Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld

Amethyst
Cover to Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld (vol. 1) #6 (October 1983)
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 1) #298 (April 1983)
Created by	Dan Mishkin (writer) Gary Cohn (writer) Ernie Colón (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Amy Winston
Species	Homo Magi
Place of origin	Gemworld
Team affiliations	House of Amethyst Lords of Order
Notable aliases	Princess of Gemworld, Amy Winston, Lord of Order
Abilities	Magic

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

Publication history

Amethyst first appeared in a special insert in Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 2) #298 (April 1983). Her origin 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, who Amethyst is, and introduces several of her villains that she will face again later. 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).

The series was oriented initially for younger female readers, but took on a more aggressive and darker tone over time. However, the character re-emerged after 18 years of sporadic appearances in 2005 during 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 in Sword of Sorcery.

Fictional character biography

Princess Amethyst, the daughter of the ruling House of Amethyst, was left orphaned when Dark Opal of the House of Opal murdered her parents. The witch Citrina whisked away baby Amethyst to Earth to be raised by the Winston family in safety.

At the age of thirteen, Amethyst was attacked by Dark Opal. Having been brought to Gemworld, Amethyst discovered her magical powers. 13-year-old Amethyst gained the appearance of a full-grown woman. The most powerful magic users in all of Gemworld are from the House of Amethyst. Amethyst decided to use her powers to rebel against Dark Opal's oppression over Gemworld. Princess Amethyst journeys to make allies among those of the twelve kingdoms who do not support Dark Opal. She succeeds in rallying most of the other House to her side and gains friends and allies in Lord Topaz, Lady Turquoise and Princess Emerald (also known as Emmy). The first series ended with the defeat of Dark Opal and the liberation of Gemworld, after which Amethyst returned to Earth.

Later, during the second series in 1986, it was revealed that in the aftermath of Dark Opal's defeat, infighting among the other Royal House of Gemworld was occurring causing friction throughout the other surrounding kingdoms. The Lords of Chaos, seeing this, threaten to overtake Gemworld by capitalizing on Amethyst's absence. It was during this time that Amethyst learned from Doctor Fate that she was in reality a Lord of Order herself and that her father was one as well. This made her unique among the Lords as she was the only one in creation with a truly human form. Amethyst, after struggling with this revelation, finally accepted her destiny and did battle with the Lord of Chaos known as The Child and his servant Flaw the Gemstone Golem. After defeating Flaw, Amethyst ended the battle between herself and the Child by merging him with Gemworld itself, but in doing so was forced to merge herself with him.

The Amethyst miniseries saw the character's return from this fate, but it appeared to take place at least two decades later (as time passes differently in Gemworld), as Lord Topaz and Lady Turquoise are seen as being married and having three children (their twin sons Wrynn and Donal and their four-year old daughter Amber). The miniseries also saw the rise of Mordru in the form of Wrynn himself when he accidentally summoned Flaw back to life who in turn with the help of the Lords of Chaos transformed him into a powerful sorcerer. Mordru would not only become Amethyst's greatest enemy, but would go on to plague the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th Century.

After his transformation into Mordru, Wrynn set off on a path of conquest which eventually led to a confrontation with Amethyst during which Flaw was destroyed. Amethyst pursued Wrynn across Gemworld where they battled a second time. However, the Child (who had also returned) had kidnapped Emmy (now a grown woman) from Earth and possessed her attempting to use her as leverage for Mordru to defeat Amethyst. The ploy eventually failed as Donal arrived to help Amethyst who was able to temporarily restore Wrynn to his former self. Wrynn begged Donal to kill him and free him from Mordru's influence. But before he could, he was distracted by Topaz's pleas to the contrary. The distraction allowed Mordru to regain control of Wrynn and kill Donal. Enraged, Amethyst literally pulled the Child out of Emmy's body and banished him back into Gemworld.

In the final issue of the miniseries, Mordru was sentenced with banishment from the Twelve Kingdoms of Gemworld after his defeat. However, Amethyst (not satisfied with this decree and angered over Donal's senseless murder) banished Mordru into Gemworld itself literally merging him with the planet where he remained for many years. It was also revealed that Amber was not the child of Topaz and Turqouise as was previously believed, but Amethyst's. Realizing that the end of her time on Earth as Amy Winston had brought imbalance to the forces between order and chaos, Amethyst charged Emmy with the care of her daughter and took them both back to Earth. Amethyst then returned to Gemworld and merged with the planet once more until the day she would be needed again.

Recently, Amethyst has re-appeared in the DC Universe during the Infinite Crisis storyline. She was first seen battling the Spectre on Gemworld in Infinite Crisis #2 and survived the attack. She later appeared among the magical beings who were summoned to reconstruct the shattered Rock of Eternity in the Day of Vengeance Special. Amethyst was seen once again in Infinite Crisis #6 where she and other sorcerers pooled their powers to summon the restored Spectre to Stonehenge. In the aftermath of Infinite Crisis, all of the other Lords of Order were 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 or 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 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.^{[citation needed]}

Amethyst later joins the Justice League Dark upon being brought to Earth in an effort to reconnect Tim Hunter with magic. Amethyst remains on the team in order to recover the portal stone Constantine has stolen.

Powers and abilities

Amethyst is the most powerful magic user on Gemworld as her power rivaled only by Mordru.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.

Other versions

Convergence

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.

Flashpoint

In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, Amethyst is a member of the Secret Seven.

In other media

Television

• In 2013, a series of Amethyst shorts were aired as part of the DC Nation block on Cartoon Network with Amethyst voiced by Sophie Oda. The first short was originally intended to air in late 2012,^{[citation needed]} but was pushed back and aired on January 5th 2013. The new setting depicts Gemworld as a video game and Amy Winston being pulled by the game into Gemworld to battle the forces of Dark Opal. It also updates Amethyst into a more modern Japanese-inspired magical girl. There were seven episodes in total called "Levels" instead of "Chapters".

External links

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