Who is Wonder Girl? Wonder Girl originally made her first appearance in comics as a younger version of Wonder Woman (Princess Diana). It wasn’t until she appeared as a member of the Teen Titans that she was given her Donna Troy alter ego. After a few attempts, the Titans didn’t really gain popularity until they were rebooted in the ’80s by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Perez. A mix of old and new characters, the creators gave fans something a little different this time around. One of the previously established members of the team was Wonder Girl (a.k.a. Donna Troy), Wonder Woman’s adopted younger sister and sidekick. Under the tutelage of Wolfman and Perez, she would become one of the most popular members of the team.
Who is Donna Troy? Donna is one of the most beloved, yet abused, characters in the DC Universe. Her constant reboots, redesigns, and re-imaginings of her origin have plagued the character since the Crisis on Infinite Earths epic, mega event that set out to clean up continuity and make a little more sense of the DCU. All that this really did for Donna was to make her origin 100 times worse. She was explained as a Titan of Myth, a mirror-image doppelgänger of Diana and god knows what other convoluted explanations.
Wolfman and Perez gave us so much to like in Donna, as they made her such a well-rounded character. She has a special relationship with everyone on the team and all of her fans, as well. Some of them are bigger Donna Troy fans than they are Wonder Woman fans, if you can believe that.
I was always bummed when Wonder Girl never made the cut in the Teen Titans or Titans Go! Series. It seemed just another slight to fans of Donna. So, I was more than thrilled when it was announced that we would finally get our Donna Troy in the new Titans series.
I was a little hesitant, as I was hoping they wouldn’t screw it up, and I’m happy to say quite the opposite of that. Conor Leslie really nailed it. I love her interaction with Robin as they had a close friendship prior.
SPOILERS BELOW
Writers have noted the origin of Diana rescuing Donna from a burning building and being raised by The Amazons. That’s the one she had in the ’80s series, and I’m glad they’re going with that.
She’s sweet and snarky. She’s definitely Wonder Woman’s sidekick, although she left being Wonder Girl behind, saying she could make a bigger difference as Donna Troy. We get to see her in action a little bit, and the next episode shows her using her golden lasso. I have a sneaking suspicion that Wonder Girl just may come out of retirement. It’s rumored her classic red costume will make an appearance, and that would be awesome if it we true.
Even though the cinematic universe doesn’t jibe with the TV universe, I think she would be an excellent counterpart for Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. I’d love to see them fight side by side on the silver screen.
Titans is evolving quite nicely. The creators are taking care to handle the story in a way that’s fresh, yet faithful to the source material. Call me a prude, but it was a little weird seeing them use the F word and drink Pabst Blue Ribbon, but I guess I’ll deal with it.
DC seems to realize what an amazing and well-loved character Wonder Woman is by giving us more “Wonder love,” and fans certainly want more. I’m hoping it’s only a matter of time before we see Wonder Woman on the small screen. Either way, we finally have our Wonder Girl. Yay!
Check out Titans on DC’s streaming service and follow me on Instagram (@MichaelFitzTroy).
