You gotta get a gimmick, as Stephen Sondheim observed, and Merry Creamer-Pemberton had a plethora of ’em.
“By the end of World War II, the superhero fad in American comic books had run its course, and the long-underwear guys were being replaced by teenage humor, funny animals, westerns and other such genres,” recalled comics historian Don Markstein.
“But even during the lean years, there was a steady trickle of new ones. One late ’40s trend, especially at Marvel, was female heroes, such as Sun Girl and Namora. DC did a couple of those too, starting with the introduction of Little Miss Redhead as a supporting character to Little Boy Blue. A far more prominent one (which still left plenty of scope for obscurity) was their Merry, Girl of 1,000 Gimmicks, who started in the Star-Spangled Kid’s series, and went on to oust him from it.”
“Out on a mission, the Star-Spangled Kid is hurt; to preserve his secret identity of Sylvester Pemberton, he tells his father he doesn’t know how he injured himself,” noted comics historian Jeff Rovin, recalling the dramatic events of 1948’s Star-Spangled Comics 81. The story was drawn by Win Mortimer and written by Otto Binder (his first for DC).
“Dad visits a psychiatrist who feels that a female companion would help his son. Thus, Mr. Pemberton goes to an orphanage and adopts a teenage girl named Merry, who, unbeknownst to her, is the daughter of a thug named Fly-Foot Creamer, a/k/a the Human Fly. (The Star-Spangled Kid eventually discovers this, but keeps it to himself).”
Discovering Sylvester’s secret identity, Merry Pemberton decides to join him in his crimefighting mission as the Gimmick Girl, and replaces his sidekick Stripesy when the latter breaks his leg. By Star-Spangled Comics 87, she had merrily pushed Star-Spangled Kid out of the feature.
And why not? If there’s one thing Americans have always loved, it’s gadgets.
Merry remained a backup feature to another gimmicky teenage superhero, Robin the Boy Wonder, who headlined the comic. Among her enemies were the Gimmick Guy, the Rope and the criminal stage magician Presto.
Many of her thousand gadgets were stored in a handy pouch in her red cape. They included her bulletproof glove, her putty-ball gun, her steel tape gun, her smoke projector, her midget wire recorder, her sleeve-mounted rocket firecracker and her high-speed bicycle.
“I knew someday I’d have use for this hawk call imitator,” she thinks with satisfaction as she summons birds to distract some con men.
Although the value of her crimefighting gimmicks might appear dubious, they proved sufficient to best even the vanguard of an invasion force from Mars (Star Spangled Comics 89, Feb. 1949).
Sent to Earth to test our planet’s defenses, Zu-Nark, Dak-Thun and the other Martian warriors find themselves stymied by Merry’s magnesium flares, midget fire extinguisher, wire web and mechanical boxing glove. Other effective gimmicks ranged from the mundane (a jackknife) to the natural (a hornet’s next).
Fleeing to report back to the Martian ruler, Zu-Nark stammers, “We cannot conquer Earth, sire! We examined a typical specimen and — and…”
“Yes, go on!” the ruler says. “Why are you shuddering like that?”
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