Titans Together - November - Week 1 - Donna Troy Readings 1

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November Titan WONDER GIRL (DONNA TROY)
November Titan WONDER GIRL (DONNA TROY)2050×780 464 KB

Welcome to the first week of the November selection of #titans-together. This goes from Sunday, November 8 to Saturday November 14.

The winner of the first poll was the original Wonder Girl - Donna Troy! She is my all-time favorite character, so what a beautiful way to start the club’s reading for me. Now there are numerous stories or issues that could have been read for her or even any future club selections, so know that these selections are not considered “the best” or “the worst” of these characters and by far they do not represent an exhaustive list for the character. In fact, some of these characters may eventually be brought back into the mix in the future for a second outing. Some of them have that many important stories.

Club Details

Welcome to the comic book reading club for all things TITANS! We will be exploring a member of the Titans team each month. This can be any team that has existed as a Titans team. Team Titans included! Each month, at the end of the month, members will vote between 5 Titans members to be highlighted the next month. Then stories will be selected to read that focused on that character. This member will be explored for the entire month through the comic library. So look for new weekly posts on Sunday for the club here on the forums.

Want to join the club? CLICK HERE

Donna Troy has a very weird origin and starting publication history. She started as Diana technically as a young girl, but the history is that an individual mistook her for her own character and well the rest is history. To highlight a story from this origina, we will start the reading with WONDER WOMAN #124. She then appears as her own character finally, which takes place in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #60. Eventually the “Teen Titans” get their own title, so we will read after this the first issue of the first series in TEEN TITANS #1. The next reading sees a very popular development of the character, but I don’t want to spoil it for those that may have never read TEEN TITANS #22. The last issue we are reading for the week’s reading is The New Teen Titans #38. This jumps a bit in time from the other reading, but this is an important story to the character, as it tries to synch her origin a bit. Next week’s reading deals with the fallout of a certain crisis…

Week 1 Readings-
WONDER WOMAN #124
THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #60
TEEN TITANS #1
TEEN TITANS #22
THE NEW TEEN TITANS #38

Discussion Questions -

  1. What are your feelings on Donna Troy as a character in the DC Universe pantheons? Why do you feel that way?
  2. Which issue do you feel brings the most to the “Donna Troy” character and why?
  3. What do you think of Donna’s editorial origins as actually young Diana in the WW series?
  4. What moment from these issues struck you the most? What did you enjoy and didn’t enjoy about these issues?
  5. Do you have any other thoughts about this weeks readings?

JOIN IN NEXT WEEK FOR MORE DONNA TROY READING GOODNESS!!!

If you have any questions, concerns, or etc. about the club, the reading, or whatever reach out to @CassTheStreet for all your #titans-together related goodness.

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Going to start off with one of my favorite fan arts with Donna that kind of sums up her weird origins and history well. :rofl:

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So here are my answers for the questions this week :slight_smile: I hope some others join in to the discussion at some point as well. Just because it goes from one date to another does not mean you can’t join in at a later time. Without further ado, here are my answers to the questions:

  1. What are your feelings on Donna Troy as a character in the DC Universe pantheons? Why do you feel that way?

Many people do not like the weirdness of this particular characters origins, but this is what draws me to the character. The character is messy, like a lot of us. We sometimes define ourselves by the weirdness that we each have in our own histories, which makes me feel a kinship to this character’s convolutedness. I think we all at some point struggled with the “Who am I? Where do I come from?” type of question and this character embodies this thought process perfectly. She also is often shown as a motherly type that just wants to help her friends as best as possible. She is a strong person, regardless of her history and where she has been. She overcame the issues she has and still loves. This is a beautiful thing to me. I also love this character because one of the first comics I ever got to read was a comic featuring Donna Troy, which you will find out which one later on this month!.

  1. Which issue do you feel brings the most to the “Donna Troy” character and why?

I feel that “THE NEW TEEN TITANS #38” brings the most to the “Donna Troy” character because it allows her to have an origin that is her own, even if it later changes. It starts to lay a foundation for her. The other issues this week are great moments that helped establish her, but this one feels like it helps truly make her unique and her own character finally. My second choice would have been Teen Titans #22 because it is considered an iconic costume for the character, but while an iconic costume is great it is not depth or added layers to a character. I feel like #38 does add those elements to her.

  1. What do you think of Donna’s editorial origins as actually young Diana in the WW series?

It is an interesting snafu. Can you imagine that flying in today’s day and age with an editor or writer “accidently” creating a character from a previously made character that actually wasn’t the character at all. Fans would be livid and the pitchforks would probably be brought out against them. It has caused the character to have several issues, which could have been easily resolved if DC had wanted to streamline and stay streamlined. They, however, keep messing the character up with “new” origins and need to just pick one and stick with it.

  1. What moment from these issues struck you the most? What did you enjoy and didn’t enjoy about these issues?

For me the moment I enjoyed the most was seeing the friendship between Nightwing and Donna in “The New Teen Titans” #38 because often Nightwing is shown as a player, but here you get that they are friends and Nightwing just wants to help his female friend. This made me like Nightwing on a deeper level as well.

I felt that the Wonder Woman issue was a little corny, but during that particular era a lot of comics were that. I mean a MERBOY out of no where. At least that is how it felt to me. It was cheesy, but the inclusion feels appropriate to understand that this is where Donna originally came from. This is the true editorial origination of the character, so it is interesting to read and understand that aspect of the character. The other issues add different elements, but don’t stand out as major moments for the character past establishing her more as a character within the DC Universe.

  1. Do you have any other thoughts about this weeks readings?

This is still one of my favorite characters within the DC Universe. I love that we are starting with her and getting to explore where she came from. I had read a large chunk of these previously, but it is great to reconnect with them again, since I have memory related issues it was like reading for the first time again. Loved them.

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I actually like the ontological whirlwind of Donna. I think her uncertainty gives her a grace under fire that really grounds the team. She takes things in calm, collected strides.
With no place to live and her powers being drained she just carries on.

“Who is Donna Troy” was the star of the pack, for me. You get to see some nice growth from Dick, in addition to flushing out some of Donna’s “history”.

Does he see Donna as a friend; or maybe he harbors something a little deeper for her? They go way back, obviously. Donna was there for just about ever first and big moment in Dick’s life. I think that is it. Donna is the one woman in Dick’s life who has and will always be there for him, no question. I think he starts to realize that that kind of love is so much more. Either way she definitely distracts him from Kory, which is not hard to do. :see_no_evil: But I have to agree with Dick. Why is Donna marrying Gordon Lightfoot; and why is he calling himself Terry? It will always be Donna and Roy for me.

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Honestly, I never feel like Dick harbors something more for Donna. I never feel like for them it goes past sister and brother type feelings for each other, even if there is minor flirting between them. It feels more like it is about him helping someone he cares deeply about. It isn’t the same type of love Dick feels for Starfire or even Barbara. But this is my interpretation of their relationship.

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I think Dick harbors a little something for all the ladies :wink: Has he ever turned someone down, I can’t remember? Given half a chance, I think he would jump at Donna. I think Donna is better at seeing the big picture. They are definitely not a match, too much the same; so I’m glad they remained the deepest of friends.

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  1. What are your feelings on Donna Troy as a character in the DC Universe pantheons? Why do you feel that way?

She’s a really strong, iconic character in the DCU, one who I think has been maligned at times with how she’s been constantly reinterpreted, but still a great character in her own right.

  1. Which issue do you feel brings the most to the “Donna Troy” character and why?

I’ll also agree with New Teen Titans #38, because it takes an origin that feels a bit thought up on the spot once they realized the creators made an oopsie to one with some real drama and character. It also helps further establish Donna as a character who is both of the Amazons and of Man’s World, raised in both.

  1. What do you think of Donna’s editorial origins as actually young Diana in the WW series?

Well…let’s just say it’s great that Wonder Girl became her own character. The idea of exploring Diana as a child/young adult has great merit, a lot of these young adult OGNs are showing that very well. But here, it sort of feels like they just copied and pasted a lot of the Superman/Superboy formula on young Diana and left it at that. They even gave her a mermaid boyfriend, for crying out loud.

  1. What moment from these issues struck you the most? What did you enjoy and didn’t enjoy about these issues?

The silver age TT stories were pretty fun. I really liked the creative foes they had to fight, especially the Separated Man. It was also cool to see that Donna was clearly the powerhouse of the group and the book didn’t make light or try to put her down for it.

That said, that first issue of the TT book proper was funny with all it’s Peace Corps stuff. Don’t get me wrong, no real beef with the organization, but it really felt like the person writing it was trying to hype them up via comics.

  1. Do you have any other thoughts about this weeks readings?

Only that it was pretty cool to read the first of her many origins and I’m looking forward to seeing more. :slight_smile:

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You know, that’s a great way of putting it, that’s pretty cool.

The closest modern equivalent to this that I can think of is Damian Wayne. He was originally supposed to have had his origins in the one-shot “Son of the Demon,” where Bruce accepts the offer of being Ra’s second in command to go after a common enemy, and he and Talia get together. She announces she’s pregnant, and events in the story cause Talia to seemingly lose the baby. However, the story ends with a mysterious child being sent to an orphanage far away from their conflict.

So Grant Morrison wanted to take that story and make it into canon…but it had been a while since he read it, and he thought it was a scheme by Talia to get Batman to have her child. So now the story he wanted to be in continuity no longer fits the continuity that he set up.

Yeah, the big issue that Donna’s original origin has is that it really ages the DCU more than what the editorial would likely want. Donna was two years old when she was in the fire, and Wonder Woman was already well established at this time. So in order for this origin to work, Wonder Woman and thus most of the big DC heroes had to have been around for about 12-15 years.

Of course, you can easily fix that by making Donna more of a young child or teenager in the fire. Say 8-12 years old.

Agreed – this was around the time that Dick was slowly transitioning out of Robin – especially apparent as the next issue of the series is the start of Judas Contract, where Dick becomes Nightwing.

…Nah, nothing like that, I think. While not one-to-one, I think it’s not all that different from, say, Bruce and Barbara’s relationship: sure, Bruce acknowledges and accepts that Barbara is a gorgeous and very capable woman, but his feelings are far more familial.

That said, it sounds like they have tried to pin Dick and Donna together in the past, if reading in stories like Strange Apparations are any indication. I’m just glad it never went anywhere.

Yeah, never been a big fan of Terry either – from the rather wide age gap to the fact that he kind of feels like an author stand-in.

There was the incident with Tarantula…

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I had to look that up. That was a pretty messed up thing to do to Dick. It was a little after my time. I pretty much stopped reading in the mid 90’s. Took a hiatus technically, thanks to this platform. I’m excited to catch up on everything that happened while I was away.

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I apologize for being a bit late on this one. I have decided to backtrack and hopefully, keep up with Titans Together reading as there are only 2 entries at this point. I also apologize for writing a longish response to this entry’s reading. I seem to be long-winded when typing about comics that I enjoy.

1. What do you think of Donna’s editorial origins as actually young Diana in the WW series?

Reading Wonder Woman 124 was an interesting experience. While there is a Wonder Girl, that Wonder Girl is indeed Diana. The majority of the story took place on Earth-124. There was a scene with Diana and Hippolyta where they lay the foundation for this new multiverse stating that they are on multiple timelines but brought together. This was shown using a filmstrip. Also, after I did some more digging, it appears that the original idea of Wonder Girl was a teenaged Wonder Woman. This isn’t too surprising considering the original Superboy was a teenage Clark Kent. It is this kind of thing that caused the need for Crisis On Infinite Earths about 25 years later.

5. Do you have any other thoughts about this week’s reading?

Seeing the second appearance of the Teen Titans in Brave and the Bold 60 is really cool. While this is the second appearance of that team, this is the first time the name Teen Titans was applied to them. The first appearance is in Brave and the Bold 54. To also see the first appearance of Donna Troy in this same issue is the cherry on top. I did get a laugh out of seeing someone instantly knowing they were the Teen Titans as this is the first time ever that the name has been used. Another interesting concept is that the teens in Midville all have watches that are also used as phones or walkie-talkies. While someone seeing this in 2020 is used to such devices in the early 1960s I am not sure if this was common technology.

Teen Titans 1 and 22 were fun snapshots of comic history. The first issue was released in 1966 and had a completely different vibe compared to issue 22. Issue 1 had a Beatles reference and the setting and clothing styles were like a warped Beach Boys song. Honestly, this kind of makes sense as those two bands were extremely popular and would soon be battling each other in the charts. Donna Troy was kind of bland in this issue. She is still a new character and the writers were doing their best to make her the Teen Titans secretary.

Issue 22 was released in 1969 and featured Speedy on the team and a weird interdimensional story. The second story was the origin of Donna Troy. I have read many of the Wonder Woman from this era. This was the Mod Era for Diana Prince, she was no longer Wonder Woman and had no powers. Robin made a reference to Wonder Woman’s situation which actually impressed me. When I think of Silver Age comics I never think about crossover continuity. Donna’s origin was okay but seemed sort of rushed and would have preferred this to be the main story in the book as opposed to the Dimension X thing.

Jumping to New Teen Titans 38 was an excellent way to close this portion of the Donna Troy reading. When I think of Teen Titans this is the era that I think of. I was instantly reminded by the cinematic noir introduction of the Wolfman/Perez Production of how much I loved this series. Diving deeper into Donna Troy’s origin, which Wolfman wrote in 1969, was amazing. The love of these characters from Marv Wolfman is very apparent and George Perez’ artwork was outstanding. It should be mentioned that Neal Adams also co-wrote issue 22 and George Perez is co-credited in writing on NTT 38.

Donna’s revised and fleshed-out origin story took some dark turns, certainly darker than anything that could have been in a late 1960s comic. There is death, the selling of children, and good investigation work that ultimately leads to the truth.

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