Rima, AKA Rima the Jungle Girl, is a fictional character, a heroine of Victorian literature who was adapted as a superhero in the short-lived comic book series Rima the Jungle Girl published by DC Comics in 1974-75.
Though Rima herself is an all-but-forgotten superhero character, the 7-issue run of her monthly series is of historical significance, at least within the world of comics fandom, in part because it features truly exquisite (and rarely-glimpsed) interior artwork by the great Filipino illustrator Nestor Redondo and stunning covers by comics legend Joe Kubert. Rima the Jungle Girl is also noteworthy as one of DC's first major publishing efforts to feature a woman hero (other than Wonder Woman) as the titular star of her own book. The popular Ecology movement of the early 1970s also made her timely. Stories were written by Robert Kanigher, who used many themes common to his Wonder Woman run, in that Rima passively interfered with predatory hunters and natives rather than engaged in outright battles.
Like her cousins Tarzan and Mowgli, Rima sprang from a Victorian adventure novel. Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest was 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.
Rima, like other jungle girls, is always scantily-clad and barefoot. Although the DC character is a fully-grown and powerful woman with white 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.
Rima the DC heroine also made several appearances on the popular Saturday morning cartoon The All-New Super Friends Hour in 1977-78.
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: Rima was a mysterious girl who lived on her parents' plantation!
London's Kensington Garden has a statue of Rima the Bird Girl sculpted by Jacob Epstein.× Rima is also featured in the Veldt written by ray bradbury