Wonder Girl
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Three characters named Wonder Girl have appeared as superheroines in DC Comics.
The original was a younger version of Wonder Woman. The second and third are protégés of Wonder Woman, and members of different incarnations of the Teen Titans.
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[edit] Characters
[edit] Diana
Wonder Girl was originally introduced in the Wonder Woman comic as a teen-aged Princess Diana of the Amazons. An additional character, Wonder Tot, (Wonder Woman as a toddler), was also featured.
From Wonder Woman #124 (August 1961) onwards, all three versions frequently appeared together in stories that were labelled "impossible tales," presented as films made by her mother, Queen Hippolyta, who had the power to splice together films of herself and Diana at different ages. However, by the time the Teen Titans made their first appearance, the characters of Wonder Girl and Wonder Woman had begun to diverge; Haney began writing Wonder Girl stories that took place in the same time period as those of Wonder Woman.
[edit] Donna Troy
Donna made her first appearance in The Brave and the Bold #60 (July 1965), and was portrayed as a member of a junior Justice League consisting of Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad. The young heroes joined together to battle wrong-doers as the Teen Titans.
The relationship between this Wonder Girl and the younger version of Wonder Woman was not fully explained at the time. The mystery of Wonder Girl's background was initially addressed later in the original series, in a story by Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane, in which it was explained that Wonder Girl was actually a non-Amazon orphan, rescued by Wonder Woman from an apartment building fire. Unable to find any parents or family for her, Wonder Woman brought her to Paradise Island, where she was eventually given Amazon powers by Paula's Purple Ray.The origin story ended with Wonder Girl making a new costume for herself, one unrelated to Wonder Woman's.
This origin was expanded and modified in later comic books. In the later version, Magala (an Amazon sorceress) animates a mirror image of young Princess Diana, creating a mystic identical twin for Diana to play with. A few months after, the mystic twin is kidnapped by Dark Angel (who thinks she has taken Diana) and disperses her spirit across the multiverse, condemning her to live multiple lives, each of which ends in tragedy.
In one of these parallel lives, the child is reincarnated in Man's World as an orphan child named Donna Troy who is rescued from a fire by Wonder Woman. Diana brings the girl to Themyscira, where she is raised, eventually becomes Wonder Girl, and co-founds the Teen Titans. This follows the earlier story, save that Wonder Girl now has Amazon powers from birth, eliminating the need for the Purple Ray which by this time was no longer part of the Wonder Woman continuity.
In a later story-line ("Who Is Wonder Girl?"), the Titans of Myth enlist Donna's aid, offering her new powers as a reward. (The Titans know from prohecy that Donna is their hope for salvation.) Following victory in a cosmic battle Donna is indeed granted enhanced powers and changes her name to Troia.
After losing her powers, Troia defeats Dark Angel, destroying the evil entity and regaining her original Amazon powers. She is Donna Troy once again.
The 2005 mini-series The Return of Donna Troy revealed that Donna Troy is actually an amalgam of every Donna Troy, who remembers all of her other incarnations. Donna is possibly the only human being in the DC universe with complete knowledge of the multiverse.
After the events of Infinite Crisis, Diana passes the mantle of Wonder Woman to Donna Troy. It is unclear whether this state of affairs is temporary or permanent.
[edit] Cassandra Sandsmark
Cassie Sandsmark is the daughter of Dr. Helena Sandsmark, an archaeologist; her father is Zeus. She has been a member of both Young Justice and the Teen Titans. Initially, her powers were derived from ancient Greek artifacts. Later, Zeus granted her the boon of actual powers. Her powers are similar to Wonder Woman's, though she carries a lasso that expels Zeus's lightning which was given to her by Ares, (the Greek god of war).
When the Greek gods left the mortal plane during Infinite Crisis, Zeus stripped Cassie of her powers. However, she was granted powers by Ares in exchange for becoming his champion.
After Superboy's death she quit the Titans for a time, though she later rejoined the group. At the moment Cassie was on her way to inform Robin of her decision, she discovered that he was trying to clone Superboy. As the two mourned their lost friend, they unexpectedly shared an awkward (yet passionate) kiss.
[edit] Wonder Girl in other media
[edit] Wonder Woman
In 1976 a version of Wonder Girl appeared in the Wonder Woman TV series, played by Debra Winger in one of her first roles.
Although the pilot episode revealed that Wonder Woman's alter-ego, Princess Diana of Paradise Island, was Queen Hippolyte's only child, later episodes featured Diana's younger sibling, Drusilla.
Drusilla first appeared in the two-part episode titled "The Feminum Mystique". In that episode, Queen Hippolyte (Carolyn Jones) sends Drusilla to America in order to bring her sister home to Paradise Island. (It should be noted that Queen Hippolyte is never reffered to by name in any of the televised specials in which she appeared.)
Drusilla gets tangled up in a Nazi plot to discover the secret of Wonder Woman's magical bracelets, and in the process masters the spinning transformation used by her older sister. Although Drusilla creates the persona of Wonder Girl, the distinction is lost on the Nazis, who believe her to be Wonder Woman and abduct her.
Drusilla appeared again in the final episode of the first season, "Wonder Woman in Hollywood".
A figure resembling Winger's Drusilla made a cameo appearance in Infinite Crisis #6, as the Wonder Girl of Earth-462.
[edit] Late Night with David Letterman
In 1993, Debra Winger promoted her new movie Wilder Napalm on The Letterman Show. David enjoyed engaging Winger in a discussion of her first major role as Wonder Girl after showing the audience a clip of her on the Wonder Woman series. Winger, obviously prepared for this, then burst out of her "civilian" clothes and sported the Wonder Girl outfit that she hadn't worn in 17 years, running out of the studio in costume saying she was late for something she had to do.
[edit] Teen Titans
Wonder Girl's first animated appearance was in the Teen Titans segments on The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure in 1967.
Wonder Girl had long been rumored to appear on the Teen Titans animated series. In Homecoming (part two) and Calling All Titans a character resembling Donna Troy appeared in several brief scenes, though she was not named.
[edit] Teen Titans Go
Wonder Girl appeared in "Troy," issue #36 of the series, acting as if she has been on the team for some time. Below is a link to an interview with artist J. Torres, giving an advance look at the story. http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76247
[edit] Justice League Unlimited
Wonder Girl makes an appearance of sorts in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Kid Stuff". Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman are reverted to eight-year-olds by Morgaine le Fey (DC Comics) in order to re-enter the world from which her son Mordred wiped out all adults. Diana is still referred to as Wonder Woman but fits the original concept of Wonder Girl. She mentions that she enjoyed the time as a child and flirts liberally with the younger version of Batman in some humorous scenes. She is voiced by Dakota Fanning.
