Some thoughts about Amethyst #1

Who is Amethyst?

Amy's life could be like any other normal girl's except that she's also princess of the realm known as Gemworld which is currently in grave danger.

Okay, I'm going to be honest right from the start: I don't like this.

And I'm not talking necessarily about the quality of the book itself (although I kinda do), I'm talking about the fact that this is yet another reboot for Amethyst and this is especially disappointing since I quite digged the New 52 incarnation from the Sword of Sorcery title written by Christy Marx. This in comparison tries to write the character in a similar fashion with an explanation about why Amethyst's look is different from her classic one, seemingly connecting both versions but at the same time, the backstory is pretty different and there's no actual relation between the two.

But one should take the merits of the new titles by themselves right? Well, that's the other problem since right from the beginning the narration takes me out of the story. It's pretty blunt at telling Amethyst's backstory and doesn't make it that interesting for new readers despite that it actually should be and this is especially bad because I recently re-read Marx's Sword of Sorcery and it still holds-up with much more subtle narration and a dialogue that flows much better. Amy Reeder's dialogue itself is not that bad but also not that distinctive or memorable. Not going to compare both plots, the one here has potential but the presentation doesn't make me invested into it.

Reeder's art is decent with expressive characters and an energetic tone but again, I'm sadly going to compare it with the previous book and she has to compete with Aaron Lopresti at his best who delivered a pretty vibrant and polished work.

Maybe it's not fair to compare this with the title that came before but at the same time, I can't help but feel like this is a complete downgrade from what we already had.