Hey all you WW fans...are any of you also Donna Troy fans?!?
Well this April 29th will be her 50th anniversary since her debut in the comicbook The Brave And The Bold #60, which came out in 1965, April 29.
The mistake that many Wonder Girl (and even Donna Troy) fans make is that they think the Wonder Girl that appeared in Kanigher’s incarnation was Donna Troy. When in fact it was NOT. “Wonder Girl” and “Donna Troy” are TWO separate entities.
Here's the true history behind it all:
It was Princess Diana of Paradise Island who was first called "Wonder Girl”...and it was by her mom Hippolyta (in the newspaper strip that first appeared in 1944, and also on April 29th!). After that, Kanigher took over the WW comic, and created a young gal version of Diana (who was called Wonder Girl) to simultaneously co-exist with both the infant version (Wonder Tot) and adult version (WW) of the same character of Princess Diana.
Then in 1965, while gathering junior superheroes to create the Teen Titans, writer Bob Haney mistakenly thought that Kanigher's ‘Wonder Girl’ was a separate character altogether, much like Robin was from Batman. And so he assigned the name “Donna Troy” to this Wonder Girl whom he thought was separate from Princess Diana. When he was told of his mistake, Haney had already drawn out the blueprint of his Teen Titans mythology. So to correct his mistake while not having to scrap his entire finished product, he simply gave his Wonder Girl a separate identity. Thus was [mistakenly] born DONNA TROY.
But Haney's mistake created a very interesting archetype element in the mythology of the Heroine's Journey...the little sister that the main heroine never knew she had! This is reflected in the mythologies of heroine-successors to WW, such as Buffy’s sister Dawn Summers, Nikita's Alex, or Sydney Bristow's Nadia Santos.
A more thorough explanation of this archetypal element in the continuing WW mythos can be found in the “Mistaken Sister” chapter of my FREE pdf manuscript, “WHO IS WONDER WOMAN?”
http://www.mediafire.com/view/rbku56bsgrikxwb/WHO_IS_WW-manuscript_PDF.pdf
Some people love Donna, others want her GONE already! For me, ever since I've heard of Donna Troy back in the 90's, I've never held her to be a true part of the original WW mythos. But I have taken a liking to the character just by herself, in her own element with the Titans. Though, to me, she just doesn't fit in with the true WW mythology. And to this day I still don't know if the Marston family has accepted her as their own, as “family”, as much as Diana is....But its still interesting that Haney named her ‘Donna’, just as one of Dr. Marston's sons is named ‘Don’...and that the Trojans (who live in the city of Troy) are friends with Dr. Marston’s Amazons. Hmmmmmm.
Now I've heard that in the NU52, the latest incarnation of Donna Troy was changed into something entirely different and freaky. I haven't had time to investigate whassup with that. But regardless...whatever they're doing with the character nowadays......
Happy birthday, Donna Troy!
P.S. This April THIRTIETH will be Happy THIRTIETH Birthday for WW screen-actor, Gal Gadot!! Thirty never looked so good! =W=
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