Rima

Rima
Rima the Jungle Girl #6 (March 1975). Art by Nestor Redondo.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Historical: 1904 Modern: 1974
Created by	W. H. Hudson

Rima, also known as Rima the Jungle Girl, is a fictional character, a heroine of Edwardian literature who was adapted as the star of short-lived comic book series Rima the Jungle Girl, published by DC Comics in 1974 and 1975. She also appeared in DC's Super Friends cartoons, and returns in 2010 in the pulp-era First Wave.

Publication history

Rima the Jungle Girl #1 (May 1974). Cover art by Joe Kubert.

Like her literary cousins Tarzan and Mowgli, Rima sprang from an Edwardian adventure novel, in her case Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest, published in 1904. The Argentine-British writer W. H. Hudson was a naturalist who wrote many classic books about the ecology of South America. Hudson based Rima on a persistent South American legend about a lost tribe of white people who lived in the mountains.^{[citation needed]}

Rima starred in a seven-issue comic book series, DC Comics' Rima the Jungle Girl (May 1974 - May 1975), adapted by an uncredited writer and with artwork by penciler-inker Nestor Redondo and covers by Joe Kubert. DC writer-editor Robert Kanigher is the credited writer from issue #5 on.

She is slated to appear in the new DC Comics mini-series First Wave, written by Eisner Award winning writer Brian Azzarello, debuting in March 2010. Rima will be portrayed as a South American native with piercings and tattoos, who doesn't speak, but communicates in bird-like whistles.

Fictional character biography

Although the DC character is a fully-grown and powerful woman with ash blonde hair, in the novel Rima the Bird Girl was 17, small (4' 6"), demure, and dark-haired. Natives avoided her forest, calling her "the Daughter of the Didi" (an evil spirit), but Rima's only defense is a reputation for magic, earned through the display of strange talents such as talking to birds, befriending animals, and plucking poison darts from the air. Although in the original book Rima was burned alive by Indians, in the comics she escaped the fire to have further adventures.

In other media

Literature

Green Mansions

Rima originated in the 1904 novel Green Mansions by W. H. Hudson .

Rima was also mentioned in Ray Bradbury's 1950 short story, The Veldt.

Film

Green Mansions

Actor and director Mel Ferrer adapted Green Mansions into a 1959 film for MGM Studios, starring Audrey Hepburn as Rima. The adaptation deviated far from the novel.

Other comic books

Classics Illustrated #90: Green Mansions

Rima as first glimpsed by Abel (and comic book readers) in the 1951 Classics Illustrated adaptation, published in 1952

Classics Illustrated published a short adaptation from the novel, with direct quotes. In this adaptation Rima is blond. (Copyright December 1951 Gilberton Company).

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Rima is mentioned, but not seen, in America's Best Comics' The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol. 2, #3 (2003), by writer Alan Moore and artists Kevin O'Neill and Ben Dimagmaliw: "...it is near here that the world-famous 'bird girl' Riolama or Rima was discovered..."

Television

The All-New Super Friends Hour

Rima the Jungle Girl in The All-New Superfriends Hour (1977)

Rima the Jungle Girl appeared in three episodes of Hanna-Barbera's The All-New Super Friends Hour during the 1977-78 season, alongside such mainstays as Aquaman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

In her run with the Superfriends TV series, she is often known for being one of the new 'affirmative action heroes' during that period. Along with characters Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, El Dorado and Samurai, Rima is considered a minority character. Being both female and ethnic, she was a welcome addition during the 1977 overhaul of the show's all-white, mostly-male cast of heroes.

Fire

First aired: Saturday October 1, 1977; ABC (8 minutes) Batman, Robin, and Rima the Jungle Girl contend with a spreading forest fire, and have to search for a pair of escaped prisoners who have stolen a forestry truck filled with dynamite. Rima's main contribution is to call upon a nearby bear to push down some trees for an emergency bridge across a wide gap.

River Of Doom

First aired: Friday November 4, 1977; ABC (8 minutes) Wonder Woman and Rima the Jungle Girl search for archaeologists who have accidentally stumbled onto a burial ground of angry natives. The archaeologists are captured and sentenced to death on the River of Doom. The superheroines find the would be victims with the indigenous animals scouting them out at Rima's command. They later rescue the scientists while Rima's main contribution being summoning crocodiles to attack their pursuers' canoes.

Return Of Atlantis

First aired: Saturday October 25, 1980; ABC (7 Minutes) Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Rima. Aquaman is captured by Queen Ocina when the lost city of Atlantis rises from the sea. Ocina plans to conquer the world with her female warriors, but Wonder Woman and Rima gather the Amazons of Paradise Island to stop her. Note: In breach of both DC Comics' and the Super Friends TV show's continuities, this "Atlantis" is not the kingdom over which Aquaman reigns.

Other

Pennsylvania Kensington Gardens, adjacent to London's Hyde Park, has a statue of Rima the Bird Girl sculpted by Jacob Epstein, erected in 1925. Image of Rima statue (site in Italian)

References

• 30th Century Comics article, by Ramon Schenk
• Grand Comics Database: Rima the Jungle Girl (DC Comics)

External links

• Rima at the Internet Movie Database
• Fantastic Victoriana: R
• Full Text of the Novel: Green Mansions