RINA SMITH

Real Name: Rina Smith

Identity/Class: Human spirit (World War I era to modern era)

Occupation: Former barmaid

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Father Reese, unidentified hero (see comments);
    formerly Charlie

Enemies: Charlie

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: St. Matthew's Church graveyard, New York City, New York, USA

First Appearance: Marvel Super Heroes Official Game Adventure: New York, New York (1985)

Powers/Abilities: Rina is a ghost, bound to wander the graveyard where she was buried. She isn't able to communicate with the living but she could, with effort, appear to certain people though she often vanished if seen by the living.

Height: Unrevealed (see comments)
Weight: Unrevealed (see comments)
Eyes: Unrevealed (see comments)
Hair: Unrevealed (see comments)

History: (Marvel Super Heroes Official Game Adventure: New York, New York (fb) - BTS) - Rina Smith was born in 1902. Much of her life was unrecorded but by 1925, Rina, sporting curly, bobbed hair, was living in New York City and working as a barmaid at the 3 Deuces Bar despite being a devout churchgoer. She was dating a man named Charlie but she eventually grew weary of Charlie's criminal habits and secretly made records of his crimes. She later hid the evidence of Charlie's crimes in a strongbox in the St. Matthew's Church graveyard and eventually left Charlie. Subsequently receiving a letter from Charlie begging her not to leave him, Rina also hid Charlie's letter with the evidence. Confronting him near a bridge, Rina was thrown off the bridge by Charlie and her death ruled a suicide by police, who suspected Rina killed herself when Charlie supposedly began seeing another woman.

(Marvel Super Heroes Official Game Adventure: New York, New York - BTS) - Decades after that, Rina, now a ghostly apparition, would appear in the St. Matthew's Church graveyard, hovering around her gravestone. The elderly Father Reese remembered Rina and refused to believe her death was a suicide due to her devout religious views. Having encountered Rina's spirit himself, Reese began to suspect that Rina's restless spirit had remained on Earth due to her death being ruled a suicide. Later, an unidentified hero would spot Rina's spirit at night and investigate her appearance. While Rina vanished as soon as the hero approached, the hero sought out information elsewhere (see comments).

Comments: Created by Kate Novak, Jeff Grubb, Dennis Kauth and the Mighty Marvel Bullpen (see Appearances list for list of artists involved).

Given this is a story from a role-playing game, what heroes Rina dealt with is up to the players (though an image of Captain America is seen next to the story in the Game Adventure...). She encounters the hero at night regardless. The references to the case being 60 years old should be considered topical (though Rina's life could still be from 1902-1925 and firmly set during those dates. It would just be her encounter with a hero in the modern era that would slide with Marvel's sliding time scale. --Proto-Man)

It is the player's choice of how the hero can go about investigating the case. The player can follow Rina's spirit (who would eventually point out the spot where she buried the evidence against Charlie & the letter from a jilted Charlie that proved Rina had left him, disproving the police suspicions that she had committed suicide after Charlie began seeing another woman) or investigate via interviewing the still-in-business 3 Deuces Bar's regulars (where the hero would learn about Charlie's gangland ties) or the police (where the hero would find the old police reports about Rina's death). The player could also lose karma points if you annoy the police too much while investigating Rina's death.

Yes, Charlie would be bumped off by none other than Silvermane (Silvio Manfredi).
Actually, the Official Game Adventure only mentions that Charlie was killed and Silvermane subsequently took over Charlie's gang. While it's a possibility Silvermane did the actual killing, there is no confirmation of that and Charlie could've just as easily been killed off by someone else and Silvermane merely took advantage of the power vacuum to take over Charlie's former gang. --Proto-Man

Rina Smith's physical height, weight, eyes & hair are all unrevealed, as she was never seen on-panel. The only thing we know about any of these is that she had a curly, bobbed hairstyle. --Proto-Man

For what it's worth, Rina Smith is an interesting character and I'd love to see a story that followed up on her. Perhaps a flashback with a certain hero who could've been the one she encountered will take all of the possible directions listed in the Game Adventure and combine them into one cohesive story. For example, since Captain America is the hero shown next to the story text in the Game Adventure, perhaps Captain America was the hero who saw Rina Smith's ghost at St. Matthew's Church at night and upon approaching, she vanished (just like the story occurred) but then, while investigating the ghost, Cap visits the police station and acquires the old police report, learning of the report of suicide. After annoying the police, he then returns to the graveyard in hopes of seeing Smith again, only to see Father Reese at the grave. Questioning Reese, Cap then learns of Reese's suspicions that Smith's spirit was restless due to the suicide report, etc. Knowing from the police report that Rina was a barmaid at the 3 Deuces Bar and that she had apparently been dating Charlie, Cap could then visit the 3 Deuces Bar, where he learns of Charlie's criminal activities. Curious, Cap could then return again to Rina's grave, where he sees Rina once more and follows her spirit to where she buried the evidence. Unearthing the evidence, Cap then turns it in to the police, proving that Rina had not committed suicide, allowing Rina's spirit to finally rest. Seems like a great story for an issue of Marvel Fanfare to me! --Proto-Man

Profile by David Lawrence.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Rina Smith should be distinguished from:

Charlie
Charlie was Rina's boyfriend. He ran with a criminal gang and when Rina became weary of his criminal nature, she began keeping evidence against Charlie. Eventually, the devoutly religious Rina dumped Charlie and he grew concerned that she knew too much about his criminal business. He wrote a letter begging Rina not to leave him and soon met her on a bridge, where he killed her. With no evidence of Charlie's direct involvement, Rina's death was reported as a suicide and one year later, Charlie was murdered, his gang subsequently taken over by rising gangster Silvio Manfredi (Silvermane).
--Marvel Super Heroes Official Game Adventure: New York, New York (fb) - BTS

Father Reese

An elderly priest at St. Matthew's Church, Father Reese remembered Rina Smith when she was alive and often saw her spirit at night. He figured Rina Smith's spirit was restless due to her death being ruled a suicide but he knew police would not waste time on such an old case.

--Marvel Super Heroes Official Game Adventure: New York, New York - BTS

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Appearances:
Marvel Super Heroes Official Game Adventure: New York, New York (1985) - Kate Novak, Jeff Grubb (designers), Dennis Kauth (layouts), Jeff Butler, the Mighty Marvel Bullpen (Bret Blevins, Kerry Gammill, Butch Guice, Walt Simonson, John Romita Sr., Frank Miller, Jim Shooter, Luke McDonnell, Brian Postman, Mike Zeck, Bob Layton, John Byrne, June Brigman, Bob Wiacek) (interior art), Barbara Deer (editor)

First posted: 02/09/2022
Last updated: 02/09/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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