"When? How? Where? What? Why? - Life's full of questions, isn't it?"
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History
Origin
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 bare-footer, 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. 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, Gypsy 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 League. 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 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.
Conglomerate
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
As member of 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.
As a member of the Justice League Task Force, Gypsy helped Bruce Wayne in the search of the kidnapped Shondra Kinsolving and Jack Drake.[1] She teamed-up with Bronze Tiger and Green Arrow, but despite their combined forces, they failed on their mission.[2]
After the JLTF was disbanded, Gypsy and J'onn kept in touch. In fact, she was 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 and boots 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.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Illusion Casting: Gypsy's primary power is that of illusion casting, which she can use in a large variety of ways. 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. 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.
- Invisibility: Her illusions allow her to blend into her background, effectively becoming invisible.
- Fear Projection: Gypsy's illusion casting can also be used to project frightening illusions into the minds of other people. These illusions usually show what the affected person fears most.
- Telepathy: Her abilities are telepathic in nature, and hence are only effective on living beings.
Abilities
- Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced): Aside from her powers, Gypsy is an expert in hand-to-hand combat. She has been trained by Bronze Tiger, and Shiva has offered to train her as well.
- Acrobatics: She's also an accomplished acrobat, able to run fast, and execute unexpectedly quick martial arts tactics with relative ease.
- Computer Operation: Gypsy is surprisingly skilled with computer and is able to substitute for Oracle on field.
- Electrical Engineering: Gypsy also has a strong aptitude in electronics.
- Firearms: Recently, Gypsy has learned how to use firearms and although she doesn't carry any she can pick up weapons from downed guards and thugs and use them with expert efficiency.
Notes
- Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.
Related
- 164 Appearances of Cynthia Reynolds (New Earth)
- 39 Images featuring Cynthia Reynolds (New Earth)
- 4 Quotations by or about Cynthia Reynolds (New Earth)
- Character Gallery: Cynthia Reynolds (New Earth)
Footnotes
  This character has been a member of the Justice League of America, or the Justice League in any of its various incarnations, sworn by a duty to act as guardians of America and the world by using their skills and/or superpowers to protect Earth from the clutches of both interstellar and domestic threats. |
 Birds of Prey member |