Donna Troy
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| Donna Troy | |
 Donna Troy |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | The Brave and the Bold Vol. 1 #60 (1965) |
| Created by | Bob Haney Bruno Premiani |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Donna Hinckley Stacey Troy |
| Team affiliations | Titans of Myth Teen Titans Darkstars |
| Notable aliases | Wonder Girl, Darkstar, Wonder Woman, Troia |
| Abilities | Flight; super-strength; super-speed; highly developed fighting skills; ability to flawlessly imitate the voice of anyone she knows; innate ability to decipher truth; empathy with sister Diana. |
Donna Troy is a fictional character, a superheroine in the DC Universe. As Wonder Girl, she was one of the founding members of the Teen Titans. Over the years, her origin story has been changed several times, and she has battled evil under various different identities. Her ability to remember the different versions of herself has established her as a living link to the DC Multiverse. She served as Wonder Woman during the year-long absence of her sister Diana following Infinite Crisis.
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[edit] Publication history
As a character in her own right, she made her first appearance in The Brave and the Bold #60 (July 1965), and was portrayed as a member of a junior Justice League consisting of Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad, joining together as had their mentors (respectively, Batman, The Flash, and Aquaman). Together, they were known as the Teen Titans.
[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Origins
The relationship between this Wonder Girl and the younger version of Wonder Woman was not fully explained at the time, her inclusion in the Teen Titans was attributed to a mistake, the writer didn't know that Wonder Girl was merely a younger Diana, akin to Superboy. The mystery of Wonder Girl's background would linger in the series until finally resolved in the 1980s.
It was revealed, four years after her introduction, that Wonder Girl had been orphaned by a fire which killed her parents. Saved by Wonder Woman, she had been taken to Paradise Island, where she was given Amazon powers by the mysterious Purple Ray. She later took the alias of Donna Troy and remained on Earth (it is interesting to note that, before she made the decision to take the name "Donna Troy" after becoming a member of the Teen Titans, she apparently had no name other than "Wonder Girl"). These revelations were published in Teen Titans #22 (July-August 1969).
Since the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Donna Troy's origin has been rewritten several times. The first rewrite came about when it was noticed that, in post-Crisis continuity, she had made her heroic debut before Wonder Woman. Her history was changed so that she had now been saved by the Titans of Myth, who also granted her powers. Donna was one of twelve children who were either orphans or had otherwise been cast off by their respective societies and brought together by Rhea in order to be reared as their eventual saviors. The children lived among the Titans of Myth on the ancient moon of New Cronus for years and were given superhuman powers, trained as warriors, and educated in various arts and sciences. Each one was also named after a city in ancient Greece. At the age of 13, each of the children were sent back to their respective worlds to live as normal beings in order to teach them humility and given false memories by the Titan of Memory, Mnemosyne.
[edit] Titans of Myth
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However, this mental conditioning failed in one of the seeds, namely Sparta of Synriannaq. She alone remembered her time on New Cronus, and the knowledge eventually drove her mad. She conquered her home planet of Synriannaq and hunted down and destroyed the other Titan Seeds, adding their power to her own, until only herself and three others remained: Donna, Athyns of Karakkan, and Xanthi of Ozyron. Phoebe, the Titan of the Moon, sought out Donna and saved her from Sparta's agents on Earth when they attacked Titans Tower. However, because of Sparta's acquisitions of the other Seed's powers, she and the other Titans of Myth were now severely aged and weakened. Although Phoebe did regain, at least in appearance, some of her power and agelessness while in Donna's presence, it was not enough to sustain her life and she died shortly after, but not before giving Donna and the Titans the means to reach New Cronus.
After clashing with Sparta several times, Xanthi was slain saving Athyns' life and in the final conflict, Donna and Athyns succeeded in restoring the stolen power of the other Seeds to the Titans of Myth, leaving Sparta a mindless husk of her former self. In the aftermath and to honor Xanthi's memory, Athyns traveled to Ozyron to serve its citizens and, though he offered to take Sparta with him, the Titans of Myth took her with them, saying she was their responsibility, and she would remain in their care. Donna received special gifts from the restored Titans of Myth and fashioned a new costume from each of them, permanently adopting the new name of Troia.
[edit] Lord Chaos
Prior to discovering her origins, Donna got married to divorced college professor Terry Long and after meeting the Titans of Myth later found out she was pregnant. A group calling themselves the Team Titans appeared, wanting to kill her. They came from a future where her son was born with the full powers of a god and full awareness of them, which drove him mad. He instantly aged himself, killed his mother and became a dictator known as Lord Chaos. The Team Titans traveled back to the past to kill her before he was born. Donna eventually gave birth to her son, Robert. However, to prevent this future from happening, Donna sacrificed her powers and became a normal human.
Eventually, she rethought her decision and asked the Titans of Myth to grant her powers again, but was rejected. She then joined the Darkstars. During the Zero Hour crisis, her farm in New Jersey was destroyed and all the Team Titans (whom she had taken into her home) were wiped out of existence except for Terra and Mirage, who were revealed to have been from the 20th century and not from the future. Worse still, her marriage fell apart and her now ex-husband was granted sole custody of their young son.
Donna rejoined the Titans for a time, with her Darkstar suit giving her the ability to aid them. She dated Green Lantern Kyle Rayner for a while, but they broke up immediately following the death of her son and ex-husband in a tragic car accident. Just prior to her break up with Kyle, Donna had retired from the Darkstars, leaving her powerless once more.
[edit] Magical duplicate
Her post-Crisis origin was updated in the late 1990s. This version had it that she was originally created by the Amazon sorceress Magala as a magical duplicate of the young Princess Diana of Themyscira (a nod to the original Wonder Girl) to be a playmate for Diana, who was previously the only child on the island. However, Donna was soon kidnapped by the Dark Angel (a World War II villainess and sworn enemy of Queen Hippolyta, Diana's mother), who thought the girl was Diana.
Dark Angel cursed Donna to live endless variants of a life characterized by suffering, with her life being restarted and erased from the world's memory when Donna was at her lowest. Even Donna would forget her past lives until the moment at which Dark Angel would arrive to restart her life, at which point she would immediately recall all of her past suffering.
With the help of Wonder Woman, Hippolyta, and the third Flash (her former Titans teammate, Wally West), the only people who remembered the previous version, Donna was restored. Somehow, she also regained her powers, presumably because that was how Wally remembered her. Initially, she was concerned that she was not the "same" Donna, but an idealized form based on Wally's memories. She has since accepted that this is not the case.
Shortly afterwards, the Titans gathered together to save their friend Cyborg. They came into conflict with the JLA, but they saved their friend. During this incident Donna was seemingly reunited with her son via virtual reality, but with the aid of Nightwing, realized it was not real.
After that, the original five Titans, including Troia, decided to re-form the team. A subsequent battle with Dark Angel suggested her constant rewriting of Donna's history involved Hypertime. It is not clear how this ties in with later revelations.
Realizing that Donna was created from a portion of Diana's soul, Queen Hippolyta accepted Donna as a blood-related daughter and held a coronation on Themyscira to formally introduce Donna as the second princess of Paradise Island. This aspect brought Donna more in-line with her Pre-Crisis Themyscirian origins. After her coronation, Donna and Diana's bond as sisters grew stronger. The two Amazons shared a high end apartment in New York City and Donna became more active in life on Themyscira. While the Amazons of Bana-Mighdall saw Diana as an official moderator between the Themyscirian Amazons and themselves, Donna made strides in becoming an accepted member of both tribes in their eyes. While aiding the Amazons, Donna also came into contact with the villain Angle Man who immediately became enamored with her. After their awkward yet flirtatious first meeting, a seriously wounded Angle Man later teleported himself to Donna seeking her help after being attacked by The Cheetah.
In a separate battle, Donna was apparently killed by a rogue Superman robot in the Titans/Young Justice crossover "Graduation Day". However, in June 2005, DC Comics released The Return of Donna Troy, a four-issue miniseries written by Phil Jimenez with art by José Luis García-López and George Pérez which marked the resurrection of Donna Troy and cleared up her multiple origins.
[edit] Revelations
Donna Troy has now discovered that like every other person after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, she is a merger of every alternate version of Donna Troy in the Multiverse. Unlike everyone else, Donna is the repository of knowledge of every alternate universe version of herself and remembers the original Multiverse. She learned that her counterpart on Earth-Two was saved by a firefighter and was raised in an orphanage, while her Earth-S counterpart died in the fire. She also discovered that her sworn enemy of the past, Dark Angel, was in fact the Donna Troy of Earth-Seven, saved from certain death by the Anti-Monitor, just like the Monitor had saved Harbinger (although Harbinger was not an alternate version of Donna).[1] When the Multiverse was reconfigured in one single Universe, Dark Angel, who had somehow escaped the compression of every Donna Troy into one single person in the new Earth, sought to kill her (every life she forced her to relive was in fact an aspect of an alternate Donna) as a way to avoid the merging and remain the last one standing. When she was defeated, Donna became the real sum of every Donna Troy that existed on every Earth, a living key to the lost Multiverse.
Her role in Infinite Crisis is, at the end of The Return of Donna Troy, fully stated: Donna had been reborn after her death at the hands of the Superman android. The Titans of Myth, realizing that she was the child who was destined to save them from some impending threat, brought her to New Cronus and implanted false memories within her mind to make her believe she was the original Goddess of the Moon and wife of Coeus. The Titans of Myth incited war between other worlds near New Cronus in order to gain new worshippers. They would then use the combined power of their collective faith to open a passageway into another reality, where they would be safe from destruction. Donna was another means to that end until she was found by the Titans and The Outsiders who restored her true memories.
This was not without casualties, however. Sparta (who was restored to full mental health and stripped of the bulk of her power) had been made an officer in the Titans of Myth's royal military. She was sacrificed by the Titans of Myth in an attempt to lay siege to the planet, Minosyss, which housed a Sun-Eater factory miles beneath its surface. Sparta's death had inadvertently helped trigger Donna's memory restoration. Athyns had also reappeared by this time, and aided the heroes and the Mynossian resistance in battling the Titans of Myth. It was then that Hyperion, the Titan of the Sun, revealed Donna's true origins to her and ordered her to open a passageway into another reality by means of a dimensional nexus that once served as a gateway to the Multiverse itself, within the Sun-Eater factory's core. This turned out to be the Titans of Myth's real target.
Donna did so, but fearing they would simply continue with their power-mad ambitions, she banished most of them into Tartarus. However, Hyperion and his wife, Thia, were warned of the deception at the last moment. Enraged, they turned on Donna, intending to kill her for the betrayal, but Coeus activated the Sun-Eater to save her and Arsenal. As the Sun-Eater began absorbing their vast solar energies, Hyperion and Thia tried to escape through the Nexus, but they were both torn apart by the combined forces of the Nexus' dimensional pull and the Sun-Eater's power. Coeus, who had learned humility and compassion from Donna, vowed to guard the gateway to make certain the other Titans of Myth remained imprisoned forever.
[edit] Infinite Crisis and 52
Donna returns to the now-barren New Cronus where she shares a joyful reunion with Wonder Woman. Donna, charged with the guardianship of the Universe Orb containing the Multiverse Chronicles collected by Harbinger, makes the startling discovery that an impending doom is facing the DC Universe, a doom she cannot avert alone. Leaving Nightwing behind on Earth, Donna brings several heroes to New Cronus, including Animal Man; Cyborg; Firestorm; Herald; Bumblebee; Red Tornado; Shift; Green Lanterns Alan Scott, Kyle Rayner, and Kilowog; Jade; Starfire; and Supergirl. The heroes confront a mysterious and menacing rip in space caused by Alexander Luthor, Jr. (as a part of his plan), which has sparked an intergalatic war. Donna's team contributes to the resolution of the conflict, but things take a dangerous turn when Alexander uses the inter-dimensional tear to re-create Earth-Two and, later, the Multiverse.
Donna, along with Kyle Rayner (now called Ion), leads the team to attack Alexander Luthor through his space rift, giving Nightwing, Superboy, and Wonder Girl the time needed to destroy Alexander's device, and save the two Supermen and Wonder Woman from being merged with their Earth-Three counterparts. Though most of the team vanishes when they attempt to leave via the portal opened by Mal Duncan and Adam Strange, she returns to Earth shortly after the Battle of Metropolis, and provides a "junior red-sun eater" to the Green Lantern Corps in which to imprison Superboy-Prime at the end of the battle on Mogo.
In the series 52, Cyborg, Herald, Alan Scott, Bumblebee, Hawkgirl, and Firestorm were all returned to Earth although gravely injured, while other heroes such as Supergirl, Starfire, Animal Man, and Adam Strange were lost in space. In the History of the DC Universe backup feature, when Donna and the artificial intelligence in charge of Harbinger's historical records finished her task of reviewing the DC Universe's history, both the artificial intelligence and one of the new Monitors revealed to her that the current timeline has diverged from its rightful path, in which Donna herself, instead of Jade, should have sacrificed herself for Kyle Rayner.
During the World War III storyline, Donna goes into battle as Wonder Woman against a rampaging Black Adam.
[edit] "One Year Later"
One Year Later, Donna Troy has assumed the mantle of Wonder Woman after Diana stepped down following the Crisis, feeling the need to 'find out who Diana is'.[2] Donna wears a set of armor during her tenure as Wonder Woman, which includes the bracelet and star-field material used as part of her Titans regalia.
Donna's post-Infinite Crisis origin, which incorporates elements from her previous origins, is as follows: Donna was a magical twin of Diana created by the Amazon Magala and intended as a playmate for the lonely princess. Donna was later captured by Hippolyta's enemy--Dark Angel who mistook her for Diana and placed her in suspended animation for several years. Years later, the grown up Diana, now Wonder Woman, eventually freed Donna and returned her to Themyscira. Donna was then trained by both the Amazons and the Titans of Myth. A few years later, Donna followed Diana into Man's World and became Wonder Girl, wearing a costume based on Wonder Woman's and helped form the Teen Titans.[3]
In her last adventure as Wonder Woman, Donna battles The Cheetah, Giganta, and Doctor Psycho. The trio attack Donna as a means of finding the then missing Diana. This eventually happens with the revelation that Circe is the mastermind behind the attacks and capture. After Donna is freed from Circe, she dons her old red Wonder Girl jumpsuit and aids her sister in battle telling Diana that she wants to give the Wonder Woman title back to her as she was never really comfortable using that name and would rather just be called Donna Troy.
Donna later works alongside ex-boyfriend Kyle Rayner, who has taken up the powers and title of Ion again. They go up against one of the Monitors who attempts to remove them from the newly rebuilt Multiverse, claiming the two are unwanted anomalies. Donna returns to Earth with Ion in time for him to say good-bye to his dying mother.
After that event, Donna joins several former Teen Titans in the current team's battle against Deathstroke and his Titans East team.
[edit] Countdown
Donna attends Duela Dent's funeral with the Teen Titans. She is confronted by Jason Todd, who seeks her out as a kindred spirit; the two cross paths while investigating Duela's murder. Donna places her investigation on hold when the Amazons invade Washington, D.C. during the events depicted in Amazons Attack! She travels to the city and confronts Hippolyta, advising her to end the invasion, and Hippolyta informs her that she will only consider a withdrawal if Donna will include Diana in their talks. Donna leaves to find her sister. Jason , who has followed Donna to Washington, tells her that the Monitors are responsible for Duela's death. Donna and Jason are attacked by the Monitor's warrior, Forerunner. They are saved by a benevolent Monitor, whom Jason calls Bob, and recruited to locate Ray Palmer. They soon learn that Palmer is hiding in the Multiverse.
The group is joined by Kyle Rayner; Jason and Kyle bicker during the journey and Donna is annoyed. Ray Palmer is located on Earth-51 and Bob attacks him, betraying the group. Donna and the others escape, and are caught in the crossfire when Monarch's forces attack Earth-51. Donna is attacked by an alternate version of herself wearing a Wonder Girl costume, and overcomes her doppelganger and escapes. She takes the doppelganger's costume, defeats one of Monarch's lieutenants, and is acclaimed leader of an insect army by right of conquest. She leads the force of Myrmidons into the battle against Monarch's forces. Superman-Prime confronts Monarch, and the insect warriors are killed in the fallout.
Following the battle, Donna alone is able to discern a message directing the group to Apokolips, where the team are witness to its destruction as they first meet the other Countdown characters, Jimmy Olsen, Forager, Pied Piper, Mary Marvel, Holly Robinson, Harley Quinn, Karate Kid and Una. Witnessing Apokolips near-destruction at the hands of Brother Eye, the team are later sent to a reconstituted Earth-51 by Solomon, now a world similar to New Earth with the absence of the now much-expanded Challengers team. It is here that Karate Kid dies, and his Morticoccus virus transforms the world almost entirely to violent animal-human hybrids, losing Una to the feral natives and leaving that Earth's Buddy Blank's grandson as the Last Boy on Earth. Returned to New Earth by Jimmy Olsen via boom tube, Gothamites Harley, Holly and Jason return home while Mary Marvel is once again corrupted by Darkseid who captures Jimmy, who holds the power of all the deceased New Gods. Freed from Darkseid's control by Atom's microscopic rewiring, Jimmy and Darkseid duke it out until Orion descends from the heavens (following his interrupted battle with the killer of the New Gods in Death of the New Gods, and slays his father.) In the aftermath of these events, the remaining party of Donna, Kyle, Ray and Forager announce to the Monitors they will serve as body guards for the New Multiverse, and depart to places unknown.
[edit] Titans (vol. 2)
Returning to Earth after her adventures in the Multiverse with Kyle, Donna is targeted by a mysterious foe, along with the other former and present Titans. Upon discovering Trigon's plan to eradicate the Teen Titans and their mentors, Donna rebuilt her old Titans team to fend off Trigon's assault and take vengeance over the slain Titans East team[4]
[edit] Powers and abilities
- Donna's superhuman powers have changed several times over the years, but in all of her various incarnations, they have always consisted of considerable superhuman strength, endurance, speed, and the power of flight. In her pre-Crisis origin, Donna was granted those powers by the Amazon's Purple Ray, and these powers increased as she grew older.
- The first major redefinition of Donna's powers came about when she took the name of Troia. She still possessed all the abilities she had before, but now in addition to those, she could wield photonic energy as power blasts and protective force fields.
- Donna has the ability to flawlessly immitate the voice of anyone she has heard (Brave and the Bold #149).
- Donna has the ability to project three dimensional images of a person's memories, provided the subject is a willing participant in the process. (New Titans #59). Donna's Troia costume was made of various gifts given to her by the Titans of Myth, the most notable of which was the unique star field material that showed the exact location of New Chronus.
- After Donna petitioned the Titans of Myth to depower her, she became Darkstar, gaining the standard exomantle all members wore, granting her superhuman strength, speed, and agility. The exomantle also possessed a personal force field for protection against physical impact and energy attacks. The main weapons were twin maser units that fired energy blasts with pinpoint accuracy; however, it seems that Donna did not undergo the surgical procedure to attain the instant mastery of maser control that the other Darkstars had, and had a split-second delay in reaction time when wearing the less powerful deputy version of the exo-mantle. A powerful shoulder mounted cannon complemented the maser system of the Darkstars' exo-mantle. With the exo-mantle, one could achieve high speeds during flight, all the while protected from wind friction by the forcefield.
- After her post-Crisis origin was revealed, Donna regained the powers she had lost to the Titans of Myth's behest, but now due to the fact that she was a magical replicant of Diana, they were virtually identical to hers. Donna and Diana also share a psychic rapport which allows one to feel either what the other is experiencing or even share dreams.
- Shortly after her resurrection as the Goddess of the Moon, during the Return of Donna Troy miniseries, Donna's powers were enhanced and upgraded. She retained all of the abilities she had before, and regained her energy manipulation abilities (which, being cosmic-based, were far more powerful). She also commanded darkness and cold to great effect. Donna has not been shown using those powers since regaining her memories.
- Like all Amazons, Donna is well trained to fight with various weapons and in the martial arts, and often practices with a kind of staff which seems to be her personal weapon of choice. She is also a very capable leader and strategist.
[edit] Other media
- The first animated appearance of Donna Troy as Wonder Girl was in the Teen Titans segments of 1967's The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, which have made brief runs in syndication.
- In 1976, a version of Wonder Girl (played by Debra Winger) appeared in the Wonder Woman TV series, named Drusilla and having a personality and origin different from Donna Troy. She would later have a brief cameo in Infinite Crisis #6 as the Wonder Girl of Earth-462, the name has also been used by Cassandra Sandsmark
- In the fifth season of Teen Titans episodes, "Homecoming Part 2" and "Calling All Titans", a girl bearing a striking resemblance to Donna Troy, complete with star-shaped earrings, was seen briefly, but due to legal ramifications, she could not make a full appearance nor be mentioned by name. [1] The 36th issue (Oct. 2006) of its tie-in comic book Teen Titans Go! features Wonder Girl as part of the team. She actually first appeared in the previous issue in a cameo showing her on Paradise Island and has since appeared in subsequent issues of the series including the 2007 Valentine's issue. [2]
- Wonder Girl is expected to appear in the animated direct-to-video movie Teen Titans: The Judas Contract.
- Jazz composer Kelly Fenton has a big band tune dedicated to Donna Troy as part of her Infinite Crisis suite.
[edit] References
- ^ Phil Jimenez, the writer of The Return of Donna Troy, stated in direct mail conversation in January 2007, "While there was some discussion about making Lyla an alternate Donna, DC Editorial and I realized this would never work in any continuity, so the idea was scrapped. What we did decide, however, was that Dark Angel was the Anti-Monitor's Harbinger, and that Dark Angel herself was an alternate earth duplicate of Donna Troy."
- ^ Wonder Woman (vol. 3) #1
- ^ Wonder Woman (vol. 3) Annual #1
- ^ Titans Together #1
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[edit] External links
- Newsarama- Phil Jimenez on The Return of Donna Troy
- Brief History of Donna Troy (see also Part 2)
- Return of Donna Troy - detailed study
- Alan Kistler's Profile On Donna Troy
- Titans Tower Profile
