P'Gell
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| The Spirit |
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| Cover of newspaper comic-book insert "The Spirit Section", Oct. 6, 1946, art by Will Eisner | ||||||||||||||||||
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P'Gell is a fictional comic book character created by Will Eisner, who first appeared in Eisner's series, The Spirit, in 1947. She was one of the first femme fatales in comics,[citation needed] who perennially tries to seduce the eponymous character, Denny Colt, The Spirit, to a life of crime at her side. Her name is a reference to the Quartier Pigalle area of Paris.
[edit] Golden Age biography
Feminine as well as smart, P'Gell managed to seduce and marry a wealthy Nazi officer, Hans Dammit, and after escaping with him to Turkey, she had him killed for the reward, and, summing up all her newfound richness, she managed to build a crime empire, using marriages and homicides as a way to keep her wealth and expand her influence and control over the underworld, the rich and nobles.
After The Spirit foiled her first attempt to gain everlasting life by seducing the holder of a secret immortality formula, P'Gell managed to transfer her operation center from Istanbul to Central City, Spirit's center of operations, clashing again and again with the hero. Although her continuing attempts to seduce him, and gain the former detective as an ally and partner were always unsuccessful, a strong bond was shared by the two rivals, becoming friends and enemies at the same time.
In Central City, she quickly resumed her modus operandi of selected marriages with the creme of society, even gaining an ally in the form of Saree, the young daughter of one of her deceased husbands. She even took the cover job of headmistress of an exclusive all-girls school, before returning to open villainy.
[edit] 2007 revival
P'Gell returned as a character very similar to her previous incarnation in the second issue of the Spirit reboot of 2007, when she was shown attempting to seduce a Middle-Eastern prince, Prince Farouk of the fictional state of Karifisian.
Apparently reviving in this new telling of the story, the weird friendship between the crimefighter and the criminal "black widow" appeared when Denny Colt showed in disguise at Prince Farouk's party, warning P'Gell about the risks of dating, and marrying, an ill-tempered abusive dictator like Farouk. P'Gell apparently disregards his advice, branding it an act of jealousy, and goes on with her plan.
Still puzzled about her choice, Denny talks with his girlfriend Ellen about P'Gell previous four marriages, only to discover that Ellen herself had already done a search on the Internet, discovering a fifth "secret" husband, the first one, clearly not killed by P'Gell herself.
Her last marriage was an excuse to get close to Farouk and kill him. P'Gell told the Spirit of her "secret origins": a wealthy socialite already, she went on a trip around the world after her college graduation, where she met and fell in love with, James Moussad, a wealthy young doctor who decided to live his life helping the outcast. When Farouk killed him during a tribal war, a heartbroken P'Gell swore revenge on him, and began using her body as a device to amass wealth and power, until the day she could have her vengeance.
The Spirit then offered the opportunity of surrendering to the authorities, hoping for a suspended sentence, but she refused, fleeing again.
[edit] Name
Creator Will Eisner always insisted her name was pronounced Pee-Gel, with a hard 'g'. In the 1987 television movie, however, her name was pronounced Pee-jell, with a soft 'g'.
