Origin
Cynthia Reynolds was born to Edward and June Reynolds, growing up in middle American suburbia. Her family life was uneventful until shortly after Cindy’s brother was born. Her parents start fighting, causing a rift to grow between a neglected Cindy and her parents. As Cindy went through puberty, she discovered that she was a meta-human, able to camouflage her appearance with her surroundings, in effect rendering herself invisible. Cindy kept her new-found abilities a secret until, fed up with emotional and physical abuse from her parents, she runs away. She buys a one way ticket to Detroit, deciding she would never look back at her past.
Once in Detroit, Cindy used her her powers to hide and protect herself in the city, eventually adopting the Cameron Street neighborhood as her home. She protects the street as well as occasionally stealing the means to sustain herself from its inhabitants. She eventually becomes something of an urban legend on Cameron Street.
She ends up on a direct path to the newly crafted Justice League of America, who had relocated to Detroit after their satellite headquarters were destroyed. The League had gone through a serious reshuffling of members with several of the original mainstays like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman leaving. Having felt that the members of the League could not dedicate themselves as active participants, Aquaman proclaimed the disbanding of the team. However Zatanna, Elongated Man, and the Martian Manhunter stayed on and, led by Aquaman, opened the doors to recruit Steel, Vibe, and Vixen.
As the newly outfitted League based themselves close to Cameron Street they had a run in with Cindy during a local outing. Cindy eluded their direct attention until she got too comfortable in their hanger base one evening and was discovered. She eluded their questions, giving her name as Gypsy, and was somehow able to prevent the Martian Manhunter from entering her mind and reading her thoughts. Gypsy was allowed to join up as a member, more for the purpose of safeguarding the precocious teen than actually wanting her to go on missions with them. However, Gypsy always found ways to sneak aboard with them and immediately proved to be a valuable asset in the battle against the Overmaster and his Cadre.
The New 52
Gypsy was re-introduced with an altered origin in the post-Flashpoint DC Universe in the JLA’s Vibe series. She is no longer from Earth, but rather a nomadic interdimensional tribe (making her a more literal gypsy) becoming stranded on Earth when accidentally separated from her traveling family. Believing her to be declaring war on the Earth dimension, Amanda Waller has her sealed in a vault at ARGUS headquarters.
Creation
Cynthia Reynolds was created by Gerry Conway and Chuck Patton. At the time when Gypsy was created, the comics industry was being dominated primarily by titles featuring teenage superheroes (such as the Teen Titans.) It was thus decided to redesign the Justice League of America and to give them a similar roster. Gypsy was one of three new teenage characters introduced to the team in the same single issue which served as the first origin of all three (the other two were Steel and Vibe.)
Character Evolution
Cynthia’s home life early on was less than desirable which gave her reasons to hide her meta-human abilities and later on factored into her decision to run away. She took to defending Cameron Street and would occasionally steal in order to survive. When she was first inducted into the Justice League, it was more for her own protection. Her skills would later prove that she was a valuable asset to the team.
Later on, Cynthia would be overcome with guilt over the death of her parents and it affected her ability to work in a team which led to her relinquishing her memberships in both the Justice League and the Conglomerate later on. When she develops a close father/daughter relationship with Martian Manhunter she manages to overcome some of her guilt. She is trained in hand-to-hand combat by Bronze Tiger, whom she is also hinted at having a romantic relationship with. When she joins the Birds of Prey she is a highly trained and specialized member who normally undertakes undercover missions.
Major Story Arcs
Legends
During the Legends story arc Gypsy has a premonition that Steel and Vibe are going to be killed by an android created and sent by Professor Ivo. Her prediction comes true and her two teammates— Vibe and Steel–are killed, but Gypsy manages to convince the android that was sent to kill her to spare her life and to take her home. Upon returning home her parents are killed and she is attacked by the alien Despero. She is saved due to a strong telepathic bond with Martian Manhunter, and later returns with the new incarnation of the Justice League to avenge her parents deaths.
Joining the Conglomerate
Decimated by the death of her parents she tries to deal with her pain by joining the Conglomerate led by Booster Gold. As a member of the Conglomerate she fights against the Justice League International, but the team was short lived as was Gypsy’s membership. She is too overwhelmed by the loss of her family and quits the team.
Justice League Task Force
Gypsy later joined the Justice League Task Force and developed a close father/daughter relationship with Martian Manhunter. Gypsy and Martian Manhunter are the central characters of the title and during this time she was nearly forced to battle Lady Shiva, and at one point is even killed, but is miraculously resurrected after Martian Manhunter called out to his god Hronmeer to spare her life.
The JLTF separated from the UN and reformed with new members L-Ron, The Ray, and Triumph. This team was set up as a training team for younger heroes like Gypsy herself. After a series of adventures, this team became inactive as J’onn was a member of the newly reformed Justice League. Gypsy, along with the Ray, were later mind controlled by the 5th dimensional djinn powered Triumph to strike against the JLA.
Birds of Prey
Gypsy later joins up with Oracle’s Birds of Prey, and is utilized mostly for her stealth skills and undercover work. During her time with the Birds of Prey she assists Vixen on a year’s old case, and rescues Stargirl from Amos Fortune after discovering that he was kidnapping JSA members. Her latest appearance was toward the end of the first run of Birds of Prey. She had been captured by the villain Clock King and brainwashed into fighting in the Dark Side Club Tournament, but she was quickly defeated in the first round of the tournament by Hardrock.
Powers and Abilities
Gypsy has the meta-human ability of illusion casting, allowing her to blend into her background and effectively becoming invisible. Her abilities are telepathic in nature and thereby are only effective on other living beings.
Her control over this power also allows her to adapt to rapidly changing backgrounds without betraying the illusion or needing her to concentrate on the continuation of this trait. She can also camouflage both herself and someone standing in relatively close proximity to her.
Gypsy has also learned to use her illusion casting to project frightening illusions into the minds of other people and these illusions usually show what the affected person fears most. This ability can only affect other living things, and Gypsy can use this ability to great effect in combat situations.
It has been stated that Gypsy’s powers reached their last stage of development, and she can now use her chameleon powers to cloak not only herself, but a moving vehicle and its passengers. It has also been revealed that Gypsy has limited precognitive abilities. She also has appeared to be able to project her astral self from her body, an incorporeal manifestation of her persona. Gypsy has shown 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. She has demonstrated a regenerative ability – but only against a mental based attack.
It has been suggested that Gypsy’s powers are possibly the result of Martian experiments in Ancient Egypt.
Aside from her powers, Gypsy is an expert in hand-to-hand combat stealth. As she normally goes around barefoot, she can tread quietly and walk unheard with ease. She’s also an accomplished acrobat, able to leap high, run fast, swim, and execute unexpectedly quick martial tactics with relative ease. Gypsy also has a strong aptitude in electronics and computers, and has become skilled in the use of firearms.
Other Media
Animation
Justice League Unlimited
This version of Gypsy has different powers from her comic book counterpart: in her limited appearances, she displays the ability to phase through walls. Captain Atom speaks with her in the first episode,Initiation, when he is called up for service on the active roster. Her other-dimensional counterpart also displays the same phasing powers in her cameo appearance in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.
Gypsy’s first use of powers in a superhero situation is in Flashpoint.
**Gypsy is also featured in Issue 22 of the JLU comic series based on the show.**
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
An alternate version, called Gypsy Woman, from a parallel earth appears in the film as part of the Crime Syndicate of America.
Live action
The Flash
Gypsy’s first appearance on The Flash is as an alternate earth version. She is far different from her comic inspiration. The Earth-19 Gypsy has the same powerset as Vibe, but with far more experience than Earth 1’s Cisco Ramon.
Her real name has yet to be given, but she is listed on IMDB as Cindy Reynolds. She is portrayed by Jessica Camacho.