Gypsy (comics)

Gypsy
Gypsy from the JLA Detroit era. Art by Tom Derenick.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Justice League of America Annual #2 (1984)
Created by	Gerry Conway Chuck Patton
In-story information
Alter ego	Cynthia Reynolds
Team affiliations	Birds of Prey Justice League The Conglomerate
Abilities	Illusion casting, precognition

Gypsy (Cynthia "Cindy" Reynolds) is a fictional character, a DC Comics superheroine. She first appeared in Justice League Annual #2 (November 1984) and was created by Gerry Conway and Chuck Patton. She is a member of the Birds of Prey and has been a member of the Justice League.

Fictional character biography

Cindy Reynolds is born to Edward and June Reynolds, who live their life in a peaceful, suburban home. Cindy grows up an intelligent and experienced barefooter, which is later always to be one of her best signature trademarks as a teenager. Soon after Cindy's brother is born, Edward and June begin to fight. Cindy tries to keep her parents together but mostly suffers some abuse as well. When her powers of illusion begin to manifest at age fourteen, Cindy runs away from home, buying a one-way bus ticket to Detroit.

JLA Detroit

Once in Detroit, Cindy uses her chameleon and illusion-casting powers to protect herself. She stealthily evades capture in the city with her invisibility, and by intelligently treading softly upon her bare feet to maintain absolute silence in her motions, allowing her to either quietly approach, attack, or to make an escape, unnoticed. As the young woman grows, she transforms into the mysterious Gypsy, adopting her vagabond style of dress. Gypsy quickly becomes a myth among the people of Cameron Street, which she calls "home". As fate would have it, this is a sector of Detroit where the Justice League would soon take up residence after Aquaman disbanded the original League).

Shortly after the League moves into their new inner city HQ, the raggedly dressed, perpetually barefoot street urchin begins to daringly test and penetrate the League's security measures. Eventually, she becomes brave enough to follow along with them and to aid in the battle against the Overmaster and his Cadre. After this, Gypsy nets an offer to become a full-time member of the Justice Leaguer. Gypsy goes on to participate in the League's struggles against the power-mad Anton Allegro and a reactivated Amazo.

Cindy does indeed descend from the line of Romani people — more commonly known as the "Gypsies." But for whatever her reason (perhaps a sense of mistrust bred by centuries of persecution) she tends to guard the secrets of her superhuman powers. Gypsy finds cause to test these powers to their limits when the new JLA is unexpectedly ambushed by the Royal Flush Gang during a wilderness retreat, where Gypsy improves her physical prowess. Before the villains attack, Gypsy learns evasive action in swinging her body into the air, improving her speed and agility with newly-learned acrobatics. During one of the battles, she escapes a fire by diving into the lake, rapidly swimming underwater safely to the other side, evading the flames and finding help for her wounded partners. While her teammates are incapacitated, Gypsy ventures outside her own body, in astral form. In this form, she can spy on the Gang's activities. Also during this mission, she receives a dire premonition about the fates of her teammates Steel and Vibe.

This League is doomed, though. In his bid to wipe out the new JLA, Professor Ivo sends an android to destroy Gypsy, but she manages to find its conscience, lurking deep within the android's programming, and convinces it not to kill her. Though Ivo succeeds in killing Steel and Vibe (as she'd foreseen), the android sees Cindy safely returned to her parents' keeping.

Gypsy's domestic happiness is short-lived, as some time after she has left the JLA, a vengeful Despero arrives at her home and remorselessly murders her parents. Gypsy would have been Despero's next victim, if not for the timely intervention of the Martian Manhunter and the rest of the Justice League. Devastated by the loss of her family, Gypsy is immediately recruited by Booster Gold to become a member of the corporate-sponsored team of heroes known as the Conglomerate.

Justice League Task Force

Gypsy in battle armor, during her time serving in the Justice League Task Force.

Over time, she grows very close to the Martian Manhunter, developing a sort of father/daughter relationship. The two of them are the mainstays of the short-lived Justice League Task Force. During her time in the JLTF, she is nearly forced to battle Lady Shiva in one early adventure, and is left for dead on another mission. She later joins the revamped Task Force along with L-Ron (in the body of Despero!), The Ray and Triumph. Gypsy and Ray are both later mind-controlled and used by Triumph during his strike against the reformed JLA.

There have also been hints of a romantic relationship between Gypsy and the Bronze Tiger.

After the JLTF title was canceled, Gypsy and J'onn keep in touch. In fact, she is killed at one point, but is miraculously returned to life by the Manhunter, who pleads with his god, Hronmeer, to restore her life. She once also aids Wonder Woman during a massive battle against Circe.

Birds of Prey

Most recently, Gypsy joins the cast of Oracle's Birds of Prey, wearing a black leather jacket on secret missions. Oracle greatly relies on Gypsy's stealth for their undercover work and, in fact, didn't even tell her other operatives about Gypsy's involvement. She has demonstrated greater flexibility with her powers as well, now able to extend her powers of invisibility to others and things around her.

Gypsy also joins another Bird — her former JLA comrade Vixen — to clean up the remnants of a years-old case. The two heroines rescue Stargirl when after discovering that Amos Fortune was kidnapping members of the JSA.

Gypsy's most dominant personality trait is her curiosity. It leads her to sneak into the JLA headquarters on several occasions, and she even goes so far as to surreptitiously follow them on several cases. She seems to be somewhat shy and reserved, because she never wants to talk about herself or her background, and she never tells anyone the true origin of her camouflage and illusion powers.

Powers and abilities

• Gypsy's primary power is that of illusion casting, which allows her to blend into her background, effectively becoming invisible. Her abilities are telepathic in nature, and hence are only effective on living beings. However, it also allows her to adapt to rapidly changing backgrounds without betraying the illusion. She can camouflage both herself and someone standing in close proximity to her. In Gypsy's first appearance, only her shadow is shown from the Bunker's monitor, and she appears to teleport at the end of the issue.
• Gypsy's trademark is that of an experienced, perpetual city barefooter. She can utilize this natural stealth ability by treading quietly, and by her walking on tippy toes with natural ease. As she is always barefoot, she can leap high, run fast, swim, and execute unexpectedly quick martial arts tactics and perform acrobatics skillfully.
• Gypsy also has the ability to project frightening illusions into the minds of other people. These illusions usually show what the affected person fears most. This ability can affect other living things besides people, and Gypsy can use this ability in combat situations. In one issue of Martian Manhunter, Gypsy is shown as having the ability to project an illusion over herself in order to appear as another person, but that person needs to be her approximate height and weight for it to appear authentic.
• Gypsy is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant who has been trained by Bronze Tiger, and in issues of Birds of Prey Lady Shiva has offered to train her as well. Gypsy also has a strong aptitude in electronics and computers, and has become skilled in the use of firearms.
• In recent issues of Birds of Prey, it has been stated that Gypsy's powers have "hit puberty", and she can now use her chameleon powers to cloak not only herself, but a moving vehicle and its passengers.
• In JLA Classified #25 it is revealed that Gypsy also has limited precognitive abilities.

In other media

File:GypsyJLU.jpg

Gypsy on Justice League Unlimited.

Gypsy has made many background appearances in Justice League Unlimited alongside her Detroit League teammates Vibe and Steel. She dresses in her original outfit and she is always barefoot.

Captain Atom was speaks with her in the first episode, Initiation, when he is called up for service on the active roster (concurrently, Supergirl Kara In-Ze is in conversation with Nemesis).

Gypsy's first use of powers in a superhero situation is in Flashpoint, when she phases through a solid wall in a burning building; this is a contrast to her usual powers.

She is often seen in group shots and appears with her Detroit teammates Vixen, Vibe and Steel in the final episode. Gypsy is featured barefoot in issue 22 of Justice League Unlimited, a comic series based on the show.

Other versions

In the DC/Marvel Amalgam universe cross-over (1996), a nameless Romany beauty was called Runaway (based on a combination of Gypsy and Rogue).

See also

• List of fictional characters who can create illusions

External links

• Gypsy — JLA Watchtower Profile