Who is Wonder Girl?
Like a Phoenix from the ashes, the Teen Titans have once again returned from forgotten obscurity and become popular and well loved by the masses. The Teen Titans began in 1965, when comic writers, looking for a new teamup adventure, decided to throw together DC's overpopulated demographic of child sidekicks. Young tag alongs like Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad were united to fight crimes when their older mentors weren't around to lend a hand. Though an initial success, the team eventually faded into obscurity. It was then resurrected with tremendous success as The New Teen Titans two decades later. Of course, that title eventually fell by the wayside, as well. Now, another two decades later, The Titans are back, and probably bigger than ever. Inevitably, these resurrections include weeding out the less desirable characters (does anyone remember Mal The Guardian? I thought not), and emphasizing the stronger ones. Unfortunately, this time around, someone of consequence got left behind.
Wonder Girl was never a character that stood out in the crowd. In the early days of the Titans, she was the girl of the group, and therefore wasn't able to do much for the team. As time (and the times) progressed, Wonder Girl was able to take a more active and integral part in the team's exploits. By the early 1970s, she was getting a lot more solo attention. Unfortunately, The Titans' comic was not. Most readers never got to see this side of Wonder Girl, featured in the forgotten comic on the lower shelf.
When the Titans experienced their first reincarnation, times had definately changed for female characters and, as one of only three carry overs from the original Titans team, Wonder Girl looked like she'd get her chance to rise to the front of the line. Unfortunately, times had changed so much for female heroes that two new women were added to the team. Raven was far more mysterious than our fair heroine, and Starfire was scantily clad and shot energy beams. Wonder Girl was definitely faced with some serious competition.
As the years progressed, Wonder Girl found herself constantly thrown into the background, rarely ever taking the lead in a story, and often just serving as another body in the background during large battles. Even emotional battles left her in the rear. While Robin struggled with his identity without Batman, Cyborg struggled with his humanity and his desire to help troubled youths, Raven struggled with her dark, demonic side, Starfire struggled with her murderous sister and her experiences as a slave, Beast Boy / Changeling struggled with the loss of his former team and family, and Kid Flash struggled with his feelings for Raven and his desire to lead an ordinary life, we only saw Wonder Girl happily dating a nice college professor. You could cut the tension with a golden lasso.
And yet, hiding in the shadows, Wonder Girl was doing something far more worthwhile than bitching about her problems. Wonder Girl had amazing strength and agility, the ability to fly, and amazing presence in a tight body costume, but her greatest power was her ability to surruptitiously turn the Titans team into a family when no one was looking.
Though few realized it, Wonder Girl was the strong backbone of emotional support and stability while the other Titans faced their crises. Wonder Girl was compassionate, funny, and usually the one that a Titan in trouble sought the help of first. Her stable, loving, and (above all else) ordinary relationship with a kind and gentle ordinary man was the pinnacle of stability for a team that couldn't even get their superhero relationships right.
Above all else, I noticed these features in Wonder Girl when Robin decided to resign in order to rethink his identity and purpose. In making his announcement to the team, while his lover seemed confused and clueless, and others joked or looked shocked, we saw Robin clearly talking to Wonder Girl more than the others, and we saw her looking back with love, understanding, and pride. Truthfully, it's the first time I ever really noticed that she'd been there. I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the team had felt the same way.
Donna Troy's story doesn't end there, though. At around this time, Marv Wolfman, the writer of The New Teen Titans, had begun to notice these qualities about Wonder Girl too. In fact, in the very next issue after Robin quit (#39), Wonder Girl finally got the spotlight.
This issue works to affirm the things we'd always suspected about Donna, as Robin (now Robin-less) reflects upon how much she's always meant to him, as well as how much her engagement to her fiance serves as an anchor to him and the others. But, perhaps realizing that he owed more than that to Wonder Girl for ignoring her for so long, Wolfman decided to finally give our heroine the intrigue, drama, and content that she deserved.
In regard to Wonder Girl's history, there had always been one small problem that had long been overlooked. The original Titans team was formed when writers scanned the pages of familiar DC superhero comic books, looking for kid sidekicks (after all, didn't everyone have one?) Some, like Robin and Aqualad, were no-brainers that had spent a lot of time in the forefront and on covers. Others, like Kid Flash and Speedy, required a little more searching. But, in the process of this lengthy search, the writers managed to accidentally pick up a character that didn't actually exist.
You see, Wonder Girl never existed until the moment she met the other Teen Titans. What the writers of that issue had found and misidentified had been a flashback to Wonder Woman's youth; Wonder Woman as a young girl. The big WW had never worked with a sidekick.
Nevertheless, Wonder Girl continued with the Titans for years before anyone realized this error. Marv Wolfman, recognizing this error and wanting to fix it, finally decided to write Wonder Girl a new origin, somehow accounting for this discrepancy and building new complexities for the long overlooked character, as well.
As it turned out, Wonder Girl hadn't been born an Amazon, and hadn't spent her entire early life on Paradise Island. She'd been an orphan, found in a burning apartment building with the bodies of a man and woman beside her, and no other clues as to her true identity. Wonder Woman had rescued Donna from the building, taken her back to Paradise Island, and raised her as an Amazon, as a result. In this deeply moving episode, Robin finally decided to use his detective skills to help Donna uncover the truth about her past. This emotionally complex and all too brief episode finally gave Donna a chance to take the emotional spotlight, as well as to have some sort of inner struggle/goal to orient her and keep her interesting. Donna's relationship with the memory of her deceased biological mother, as well as with her early adoptive parents, became anchors for this otherwise blank character. One year later, she went on to marry her fiance, further building her as a character with emotional depth.
Of course, later editors, uncomfortable with the emotionally rich character that didn't spend a whole lot of time kicking butt and agonizing over emotional dilemmas, decided to completely change Wonder Girl's origin and identity. Now her origin involved space aliens that implanted false memories in her mind, and the new costume and persona she was given didn't fit at all. Greedy editors ruin great characters. It was clear that some people couldn't appreciate the complexity of Donna Troy back then.
And, apparently, that's still true today. It amazes me that this new version of Teen Titans completely erases the existence of one of its most precious members. Back in the day, while virtually every other character felt like a forced, two-dimensional facade of a being, each reiterating his/her one or two identifying personal dilemma(s) each issue, Wonder Girl was the rich, genuine character hanging out on the back. People seem to have forgotten this.
Of course, I haven't. Now you won't either.
