The New Gemworld is No Jewel

I hate to say "I told you so," but...aw, what the heck:  I told you so.  

DC Comics' Sword of Sorcery was cancelled after only 8 issues.  Is anyone surprised?  Not me.  

1) The title wasn't catchy.  It may have been catchy in 1973 when DC originally used that title.  Nope.  It wasn't even catchy then.  This recent series surpassed the original series by 3 issues.  

2) It carried a $3.99 price tag.  Batman comics can get away with it.  X-Men comics can get away with it.  No name comics with "minor" heroes cannot get away with it.  Even Superman comics are iffy. 

3) The back-up features sucked.  Big time.  They featured characters nobody had ever heard of.  In uninteresting stories.  Even with Marc Andreyko writing. 


4) Worst of all, Amethyst's return to the DC Universe and subsequent stories were lacking...in everything.  They weren't a joy to read.  In fact, they were quite boring.

The thing about Amethyst that made her somewhat popular in the 1980s was that she was fun.  She was a reprieve from the action-packed male-oriented comics.  She offered adventure and fantasy.  She also offered girls/women a comic book to read and call their own.  Amy Winston was a young teenage girl who was forced into the shoes of the adult Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, much like Billy Batson and his Shazam/Captain Marvel alter ego.  We got to see how she dealt with being a teenager on Earth AND being a princess in Gemworld. 

During her original maxi-series and monthly series, Amethyst also wasn't linked to the other heroes in the DC Universe.  At least not at first.  That's when she was popular.  When DC tried to integrate her into the DCU as a Lord of Order, that's when she lost all popularity...and was basically banished from comicdom.  DC failed in this respect (again) when they tried to integrate Amethyst into Justice League Dark and had Constantine appear in her latest attempt at a series.

With the New 52 wiping clean the slate, DC had the perfect opportunity to revive the fun of Amethyst.  This was a chance to forget all about the Lords of Order and Chaos and get back to the magical land of Gemworld.  Unfortunately, the new Amethyst didn't bounce back and forth between Earth as a teenager and Gemworld as an adult.  Also, Gemworld wasn't very colorful.  It also didn't have the characters that we wanted to know about either.  How do we know what families/houses these characters belong to when they don't even wear clothing that match the color of their gem?  The stories aren't written well enough for us to care or remember.  You've gotta give us something! 

I appreciated that DC tried to make an effort to integrate Eclipso into Gemworld as a villain, as he seemed like a good fit gem-wise.  Unfortunately (again), the story pretty much sucked and was too dark.  Why does everything in the New 52 have to be so dark and dreary?  Why can't there be ANY fun anywhere in the new DCU?  

I'm writing this as an adult male who loved reading the original tales of Amethyst in the 1980s.  I was looking forward to reading her stories again, but was severely disappointed in DC's lack of attention to detail when reviving this young heroine.  Putting Amethyst into a Warlord type scenario was obviously not going to work.  Did no one read any of Amethyst's original stories to see what readers really liked "back in the day?"  And does every heroine in the new DCU have to carry a sword (e.g., Katana, Wonder Woman, Amethyst)?  Is that the token female weapon?  Enough's enough.  

Sadly, it's too late now to ever read another engaging tale of Amethyst.  My one hope was dashed.  Unless DC plans to have another Flashpoint that changes all DC history (again), the damage has already been done to this "new" Amethyst.  There's no hope of bringing back the fun to Gemworld and all of its whimsical characters.