Sword of Sorcery #0 - Featuring Amethyst

[icon_uk]

Okay, now THIS is a series I've been looking forward to; Christy Marx, story editor and main writer on Jem, as well as writer of Sisterhood of Steel, taking on a long standing DC license which was criminally underexpoited at the time, and ever since.

Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld

NB - I feel I should mention that there is an attempted gang-rape of a character in the first issue. I don't feature scans of it, but it has shown up in the discussion thread already, so I'd rather mention it above the cut than have anyone who might find it triggering come across the discussion unawares.


First up, we meet Amy, who grew tired of trying to fit into every new Sshool she's moved to (The implication is she moved a LOT) and eventually just went her own way around 6th Grade. She's not popular, she's not even seen as endearing wacky, she's just... weird. (And may I say from the outset how much I adore her hair... I may castigate some computer colour techniques, but this is gorgeous (The scanner does it no favours) it's like insect wings in terms of colour scheme.

Her locker is next to a couple chatting about meeting behind the bleachers that night at the Homecoming Game (I still have no idea what that means, being non American and non sporty)






And it looks like her mother is already planning on leaving, because it's Amy's 17th birthday that day. I also LOVE Amy's mother, Grace. who works as a waitress, or rather did, because she's just left (and she HAS made friends at the diner, so it's clearly not something ordinary that's taking her away.

Amy pressures her mother into finally telling her all about their past, the way she always promised to do when she turned 17. Her mother puts her off, saying that the hour of her birth hasn't been reached yet, and THAT'S the important moment, so they have time for another practice session. Practicing what you may ask?



We then cut away to this....



Again, believe me the scan does now do this fabulous art justice. It GLOWS On the page.

The Lady Mordiel is NOT a nice person, casually killing those who share in the family bloodline, no matter how distant the relationship, though if she finds someone who does carry the blood, she'll kill them and absorb their power, but pay the family the proper blood money for doing so. So THAT'S all right then... mention is made of her sister Graciel, who has been

Amy ends up at the Homecoming Game, where she finds that Beryl's date with the footballer was a set up so that a gang of them could well, take some deeply unpleasant liberties with her (You can imagine what I mean). Before they can even start though, Amy proceeds to kick the shit out of them in a hugely satisfying page of anger and combat skills (I know I cheered) it annoys me to have to trim.

Beryl is also freaked out by her experience and what she saw Amy do, and runs from her, so Amy heads home. Her mother congratulates her on doing the right thing, even if it would normally mean they'd have to move on (one of the kids father is a lawyer), but it doesn't much matter now because the hour is at hand... Grace produces a shard of amethyst she calls a crystal portal, and the two of them are zapped by brillaint purple light as Grace says "Let's go HOME"

When they arrive, Amy immediately spots some things have changed.



And the rest, well, I really do sincerely urge you to check this title out, it looks gorgeous, and the characters are stong, predominantly female, and FUN (I really hope that Grace makes it beyond the first arc, though I suspect she might not).

Comments

[nightauditguy]

The Homecoming Game is the big event at most high school football games where former students come back to watch the game and reunite.

[greenmask]

Ohhhh. Really? That explains the name!

[darkknightjrk]

I don't think I ever noticed that. I always thought it was called that because it's the first game just after the new school year starts.

[silverhammerman]

So I just read this article:
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/09/20/so-theres-an-attempted-gang-rape-in-the-first-issue-of-amethys/
Um, are we still supporting this title as a community?

[icon_uk]

Well, I'm a bloke so it maybe I viewing it through wrongly tinted glasses and but....

There's an attempt, but it's foiled by Amy in short order.

Would I rather it weren't there? Yes, absolutely, let me make that clear up front: It's a tired, unpleasant trope.

In this case it isn't brushed under the carpet nor used as motivation for the heroine. It's a demonstration of her mindset and attitude about such things.

I have a couple of issues with the article you linked to though.

It seems to think it's Amy's responsibility to tell Beryl that it's likely a set up, when she's never met Beryl before and so knows nothing about who she hangs around with normally. She doesn't show up to protect Beryl, she shows up at the game, possibly to see Beryl as someone she can at least talk to, and gets sidelined when she sees Beryl in trouble.

(I suspect the consequences of her action will be dealt with in a future issue (as there was also a mysterious stranger watching the event in a significant manner and who isn't, I don't think, John Constantine the way the columnist thinks it is). )

The phone call comment doesn't quite work for me either, as Amy doesn't say that at all, she mentions there's been another "incident", in the sense that she's kicked the crap out of someone who deserved it, clearly not for the first time.

This isn't a comic aimed at young girls either, so that argument sort of goes out the window I think. (And the cartoon being a different concept to the comic is the same situation as castigating the Green Lantern comic for using concepts that could never feature in the GL cartoon)

[mrstatham]

To be honest, I'm actually kind of insulted that they'd lump this in with Millar's disgusting filth, frankly. There's a bit of difference between presenting it as a foiled act that demonstrates the lead's character rather than compelling her to action, and, oh, I don't know, basically having a minor female character violently and humiliatingly raped not because of her worth, but to get at the male lead of the book. In fact, I think it's pretty insulting that they lump this in with about 95% of the examples they give in that article.

I just think it's a completely overzealous reaction, somehow. Naturally, they're entitled to their opinion, but it just feels like they're piling DC's collective sins on the writer's shoulders.

[q99]

I flipped through and put it back when I noticed it went the old 'accosted by thugs' route. I didn't even read enough to tell that was going on, I just saw the 'I can spell pervs like you a mile away!' line.

So yea, not getting this, it's very much not what I was looking forward to.

[lieut_kettch]

I'm guessing Christy Marx had her Sisterhood of Steel hat on instead of her Jem one when she wrote this.

[darkknightjrk]

I haven't read anything with Amethyst before, but I gave this a shot, and I think I'll give that old series a read as well as continue this.

The only flaw I see with this book is that you have to pay a dollar extra for some bland Beowulf/far-future mash-up that was more boring than dirt.

[dejadrew]

Is anyone else skeeved by the whole "the power in our blood is too strong to hide the true colour" blonde-equated-with-special-magic-power thing? It's kinda, well, white-centric. If their hair was some non-earth shade, pink, purple, then it would be fine, but making blondeness a symbol of magical power is... problematic.

[shadowpsykie]

I did like Amethyst's reaction to that though. I hope more is expanded on.

[lieut_kettch]

Maybe the golden hair marks Amy as a Lannister twincest child.

[skemono]

Motto.

[icon_uk]

In story, the magic is very strongly tied to bloodline (her aunt is particularly obsessive about it), the Ameythst line is blonde. As a result I'm fervently hoping we see a few other Houses each with a varied bloodline.

[theflames]

Not really.

Make it ginger, white centric. Make it brunette, on the fringe of white centric. Make it black, whit- nope, fine, wait, the texture, so it's white-centric.

Making it a non-realistic colour, you are changing the tone of the character, *completely*, making her seem more alien. Simply fair character design choices.

They're not saying her hair is the only thing to prove there magic, they're just saying it's one of them. There could be a black dynasty in this universe, whose bouncy, tight, afro curls represent their powerful magic, no one is talking in absolutes here. Her Mum basically said, 'our appearance is connected to our magic, its impossible to hide.' She didn't say it was better than everyone else's.

I found Amethyst's reaction more 'problematic', it, for just a second, came of as a 'why would I want to be blonde, they're dumb' kind of gripe. Which is silly.

[mandolin]

Holy crap, I remember the original series. I think I might have some of the original comics around somewhere, too.

Not entirely sure what to make of this, but I suddenly have the urge to go downstairs and rummage through my comic book boxes...

[superboyprime]

What Amethyst co-creator Dan Mishkin had to say about this:

I also think what they're setting out to do isn't worth doing. My understanding is going to be this is going to be a seventeen-year-old Amy Winston who discovers that she's Amethyst and that she's had a pretty rough life in those seventeen years. You can do that, and because of the rules of the game you can even call it Amethyst. But to say that it's essentially the same as what we did -- I'm sorry, I just don't think that's true, because essentially what we did was a story about being on the cusp of adolescence and discovering what the moral choices of adulthood are going to be. You don't do that at seventeen; you do that at twelve or thirteen.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=39418

[darkknightjrk]

Eh...it's been my experience that not even a lot of grown adults discover or fully understand the moral choices of adulthood, let alone at twelve or seventeen.

[icon_uk]

Have they said it's the same story as they set out to do? AFAIk Christy Marx has been quite open about it being a different take with a different aim.

[q99]

I kinda felt this was sour grapes at the time, but having seen it, I'm coming around.

[theflames]

He... doesn't seem to grasp what he's saying, he's forgetting himself. Did he really figure himself at 13?


Plus didn't she turn into a 20 year old woman? That's an odd mixed message.

[arise]

The art looks great, but I'm not really sold on the story. I think I'm just a bit burned out on edgy outcast teen heroes.

[icon_uk]

I think I'm interested in seeing where the character grows from here. She's only been edgy and outcast because she and her mother have constantly been moving from town to town for her entire life.

Being in a realm where she's suddenly the heir to a position of incredible power (magical, and I suspect political) and respect could be interesting.

[bradygirl_12]

That is some beautiful art!

[theflames]

This reminds me of W.I.T.C.H in so many ways, the entire issue, i mean.

[cleome45]

If memory serves, there were rape-y overtones in the very first issue of the original Amethyst. Some monsters in the employ of Dark Opal showed up in our dimension to kidnap pre-transformation Amy, and it was pretty strongly implied that they would have done some pretty gross things to her if somebody hadn't intervened. I believe it was Citrina's assistant that shepherded her safely to the Gemworld.

Anyone have the comic on hand?

[sadoeuphemist]

I snagged this off the Comics Alliance comments thread:
http://tinypic.com/r/1zwg391/6

Actually, the original writer posts there too, saying the scene came out way stronger than he intended and he regrets it:

"Let me plead guilty on this one, and then throw myself on the mercy of the court. Though this little bit of businss started out, I believe, as "ugly monsters want to paw the beautiful princess," which I *think* is defensible as a fairy tale trope, the actual execution went over the line.

Maybe the loose pencil art that I wrote the dialogue over didn't have the ogre removing his shirt, or maybe I missed it; try as we might, artists and writers can't always avoid the tunnel vision that keeps them from seeing the whole work. What I know for sure is that what came out in print was stronger than my conscious intentions.

And I've long regretted that.

Dan Mishkin"

Read More: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/09/20/so-theres-an-attempted-gang-rape-in-the-first-issue-of-amethys/#ixzz27AueXqYo