# Donna Troy
**Donna Troy** is a [DC Comics](https://www.edgepedia.org/dc-comics) superhero, known as the original [Wonder Girl](https://www.edgepedia.org/wonder-girl), a founding member of the [Teen Titans](https://www.edgepedia.org/teen-titans), and the adoptive Amazon sister and protégée of Wonder Woman, Diana.[1](https://www.dc.com/characters/donna-troy) She has also operated under the names Troia and Darkstar, and she is unusual among DC characters in that her entire existence is a retcon (retroactively changing established fictional backstory in comics): the Wonder Girl who joined the Teen Titans was originally written as a teenage version of Wonder Woman herself, and the name and identity of Donna Troy were invented later to explain who this separate person was.[2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| First appearance | The Brave and the Bold #60 (1965), as a founding member of the Teen Titans[1](https://www.dc.com/characters/donna-troy) |
| Named and given an origin | Teen Titans #22 (1969), by writer Marv Wolfman[2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/) |
| Classic origin | An orphan rescued from a fire by Wonder Woman and raised on Paradise Island (Themyscira) as an Amazon[2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/) |
| Other identities | Wonder Girl, Troia, Darkstar[1](https://www.dc.com/characters/donna-troy) |
| Powers | Super strength, durability, superhuman agility, healing factor, skilled fighter, magic weaponry[1](https://www.dc.com/characters/donna-troy) |
| Signature story | "Who Is Donna Troy?" (New Teen Titans #38, 1984), later collected as a standalone graphic novel[3](https://www.comics.org/issue/354603/) |
| Live-action portrayer | Conor Leslie in the television series Titans (2018)[2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/) |
## How Wonder Girl was created by mistake
The character predates Donna Troy entirely. [Wonder Woman](https://www.edgepedia.org/wonder-woman) #105 (1958) introduced Wonder Girl as a younger version of Diana for flashback tales, and by 1961 Wonder Woman comics featured stories in which the adult Diana, Wonder Girl, and even a toddler Wonder Tot appeared together, with their mother [Hippolyta](https://www.edgepedia.org/hippolyta), to give the heroine a domestic home life.[2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/) Writer Bob Haney then began treating Wonder Girl as a separate person and included her as a founding member of the Teen Titans in [The Brave and the Bold](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-brave-and-the-bold) #60 in 1965; per one account, the Teen Titans creators believed a Wonder Girl character already existed and did not realize those Wonder Woman stories showed Diana teaming with past versions of herself.[2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/) • [4](https://comicbook.com/comics/news/titans-annual-phil-jimenez-donna-troy-wonder-girl/) The Diana version of Wonder Girl made a final appearance that same year in Wonder Woman #158, in which editor Robert Kanigher's story seemingly "killed" her and Wonder Tot.[2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/)
## The name and the classic origin
In Teen Titans #22 (1969), writer [Marv Wolfman](https://www.edgepedia.org/marv-wolfman) gave the character a name and a backstory: Donna Troy was an orphan Diana rescued from a burning building and took to Themyscira to be raised as an Amazon, and the Amazons later gave her abilities similar to Wonder Woman's.[2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/) She remained a steady presence in the Teen Titans line of comics, and her role alongside [Dick Grayson](https://www.edgepedia.org/dick-grayson) (Robin) and [Wally West](https://www.edgepedia.org/wally-west) (Kid Flash) proved central when the team was reformed in the 1980s as The New Teen Titans.[5](https://dccomicsnews.com/2015/06/30/wonder-woman-asks-who-is-donna-troy/) A well-known story of this period, "Who Is Donna Troy?" in New Teen Titans #38, centers on her hiring Robin to investigate her real parents.[6](https://nerdist.com/article/wonder-girl-donna-troy-history-explained/) • [3](https://www.comics.org/issue/354603/)
## The revolving door of origins
Because the Wonder Girl character is older than Donna Troy, her origins, powers, and motivations have always been malleable.[2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/) The turning point came with the 1987 revision of Wonder Woman's origin following [Crisis on Infinite Earths](https://www.edgepedia.org/crisis-on-infinite-earths): Diana became a hero new to the world, so a Wonder Girl who predated her debut no longer made sense.[2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/) • [4](https://comicbook.com/comics/news/titans-annual-phil-jimenez-donna-troy-wonder-girl/) Successive explanations followed:[2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/) • [4](https://comicbook.com/comics/news/titans-annual-phil-jimenez-donna-troy-wonder-girl/)
- A backstory in which the mythological Titans of implanted her memories and raised her, with Wonder Woman's rescue written into her implanted memories[4](https://comicbook.com/comics/news/titans-annual-phil-jimenez-donna-troy-wonder-girl/)
- A late-1990s retcon making her a magical duplicate of Diana, created as a playmate and later kidnapped and placed in suspended animation[2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/) • [4](https://comicbook.com/comics/news/titans-annual-phil-jimenez-donna-troy-wonder-girl/)
- An incomplete fusion of Donna Troys from across different realities, charged with defending the DC Multiverse, in Phil Jimenez's The Return of Donna Troy (2005)[2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/) • [4](https://comicbook.com/comics/news/titans-annual-phil-jimenez-donna-troy-wonder-girl/)
- In the 2011 New 52 relaunch, a clay warrior created to kill Diana, an origin partially contradicted by the Titans Hunt miniseries and left ambiguous through [DC Rebirth](https://www.edgepedia.org/dc-rebirth)[4](https://comicbook.com/comics/news/titans-annual-phil-jimenez-donna-troy-wonder-girl/)
**Other identities.** Between these retcons Donna has operated as Troia, a name and costume she took after ascending under the Titans of Myth, and as a Darkstar.[1](https://www.dc.com/characters/donna-troy) She has also died and returned more than once, including a death at the hands of a Superman robot in the early 2000s.[7](https://comicsworthreading.com/2006/01/16/the-new-teen-titans-who-is-donna-troy/)
## Return to the classic origin
Writer and artist Phil Jimenez, a noted Wonder Woman and Donna Troy creator, restored the Wolfman origin in Titans Annual #1 (2025). Rather than reconciling every contradictory backstory, the story returns Donna to her basics as an orphan child rescued by Wonder Woman and raised on [Paradise Island](https://www.edgepedia.org/paradise-island) with the Amazons, tracing her life's emotional journey without invoking the conflicting lore.[4](https://comicbook.com/comics/news/titans-annual-phil-jimenez-donna-troy-wonder-girl/) This followed earlier moves in the same direction: Tales of the Titans #3 (2023) and the New History of the [DC Universe](https://www.edgepedia.org/dc-universe) had already reintroduced elements of her pre-Crisis origins.[4](https://comicbook.com/comics/news/titans-annual-phil-jimenez-donna-troy-wonder-girl/)
## Powers and role
DC's official character listing gives her powers as super strength, durability, superhuman agility, a healing factor, fighting skill, and magic weaponry.[1](https://www.dc.com/characters/donna-troy) In her classic origin the Amazons granted her abilities similar to Wonder Woman's; in the pre-Crisis Earth-One version these came from Purple Ray treatments administered on Paradise Island.[2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/) • [8](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Donna_Troy_%28New_Earth%29) She is closely associated with the Titans rather than with Wonder Woman's own cast, and her long-running friendships with Dick Grayson and Wally West are among the defining relationships of the Titans franchise.[5](https://dccomicsnews.com/2015/06/30/wonder-woman-asks-who-is-donna-troy/)
## In other media
Donna Troy was portrayed by actress [Conor Leslie](https://www.edgepedia.org/conor-leslie) in the DC Universe television series Titans, debuting in the November 30, 2018 episode titled "Donna Troy".[9](https://www.dc.com/blog/2018/11/20/titans-first-look-at-donna-troy) • [2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/) The show drew mainly on the Wolfman origin, portraying her as a former Wonder Girl, a photographer, and Dick Grayson's oldest friend with a sibling-like, strictly platonic bond.[2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/) Leslie was the first live-action Donna Troy.[2](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/)
## References
1. [Donna Troy | Official DC Character](https://www.dc.com/characters/donna-troy)
2. [Titans Introduces Donna Troy: What to Know About Wonder Girl's TV Debut, Rotten Tomatoes](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/titans-introduces-donna-troy-what-to-know-about-wonder-girls-tv-debut/)
3. [The New Teen Titans: Who Is Donna Troy?, Grand Comics Database](https://www.comics.org/issue/354603/)
4. [How DC's Best Creator Gave Wonder Girl the Origin She Deserved, ComicBook.com](https://comicbook.com/comics/news/titans-annual-phil-jimenez-donna-troy-wonder-girl/)
5. [Wonder Woman Asks... Who Is Donna Troy?, DC Comics News](https://dccomicsnews.com/2015/06/30/wonder-woman-asks-who-is-donna-troy/)
6. [Why is DC Afraid of Wonder Girl? Donna Troy's Strange History Explained, Nerdist](https://nerdist.com/article/wonder-girl-donna-troy-history-explained/)
7. [The New Teen Titans: Who Is Donna Troy?, Comics Worth Reading](https://comicsworthreading.com/2006/01/16/the-new-teen-titans-who-is-donna-troy/)
8. [Donna Troy (New Earth), DC Database](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Donna_Troy_%28New_Earth%29)
9. [Titans: First Look at Donna Troy, DC](https://www.dc.com/blog/2018/11/20/titans-first-look-at-donna-troy)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Film characters and fictional worlds › DC Comics characters › Justice League and other DC heroes › Titles A to I*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license