Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Comics Characters Revealed - Gimmick Girl

I've recently been inspired. It would be good if I were inspired in my article I'm refining or my book I'm wading through, but instead I've been inspired in trivia, specifically comics trivia. My brother sent me a link to Chris's Invincible Super-Blog where Chris writes the snarkiest reviews of the worst comics you've never read. Seriously, where else can you discover the long-forgotten battle between gorillas and the Nazi army?

This has inspired a new semi-regular feature of Sonic Granades where I'll bring to light justly neglected comic heroes and heroines screaming for their own big screen feature.

Or at least a little headshaking from the general populace.Today's hero: Merry Pemberton, the Gimmick Girl.In 1948, DC decided that the Star-Spangled Kid needed a sidekick. Enter Merry Creamer (yes, that was her real name), abandoned by her criminal father and adopted by the Pembertons when Dad Pemberton decided that young Sylvester just didn't have enough friends. Soon, though, Merry discovered that her new "brother" was a super-hero and decided to help out as Gimmick Girl. She fashioned a utility belt (no idea where she got that idea) full of boxing glove guns and vest pocket nets. But the jokes wore thin and a few years later she had a mental breakdown and faked her own death.

If that were the end of the story, I probably wouldn't be showcasing her here, but in the late 1990s, Merry reappeared as, yes, a member of Old Justice.
This was a group of sidekicks from the 1940s grown old and crotchety who complain about the kids these days and their crazy superpowers and their lack of respect. Sure Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman have been the same age for sixty years, but their sidekicks? They've grown old and are tired of these young whippersnappers not knowing who they are so they take action. Talk about a Gimmick!

Favorite non-heroes you'd like to see profiled? Let me know.

5 comments:

Taliesin said...

Thank you. A gorilla kicking the bleep out of Nazis -- why that's got to be the best the internet has to offer! It's definitely made my day :)

Tad and Monica said...

Too much time on your hands?

alicia said...

KRAUTS IN THE REAR! :) Is that anything like a pain in the butt?

My favorite part was the triumphant Francois beating his chest over a field of Nazi carnage.

Is there any kind of deeply symbolic commentary here? After all, didn't the Nazis sometimes compare Jews to apes? Just wondering.

Jaime Olson said...

See, now I'm confused. Wasn't the Nazi army actually made up of gorillas? Or did I just learn this wrong? :)

Andrew said...

Yes, way too much time on my hands when I don't spend it as I should on my writing projects!

But there is something satisfying about that gorilla throwing aside his gun to fisticuff with Nazis. Especially in light of Alicia's comment. There must be something to that!