Amethyst #4: Old Threats Don’t Seem So Scary Through The Glass

After losing itself in plotholes and fast-forward plot devices in the last issue, Amethyst comes back to its tracks to deconstruct the threat of no other than Lord Opal. If you’ve read the 80s Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld comics, you know Opal as the greatest arch-enemy of Amy Winston. So what could be worse than face him? Who other than him would be the final villain?

Well, except this isn’t the end of the story. In this issue, the power and relationship of Opal to our heroes, as well as to the groundings of the worldbuilding, gets twisted and leaves us in mystery. It plays with both fans and newbies in showcasing him as powerful, dangerous… and ultimately nothing like what Amy has to face ahead. This danger seems cut by a different cloth, and the story finally gives some tense revelations (and further mysteries) that place Maxixe in a completely different light and covers some of the plotholes (that bothered me as a reader) left by last issue. It’s, fundamentally, a well-achieved tense and emotional issue, in the best of ways.

I must admit Amethyst still relays on the exposure of the reader of the same type of character conflict again and again, and it personally doesn’t sit well with me as the only way to tell a tale intended for teens, but it does help define characters, and the perfectly placed and spectacular visuals (both ink and coloring) totally sell it.  From the confusion of Amy when she gets hit in the head resulting in that confusing 3D like fitting ink, or the sand storm covering both her and Phoss being such an intense close emotional moment for their characters, the art plays too well with defining characters, and you’re not gonna help but to fall in love with them, and, on your way, fell into some of that mystery.