited series was followed by a 1984 annual and a sixteen-issue ongoing series. The ongoing series was followed by the 1986 Amethyst Special one-shot and a four-issue limited series that ended the character's adventures (pencilled by Esteban Maroto). There was also a one-shot with Superman in DC Comics Presents #63 (Nov. 1983).^[3] Amethyst was initially oriented towards younger female readers, but took on a more aggressive and darker tone over time.

The character re-emerged in 2005 after 18 years of sporadic appearances, in the Infinite Crisis mini-series. In June 2012 it was announced that Amethyst would make her debut in the rebooted The New 52 DC Universe as the main character of the new Sword of Sorcery.^[4][5] This lasted until May 2013, when Sword of Sorcery was cancelled.^[6]

Fictional character biography

Princess Amethyst, the daughter of the ruling House of Amethyst, was orphaned by Dark Opal of the House of Opal. Following the death of Amethyst’s parents, the witch Citrina whisks her away to be reared in safety by the Winston family on Earth.

At the age of thirteen, Amethyst is attacked by Dark Opal. After her return to Gemworld, Amethyst discovers her magical powers and gains the appearance of an adult woman. The most powerful magic users in all of Gemworld are from the House of Amethyst. Amethyst decides to use her powers to rebel against Dark Opal's oppression over Gemworld. Upon befriending the winged unicorn Max, Princess Amethyst journeys in search of allies among The Twelve Kingdoms of Gemworld that do not support Dark Opal. She is successful in rallying support from most of the other House and gains friendship in Lord Topaz, Lady Turquoise, and Princess Emerald (Emmy). The first series ends with the defeat of Dark Opal, the liberation of Gemworld, and Amethyst's returned to Earth.

During the second series released in 1986 it is revealed that in the aftermath of Dark Opal's defeat, conflict among the other Royal House of Gemworld causes friction throughout the surrounding kingdoms. The Lords of Chaos attempt to capitalize on Amethyst's absence and threatens to overtake Gemworld. During this time, Amethyst learns from Doctor Fate that she is a member of the Lords of Order as her father was. Amethyst is unique among the Lords as the only creation with a truly human form. After struggling with this revelation, she finally accepts her destiny and battles the Lord of Chaos known as The Child and his servant Flaw, the Gemstone Golem. After defeating Flaw, Amethyst ends the battle between herself and The Child by merging him with Gemworld. As a consequence, she is forced to merge with The Child.

The Amethyst miniseries sees the characters' return from their fates and takes place about two decades later (time passes differently in Gemworld). Lord Topaz and Lady Turquoise are married and have three children: twin sons Wrynn and Donal, and four-year-old daughter Amber. The miniseries also sees the rise of Mordru in the form of Wrynn when he accidentally summons Flaw back to life. With the help of Flaw and The Lords of Chaos, Mordru transforms himself into a powerful sorcerer. He would become Amethyst's greatest enemy and goes on to plague the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th Century.

After his transformation into Mordru, Wrynn sets off on conquest which eventually leads to a confrontation with Amethyst and in which Flaw is destroyed. Amethyst pursues Wrynn across Gemworld where they battle a second time. Meanwhile, The Child has returned and abducted a now adult Emmy from Earth. He plans to use her as leverage for Mordru in order to defeat Amethyst. The ploy eventually fails as Donal arrives to help Amethyst, who is able to temporarily restore Wrynn to his former self. Wrynn begs Donal to free him from Mordru's influence by killing him. Before Donal is able to fulfil the request he is distracted by Topaz's objections. This distraction allows Mordru to regain control of Wrynn and kill Donal. Enraged, Amethyst pulls The Child out of Emmy's body and banishes him back to Gemworld.

In the final issue of the miniseries Mordru is sentenced to banishment from The Twelve Kingdoms of Gemworld following his defeat. Amethyst, dissatisfied with this sentence and angry over Donal's murder, banishes Mordru into Gemworld by merging him with the planet where he remains for many years. Amber is revealed to be Amethyst's daughter, not Topaz and Turqouise's. Realizing that the end of her time on Earth has brought imbalance to the forces between order and chaos, Amethyst charges Emmy with the care of her daughter and takes them both back to Earth. Amethyst then returns to Gemworld and merges with the planet until she would be needed again.

Recently, Amethyst has re-appeared in the DC Universe during the Infinite Crisis storyline. She is first seen battling the Spectre on Gemworld in Infinite Crisis #2 and survived the attack. She later appears among the magical beings who are summoned to reconstruct the shattered Rock of Eternity in the Day of Vengeance Special. Amethyst is seen once again in Infinite Crisis #6 where she and other sorcerers pool their powers to summon the restored Spectre to Stonehenge. In the aftermath of Infinite Crisis, all of the other Lords of Order are apparently destroyed by the Spectre, signaling the end of the Ninth Age of Magic. Amethyst is currently the only known surviving Lord of Order in the Tenth Age of Magic. Curiously, neither Emmy nor Amber have been seen or mentioned since the third miniseries, but are presumably still in existence in the aftermath of Infinite Crisis.

The New 52

In 2012, DC relaunched the long defunct Sword of Sorcery title as part of The New 52 (a reboot of the DC Comics universe) with Amethyst as the lead story written by Christy Marx with art by Aaron Lopresti. In this version, Amethyst is Princess Amaya of House Amethyst, taken to Earth and raised as Amy Winston by her mother Lady Graciel in order to protect her from Amaya's ruthless aunt Mordiel, who has usurped control of their house.

Amethyst later joins the Justice League Dark upon being brought to Earth in an effort to reconnect Tim Hunter with magic.^[7] Amethyst remains on the team in order to recover the portal stone that John Constantine has stolen. She is told not to trust any promises Constantine has made. Soon after, she has an adventure while exploring the House of Mystery with her allies Black Orchid and Frankenstein. They destroy several malicious threats that try to devour them.^[8]

During the "Trinity War" storyline, Amethyst is among the superheroes that feels the disturbance in the magical plane when Shazam picks up Pandora's Box.^[9]

Powers and abilities

Amethyst is the most powerful magic user on Gemworld as her power rivalled only by Mordru. She possesses a host of powers, including flight, spell-casting, energy manipulation, matter transmutation and can tap other sources of magical energy to amplify her own powers. She is powerful enough to engage in battle with the Spectre and survive, implying that she may be the most powerful magic user in the DC Universe as Spectre succeeded in killing all the other magic users except Mordru, who, as far as we know, did not engage Spectre in battle.^[10]

Collected edition

In 2012, DC published an Amethyst volume of the Showcase Presents series. It reprinted the character’s appearances in Legion of Super-Heroes #298, the original Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld 12-issue limited series, Amethyst Annual #1, DC Comics Presents #63, and the first 11 issues of the 16-issue ongoing Amethyst series.^[11]

Other versions

Amethyst appeared in the 1997 "Convergence" crossover that ran through Book of Fate, Night Force, Challengers of the Unknown and Scare Tactics. This story depicts an alternate Gemworld experiencing a civil war. Here, Amethyst is portrayed as a villain who wants to unify all the family houses in Gemworld by any means.

In the alternate timeline of the 2011 "Flashpoint" storyline, Amethyst is a member of the Secret Seven.

In other media

Television

Amethyst and Quartz as they appeared in the DC Nation Shorts.

• In 2013, a series of short animated features starring Amethyst were aired as part of the DC Nation block on Cartoon Network. The seven-episode series used designs by Brianne Drouhard and was animated by Japanese studio David Production, with Amethyst voiced by Sophie Oda.^[12] These shorts portray Gemworld as a video game invented by Amy Winston, into which she is magically transported to battle the forces of Dark Opal. It modernizes Amethyst's design, making her a Japanese-inspired magical girl, and pits her against monsters reminiscent of stock and classic video game antagonists.^[13]

References

External links

• Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on April 4, 2012.
• DCU Guide: Amethyst
• Absorbascon: Amethyst retrospective
• Sequential Tart: Amethyst retrospective
• TangonaT: Amethyst retrospective
• ComiXology: Amethyst retrospective (Archived 2009-10-25)