I recently wrote a blog about the “character assassination” of The Scarlet Witch, putting her in with a group of good characters who seem to get the shaft over and over again for seemingly no good reason.The subject of this week’s Wonder Woman Wednesday, Donna Troy, is definitely a member of that club.

Last week saw the release of the Wonder Woman annual by the writer/artist-husband/wife team of Meredith and David Finch. The Annual wrapped up their first arc on Wonder Woman that received decidedly mixed reviews.

SPOILERS BELOW

Essentially, the story was about Wonder Woman having a hissy fit over how exhausting it is to be Wonder Woman. She’s a superhero, a God of War, and a Queen of an ungrateful group of amazons, taking the mantle after, once again, Hippolyta unceremoniously bites the dust. (She deserves her own “Character Assassination” column, but that’s a blog for another day!) Nothing against the writer, I think Meredith definitely grew as the arc unfolded, and there were some moments I was okay with; however, she admitted to not being very familiar with Wonder Woman’s comic history and it showed. In this arc, long-“52 Absent” and much beloved as Wonder Girl, Donna Troy was reintroduced by Finch. Made of clay, Donna is portrayed as a murderous drone set to take Diana’s mantle as Queen of the Amazons.

Donna is portrayed as heartless, soulless. A far cry from the nurturing member of The Teen Titans as portrayed by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, the one that we all fell in love with. Donna and the Amazons are unlikeable and dishonorable, murdering their Amazon Brothers who reside on the other side of Gilligan’s Island. I mean, Paradise Island. At least there is a fun, back-up story with an “L”-word tale of sapphic proportions showing a younger Hippolyta flirting with the idea of Lesbianism before being “Bill Cosby-ed,” or wooed rather, by Zeus and getting knocked up with Diana.

This isn’t the first time Donna has been raked through the coals. It’s one thing to kill her curly, red-haired, older, pervy, bearded husband Terry- or give her a Dorothy Hamill hairdo and make her a Titan of Myth. It’s another thing to screw with her heart of gold. She’s had more origin retcons and costume changes than you can shake a golden lasso at, but at least she’s always been Donna at heart. Except that time she became a zombie . . . or was it a vampire? Or Eclipso? Whatever.

At least it’s been revealed that Geoff Johns intends to demolish everything that Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang did on their stellar run. As much as I liked their story, the Finch’s followed in their footsteps. So, hopefully, Geoff Johns has the good sense to put Donna back together again. He has a penchant for clever solutions to continuity opportunities, and I can’t think of a bigger “opportunity” than Wonder Woman’s little sister, Donna Troy.