“En Route”
Writer and Artist: Amy Reeder
Color Artist: Marissa Louise
Letterer: Gabriela Downie
Review by Fay Clark
It would be nice to say we got a warm welcome when we returned to Gemworld, however Amy Reeder just threw us all into the deep end. The last time we saw Amethyst she was causing a little bit of trouble. You know, due to her consciousness not being in her body? After having a vision of her people in captivity, the Princess is determined to find and free them in Amethyst #3.
Best way to form friendships? Montage.
Amy Reeder has really just gone full force for this issue. There was a lot of inner monologue in, with Amethyst caught up in her own thoughts. She’s also very focused on specific pieces of information. Reeder makes Amethyst come across as very distracted by the recent information she’s discovered. Which just goes to show you that Amy Reeder knows what she’s doing, because any normal person would react in the exact same way.
You can tell that Amethyst’s very passionate about the well-being of her people. Yet now she has an even stronger reason to go travelling across Gemworld. After having her vision, Amy’s determined to save her people, or die trying. She runs into old friends who have become enemies, and new people who could turn out to be friends. Amy Reeder really gives such great life and emotion to all her characters.
Who cut the Crystals?
As artist and writer Reeder is exceptionally talented. Having the same person do both jobs really helps get across the right sense of emotion where needed. If you wanted the emotion in the writing to come off a little bit more happy or sad in certain scenes, it would be very easy to envision that, if you’re also the artist. Reeder is a very skilled creator, who manages to truly show her characters the way we see real people. There are flaws and arguments, we aren’t always “camera ready” all the time. Being able to see that Reeder draws her characters like real people adds to the depth of emotion coming from them.
The color artist for this issue is Marissa Louise, and I’ll be honest. I didn’t even notice someone else had taken over the job. Which means that Marissa has great talent, to just jump in a couple of issues deep and get it completely right the first time round. Very impressive in general, yet when you look closer at the artwork you’ll find it moreso, due to the detail and pure range of color that Louise uses. There’s a definite distinction between certain parts of Gemworld, and you can tell when you’re crossing over into another area, because of the subtle shift in hues.
Conclusion
Gemworld is back with a bang in Amethyst #3! We have our favourite purple princess up against basically everything, and everyone, to save her people. The more we delve into Gemworld the weirder and more conspiratorial it seems to get. Everyone else seems to know what’s happening and why, yet no one wants to tell or help Amethyst.
I can’t wait to see how the mystery unravels.
Images Courtesy of DC Entertainment
