After assisting Justice League Dark, Princess Amaya seeks to return to Nilaa… but wants to take a slight detour first. This leads to her being abducted by a corporate executive named Ilene who secretly collects mystical artifacts and wants one from Amaya– her magical necklace. Amaya must face off against Ilene’s demon henchmen without the necklace… and what role does John Constantine play in all of this?
There’s also a fresh backup feature, Stalker, detailing a truly tragic origin , which alas ends before much more can be revealed.
The art on both features is just okay. Travis Moore illustrates the Amethyst story and at times his work is really pretty, but at other times is under-rendered. It’s not bad at all and it does the job, but it didn’t blow me away.
Andrei Bressan illustrates the Stalker strip and does a fine job. His facial expressions are absolutely fantastic and his work has a real grittiness to it, which suits the dark story… but it can be borderline ugly in places. But then again, maybe that’s by design.
But the main attraction is Amethyst and unfortunately this issue screamed “fill-in issue” like a neon sign. The art was not as good as usual and the story was a complete stand-alone that doesn’t help to embellish the already-fairly-rich storyline. It does further a connection to Justice League Dark and John Constantine, though. I suppose it really felt like a “.5” issue that publishers put out every so often. It’s not essential reading, but it adds a bit to the mythology, so it’s like a nice bonus feature.
SWORD OF SORCERY #4
Amethyst Writer: Christy Marx
Amethyst Art: Travis Moore
Stalker Writer: Marc Andreyko
Stalker Art: Andrei Bressan
Cover: Walt Simonson
