Wonder Girl



Wonder Girl is a titled passed down through three characters: Princess Diana of Themyscira, Donna Troy, and Cassandra Sandsmark.

The first appearance of Wonder Girl was in Wonder Woman #105 of April 1958 where the title belonged to a young Diana. This Wonder Girl wore a very similar costume to the grown Wonder Woman: a red tank top with a golden eagle on the chest and golden crests on the edges, blue shorts with white stars, red ballet slippers to match Wonder Woman's boots, she wore her hair up in a ponytail, and wore Amazonian silver bracelets. The adventures of Wonder Girl seemed to capture the imagination of writers as her adventures on Themyscira (with a companion only dubbed Mer-boy) were often displayed in the Wonder Woman serial and she even starred next to Wonder Woman herself in some issues labeled Impossible Tales (which sometimes also featured an even younger Diana named Wonder Tot) that were composed by Queen Hippolyta as a sort of home movie spliced together from different periods of her daughter's life. While the impossible tales were not in continuity with the rest of the Wonder Woman series, Bob Haney brought Wonder Girl to the modern age of 1961 to fight along side Wonder Woman and her friends the Teen Titans even though she was still canonically a young Diana.

Enter Donna Troy. The Teen Titans had received their own series with Wonder Girl still in the line-up even though her own creator, Bob Haney, had declared her Retgonned in Wonder Woman #158 in 1965 (although in a very tongue-in-cheek way). So what was Wonder Girl? A time-displaced Diana or another being all together? Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane sought to answer these questions in Teen Titans #22. This new Wonder Girl was not a young Princess Diana, she wasn't even of Amazon descent! She was a baby saved from a fire by Wonder Woman who was not able to save the child's parents and not being able to find new ones for her, Diana brought the young orphan to Themyscira to be raised as an Amazon. Given the same powers as Wonder Woman by a Purple Ray crafted by her Amazonian sisters, Donna Troy becomes Wonder Girl and dons an entirely new costume composing of a red full-body (sans sleeves) leotard adorned with stars, a belt with the Wonder Woman 'W' as its crest, black boots, wore her hair down to a past-the-shoulder style, and kept her bracelets.

Here's where things get messy. As events such as Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis rewrote continuities and histories of heroes, Donna was a victim of multiple Origin Story syndrome:
 * First came the origin given to her by Teen Titans: an orphan rescued from a fire by Wonder Woman and raised by Amazons.
 * Then came the Titan Seed: Donna was saved from the fire that killed her parents by a Titan named Rhea and was raised among 12 orphans from all over the universe on a planet named New Cronus by other Titans as Titan Seeds that the Titans believed would one day save them. All the orphans were given superhuman powers and names of ancient deities, Donna being dubbed "Troy". The orphans were eventually stripped of their memories and placed back into their original places in the universe to await their destinies. In this version Donna has no connections to Wonder Woman or the Amazons.
 * The Infinite Lives of Donna Troy: While trying to tie Donna back to her Amazonian roots but also keep the established continuity of the Titan Seeds Donna became a literal mirror image of Diana. The magician Magala had taken a mirror's reflection of young Princess Diana and animated it as a playmate for the Princess, but the villain Dark Angel mistakes the new playmate for Diana herself and kidnaps her. Dark Angel dispersed her spirit across the multiverse so that she may live multiple lives that all end with Dark Angel killing her at a moment of extreme tragedy. In at least one of the timelines, Donna becomes a super hero and encounters her sister Wonder Woman and Queen Hippolyta without being able to recall how she was related to them or even who they were. The timeline was ended with the death of Donna's son and Dark Angel came for her, but Wonder Woman and Queen Hippolyta intervened, saving Donna's life and destroying Dark Angel. With the destruction of Dark Angel, Donna returns to her original reality with her Amazonian powers intact and continues her life from that point.
 * Amalgamation: Wonder Woman Annual #1 of volume 3 gives Donna a new origin based on elements of her last three origin stories. Donna was given life by Magala from Diana's reflection and kidnapped by Dark Angel under the mistaken identity of her sister. Dark Angel puts Donna in suspended animation and years pass until she is rescued. She is trained by the Amazons and the Titans of Myth and is raised as the second Princess of Themyscira. After a couple more years, she would follow her older sister into Man's World and adopt the name Wonder Girl and help create the Teen Titans.

Post-Crisis Titan Seed Donna eventually adopts a new super hero identity, Troia, to honor her Titan brethren. She also adopts a new costume: it is a black full-body leotard, much like her old costume, that is very sparkly, a silver belt with a simple circle crest, silver boots, and the traditional Amazonian silver bracelets.

With the Wonder Girl slot needing to be filled, John Byrne introduced Cassandra "Cassie" Sandsmark in1996 Wonder Woman volume 2 #105. Cassie is the daughter of Archeologist Helena Sandsmark and Wonder Woman fanatic. She is granted powers by the myhtical objects of Hermes' sandals and Atlas' gauntlets. It is later revealed that she is a daughter of Zeus and asks for real powers be granted to her to fight the evil of man. She is granted them with the exception that her mother is given the choice to take them away if she feels it is necessary. Dr. Sandsmark, although initially alarmed by her daughters crime fighting, has never used this power as she respects her daughter's wish to be a super hero. Notably the only Wonder Girl to have her own comic series, Cassandra was given a six issue limited series titled Wonder Girl: Champion written by J. Torres. Cassandra has been a member of both Young Justice and the Teen Titans. As Wonder Girl Cassandra has worn two outfits: an ensemble including a black t-shirt with the Wonder Woman 'W' crest, a black leather jacket, gloves, red shorts, goggles, and a black wig to hide her identity. In her second out fit she wears a red shirt with varying sleeve length with the Wonder Woman 'W', jeans, and Amazonian bracelets.

Cassie is the current Wonder Girl of DC, although as a new version. The new Cassandra is a thief of magical bracelets that dislikes being called Wonder Girl.

The Donna Troy Wonder Girl is currently co-starring alongside Supergirl and Batgirl in Lauren Faust's Super Best Friends Forever, while Cassie Sandsmark recently joined the cast of Young Justice.

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