![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2025\/02\/8407994.jpg?resize=400%2C625&ssl=1\")
Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, \u201cDarkness Falls\u201d After twelve weeks we\u2019ve finally reached the end of our visit to the mystical Gemworld. In that time we\u2019ve seen young Amy Winston progress from being an average teenager to leading an army to liberate a world. She\u2019s made \u2013 and lost \u2013 friends, fought against deadly enemies, and even fallen in love. After being knocked through the walls of the fortress, Sardonyx is confronted by Citrina, who offers him the chance to join the cause. Seeing no alternative, he agrees, and the power of Sardonyx is added to the others being channeled through Amethyst. Amethyst lets them know that all the near-rape and murder has been fun and all, but she\u2019s really much more comfortable living in the \u2018burbs. Final Thoughts:<\/strong> The Art:<\/strong> Even More Final Thoughts:<\/strong> Jeff Lipton said… <\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n “I’m not inclined to resign to obscurity” Merlin T Wizard said…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Psych is a fantastic show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I liked your reviews. I wouldn’t even mind more in-depth exploration of the symbolism and meanings. But then, I’m a nerd.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Anonymous said…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dan Mishkin has said the original plan was for only the maxiseries and he and Cohn wrote it that way. But DC had hopes of a toy spinoff, so it called for more; after about eight issues Mishkin decided it wasn’t working and left, then Cohn. Gary Cohn said…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why does Amethyst give up the Gemworld? In the words of another girl in similar circumstances, “There’s no place like home.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n EVERYTHING DC published as “Amethyst” after the original 12 issues, including anything I wrote alone or with Dan, is apocrypha. Never happened. She went home to Herb and Marion and Taffy, and the Gemworld never intruded on her life again. Amy is 45 now, she has a tenured professor\/librarian position in the Popular Culture archives at Michigan State, she teaches yoga three nights a week, she’s been happily married to her husband, Carl, for over 20 years. He wooed her for a dozen years before she finally accepted that he’d grown up to be a good man. Carl also works at MSU in a cybernetics lab. He’s been creating better and better prosthetic hands for himself and others. They don’t have children, but they raise golden retrievers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Merlin T Wizard said…<\/p>\n\n\n\n So much of what DC editorial does just leaves me shaking my head sadly. Thanks for commenting, though! It’s great to hear from someone actually involved in the whole thing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Ridor said…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gary Cohn …. no! Carl? Oh, hell, no!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Go here<\/a> for the Reread of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld <\/em>#1<\/p>\n\n\n\n Go here<\/a> for the Reread of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld <\/em>#2<\/p>\n\n\n\n Go here<\/a> for the Reread of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld<\/em> #3<\/p>\n\n\n\n Go here<\/a> for the Reread of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld<\/em> #4<\/p>\n\n\n\n Go here<\/a> for the Reread of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld<\/em> #5<\/p>\n\n\n\n Go here<\/a> for the Reread of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld<\/em> #6<\/p>\n\n\n\n Go here<\/a> for the Reread of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld<\/em> #6.5<\/p>\n\n\n\n Go here<\/a> for the Reread of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld<\/em> #7<\/p>\n\n\n\n Go here<\/a> for the Reread of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld<\/em> #8<\/p>\n\n\n\n Go here<\/a> for the Reread of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld<\/em> #9<\/p>\n\n\n\n Go here<\/a> for the Reread of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld<\/em> #10<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Written by Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn
Art by Ernie Col\u00f3n
Cover by Ernie Col\u00f3n
Edited by Karen Berger<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t really approve of that last part, given who the object of her affection is, but even so, it\u2019s been quite a journey, and it\u2019s all led to this final confrontation with the evil Dark Opal.
Before we get to Gemworld, however, we find ourselves in the space between, as the Emissaries of Varn return to their home dimension with Sardonyx in tow. As the portal to Gemworld recedes in the distance, the Lord of Serpents determines that he must somehow break free if he\u2019s ever to return home, and to escape whatever fate the Emissaries of Varn have in store for him.
He gets his chance as he reaches out to grasp a shooting star that\u2019s whistling past, shoving it into the void that is the face of the Emissary holding him. The blazing heat is clearly not to the Emissary\u2019s liking.
We move back to Gemworld, where Dark Opal, harnessing the power of all twelve gemstones, is mopping the floor with Team Amethyst.
While Amethyst, Garnet, and Moonstone shield the others from Opal\u2019s attack, Amethyst suggests to Citrina that with the power of the assembled master gems \u2013 even if there are only ten of them \u2013 they can overcome the power of the twelve fragments if they can find a way to combine their power.
Citrina confers with the Diamond Priest, who positions the assembled rulers of their respective Houses into the proper alignment, their power is channeled through Citrina, and her blasts manage to stagger Opal.
Inside Fortress Opal we see that Sardonyx\u2019s gamble paid off, and he escaped from the Emissaries. It\u2019s payback time for Dark Opal! Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Sardonyx, he wasn\u2019t the only one who returned to Gemworld.
Meanwhile, the power being channeled through Citrina proves too much for her wizened frame to bear, and she falters. Amethyst steps up and takes the power on, keeping Dark Opal on the ropes and driving him back into his Fortress.
That proves to be a bad move, as his strength is even greater inside the walls of his home, and he goes on the offensive.
It doesn\u2019t help matters that there is dissension in the ranks, as Lady Topaz loudly bemoans making the mistake of joining Team Amethyst.
They get a moment\u2019s reprieve as Sardonyx strikes, but it lasts only for a moment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2025\/02\/coldblooded5.jpg?resize=596%2C449&ssl=1\")
It\u2019s still not enough, however, and Opal\u2019s power is only increasing.
Carnelian, meanwhile, is lurking in the shadows watching it all, and realizing that there will be no place for him in the Hell that Dark Opal will create if he succeeds. Unlike the Red Prince, Dark Opal is unaware of the Emissaries of Varn sneaking up behind him, and while Carnelian considers leaving matters up to them, he realizes that the danger of not getting involved is too great.
Amethyst rallies the troops to give her every last ounce of strength they have, and she hits Dark Opal with one last blast. Opal remains on his feet, but just barely, and the Emissaries of Varn choose that moment to strike. Though they managed to suck away the defensive field around him, the still has enough power to send them packing.
That\u2019s when Carnelian makes his move, plunging a knife directly into his father\u2019s back.
Though Opal struggles on, ultimately his wounds are too great, and Fortress Opal tumbles down on top of him, before finally disappearing as if it had never existed at all, taking Dark Opal and Carnelian with it.
With the evil reign of Dark Opal ended, the light finally returns to Gemworld, and the land\u2019s former beauty begins to return.
All assembled \u2013 and especially Topaz \u2013 once again pledge their loyalty to Amethyst, and look forward to living under her glorious rule. Except\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2025\/02\/dumped5.jpg?resize=577%2C713&ssl=1\")
While vowing that she\u2019ll return if they ever truly need her, Princess Amethyst says goodbye to friends on Gemworld, and Amy Winston says hello to her family back on Earth.
While they\u2019re all caught up in the joy of her return, for her part, Amy is tired, and with good reason.
As night falls, a sound wakens Marion from her sleep, and she rouses Herb so that they can check on Amy.
Marion\u2019s fears seem to be confirmed as she finds Amy\u2019s room empty, but Herb calls her downstairs to let her know that Amy hasn\u2019t gone far, as she\u2019s snuggled up with Taffy on the living room floor. \u201cI think our little girl is home for good,\u201d Herb says.
We take one last look at Gemworld, where the land of Opal is rapidly returning to its natural state, with the exception of the immediate area upon which Fortress Opal once stood:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2025\/02\/rage5.jpg?resize=594%2C403&ssl=1\")
In terms of this specific issue, I have to admit that the actual battle with Dark Opal was kind of\u2026boring.\u00a0 Not a whole lot happened, just a lot of magical blasts and exposition.\u00a0 Actually, more exposition than magical blasts.
Basically, it was just a few pages of Dark Opal blasting at Team Amethyst, Team Amethyst putting up a shield, but saying they can\u2019t hold out much longer, Team Amethyst blasting Dark Opal and hurting him, Dark Opal blasting back, Team Amethyst blasting again and not hurting him, then some more blasting.
The worst part is that ultimately all of the blasting didn\u2019t really accomplish all that much.\u00a0 Oh, sure, it weakened Opal enough to first be taken by surprise by the Emissaries of Varn, and then by Carnelian, but if it hadn\u2019t been for those acts of treachery, Team Amethyst probably would have lost.
That said, though I\u2019m too lazy to scan the pages in, the scenes of Carnelian building up his courage and then finally making his move are kind of fantastic.\u00a0 I\u2019ll talk about that a little when I discuss the art, but I think my favorite moment is just after Carnelian plunges the blade between Opal\u2019s shoulders, then backs off, blood dripping from his bionic hand, and a confused and dying Opal turns to him and says, \u201cCar\u2026nelian\u2026?\u201d
As for the actual ending, with Amy returning home to Earth, theoretically for good, though we all knew better than that, particularly given that Karen Berger stated on the letter page that there would be an ongoing series, that\u2019s the one area where I think the central premise of the story, or rather, the execution of it, is a bit flawed, and where a similar story about a certain bespectacled boy has a bit of an edge.
The idea of discovering that, like Amy, you\u2019re some sort of changeling, that you actually belong in another kind of world entirely, is one that is almost universally appealing to children, and indeed, to many adults.\u00a0 We all want to be special, to have some greater destiny, and to find a place where we actually belong and can be our truest selves.\u00a0 Like Harry Potter living under the stairs, or Luke Skywalker staring out over the desert of Tatooine, or Amy Winston\u2026well, that\u2019s kind of the problem.
There wasn\u2019t anything\u00a0wrong<\/em>\u00a0with Amy\u2019s life.\u00a0 She was just a perfectly normal teenager with a set of perfectly normal parents, and, in general, her life was good.
She wasn\u2019t forced to live with relatives who actively disliked her, or stuck sitting on the sidelines tending moisture collectors while the rest of the galaxy was embroiled in a struggle against tyranny.
Sure, being an average kid who turns out to be anything but \u2013 hell, she\u2019s not really even a kid \u2013 is certainly a relatable fantasy, but while we all look for a certain amount of escapism, some fantastic life we can escape to, unlike a lot of the rest of us, Amy really didn\u2019t have anything to escape\u00a0from<\/em>.
Which is why it makes perfect sense that, in the end, she chooses to return to the average, normal life.
But from a reader\u2019s perspective, while it makes sense, it still leads you, or at least me, to wonder, \u201cAmy, are you\u00a0high<\/em>?\u00a0 You\u2019re giving up a world of magic for live in the suburbs?\u00a0 For fuck\u2019s sake \u2013 you\u2019ve got a flying horse on Gemworld.\u00a0 How can a Golden Retriever compete with that?\u201d
And that\u2019s my problem with the ending, even though it was clear all along that it was the only possible ending that the story could have.
In her shoes, back when I first read this as a kid, and even now as an adult, I would have stayed on Gemworld.\u00a0 Sure, I had a decent home life, and I loved my parents \u2013 even when I fantasized about being, like Amy, from some other place, born to other parents, it wasn\u2019t because I actually wished that I had other parents \u2013 but I also had\u2026other things that I would have liked to escape from, but even absent that, I still wouldn\u2019t have left Gemworld behind.
I also wouldn\u2019t have abandoned my family completely either, but given how easy it is for Amy to travel back and forth, that wasn\u2019t really a choice she needed to make.
Not that any of this really undermines the story, it\u2019s just something that\u2019s always bothered me, and I think the story might have worked a little better if there had been something that would have made it possible for Amy to make what would have been, to me, a more satisfying choice.
In any case, that\u2019s it for\u00a0Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld<\/em>.
As mentioned, there was a follow-up ongoing series, but for whatever reason \u2013 probably an inability to find it on a regular basis, given my comic-buying options \u2013 I never really got into it, so I\u2019m not really \u201cup\u201d on what happened to Amy once she did return to Gemworld.\u00a0 I know that, from the one issue I have, it was eventually revealed that her father, Lord Amethyst, was kind of not her father \u2013 it\u2019s complicated \u2013 and that at some point she ended up trapped inside of Gemworld, or she willingly went there to hold it together, or she merged with it, or something.\u00a0 There\u2019s a reference to that in\u00a0Books of Magic<\/em>, which was written by\u00a0Neil Gaiman<\/strong>, and involved a bespectacled British boy who learns that he\u2019s a wizard and ends up going to wizard school and gets a pet owl.
(All of this was\u00a0before<\/em>\u00a0Harry Potter, though there\u2019s no indication that it\u2019s anything other than a coincidence, as the idea \u2013 in either case \u2013 isn\u2019t exactly without precedent.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What else can I say?\u00a0 This issue was another example of Ernie Col\u00f3n\u2019s outstanding art, though there wasn\u2019t really anything that actually made it stand out any more than any other issue, especially given the kind of boring battle scenes.
I will say this, though; the man knew how to illustrate\u00a0pain.\u00a0<\/em>As boring as the blasting scenes were, they were livened up a little by Opal\u2019s reactions to the painful blasts.\u00a0 Also, just the dynamic tension in Sardonyx\u2019s hand when he catches the shooting star conveys how painful it must be even more than the accompanying \u201cYARHH!\u201d that Sardonyx screams.
And as for the pivotal scenes in which Carnelian makes his move, we see just how much of an effort it is for him to screw up his courage and strike out at his father while fully cognizant of the danger all around him as he moves in, and the even greater danger if he misses the mark.
And all the while his fool head is glowing from Citrina\u2019s mark of shame that Dark Opal had transferred to him.\u00a0 Good stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s fitting that I should reach the end of this series on a birthday \u2013 mine \u2013 given that the whole thing actually started <\/em>with a birthday.
For what it\u2019s worth, if I\u2019d been born into a House on Gemworld, I would have been Diamond. Given that they had the whole hivemind thing going on, which, just, no, and they got massacred by the Emissaries of Varn, it\u2019s probably just as well that my origins were considerably more mundane.
Overall, I\u2019m glad that I took a look back on this story, the comics still hold a place of honor in my collection, and I hope there\u2019s someone who got some amount of enjoyment from my examination of it.
There is still a lot more I could write about it, mostly relating to gender issues and the fact that is is possible to write a story about a strong woman, a fairy tale princess even, and have it be appealing to boys, or at least weird boys like I was, but I think I\u2019ve said enough for now.
Thanks for joining me on this trip down nostalgia lane. If I had anything even remotely resembling an \u201caudience\u201d I would ask if there\u2019s any interest in seeing me give a similar \u2013 though hopefully less wordy \u2013 treatment to other comics in my collection. But I can just ask Scott in person, and ultimately I may just decide to do it anyway, regardless of what anyone things.
(That\u2019s the freedom that comes with obscurity.)<\/p>\n\n\n\nComments from the original post:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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If you’re interested, you can find out about the rest of the series on the Wikipedia page<\/a>.
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I do think the betrayals work as part of the big finish. Even thematically, though I don’t know they intended it that way\u2014Amethyst builds a team that stands with her, Dark Opal treats everyone like dirt and gets paid back.
Be glad you never saw the 1990s version where Amethyst shows up as Eeeevil magic user in FATE and a couple of other books (presumably because it’s supposedly so cool when clean-cut characters go all evil and psycho and shit)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
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