Donna Troy: Featuring in Solo

[Lee]

[Doctor Bifrost]

At least partially because no one has any idea who she is. Her origin, purpose, general backstory, and supporting cast has been changed so many times, and so arbitrarily, that it's practically impossible to start with the core of her character and extrapolate from there. Hardly any two people will agree on what the core of the character is.

Although Wonder Girl had some minor presence (as either Diana's younger self or sister, and always on Paradise Island or in its environs, never interacting with non-WW DC characters) before the Teen Titans were created, she was really made into a character to be "the girl member" of the Teen Titans. (Back in those days, almost every team had a bunch of guys and one girl. Except the original Challengers of the Unknown, who had a bunch of guys and no girl.) However, the author had no clear idea who she was (and the editor didn't fill him in).

Ultimately she was given an origin: an human, Man's-World infant rescued by Wonder Woman and brought to Paradise Island, where she is trained in the Amazon ways, and/or exposed to the Purple Ray, and/or comes by her powers through some Amazon-related means. And a name: Donna Troy. So she can be a member of the Teen Titans.

The problem is, all the other members of the Teen Titans - Robin (Dick Grayson), Kid Flash (Ginger Wally West), Aqualad (Garth), and Speedy (Roy Harper) have LONG, established, published histories of fighting crime and danger alongside their mentors. We pretty much know who they are, where they live, why they're here.

Donna Troy has none of this. Does she live with Wonder Woman? (Probably not, but then where, and with who?) Does she fight crime alongside Wonder Woman? (We've never seen it.) Does she appear regularly in Wonder Woman's comic? (No.) Compared to the other Teen Titans, she's a cipher, who only exists to fill the girl quota in the book. (I loved her anyway.)

DC never acknowledged this problem and connected Donna more thoroughly to the DCU at large, and particularly to Wonder Woman and her milieu. She never had the same kind of presence the other Teen Titans already came with.

And so, when Crisis on Infinite Earths came along, and in its aftermath Diana's chronology was changed (a big mistake, I think) , it seemed easier to someone to simply disconnect Donna from Diana - to decide that Donna had debuted as Wonder Girl five years before anyone ever heard of Wonder Woman. They had similar code names, similar powers, similar accoutrements (bracelets, lasso, etc.), even similar costumes at first - but just because; they had never met. (A cheesy time-travel explanation was implanted some years later, I think.) Donna was even further away from Wonder Woman, and the DCU as we knew it, than before.

She was a human, Man's-World girl raised and empowered by the Titans of Greek Myth (who, in the comics, were far less distinctive than the well-known Olympian deities), implanted on Earth as a teenager with fake memories. (And, by the way, those fake memories were never more than generic "I went to school at so-and-so and now I'm here." If Robin ever asked Wonder Girl, "Why did you leave home? Are you in contact with your parents, or foster parents, or whatever? Your friends from school? Where did you get your powers? How about that cool lasso?!!?!", I can't recall it. I wonder what her answers would have been.)

In many ways, although he had a very specific origin, her connection to the world was still vague to non-existent. So I guess it was easy for John Byrne to decide that, in fact, she was a supernatural mirror image of Diana, kidnapped by Dark Angel (another cipher of a character, who thought Donna was Diana), who then forced Donna through a multitude of tragic alternate lives, in one of which she had the Titans of Myth origin. Then she got to worry about who she really was and whether she had a soul - which, for a character with her vague, changing backstory, was a little on the nose. (Also, depressing.)

Then The New 52 came along. Diana was no longer sculpted from clay. (Although people thought she was, which is a mess all in itself - a poorly-chosen lie. Didn't the Amazons ever notice Hippolyta was pregnant?) This left open a space for Donna Troy to be a creature created from earth, lava, and clay by evil Amazons, made to commit evil acts. Which she did. Was this Donna a member of the original Teen Titans? How could she be?

And then Rebirth came along, and the Wonder Woman stories "The Lies" and "The Truth," which indicated that everything we saw about Wonder Woman in The New 52 was a fake, a kind of delusion and holodeck experience for Diana create by the Greek deities. So where did this leave Donna? Did she exist?

The Teen Titans stories in Rebirth said yes, and that she was an OG Teen Titan. But when Wonder Woman encountered the Teen Titans, she treated Donna coldly, then revealed that Donna was a construct created to be evil - her New 52 origin, but without the infrastructure (evil Amazons) to support it, or an explanation of what she was doing on Man's World, how she had joined the Titans, what her past interactions with Diana were, or why she didn't even know her own origin. (Also, what she mistakenly believed that origin to be).

And now that Diana is a character who started her superhero career in WW II...

So, a solo series? About what? About whom? I'm only interested in one Donna Troy solo series (at first, at least): one that gives her an origin, connects her (in a friendly, sisterly way, I would hope) to Diana and the other Amazons, explains what she's doing on Man's World, what her backstory there is (Wonder Woman sidekick? Something else?), how she joined the Teen Titans, and what her relationship to them is.

And, oh yeah, give her a better grown-up superhero name! All the other original Teen Titans graduated to adult superheroes with names that meant something in English and reflected their powers and/or their appearance: Nightwing, Flash, Tempest, Arsenal. (Although I thought Arsenal was a misstep, since all his opponents and half his friends would probably call him "Arse." And I have no idea who Ginger Wally West/Flash is going to be by this time next week.) Donna got a name that means nothing in English, says nothing about her appearance or powers, and is a sexist insult in much of Italy. Most people call her Donna Troy - but, off the top of my head, I can't think of a single successful DC costumed hero who goes publicly by a kind of standard human name.

It is possible, of course, that, with the new Wonder Woman history, we will be given a coherent, appropriate origin and backstory for Donna Troy. And a great name, too! But given DC's history with the character (and their tendency, with Donna and everything else, to say, "Yes, we're retconning/rebooting/rebranding, but we're going to stuff in as much of the varying details from different versions as we can, whether they make sense together or not - because we love our fans!"), my guess is no.

But that's just me. And I'm perfectly willing to be wrong on this.

(P.S. I still love the character. Strange, isn't it? I suspect I love the character in my mind more than most of what I see of the character in print.)

[HandofPrometheus]

A solo for Donna Troy might actually fix her character. The writer if they're dedicated would probably give her a fixed origin and actually stabilize some stuff that other writers won't bother to do. She needs the right person and Wonder Woman needs her own editors so her world can be easier to manage.

As for the sales excuse, oh please. Marvel constantly give their lower selling characters solo books. Even if its 12 issues they always release a yearly comic for them. I see the "this character has to sell" argument as bs.

[Psy-lock]

At this point the character is defined by being poorly defined. It's her trademark, the thing that makes her stand out from everyone else. So I say go totally bonkers with Donna and commit to her being an anomaly of the DC universe.

[Koriand'r]

I've long maintained that Donna Troy's origin is confusing because DC wants it to be. Somewhere along the way they decided that her background or lack thereof is part of her cachet. That explains all the "Who Is Donna Troy?" stories and why as soon as one writer "fixes" her, another writer contradicts it later. She's the character with multiple lives that's always out of step with the rest of the universe. She's Wonder Girl, she's Troia, she's Dark Angel, she's Deathbringer, she's a Darkstar, a Titan, a member of the Justice League. She's the Jean Grey of DC and she doesn't need a cheesy superhero codename.

[9th.]

It boggles my mind how confusing this character is, it's like no one cares enough to make it simple. She would greatly benefit from a new mini but I don't see that happening anytime soon,

[Digifiend]

And, oh yeah, give her a better grown-up superhero name! All the other original Teen Titans graduated to adult superheroes with names that meant something in English and reflected their powers and/or their appearance: Nightwing, Flash, Tempest, Arsenal. (Although I thought Arsenal was a misstep, since all his opponents and half his friends would probably call him "Arse." And I have no idea who Ginger Wally West/Flash is going to be by this time next week.) Donna got a name that means nothing in English, says nothing about her appearance or powers, and is a sexist insult in much of Italy. Most people call her Donna Troy - but, off the top of my head, I can't think of a single successful DC costumed hero who goes publicly by a kind of standard human name.

It is possible, of course, that, with the new Wonder Woman history, we will be given a coherent, appropriate origin and backstory for Donna Troy. And a great name, too! But given DC's history with the character (and their tendency, with Donna and everything else, to say, "Yes, we're retconning/rebooting/rebranding, but we're going to stuff in as much of the varying details from different versions as we can, whether they make sense together or not - because we love our fans!"), my guess is no.

Maybe she should just be a second Wonder Woman? There was actually a fun scene in Titans (the most recent run) about that. When she first meets Ben Rubel (a Supergirl ally who ended up becoming the team's tech support guy), Ben thinks she's Wonder Woman - she is meant to Diana's doppelganger, which makes sense since Donna only existed because someone didn't know Wonder Girl was like Superboy, a younger version of the adult hero, and not a sidekick like Robin, Kid Flash, Speedy and Aqualad. Donna doesn't correct him, and says that she is Wonder Woman!

[ExoPink]

They say Batman Family comics are always being sold. But the truth is they don't prioritize others, so Batman family is always the choice. And if there is featuring for other heroes of DC like Donna Troy, Cassie Sandsmark, and Artemis it would be like the Bat is not always the choice! That typically seems like trash talking but true.
722200A0-0331-4A72-98B1-AD83B85DA21C.jpg38B51D15-3798-48B7-BF6A-2B5114C1CF39.jpg

[titanfan]

A solo for Donna Troy might actually fix her character. The writer if they're dedicated would probably give her a fixed origin and actually stabilize some stuff that other writers won't bother to do. She needs the right person and Wonder Woman needs her own editors so her world can be easier to manage.

One of the problems is that *everyone* who writes Donna Troy always wants to "fix" her and update her origin. Then every "fix" in turns complicates her origin even further.

Honestly, no one needs to touch her origin for a long time.

[HandofPrometheus]

One of the problems is that *everyone* who writes Donna Troy always wants to "fix" her and update her origin. Then every "fix" in turns complicates her origin even further.

Honestly, no one needs to touch her origin for a long time.

Not touching something ain't gonna make her character any better. DC either has to start putting their foot down with characters and decide something. There's a reason why no one uses her and that because she's too vague. When DC finally approaches this character with a plan and an actual satisfactory one she will start getting better treatment.

Titans was smart to just stick with her first origin and the comics should just do the same. It can now work considering Diana is going to be around since WWII.

[kcekada]

I'd like to see someone update Donna a little so that she is more formidable. I mean, she has the training and the powers -- she should be a force to be reckoned with, but she's so nice -- that sometimes she just comes across as team cheerleader. I'd love a mini-series where it was more about her taking down some bad guys and showing she's not just Wonder Woman's little sister (or former teenage counterpart).

Her best origin is being Wonder Woman's little sister -- either by blood or by adoption.

[docmidnite]

The only origin that matters is the orphan who Diana rescued from a burning orphanage, and sent to Themyscara to be partially raised and trained by the Amazons after being imbued with their powers. Her and Diana are good friends who consider themselves equals and sisters through the Amazon sisterhood. Now just take it from there DC...

[Agent Z]

At this point the character is defined by being poorly defined. It's her trademark, the thing that makes her stand out from everyone else. So I say go totally bonkers with Donna and commit to her being an anomaly of the DC universe.

It hasn't made her stand out in anyway that helps her in the slightest.

[Digifiend]

The only origin that matters is the orphan who Diana rescued from a burning orphanage, and sent to Themyscara to be partially raised and trained by the Amazons after being imbued with their powers. Her and Diana are good friends who consider themselves equals and sisters through the Amazon sisterhood. Now just take it from there DC...

Exactly. Now that Wonder Woman is being established as being active in the 1940s, there's no reason not to just restore Donna's first origin.

[HandofPrometheus]

Exactly. Now that Wonder Woman is being established as being active in the 1940s, there's no reason not to just restore Donna's first origin.

Yep, her first origin can actually work now. DC if they're smart will take advantage.