What To Do With Donna Troy

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I'd have her guest star in a WW arc where you lay out their relationship/dynamic and where they currently stand with each other. Then I'd probably have her find her own niche a la what they did in Grayson preferably without faking her death. Or put her on a off-kilter team like JL Oddyssey/JL Dark.

I'm happy with all three of the above.

[Godlike13]

At this point of time, she is more of a Titans character than a member of Wonder Woman's supporting cast.

Maybe that’s part of her problem. She lacks a presence in where she came from.

Personally ive always had this idea of making Donna into the modern Amazon. Load her up on modern weapons, and give her more of a tactical look.

[Agent 86]

Reboot Donna Troy (and Wonder Woman and the entire Wonder Family). Keep it simple stupid (KISS), put an editor in charge of the Wonder Woman title and Wonder Family members to ensure that the rebooted origins, powers, relationships, etc are canonical and remain canonical, except in explicitly "Elseworld" titles.

Most importantly, explore the sisterly bonds between Diana and Donna. Why is Donna's codename Wonder Girl if she barely interacts with Diana or the Amazons of Themyscira? Donna should be as important to Diana as the Robins and Batgirls are to Batman and Supergirl and Superboy to Superman. When someone thinks of Wonder Woman, they should at least have some degree of knowledge of her "sidekick" Wonder Girl.

If they also reintroduce Cassie Sandsmark as Diana's new, junior sidekick, then they need to give Donna Troy an appropriate superhero codename and that codename, good or bad, should remain her codename going forward.

[Ascended]

Cassie is returning in the new Young Justice series by Bendis.

And I actually think "Donna Troy" is as good a superhero name as she's gonna find, honestly. I mean, it's a great name that just rolls off the tongue, and (aside from very recently I guess?) hasn't been going by a codename in ages.

How that might impact a secret identity.....well, that's the least of Donna's problems, right?

[Flash Gordon]

Troia_002.jpg

I've always dug this costume. Maybe some kind of tweaked/updated take on it?

[Fuzzy Mittens]

Its a good question though to be honest theres not much in the way of easy answers.
The plain fact is that Donna Troy was created to be a sidekick of Wonder Womans in the Teen Titans comic without ever having actually interacted with her. And she wasn't even given the name of Donna until a good seven years after she was added to the Teen Titans.

Donna is in a difficult position because she was created to be part of the former sidekick club but in reality she was a newbie just like Cyborg and Starfire. Yes there was a Wonder Girl before her, but for obvious reasons she couldn't really be considered Dianas sidekick. And even when Donna was established to be her own character she rarely interacted with Wonder Woman. By my count, Wonder Woman and Donna spoke once for a single panel in the first issue of Teen Titans. Spoke once indirectly in the issue where the Teen Titans swore to never use powers or wear costumes ever again. Briefly interacted in that one issue of Wonder Woman where Donna was kidnapped by Doctor Cyber. Then nothing until the storyline where Wonder Girl gets married.

Then its a good twelve years before the two ever interact because post crisis led to writers retconning Wonder Girl and Wonder Woman having anything to do with one another. By which point they were redoing Donnas origin again because they had given her an origin to seperate her from Diana and then tried making up a new one to make them connected again.

The problem is that Donna was created for the Titans and in all the years she has existed very little has ever actually been done with her. In theory she is tied to Wonder Woman so she didn't need a deep backstory like Starfires, Ravens, and Cyborgs. She didn't need to be given personal villains or a complex mythos because in theory she wasn't original to the Teen Titans so she could just develop outside of the book like Robin and Kid Flash. Except that since she never was in Wonder Woman and only appeared in Teen Titans she was basically regulated to lending to other characters stories.

The few stories she has had over the years was a romantic relationship with *insert titan here*, an arc in which she married the authors self insert because he had a crush on Wonder Girl and had a kid with her. An arc where she was left reeling from the fallout of her husband and kid dying. An arc where she went and became a darkstar for about a year. A brief bit where she was Wonder Woman for all of five minutes. And a brief blink and youll miss it moment where she was in the Justice League.

Also Donna is badly held back by her greatest weakness. The fact that theres nothing to make her distinct from Wonder Woman.
Dicks stands apart from Batman because hes always been dressed differently and is considered the brighter cheerier counterpart to Batman.
Kid Flash and Speedy look radically different from their counterparts.
Aqualad would go on to get a new set of powers that Aquaman did not possess.

Donna however? Appearance wise she was based on the original Wonder Girl who WAS Diana and even when she would get costumes which were radically different from Dianas it still was hard to tell them apart since they had the same face. A fact that later writers would lean into, going and just straight up making Donna a literal copy of Diana.
In terms of personality writers have trouble being consistent and will either try to make her like Diana or will focus heavily on romantic sub plots with her and push her as being the emotional one of the group whose personality trait is being the one other characters can bounce off of in order to develop their own characters.
In terms of powers she not only has all the exact same abilities as Wonder Woman but she fights exactly like her. Wonder Woman has a lasso and bracelets? So does Donna! Diana stops using the lasso? So does Donna! Wonder Woman starts using a sword and shield? Watch out, Donna now has an identical sword and shield! https://comicnewbies.files.wordpress...-rebirth-2.jpg

Writers are in love with the idea of just making Donna a cheap clone of Wonder Womans to the point that they hesitate to do anything with Donna that would allow her to stand on her own. Sure there have been some attempts. That stint where she was a member of the Dark Stars and had a power suit which basically made her a spacecop with Starfire powers http://images6.fanpop.com/image/phot...6-1172-595.png
Or Finch's effort to make her a golem with regeneration powers, the power to see the past/present/future of anyone she meets and a magical pegasus as her steed.
But such attempts are quickly discarded in order to make her more generic creating the true problem for Donna.

When you have someone who is exactly like Wonder Woman and has all the same abilities, physical appearance, and personality as Wonder Woman, why wouldn't you just use Wonder Woman? What benefit is there in using Donna Troy when theres nothing that makes her stand apart?

Artemis, and Cassie have the benifit of looking completly different and having personalities that stand apart from Diana. Plus they all more or less fight completly differently from Diana. This translates to writers benifiting from using them in situations that they wouldn't necesarily use Wonder Woman in.

So thats a major hurdle that needs to be cleared first.

[failo.legendkiller]

When you have someone who is exactly like Wonder Woman and has all the same abilities, physical appearance, and personality as Wonder Woman, why wouldn't you just use Wonder Woman? What benefit is there in using Donna Troy when theres nothing that makes her stand apart?

Artemis, and Cassie have the benifit of looking completly different and having personalities that stand apart from Diana. Plus they all more or less fight completly differently from Diana. This translates to writers benifiting from using them in situations that they wouldn't necesarily use Wonder Woman in.

So thats a major hurdle that needs to be cleared first.

I've never tohught of Donna as a Diana's copy.
I love Donna, her sweetness, she's always there for everyone and is the best friend you could have in the world. She's the core of Titans.
I can't feel the same about Diana, never been able to connect with her. She's a warrior, strong woman and a leader.

What you're saying could probably apply since N52 started, Donna lost all his former personal traits, she's a lighter WW without history and personality.
I've dropped Titans when they recast the team, don't think something's changed about her.

[Agent Z]

Its a good question though to be honest theres not much in the way of easy answers.
The plain fact is that Donna Troy was created to be a sidekick of Wonder Womans in the Teen Titans comic without ever having actually interacted with her. And she wasn't even given the name of Donna until a good seven years after she was added to the Teen Titans.

Donna is in a difficult position because she was created to be part of the former sidekick club but in reality she was a newbie just like Cyborg and Starfire. Yes there was a Wonder Girl before her, but for obvious reasons she couldn't really be considered Dianas sidekick. And even when Donna was established to be her own character she rarely interacted with Wonder Woman. By my count, Wonder Woman and Donna spoke once for a single panel in the first issue of Teen Titans. Spoke once indirectly in the issue where the Teen Titans swore to never use powers or wear costumes ever again. Briefly interacted in that one issue of Wonder Woman where Donna was kidnapped by Doctor Cyber. Then nothing until the storyline where Wonder Girl gets married.

Then its a good twelve years before the two ever interact because post crisis led to writers retconning Wonder Girl and Wonder Woman having anything to do with one another. By which point they were redoing Donnas origin again because they had given her an origin to seperate her from Diana and then tried making up a new one to make them connected again.

The problem is that Donna was created for the Titans and in all the years she has existed very little has ever actually been done with her. In theory she is tied to Wonder Woman so she didn't need a deep backstory like Starfires, Ravens, and Cyborgs. She didn't need to be given personal villains or a complex mythos because in theory she wasn't original to the Teen Titans so she could just develop outside of the book like Robin and Kid Flash. Except that since she never was in Wonder Woman and only appeared in Teen Titans she was basically regulated to lending to other characters stories.

The few stories she has had over the years was a romantic relationship with *insert titan here*, an arc in which she married the authors self insert because he had a crush on Wonder Girl and had a kid with her. An arc where she was left reeling from the fallout of her husband and kid dying. An arc where she went and became a darkstar for about a year. A brief bit where she was Wonder Woman for all of five minutes. And a brief blink and youll miss it moment where she was in the Justice League.

Also Donna is badly held back by her greatest weakness. The fact that theres nothing to make her distinct from Wonder Woman.
Dicks stands apart from Batman because hes always been dressed differently and is considered the brighter cheerier counterpart to Batman.
Kid Flash and Speedy look radically different from their counterparts.
Aqualad would go on to get a new set of powers that Aquaman did not possess.

Donna however? Appearance wise she was based on the original Wonder Girl who WAS Diana and even when she would get costumes which were radically different from Dianas it still was hard to tell them apart since they had the same face. A fact that later writers would lean into, going and just straight up making Donna a literal copy of Diana.
In terms of personality writers have trouble being consistent and will either try to make her like Diana or will focus heavily on romantic sub plots with her and push her as being the emotional one of the group whose personality trait is being the one other characters can bounce off of in order to develop their own characters.
In terms of powers she not only has all the exact same abilities as Wonder Woman but she fights exactly like her. Wonder Woman has a lasso and bracelets? So does Donna! Diana stops using the lasso? So does Donna! Wonder Woman starts using a sword and shield? Watch out, Donna now has an identical sword and shield! https://comicnewbies.files.wordpress...-rebirth-2.jpg

Writers are in love with the idea of just making Donna a cheap clone of Wonder Womans to the point that they hesitate to do anything with Donna that would allow her to stand on her own. Sure there have been some attempts. That stint where she was a member of the Dark Stars and had a power suit which basically made her a spacecop with Starfire powers http://images6.fanpop.com/image/phot...6-1172-595.png
Or Finch's effort to make her a golem with regeneration powers, the power to see the past/present/future of anyone she meets and a magical pegasus as her steed.
But such attempts are quickly discarded in order to make her more generic creating the true problem for Donna.

When you have someone who is exactly like Wonder Woman and has all the same abilities, physical appearance, and personality as Wonder Woman, why wouldn't you just use Wonder Woman? What benefit is there in using Donna Troy when theres nothing that makes her stand apart?

Artemis, and Cassie have the benifit of looking completly different and having personalities that stand apart from Diana. Plus they all more or less fight completly differently from Diana. This translates to writers benifiting from using them in situations that they wouldn't necesarily use Wonder Woman in.

So thats a major hurdle that needs to be cleared first.

Artemis I'll give you, but Cassie fights very much like Diana right down to having a lasso.



As for weapons, this fan art has Donna using a staff so that's an idea they could go with.

[Konja7]

I didn't know Donna was created for Teen Titans.

Artemis I'll give you, but Cassie fights very much like Diana right down to having a lasso.

At least, Cassie is blonde and she is Wonder Girl. That makes her easier to use than Donna.

In fact, if Donna was Wonder Girl, it would be easier to use her, even if she's equal to Diana, since she will interact with other young heroes.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

Honestly she needs a new role because she can't go back to being Wonder Girl and she'll never be WW again. She's gotta find her own path like what Dick is trying to do as Nightwing/Grayson.

Its not a unique problem as most legacies will go through it. Especially because the New 52 put them in a weird place.

[richalex]

Maybe that’s part of her problem. She lacks a presence in where she came from.

Personally ive always had this idea of making Donna into the modern Amazon. Load her up on modern weapons, and give her more of a tactical look.

I actually like this. I've toyed with the idea in my head that it makes more sense that Donna might have the name Arsenal than Roy. Her body should be a weapon, since she is Amazon, but have the loving sweet personality that we know that is Donna. Anything she picks up in her hands should be deadly, because that would be how Amazons train anyway.

[Nyssane]

Because Donna rarely appears in the Wonder Woman series and is instead rooted in Titans (which I don't read), I've never had a very good feel for her.

What is her personality anyway?

[CRaymond]

What is her personality anyway?

Donna's an INFJ to Diana's ENFJ.

It's a weak distinction, but it's the only one they have.

[wonder39]

I didn't know Donna was created for Teen Titans. .

well by accident. The Titans writers saw a Wonder Girl character and added her to the roster-- not realizing that at that time that "Wonder Girl" was a teen Wonder Woman, not WW's sidekick (like Robin).... So Marv Wolfman had to come up with a simple basic name and story for her back then. The adopted sister bit. And then expanded upon that greatly a decade later in "Who is Donna Troy?" in NTT

[Konja7]

well by accident. The Titans writers saw a Wonder Girl character and added her to the roster-- not realizing that at that time that "Wonder Girl" was a teen Wonder Woman, not WW's sidekick (like Robin).... So Marv Wolfman had to come up with a simple basic name and story for her back then. The adopted sister bit. And then expanded upon that greatly a decade later in "Who is Donna Troy?" in NTT

Thank you very much for the answer.