Donna Troy, aka Wondergirl, aka Troia, has been gaining popularity thanks to her appearance in Titans and her role in the current Year of the Villain: Infected story arc in comics. One of the original Teen Titans back in 1964, Donna has been named #93 on IGN’s list of all time greatest comic heroes, #60 for best Female Comic Book Character from Ranker, #39 Favorite DC Superhero Ranker List, and #2 strongest Titan from Screen Rant. Being introduced to a wider viewing audience via Titans, people are curious about her, and more importantly why they haven’t heard about her before.
Unfortunately, the drama over licensing in the real world combined with the complex issues of her comic origins have prevented her from being in the lime light sooner. While largely fan speculation, there has been confirmation about some issues with the legal rights to use Donna Troy in media other than comics. Even Paul Dini, a well known TV and comic creator, has said he doesn’t understand all of it, Excerpt from http://jl.toonzone.net/wonder/wonder.htm.
Then there is the issue of her origin story. First she was just a young Wonder Woman, a friend made by a magic mirror, a sister, to an orphan Diana adopts. She then dies during Crisis on Infinite Earths and her origin had to be retconed again. George Perez and Marv Wolfman are credited with creating the Donna Troy we know today. In their comic, the New Teen Titans, we get an older Donna Troy who is the more emotionally stable of the lot and doing well for herself in her civilian form as a fashion photographer.
Then things got weird. Really weird. Donna got married, had a kid, then divorced, then her ex and child died in a car crash. Then she joined a space police force called the Dark Stars who’s goal was to replace the Green Lanterns. She was then claimed by the Green Lantern writers and was a romantic interest to GL Kyle Rayner for a while.
In the current DC universe, the writing for her has been better but her story line is getting dark again.
WARNING: SPOILERS
As a member of the original teen titans she was best friends with Wally West, who is now banished to another dimension for committing murder, Roy Harper, who was the one murdered and also her ex, and Dick Grayson who was shot in the head and now has complete amnesia. Barely given any time to grieve, she has to keep it together for her team as they try and prevent an intergalactic war.
So to say she’s under some stress is an understatement. She gets infected by Joker Venom and becomes Deathbringer, beating the snot out of Batman and Superman. Blaming them for everything that has happened to her friends, she finally “sees red” and is done playing nice with heroes who keep making fatal mistakes.
Then there is the show titans. Played by the brilliant Conor Leslie, Donna is shown being a very confident retired hero who is always there for her friends. Fans love her character and despite that she is (SPOILER) considered dead, many signs point to this being temporary (as most comic deaths are).
So I hoped you learned a little about Donna Troy and why she deserves better. Hopefully now that legal issues have been resolved we will be seeing her in more media and thus I get to see one of my favorite characters become more well known and popular.
