Who's This? The cowgirl with the throwing stars.
The facts: I was shocked to realize that prior to this totally-worth-it, gorgeous Who's Who entry, Cinnamon had only appeared in two issues of Weird Western Tales (#48-49, in 1978), as a back-up, no less, as Scalphunter held the main story. and then along with other western stars in JLA 198-199 where the League goes back in time. I think we may owe post-Crisis appearances to the entry, far more than the stories themselves. Because she DOES become a bit of a deal thanks to the idea that Hawkman and Hawkgirl are perpetually reincarnating heroes, her red hair making her a match for Shayera, so Nighthawk would be Carter and the characters would mostly appear together moving forward. In the 2000s, a modern-day Cinnamon was introduced in her own mini-series, and is made one of Checkmate's Rooks.
How you could have heard of her: The New52's All-Star Western made good use of her (eventually with Nighthawk in tow), starring in back-ups that eventually dove-tailed into the main Jonah Hex's story. The present-day Hawkgirl meets her past incarnation in a western episode of Legends of Tomorrow, where she is played by Anna Deavere Smith.
Example story: Weird Western Tales #49 (November 1978) by Roger McKenzie, Howie Chaykin and Danny Bulanadi
Jack Abel drew her first story, bu it's interesting that Howard Chaykin did the second one given that he would be responsible for the Cinnamon: El Ciclo 25 years later. But don't expect to recognize his idiosyncratic style, he's still just little "Howie" Chaykin at this point.
In prologue, the story begins with a recap of Cinnamon's origins, a bad dream from which she will wake up on page 2.
If it's a memory, not just night terrors, girl's been shooting a gun since she was in preschool Night sweats, trauma, PTSD, that's our Cinnamon. After a good night's sleep like that, it's time to go to work. But first, her morning routine.
That orphanage fraudster is the man from her dream, one of the three who killed her father while they laughed their heads off. And she's tracked him down.
He gets the drop on her, and races off to an awaiting ship bound for Europe. But she somehow gets there before he does!
Not that he would have gotten far without his ticket. Spooked, he runs. In the wrong direction, as it turns out, right to the end the pier. And though we know she can handle that gun at her hip, enough to shoot his gun out of his hand, the kill shot really needs to be done with a throwing star.
As for the other men responsible, Cinnamon doesn't get another solo story for decades, what a shame. The way she's written here, with the noirish narration and the ninja abilities (including the Batman-like ability to suddenly show up) make her cool as hell. But perhaps she was miscast in Weird Western? I mean, just how weird IS her story? I wish she'd been able to continue her revenge spree and even claim a cover or two in the process.
Who's Next? A sorceress from the Odyssey.
Comments
It was always interesting to see which minor characters made it into Who's Who original run. Some of them shared a page with another character, some got in to make sure, say, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman get their double page spreads later in the book, and some didn't get in at all (Sugar & Spike, Prez). I didn't realize Cinnamon only appeared twice. Were there any other characters like that who got a full page?
As for the obscura in Who's Who, my first run of Who's This was exactly that, and I didn't do Cinnamon at that point because I was sure she had had a longer history! There were plenty of obscure characters with full pages, if you go through the archives of this article category.