Who's This? Martian Manhunter's teacher's pet.
The facts: Introduced in Justice League of America Annual #2 (1984) to be a junior member of whar we now call Justice League Detroit, Gypsy was created by Gerry Conway and Chuck Patton, chasing that sweet, sweet X-Men success (so she's a young mutant, a thoroughly un-DC thing to be). The somewhat invisible girl served with the team until JLofA was cancelled during Legends, and unlike the two other original characters in the series, survived to fight another day. In the JLI era, after appearing in a Despero story, she would join Booster Gold's Conglomerate and then the Martian Manhunter's Justice League Task Force. In the 2000s, she joins the Birds of Prey and makes the occasional guest appearance in other books. The New52 makes her a character in Vibe's series.
How you could have heard of her: Though they forgo using the code-name (now acknowledged to be an ethnic slur against the Romani people), the character appears in The Flash TV series (as Cynthia, played by Jessica Camacho), but with powers similar to the series' Vibe. Her only appearance in comics since the New52 was in Convergence.
Example story: Justice League of America #259 (February 1987) "Homecoming!" by J.M. DeMatteis, Luke McDonnell and Bill Wray
They'd just killed Vibe, starting to clear the decks for the JLI, the JLDetroit kids considered disposable, so we were right to believe the cover - Gypsy was also going to die. Steel (who dies in the next issue) was instrumental in housing this version of the Justice League, but the other two junior members never got as much play. They were local color more than anything and utility players in the superhero action. So here we are at the end of the line for Gypsy - it's sad this is where I need to go for a character spotlight (at least, in the era described by Who's Who). Though Legends is fuelled by Darkseid, Professor Ivo is taking advantage of the chaos and the anti-hero sentiment to take his revenge against the JLA. His real enemies are the senior members, but this is both easier and hurts them more. /Context.
We catch up with Gypsy at the home of Pamela Cross, a fellow runaway that she's brought home. The grounding (not to use "Marvelisation", but look, Legends is basically "mutant hysteria") of the JLDetroit means characters are more invested in social issues like this. It also shows growth for Gypsy because she's advising something that she herself has not done, and seeing positive results.
So in the wake of all the tragedy back in Detroit, Gypsy finally realizes she should go home too. The League isn't family (well, THERE was your problem, DC! Maybe it should have been!). She endeavors to hitchhike to her suburban home. Unfortunately, she's picked up by one of Ivo's killer androids. So when it attacks, somewhere down the road, how does the girl with the entirely defensive powers survive?
The android's a nice guy, really, he's just programmed that way. Makes for an interesting encounter, as this Terminator is really rather apologetic about his task. But one of the late-game subplots for Gypsy is an expansion of her powers, allowing her to create illusions. And they work on robots (so not "mental", more "holographic").
His electronic senses register this as "conflicting data", but he's able to choose reality and keep hunting her. As it looms over her prone form, Ivo momentarily loses the signal, but as he reestablishes...
You guessed it: The android didn't really kill her, just conspired to send him an illusion of her death. That was a really nice chat in the drive over, I guess. The assassin had the strength not to kill. He drives her home for real, and she's reunited with her family. Happily. Hopefully, her dad has his alcohol abuse under control and won't recreate the conditions that made her run away. Because there's no room for her on the next Justice League. Not for a while.
You know, it was easy to hate on the Detroit kids because they weren't JLA material and had pretty weak power sets. They were barely eligible to be Titans. But, perhaps over time, I've developed some affection for Gypsy. Her relationship with the Martian Manhunter, her involvement in good stories... I guess I'm just that kind of android too. And looks like DeMatteis is one too.
Who's Next? A rainbow bright girl.
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