Poor Donna.

In the early 1980s, back when I was a young comic fan, DC Comics revived the Teen Titans, a superhero team that when created back in the mid '60s was comprised of several teen sidekicks of popular heroes. The New Titans, as they were frequently refered to, carried over several members of the old team including Wonder Girl, the teen sidekick of Wonder Woman. I was a fan of the series for several years, reading the series regularly until just after Wonder Girl, in her civilian guise of Donna Troy, got married. So when I saw the collection Who Is Donna Troy? in the library today I thumbed through it. The title story, which dealt with Robin's efforts to find out the truth of Donna's personal history, and the story detailing her marriage I was quite familiar with. I may even still have those issues stored away in a box. But having stopped reading the series after that point I was unfamiliar with the other material reprinted within.

The details are too complicated to relate here. But I have to say, poor girl! In 1985 DC had a megacrossover amongst its titles called Crisis On Infinite Earths. It was intended to simplify the continuity of the DC "universe," as considerable baggage had built up over the years. Unfortunately this retcon resulted in a bunch of problems replacing the old problems. This included Wonder Girl's connection with Wonder Woman being at odds with the new continuity that had Wonder Woman as a recent arrival on the scene. So Titans creative team Marv Wolfman and George Perez came up with a new origin story for Donna Troy, who also took on a new superhero name, Troia. This story line is reprinted in Who Is Donna Troy? and frankly its rather a mess. Big surprise, as its an attempt to reconcile a character's old continuity with a comic universe's new continuity.

Bad as this was, the folks at DC couldn't leave well enough alone. As time went on they screwed around with the new continuity, trying to patch over holes they made with the 1985 changes. And now they've changed a lot back to the way it was with the series/crossover event Infinite Crisis. No doubt current comics fans will be debating the effects of the new changes for years to come, and wondering how long it will take for the powers that be at DC to decide its time to screw around with things again.