Donna Troy Appreciation 2022

[Fuzzy Mittens]

The thing that needs to be understood is that Donna has never been considered a part of the Wonderverse on an editorial level. She was created to be a Teen Titan, editorial places her under the Teen Titans umbrella, and since Wonder Woman has never shared an editorial office with Teen Titans, any time Donna is used in the main title requires getting special permission from a seperate branch of editorial and running the entire script by them for approval on every little thing.

This is unlike Yara and Nubia who created in Wonder Womans own book, have not been grabbed up by a different branch of editorial, thus creatives are allowed to use them without playing a game of telephone with multiple editorial offices.

[Mel Dyer]

The thing that needs to be understood is that Donna has never been considered a part of the Wonderverse on an editorial level. She was created to be a Teen Titan, editorial places her under the Teen Titans umbrella, and since Wonder Woman has never shared an editorial office with Teen Titans, any time Donna is used in the main title requires getting special permission from a seperate branch of editorial and running the entire script by them for approval on every little thing.

This is unlike Yara and Nubia who created in Wonder Womans own book, have not been grabbed up by a different branch of editorial, thus creatives are allowed to use them without playing a game of telephone with multiple editorial offices.

I've understood it to be uglier, than that, Fuzzy.

Before present WW editor Brittany Holzherr took the helm, editorial for Titans AND WW was run out of the Superman comics offices. Except for limiting what WW writers could do - especially with introducing new characters, starting complex subplots and backstories, requiring continuity-editing. Did they think bringing Donna into WW stories, creating new developments with Donna's continuity to be kept up with in Titans comics, was making more work for themselves? Whatever their motivations were, we all know, from writers' interviews, that WW just wasn't getting the attention, that the Superman, Titans and Batman comics were. Whatever their motivations were, we all know, from writers' interviews, that incoming WW writers were prohibited from using elements from previous runs and told to start, from scratch.

I do not have ALL of the facts, here, but, it looks to me like, prior to Holzherr signing on, ..DC editors just didn't want to be bothered with keeping up with a Wonderverse.

I think all of us want more Wonder Woman family cameos, team-ups and the like, creating the impression that WW plays on a big stage, with a world of diverse and colorful recurring characters. Seeing the Wonders in action creates an expectation, among readers, that there's a WW family frequently dropping by and the promise of seeing favorite characters! Writers' interest in including Donna in WW stories can grow out of this, the same way today's Bat-writers likely can't imagine leaving all of the Robin, Batgirl and Batman variants on the sidelines.

[Phoenixx9]

The cameo pics above looks so great together!

[WonderScott]

Hmm so if you were going to use Deva how would she fit in?

I’ll have to think about that marhawkman… Honestly, I think I might not use her at all. For two reasons:

1. Donna’s Titan origin isn’t my preferred origin for the character.

2. I think Devastation needs to remain a primary foe of Wonder Woman.

I’m of the mindset that Donna, Cassie, Yara, etc. need some of their own primary adversaries created and not get them transferred over from Diana. It’s somewhat how Silver Banshee and Maxima were used in Supergirl stories and less so in Superman stories, depriving him of two villanesses, when he desperately needs more villainesses.

It’s not that I don’t want to see Donna encounter and interact with Devastation or Cheetah or Circe or Doctor Psycho from time to time, but I’d rather see some animosity get going with characters primarily against Donna. Some characters that can really be a foil to what Donna’s all about.

[marhawkman]

The thing that needs to be understood is that Donna has never been considered a part of the Wonderverse on an editorial level. She was created to be a Teen Titan, editorial places her under the Teen Titans umbrella, and since Wonder Woman has never shared an editorial office with Teen Titans, any time Donna is used in the main title requires getting special permission from a separate branch of editorial and running the entire script by them for approval on every little thing.

This is unlike Yara and Nubia who created in Wonder Womans own book, have not been grabbed up by a different branch of editorial, thus creatives are allowed to use them without playing a game of telephone with multiple editorial offices.

Simple, use the Titans of Myth more. It's one of the things that both Donna and Diana have in common now. Also... the act of having a person who's an actual Titan on a team called "Teen Titans" hmm... sooo much symbolic stuff you could play with there.

[Phoenixx9]

Donna needs some more enemies that are all hers.

[marhawkman]

I’ll have to think about that marhawkman… Honestly, I think I might not use her at all. For two reasons:

1. Donna’s Titan origin isn’t my preferred origin for the character.

2. I think Devastation needs to remain a primary foe of Wonder Woman.

I’m of the mindset that Donna, Cassie, Yara, etc. need some of their own primary adversaries created and not get them transferred over from Diana. It’s somewhat how Silver Banshee and Maxima were used in Supergirl stories and less so in Superman stories, depriving him of two villanesses, when he desperately needs more villainesses.

It’s not that I don’t want to see Donna encounter and interact with Devastation or Cheetah or Circe or Doctor Psycho from time to time, but I’d rather see some animosity get going with characters primarily against Donna. Some characters that can really be a foil to what Donna’s all about.

Hmm yeah, my #1 reason I would put them together is the Titans of Myth connection. But if Donna isn't a Titan, then there's no point. The #1 thing I liked is the idea that Deva might actually see Donna as family in a way that makes her want to actually hang out with her. But..... again... if Donna's NOT a Titan... meh.

[Harpsikord]

Donna needs some more enemies that are all hers.

Agreed. And it isn't like she hasn't got some built in with all the origins - even if you just consolidate them, Sparta is right there.

If I had to give Donna some of Diana's enemies it would probably be Silver Swan. The Vanessa Kapatelis version of the character has some legit reasons to want to hate her, given that Vanessa was written as Diana's surrogate sister... and Donna is her real sister. Make her a more sympathetic villain like what Rucka has done with the Cheetah and she'd make a really good foil for Donna.

Otherwise, you can make use of Jinx, Shimmer, Mammoth, and other Titans villains.

[Digifiend]

The Wonder office keeps saying that they want to use Donna in the main title but they haven't done that yet, and besides that they seem to be overall disinterested in using Donna, Cassie, and to a significantly smaller extent Artemis. It's all about Nubia, Diana, and Yara in that order.

Donna deserves to be the more relatable, more street level Wonder Woman. I love what's going on in Diana's solo that has her working with Steve, Etta, and their organization but she's dealing with the gods, Villainy Inc, and etc - so why not let Donna be more on the ground level? That's not to say she can't and shouldn't deal with strong enemies because she's plenty capable but she should be more of a millennial Wonder Woman with a typical job (photographer, photo journalist, photographic investigator, stuff like that) with flaws. Maybe not as explosive or flawed as Yara is often perceived as, but the middle ground between Yara and Diana.

Donna's codenameless, and there's honestly no reason she can't just be a second Wonder Woman. Ignoring the Chinese ones, there's still two Batmen (Bruce and Jace), two Supermen (Clark and Jon), three Flashes (Jay, Barry, Wally), eight human Green Lanterns, two Aquamen (Arthur and Jackson), two Robins (Tim and Damian), three Batgirls, and two Wonder Girls (Cassie and Yara). So no reason not to have another Wonder Woman alongside Diana. They'd be easily distinguished by their costumes (Donna could keep wearing pants, and not have a tiara).

The thing that needs to be understood is that Donna has never been considered a part of the Wonderverse on an editorial level. She was created to be a Teen Titan, editorial places her under the Teen Titans umbrella, and since Wonder Woman has never shared an editorial office with Teen Titans, any time Donna is used in the main title requires getting special permission from a seperate branch of editorial and running the entire script by them for approval on every little thing.

This is unlike Yara and Nubia who created in Wonder Womans own book, have not been grabbed up by a different branch of editorial, thus creatives are allowed to use them without playing a game of telephone with multiple editorial offices.

Cassie was created in Wonder Woman as well.

Of course the Titans writer didn't even create Wonder Girl on purpose. WG was a pre-existing character, a younger version of Wonder Woman - like Superboy was before Conner's debut. The Titans writer mistook her for a sidekick (like all the other original Teen Titans were), resulting in a new secret identity, Donna Troy, having to be retconned in later. That's why she's a Titans character first and foremost. She exists by accident. It's also responsible for the origin headache, they rebooted Wonder Woman after Crisis without caring that it would affect Donna - Teen Titans wasn't rebooted and Donna was now Diana's senior, which obviously didn't make sense.

[Harpsikord]

Donna's codenameless, and there's honestly no reason she can't just be a second Wonder Woman. Ignoring the Chinese ones, there's still two Batmen (Bruce and Jace), two Supermen (Clark and Jon), three Flashes (Jay, Barry, Wally), eight human Green Lanterns, two Aquamen (Arthur and Jackson), two Robins (Tim and Damian), three Batgirls, and two Wonder Girls (Cassie and Yara). So no reason not to have another Wonder Woman alongside Diana. They'd be easily distinguished by their costumes (Donna could keep wearing pants, and not have a tiara).

That's kind of quietly what Donna has been since Abnett's run on Titans and they should just keep up with it. Even over at Marvel there are multiple Captain America's, multiple Spider-Men, and multiple Wolverine's - they could easily get away with launching a Donna Troy: Wonder Woman book if they were willing to but it's been a long time since I've felt like DC actually cared about Donna.

[WonderScott]

Hmm yeah, my #1 reason I would put them together is the Titans of Myth connection. But if Donna isn't a Titan, then there's no point. The #1 thing I liked is the idea that Deva might actually see Donna as family in a way that makes her want to actually hang out with her. But..... again... if Donna's NOT a Titan... meh.

I get it. If the Titan origin remains, I’ve got some thinking to do about her and Deva. Not that we’ve seen Deva anytime recently.

[WonderScott]

Donna needs some more enemies that are all hers.

I absolutely agree. That could be said of many!of the Titans too. At least Dick got a set of them when he moved to Bludhaven.

[WonderScott]

Oops! I forgot Dark Angel in my list of villains to keep for Donna.

She plays a significant role in my thoughts on Donna and it’s not about Dark Angel being an evil Donna from another universe.

[Phoenixx9]

I absolutely agree. That could be said of many!of the Titans too. At least Dick got a set of them when he moved to Bludhaven.

And not all of Donna's foes should have super-strength, but varied abilities, some that may even test Donna's powers to their limit.

[WonderScott]

And not all of Donna's foes should have super-strength, but varied abilities, some that may even test Donna's powers to their limit.

And the villains should be things that resonate with Donna’s character and world on some level. That requires working on a more fully-realized character for Donna and giving her a world of her own that can blend, in ways, with the broader Wonder world.