What To Do With Donna Troy

[WonderScott]

So which Donna is the real Donna? The "orphan fire victim" version, or the mirror clone version, or what?

I like the idea overall, it'd be a solid way to write off the current origin and replace it with something else. I feel like the actual telling of the tale might get a little wonky in a serialized format but I think as a whole it would flow smoothly enough and it'd get Donna back on familiar, comfortable ground.

I assume when you say Donna was captured for years you mean just at the point where the Finches introduced the current version of Donna, right? Has it really been that long in DC time?

I’m going with an “orphan teenager fire victim” abducted by a minion of Ceto years ago, as she was laying her plans and plotting her and her children’s escape from Tartarus. (A nod to Wonder Woman saving her from a fire, but twisted.)

While encased in the mud and muck and stone of Tartarus, teen-aged Donna aged as she normally would, becoming a reflection of the young woman that the Amazons would eventually be tricked into creating with their Amazon Instant Pot or the cauldron or whatever that birthed the simulacrum Donna - the one that contained only a small “flicker” of Donna’s soul. (Explaining that horrible Titans Annual story, IIRC, that essentially said Donna Troy was soulless.)

So, the real Donna would have been abducted years ago, aging while encased in her clay tomb, and then partially/incompletely “resurrected” with only a tiny bit of her soul (the better and easier for Ceto to influence/control) by the Amazons via Ceto’s machinations during the Finches run.

Post this adventure, Donna stays with and joins the Amazons as a normal human woman. Some stories of her adventures amongst the Amazons follow, until the fateful day another Wonder adversary attacks Themyscira and in the course of that story Donna gains her Wonder powers, strengthening the bond between her and Diana more strongly.

Glad you enjoyed it, overall. Still some details on my part to figure out, but all in all a fun creative exercise to SAVE DONNA TROY.

[Ascended]

I’m going with an “orphan teenager fire victim” abducted by a minion of Ceto years ago, as she was laying her plans and plotting her and her children’s escape from Tartarus. (A nod to Wonder Woman saving her from a fire, but twisted.)

While encased in the mud and muck and stone of Tartarus, teen-aged Donna aged as she normally would, becoming a reflection of the young woman that the Amazons would eventually be tricked into creating with their Amazon Instant Pot or the cauldron or whatever that birthed the simulacrum Donna - the one that contained only a small “flicker” of Donna’s soul. (Explaining that horrible Titans Annual story, IIRC, that essentially said Donna Troy was soulless.)

So, the real Donna would have been abducted years ago, aging while encased in her clay tomb, and then partially/incompletely “resurrected” with only a tiny bit of her soul (the better and easier for Ceto to influence/control) by the Amazons via Ceto’s machinations during the Finches run.

Post this adventure, Donna stays with and joins the Amazons as a normal human woman. Some stories of her adventures amongst the Amazons follow, until the fateful day another Wonder adversary attacks Themyscira and in the course of that story Donna gains her Wonder powers, strengthening the bond between her and Diana more strongly.

Glad you enjoyed it, overall. Still some details on my part to figure out, but all in all a fun creative exercise to SAVE DONNA TROY.

Okay, so every interaction people have had with Donna up to this point was really the monster. So would you have those memories "put" in Donna when she gets that sliver of her soul back, or would you be treating it as Donna meeting everyone for the first time? Personally, I'd think it would be a good idea to have those memories carry over, so Donna remembers everything. Seems easier and cleaner to me and you don't have to build dynamics up from ground zero again (other than a bump in the road of a brief adjustment period), nor remember which stories Donna recalls or not.

[LordUltimus]

You know, I'm not a fan of how it's currently used, but "Donna Troy, recovering alcoholic" might be an interesting character trait that could help differentiate her from Diana.

[CRaymond]

You know, I'm not a fan of how it's currently used, but "Donna Troy, recovering alcoholic" might be an interesting character trait that could help differentiate her from Diana.

I'm interested. Why alcoholic?

[LordUltimus]

I'm interested. Why alcoholic?

She's being written as someone who constantly drinks to deal with her angst in the current Titans book. I thought that dealing with that realistically could make for interesting character development.

[kcekada]

OK. I give you that Harley was a bad example. My point to referencing her is that characters are still valid regardless if they were created in the parent franchise. I disagree that Donna never had a spot in the WW mythos. She did, just not in the main WW book. True, Donna's character background can't compare to Nightwing but, how many characters can compare to a character that was created in the 40s and enjoyed popularity and continual publication since? My point wasn't that all legacy characters are equal and line up, which they don't, it's that legacy characters such as Donna have a place in the DCU. As for the accident creation, many comics creations happened by accident. Spider-Man was almost Fly Man.

I wonder if Marv Wolfman prevented the Wonder Woman writers from using Donna when Titans were DC's number one selling book in the mid 80s? Seems like Wonder Woman could have used some Wonder Girl appearances back then. After Crisis, it was a moot point -- but that was the mistake of Perez and editorial.

[CRaymond]

She's being written as someone who constantly drinks to deal with her angst in the current Titans book. I thought that dealing with that realistically could make for interesting character development.

Oh I thought it was an outright reimagining.

[Ascended]

You know, I'm not a fan of how it's currently used, but "Donna Troy, recovering alcoholic" might be an interesting character trait that could help differentiate her from Diana.

It's definitely something that could be a benefit down the road. Stuff like this normally sucks while it's happening and getting the majority of panel time because it becomes *all* the character is about, but afterwards, when its not consuming all the character's panel time, it can become an interesting trait. It's worked for Tony Stark and Carol Danvers, I don't see why it couldn't work for Donna.

[JackBNimble]

It's definitely something that could be a benefit down the road. Stuff like this normally sucks while it's happening and getting the majority of panel time because it becomes *all* the character is about, but afterwards, when its not consuming all the character's panel time, it can become an interesting trait. It's worked for Tony Stark and Carol Danvers, I don't see why it couldn't work for Donna.

For me, Donna turning to alcohol to cope doesn't work. It's so jarringly out of character. If you take into account the post-COIE events that have happened to her and if she could survive losing her son, she should be able to weather any storm.

The recent issue of Titans has her (seemingly) snapping out of this funk and stepping into a more positive leadership role. She hasn't come out to the rest of the team about her alcohol abuse, but she let them know of Roy's funeral and her pain. So perhaps there's some light coming back to her character soon.

[marhawkman]

I'd have no issue with a larger Wonder family, though I'd rather not see it as bloated as the Batcave or the Lantern Corps.

However, there's having a few more sidekicks and legacies, and then there's the mess that is Donna Troy. A larger Wonder family doesn't have to include Donna at all. And if DC can't make Donna make sense and mesh with the framework of Diana's world, then no, there's no room for Donna Troy in the Wonder family.

Honestly, there's one character not traditionally a Lantern that I wish would at least sometimes use a ring... Kara Zor-el. Her as a Red Lantern was one of the coolest things ever!

As for Donna... There's a REALLY long list of options...

[Agent Z]

I seriously doubt the WW franchise is in any danger of becoming bloated given how it discards characters.

[Fuzzy Mittens]

Rewatching the Wonder Woman tv series, I just saw how it introduced Wonder Girl and it was so simple and straight forward that im honestly kinda impressed at how easy they made it. Sure this Wonder Girl was named Drusilla, but its still impressive.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Just make her Diana's adopted little sister raised on Paradise Island who followed her to Man's World and got her history mucked with by the Gods over and over again, then move on. No good can come from further retcons.

[Ascended]

For me, Donna turning to alcohol to cope doesn't work. It's so jarringly out of character. If you take into account the post-COIE events that have happened to her and if she could survive losing her son, she should be able to weather any storm.

The recent issue of Titans has her (seemingly) snapping out of this funk and stepping into a more positive leadership role. She hasn't come out to the rest of the team about her alcohol abuse, but she let them know of Roy's funeral and her pain. So perhaps there's some light coming back to her character soon.

It definitely doesn't fit with her previous treatments, but new, different problems do come up in life. You could say that, after everything Donna has been through (like the loss of her son) something finally cracks; there's one last straw, and she finally hits her limit and that's when the drinking starts.

Then she gets her head back on straight, and "recovering alcoholic" just becomes one small aspect of her character and adds a new trait to her.

[donnafan]

Rewatching the Wonder Woman tv series, I just saw how it introduced Wonder Girl and it was so simple and straight forward that im honestly kinda impressed at how easy they made it. Sure this Wonder Girl was named Drusilla, but its still impressive.

I read somewhere that the show's producers thought Donna and Diana sounded too close so, they renamed her Drusilla. The suit Wonder Girl wears in the show is inspired by the red star jumpsuit Wonder Girl wore in the comics. Wonder Girl was also showcased in the 1960s Filmation Teen Titans shorts as part of the Aquaman cartoon. So, we did see Donna or, versions of her in the cartoon and live-action series long before the popular Teen Titans cartoon based upon the NTT cast.