Wonder Girl

Wonder Girl is the alias of multiple superheroines featured in comic books published by DC Comics. Donna Troy, the original Wonder Girl, was created by Bob Haney and Bruno Premiani and first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #60 (June/July 1965). The second Wonder Girl, Cassie Sandsmark, was created by John Byrne and first appeared in Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #105 (January 1996). Both are protégées of Wonder Woman and members of different incarnations of the Teen Titans. The alias has also been used in reference to a younger version of Wonder Woman as a teenager.

This article is about the DC Comics characters. For the American music producer, see WondaGurl. For the South Korean band, see Wonder Girls.
Wonder Girl
The three Wonder Girls: Donna Troy, Princess Diana, Cassandra Sandsmark. Cover to Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #186 (December 2002). Art by Adam Hughes.
PublisherDC Comics
First appearancePrincess Diana:
Wonder Woman (vol. 1) #23 (May/June 1947)
Donna Troy:
The Brave and the Bold #60 (June/July 1965)
Cassandra Sandsmark:
Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #105 (January 1996)
Yara Flor:
Future State: Wonder Woman (vol. 1) #1 (January 2021)
Created byRobert Kanigher
CharactersDiana Prince
Donna Troy
Cassandra Sandsmark
Wonder Girl
Wonder Girl #1 (November 2007)
Featuring the Cassie Sandsmark version of the character.
Art by Sanford Greene and Nathan Massengill.
Series publication information
PublisherDC Comics
ScheduleMonthly
FormatLimited series
Genre
Publication dateNovember 2007 – April 2008
Number of issues6
Main character(s)Cassandra Sandsmark

An original version of Wonder Girl named Drusilla appeared in the Wonder Woman television series, played by Debra Winger. Donna Troy makes her live adaptation debut in the DC Universe series Titans, played by Conor Leslie.

Fictional character biographies

Diana
Main article: Wonder Woman

Although not named Wonder Girl, a young Wonder Woman appeared as part of the character's origin story in All-Star Comics #8 (December 1941), Wonder Woman's first appearance. A teen-aged Princess Diana of the Amazons was featured in a backstory in Wonder Woman (vol. 1) #23 (May/June 1947), written by William Moulton Marston and designed by H.G. Peter.[1]

Wonder Girl first appeared in The Secret Origin of Wonder Woman, written and edited by Robert Kanigher, in Wonder Woman (vol. 1) #105 (April 1958). In this revised Silver Age origin, it is established that Diana had in fact not been created from clay, but had been born before the Amazons settled on Paradise Island. Following this issue were several Wonder Girl adventures, and years later an additional character, Wonder Tot—Wonder Woman as a toddler—was also featured. Kanigher restored the character's made-from-clay origin in 1966.

From Wonder Woman (vol. 1) #124 (August 1961) onward, Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl, and Wonder Tot frequently appeared together in stories that were labeled "impossible tales", presented as films made by Wonder Woman's mother, Queen Hippolyta, who had the power to splice together films of herself and Diana at different ages. The characters of Wonder Girl and Wonder Woman then began to diverge, as Bob Haney wrote Wonder Girl stories that took place in the same time period as those of Wonder Woman.

The last significant appearance of Wonder Woman as a child Wonder Girl was in November 1965. In the tongue-in-cheek Wonder Woman (vol. 1) #158, the aforementioned Kanigher broke the fourth wall by having Wonder Girl and the rest of the supporting cast he had created (Wonder Tot, the Glop, Bird-Boy, Mer-Boy, Birdman, and Manno) come to the office of a "certain" editor. Protested by fans for ruining the character, Kanigher tells Wonder Girl that he does love her, along with all of his other daughters, such as Black Canary, Star Sapphire, and the Harlequin. Even so, with mounting pressure, he has no choice but to declare her retconned. Wonder Girl stoically accepts her fate as she and the others turn into drawings on Kanigher's desk. Soon after, Wonder Woman enters and is shocked to see her younger self "killed".

Regardless, Diana as a child Wonder Girl was never completely rejected. Reprints of Wonder Girl stories were occasionally included in the comic book. In issue #200, Wonder Woman, in her Diana Prince identity, is shown walking past children at play whereon she flashes back to when she was a fourteen-year-old Wonder Girl with a crush on Mer-Boy.

Donna Troy
Main article: Donna Troy

While the characters of Wonder Girl and Wonder Woman were diverging, Haney was developing a new group of junior superheroes, whose first informal appearance featured a team-up of Robin (Dick Grayson), Kid Flash (Wally West), and Aqualad (Garth). During their next appearance in The Brave and the Bold #60 (July 1965), they were dubbed the Teen Titans and joined by Wonder Girl, pictured in the same frame as Wonder Woman and calling Hippolyta "mother".[2]

Wonder Girl and the other Teen Titans were then featured in Showcase #59 (December 1965) before being spun off into their own series with Teen Titans (vol. 1) #1 (February 1966). With the character called only Wonder Girl, or "Wonder Chick" by her teammates, her status as either the younger Wonder Woman displaced in the timeline or another character altogether is not explained until Teen Titans (vol. 1) #22 (August 1969).[3] In a story by Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane it is established that Wonder Girl is a non-Amazon orphan, rescued by Wonder Woman from an apartment building fire. Unable to find any parents or family, Wonder Woman brings the child to Paradise Island, where she is eventually given Amazon powers by the Purple Ray. The story ends with Wonder Girl wearing a new costume and hairstyle, adopting the secret identity Donna Troy.

Multiple origins

As special event comics like the Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis miniseries have rewritten character histories, the origin of Donna Troy has been revised several times. In brief, those origins are as follows:

  1. Rescued orphan: Donna Troy was rescued from an apartment building fire by Wonder Woman, who took her to Paradise Island to be raised as an Amazon by Queen Hippolyta.
  2. Titan Seed: The Titan Rhea had rescued a young Donna from a fire, adding her to a group of 12 orphans from around the universe who had been raised on New Cronus by these Titans as "Titan Seeds", their eventual saviors. The Seeds had been given superhuman powers and named after ancient Greek cities. Called "Troy", Donna (like the others) had eventually been stripped of her memories of her time with the Titans of Myth, and reintroduced into humankind to await her destiny. In this version, Donna was not an Amazon and had no connection to Wonder Woman.[4]
  3. Infinite Lives of Donna Troy: In a revision that incorporated the Titan Seed continuity while reattaching Donna Troy to Wonder Woman, it is revealed that the Amazon sorceress Magala had animated a mirror image of young Princess Diana to create for her a mystical, "identical twin" playmate. This twin is soon mistaken for Diana and kidnapped by Dark Angel (revealed in the Return of Donna Troy mini-series to be the Donna Troy of Earth 7). Dark Angel disperses the girl's spirit across the multiverse, condemning her to live multiple lives, each one cut short by the Dark Angel at a moment of tragedy.[5] In at least one of these variant lives, Donna would become a superhero and encounter her grown sister, now Wonder Woman, and their mother Queen Hippolyta, without realizing who she really was or how she was related to them. After that timeline ends with the death of Donna's son, Diana and Hippolyta intervene to find what happened to Donna. Donna finally defeats Dark Angel, destroying the evil entity and regaining her original Amazon powers. She returns to reality to continue her life from that point.[6]
  4. Pre Flashpoint version: Wonder Woman (vol. 3) Annual #1 gives Donna a new origin that combines elements of her three variant origins. Donna was born as Princess Diana's mystic twin through the help of Amazon sorceress Magala. Months later, an old enemy of Queen Hippolyta, called Dark Angel, kidnapped Donna thinking she was Diana. Donna was placed in suspended animation by Dark Angel for years but was eventually rescued and returned to the Amazons' home, where she received training from both the Amazons and the Titans of Myth and was raised as Queen Hippolyta's second daughter. Years later, she followed Wonder Woman into the outside world as Wonder Girl and helped form the Teen Titans.[7]
  5. Rebirth: It is revealed that Donna was created out of clay as part of a plan to destroy Wonder Woman but the Amazons gave her false memories of being an orphan rescued by Wonder Woman allowing her to live a normal life.[8]

Cassandra Sandsmark
Cover to Teen Titans #35 (2006). Art by Tony Daniel.
Main article: Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark)

Cassie Sandsmark is the daughter of Dr. Helena Sandsmark, an archaeologist, and Zeus. She has been a member of both Young Justice and the Teen Titans. Initially, her powers were derived from ancient Greek magical 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 her half-brother, 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 to be an independent vigilante. She was mourning the loss of her lover, Superboy, and bitter from the abandonment by Robin and Wonder Woman over the following year. She later rejoined the group after a battle with the Brotherhood of Evil and the return of Cyborg. She is close friends with fellow hero Supergirl.

Yara Flor

Yara Flor is the daughter of an Amazon and a Brazilian river god, who becomes the defender of Themyscira. The character debuted in January 2021 as part of DC Comic's Future State event.[9][10]

Alternate versions

Tiny Titans

Both Donna and Cassie have a recurring roles in the Tiny Titans comic by Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani. The two are depicted as cousins, with the Wonder Girl alias given to Donna and Cassie being referred to by her first name.[11]

Superman & Batman: Generations

In Superman & Batman: Generations #2, Wonder Girl first appears in 1953 as a "mystic projection" to take Wonder Woman's place while Diana gives birth. She finds a wounded Steve Trevor and takes him back to Paradise Island, but despite being subjected to the Purple Power Ray, he dies of his wounds, leaving Diana to raise their daughter, Stephanie, alone.

In 1964, Stephanie (or "Stevie") decides to go out on her own as Wonder Girl. She shares a link with Supergirl (Kara Kent), as they were born at the same time. Years later, she becomes the new Wonder Woman. Her outfit is pretty much the same as her mother's, except that she does not possess either the tiara or the Magic Lasso of Aphrodite, instead possessing the winged sandals of Hermes. She also wears a mask. When she becomes the new Wonder Woman, she adds a cape to the ensemble. In Superman & Batman: Generations #3, she is killed by Darkseid.

Earth-2

Another version of Donna exists in the New 52 on the alternate Earth-2. In Earth-2: Society, the character, Fury, reveals her name is Donna. This character is the daughter of the late Earth-2 Wonder Woman and the New God, Steppenwolf. This is the first time Fury is used as a doppelganger of Donna Troy and not just an analogue.

DC Comics Bombshells

In the DC Comics Bombshells universe, Wonder Girl is not a single person, but rather a team of young Asian-American girls who are empowered by the mystical artifacts formerly used by Wonder Woman. The Wonder Girls consist of Donna Troy (a Nisei Japanese-American), Cassie Sandsmark (a mixed-race girl of partial Japanese heritage), Yuki and Yuri Katsura, and Emily Sung.[12]

Injustice

In the comic tie-in to Injustice: Gods Among Us, Cassie is with the Titans when the Joker's nuclear bomb goes off. Her attire is similar to that of Wonder Woman's in the game. She is sent to spy on Conner after he is devastated by Superman's actions to see what he's up to, and finds him at the Fortress of Solitude trying to find the Phantom Zone Projector. She and the other Titans try to help Conner stop Superman, but Superman mortally wounds him. She and the Titans are sent to the Phantom Zone by Superman to save Conner's life and to stop them from interfering with Superman's plans. In the prequel to Injustice 2, they are freed from the Phantom Zone thanks to the Insurgency. As evidenced during their fight with Amazo, her relationship to her mentor, Wonder Woman, is strained due to the latter allying with the Regime (Though Diana is still concerned for Cassie's well-being and had no idea about Superman sending the Titans to the Phantom Zone).

In other media

Animated
  • The Donna Troy incarnation of Wonder Girl appears in the Teen Titans segments of The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, voiced by Julie Bennett.
  • The second animated appearance of the Donna Troy incarnation of Wonder Girl was in the ultra-rare 1984 "New Teen Titans Say No to Drugs" public service announcement. This would be the only animated version of the second incarnation of the Teen Titans produced by Hanna-Barbera. The New Teen Titans in the commercial included Wonder Girl, Raven, Starfire, Kid Flash, Cyborg, Changeling and The Protector (from the anti-drug comic book). Robin was omitted due to licensing rights.
  • In the episode "Paradise Lost" from the first season of the Justice League animated series, Wonder Woman saves a young blonde girl from a tree. When Wonder Woman returns the girl to her mother, the mother calls the girl "Cassie". This is an obvious reference to Wonder Girl from the comics.
  • In the fifth season of Teen Titans, a girl bearing a resemblance to the Donna Troy version of Wonder Girl – a brunette with star-shaped earrings – is seen briefly in episodes "Homecoming: Part II" and "Calling All Titans".[13]
  • The Donna Troy incarnation of Wonder Girl appears as one of the lead characters in Super Best Friends Forever, a series of animated shorts for Cartoon Network's DC Nation block, voiced by Grey DeLisle.[14] She also makes a cameo in DC Nation's New Teen Titans short "Kids Korner 4 Kids", in which she appears with the other Titans in a game where the viewer has to find Beast Boy.
  • The Donna Troy incarnation of Wonder Girl makes a nonspeaking cameo in a DC Super Friends short.
  • The Cassie Sandsmark incarnation of Wonder Girl appears in the Young Justice: Invasion episode "Happy New Year", voiced by Mae Whitman.[15] She is introduced as a member of the Team's Beta Squad alongside Batgirl where they first appear to fight Lobo who was targeting U.N. Secretary General Tseng (who was actually an alien in disguise). In "Alienated" Wonder Girl and Wonder Woman were part of Delta Squad during the mission to stop the Kroloteans on Malina Island. They both took out multiple Mechs. When they learned the base was set to explode, she and the team retreated to the Bio-Ship. In "Beneath" she, Miss Martian, Bumblebee, and Batgirl liberated a group of abductees guarded by Mammoth, Icicle Jr., Devastation, Shimmer, and Psimon in Bialya. In "Before the Dawn", Wonder Girl and Alpha Squad followed a Manta-Flyer from Star City to the Reach's headquarters to rescue their captured teammates and other abductees. The operation was cut short by a Reach enforcer, who Wonder Girl dubbed as "Black Beetle". As he overpowered and easily defeated the team one by one, Cassie contacted the other heroes for help. Black Beetle pinned her against the door, and mercilessly slammed her into it repeatedly until she was down. Blue Beetle, Beast Boy and Impulse arrived. While Blue Beetle held off the Black Beetle, Impulse and Beast Boy helped the team aboard the Bio-Ship and escaped. Wonder Girl and Tim Drake became a couple shortly after the Reach invasion concluded. Wally West's death was the catalyst in giving Wonder Girl the courage to kiss him. In Young Justice: Outsiders, she tries patch things up with Tim Drake after he leaves the Team and becomes a member of the Batman Inc. Later in the season, she helps found the Outsiders (alongside Beast Boy, Blue Beetle, Static, Geo-Force, and Bart Allen). Donna Troy (as Troia) was set to appear in Young Justice as a former member of the Team from the five year gap between seasons 1 and 2. She was meant to be included in the episodes "Satisfaction" and "Endgame", but her planned cameo was scrapped in both instances.[16] Donna debuts in the third-season episode "Royal We" as an ambassador for Themyscira at the UN alongside Garth of Atlantis, and goes on to appear in "Influence" and "Elder Wisdom", with Grey DeLisle reprising her role.
  • The Donna Troy incarnation appears in Teen Titans Go!, voiced by Hynden Walch. In the June 2019 episode "The Bergerac", the Titans give Robin advice to guide him through his camp romance with Wonder Girl.

Live-action
Debra Winger as Wonder Girl.
  • In 1976, a version of Wonder Girl appeared in the Wonder Woman television series and was played by Debra Winger, in one of her first mass-media roles. The actress Charlene Tilton, best known for playing Lucy Ewing in the television series Dallas, auditioned for the part of Wonder Girl but lost it to Winger.[17] The pilot episode revealed that Wonder Woman's alter-ego, Princess Diana of Paradise Island, was Queen Hippolyta's daughter, but later episodes featured Diana's younger sibling, Drusilla. Drusilla first appeared in the two-part episode The Feminum Mystique. In that episode, Queen Hippolyta (Carolyn Jones) sends Drusilla to America in order to bring Diana home to Paradise Island. (Queen Hippolyta is never referred 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 bracelets, which can deflect bullets, and in the process Drusilla 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. In the second part of this episode, Drusilla returns to Paradise Island to help free her fellow Amazons from a Nazi overtaking. Drusilla appeared again in another episode, the final episode of the first season, entitled Wonder Woman in Hollywood. On September 3, 1993, Winger appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman to promote her film Wilder Napalm. There, Winger revealed she was contracted a position as a regular on the show and even the lead in a Wonder Girl spinoff TV show. She wanted off the show and had her agent get her out of her contract. Letterman then showed the audience a short clip of Winger as Wonder Girl and asked several questions about the show and co-star Lynda Carter. Winger briefly feigned embarrassment, but then claimed she was late for something she had to do, then surprisingly tore off her dress to reveal a Wonder Girl costume underneath. Winger ran through the audience to exit the theater, while the Wonder Woman theme song's bass line played.[18] In the comics, Drusilla is a regular amazon who appears in Wonder Woman #182, 1969 who was an ally to Wonder Woman. A figure resembling Winger's Drusilla made a cameo appearance in Infinite Crisis #6, as the Wonder Girl of Earth-462. Cassandra Sandsmark would later adapt the alias of Drusilla to protect her identity.
  • Donna Troy appears in the DC Universe series Titans, portrayed by Conor Leslie. Introduced in the episode "Donna Troy", this version of Donna is an investigative photojournalist who was the childhood best friend of Dick Grayson and former sidekick of Wonder Woman. In the present day, Dick seeks Donna's assistance in translating an ancient text which reveals Koriand'r's mission to kill Rachel Roth in order to thwart her destiny to destroy the world. Dick and Donna save Rachel from a remorseful Starfire, and the group moves to confront Rachel's demon father, Trigon.
  • The CW, Greg Berlanti and Dailyn Rodriguez are developing a Wonder Girl TV series that will be focused on Yara Flor as Wonder Girl, which will also be the first to include a Latina title character in a DC TV series.[19]

Film

Video games
  • The Donna Troy incarnation of Wonder Girl appears in DC Universe Online, voiced by Deena Hyatt. She is originally fought as a possessed minion of Trigon's, but later becomes a helping ally. She is also a vendor in the Watchtower selling the Tier 2 Iconic Armor, Hera's Strength.
  • In Injustice: Gods Among Us, Donna Troy's name is listed on a hit list during Deathstroke's outro.
  • Donna Troy and Cassie Sandsmark appear as playable characters in Lego DC Super-Villains.

Miscellaneous
  • Teen Titans Go! #36 (October 2006) introduces Donna Troy as the Wonder Girl who appears on the Teen Titans animated series. She is depicted with her original origin as being adopted by the Amazons on Paradise Island and becomes a recurring character in subsequent issues of the series.[13] Cassie Sandsmark also appears in issue #54, where she is depicted as the head of her high school's Wonder Woman fan club. Her obsession leads her to steal two mystical artifacts that grant her superpowers, after which she barges into an athletic tournament on Paradise Island set up by Donna Troy to see which of the world's young female heroes might be able to replace her as Wonder Woman's partner. Cassie initially plans to defeat Donna one-on-one to become the new Wonder Girl, but winds up helping her save Paradise Island from an invasion by the undersea villain Trident instead. At the issue's end, Donna offers Cassie a chance to join the Titans' worldwide training program, once her mother was through punishing her for stealing the artifacts.

References
  1. Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Manning, Matthew K.; McAvennie, Michael; Wallace, Daniel (2019). DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle. DK Publishing. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-4654-8578-6.
  2. Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 329. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
  3. "Teen Titans (vol. 1) #22 (August 1969)". The Grand Comics Database Project. Retrieved March 14, 2009.
  4. The New Titans #50-54 (December 1988 – March 1989)
  5. Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #131-136 (March – August 1998)
  6. Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #136 (August 1998)
  7. Wonder Woman (vol. 3) Annual #1
  8. Titans Annual #1 (May 2017)
  9. "Who is Yara Flor from DC Comics' Wonder Girl series on The CW?". Radio Times.
  10. Nelson, Samantha (2021-01-05). "Future State: Wonder Woman #1 unleashes the wild potential of a new hero". Polygon. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
  11. "Tiny Titans" #1
  12. "Wonder Woman confronts Japanese-American internment in DC's 'Bombshells United'". NBC News.
  13. "J. Torres on Wonder Girl". Newsarama.com. Retrieved on January 1, 2009.
  14. Webb, Charles (March 2, 2012). "Interview: Becoming 'Super Best Friends Forever' With Lauren Faust". MTV.com. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
  15. "Young Justice Interview: Greg Weisman & Brandon Vietti Talk Saturday's Season Premiere - KSiteTV". Retrieved 13 October 2014.
  16. "Search Ask Greg : Gargoyles : Station Eight". www.s8.org.
  17. Pingel, Mike (February 23, 2012). Channel Surfing: WONDER WOMAN. pp. 54–55. ISBN 978-1468183030.
  18. "Wonder Girl with David Letterman". Freewebs.com. Archived from the original on 2010-03-03. Retrieved September 15, 2010. Clip
  19. Andreeva, Nellie (November 16, 2020). "'Wonder Girl' TV Series With Latina Lead From Dailyn Rodriguez & Berlanti Productions In Works At the CW". Deadline.
  20. "'Scooby Doo: Wrestlemania Mystery' Stuns Viewers With a 'Young Justice' Easter Egg". The Outhouse - The Journalism the Comics Industry Deserved.
  21. http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2014/03/25/young-justices-brandon-vietti-pairs-scooby-doo-wwe-hints-at-dc-return/
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