A Great Start
Pleasantly surprised. With the beautiful art of Aaron Lopresti and the incredible Christy Marx as writer (plus this being one of my favorite characters) I had great expectations and was not disappointed. The only bad part of this book is my own personal fondness of the original series and the world and characters in it. Because I read the original Amethyst series my prejudices against the changes kept raising up but I blocked them off and got wrapped up in this new story. This isn't the old Amy Winston, this is a new character with the same name and that is not a bad thing. I think anyone who was a fan of original series should go in reading this accepting that and they won't be disappointed. It has everything i would want: a strong female lead, action, mystery, magic, great writing and beautiful art. I couldn't help but smile the first time I see Amy, anyone who ever watched an episode of Jem and the Holograms will know what I mean. Yes she is 17 and still growing as a person but she already has a strong sense of herself and morals and I love the voice Christy Marx gives her. I don't want to give away any spoilers but i will say this: if you are tired of the same run of the mill comic and a stereotypical female who is either oversexed or too masculine, then this is the book for you. I cannot compare Sword of Sorcery to anything else out there because there is nothing else like this. Like the original story the majority of the tale will take place on Gemworld (here called Nillaa) which will allow Amy to grow as a hero in her own right and not be overshadowed by other DC characters or events. Aaron Lopresti's designs for costumes and the world of Nillaa is just beautiful and I can't wait to see what he does with the other houses of Gemworld. There is this one panel where Amy steps into battle for the first time and i cant wait for that poster. Awesome. In this first issue we are only introduced to the house of Amethyst which has very interesting internal turmoil going on and apparent times to the Earth dimension. The last page answered my question of how they would bring Amy into the world of DC's heroes. A surprise guest shows 'dark' character shows up and i had to read that page twice, the little boy in me is giggling as I write this and think of that scene. There is also a back-up feature of Beowolf which stars off weak but picks up. I wasn't gushing over it as I was with the Amethyst feature but it was definitely better then some other stories out there (Blue Beetle, Hawkman, etc.)
This is a must read. Let's make Sword of Sorcery the highest selling book for September so this great series will continue and hopefully Christy can get her hands on Catwoman and Wonder Woman one day. Better yet maybe she can talk DC into producing a Jem and the Holograms comic. That would be totally outrageous.
