Donna Troy

Donna Troy: 1200 B.C. - 2004
Donna’s story starts even before her birth. Her mother was Andromache, the last Amazon princess of an Amazon tribe who chose to remain in the Realm of Mortal Men. When her people face extinction, Andromache was married off to the eldest son of King Priam of Troy. Andromache almost chose to exile herself instead of living among men, but had a change of heart when she met her betrothed, Prince Hector. Impressed with Hector’s martial skill and, more importantly, his integrity and character, Andromache decided to honor her mother’s wishes.

The first child of this union, often neglected by history and myth alike, was a daughter they named Donna. Hector trained his daughter in strategy and stewardship while Andromache taught Donna how to wield a sword and manipulate men. When Donna was twelve, she witnessed the death of her father at the hands of Achilles during the siege of Troy and later torn from her mother and brother during the ransacking of Troy. Donna managed to escape her captor and escaped into the wilderness surrounding her once great city.

When word of the fall of Troy had reached Paradise Island, Queen Hippolyta sent her daughter, Princess Diana to retrieve Andromache. However, when the Themyscirans found Donna’s mother, she was a broken woman, so devastated by the loss of her husband and the toll that the war had taken on her, and had no interested in living as an immortal in Paradise; but she did ask of Diana to find her daughter Donna and take her back to Themyscira in Andromache’s place. Diana agreed to the woman’s request and after two years of searching, Diana found the lost princess of Troy, living in the ruins of the Trojan Temple of Apollo. Bringing Donna back to Themyscira, Queen Hippolyta honored Donna’s lineage by declaring that Donna would now be a princess of Themyscira as Hippolyta’s surrogate daughter. While Diana often dreamed of the Man’s world, Donna had no interest of returning to it; and so in 2004 when Princess Diana came to Themyscira begging her mother to open diplomatic relations with the United States, Hippolyta chose to send the skeptical Donna as her envoy and ambassador.

Wonder Girl: 2004 - 2008
After three thousand years and change on Themyscria, Donna never aged much past the physique and maturity of a sixteen year old girl. Once upon a time, the young Amazons were sent on covert voyages to the Realm of Man or missions into the other dimensional planes to help age them to their prime; but since the last teenage Amazon to undergo this archaic practice was Donna’s older sister, Dianna, Hippolyta was not eager to send Donna back into the Realm of Man and Donna was completely fine with that. But that was three-thousand years ago.

So, when Queen Hippolyta called upon Princess Donna to accompany Diana into the Realm of Man to act as the Queen’s Envoy, Donna knew she could no longer avoid the Realm of Man, and accepted her mission as a faithful daughter should. Dressed in ceremonial Amazonian attire, gifted with many of the same divine blessings her older sister had been given by the Gods, and armed with the sword of her father and a lariat give to her by Aphrodite; Donna entered into the Realm of Man, expecting to find a war-torn wasteland. Though Donna saw much had changed on the surface, she found Man still a slave to the same core drives that had destroyed the City of Troy, but Donna did find hope in the newly began effort known as the Justice League of America. At first, Donna focused on her mother’s errand and helped establish a diplomatic relations with no only the United States, but also the UN.

With the matter resolved, Donna auditioned for the JLA, but was denied due to her biological age (in a

close 5-4 vote); however the League was impressed with Donna’s accomplishments and a compromise was reached. If she spent a year among the Titans in training, she would be permitted to join the League as a full member. Donna took the offer and the name Wonder Girl, joined the Titans in 2005, and served as the team’s leader. It turns out, Donna liked the Titans… so much so that when her year was up, it was her turn to give the League the shaft (If you believe Helena, she stuck around because of a crush on a certain ginger archer). Donna ended up hanging with the Titans until their disbanding in early 2007.

Darkstar: 2008 - Present
Donna tried going solo, but after months of being taken form Wonder Woman’s sidekick, Donna was done with her “Wonder Girl” moniker and costume. She gladly gave her blessing for her sister to pass the title on to another. For a while, Donna focused solely on her duties as a Themysciran Ambassador, until Diana was appointed to the position by Queen Hippolyta as part of the negotiations for getting the Justice League reinstated in 2009; but if anything, Donna was pleased to be done with politicians and their games.

Donna chose to stay in the Realm of Man, intending to finally make use of a secret identity (“Donna Troy”) I had set up for her years before. Having been fascinated by photography since her arrival in modern society, Donna had become an amateur shutterbug and chose to further pursue that. Having taken several other candid pictures of Justice Leaguers, Donna put together a portfolio. After Mari McCabe made a few introductions on her behalf and I forged details in her background, Donna landed a good gig as a photographer in NYC. Donna refused to leave retirement many times, even when Dick Grayson and Roy Harper asked her about

the Outsiders. Life was good… and then she got a roommate in 2014. After a certain pumpkin colored princess returned to Earth, Donna made the mistake of offering her room in exchange for “Kori Anders” letting Donna act as her business manager. It worked for about a year, until a tangerine tyrant (Komand'r, Starfire’s sister) wrecked their shop. Making most of a bad situation, I may have had the Wayne Foundation help get them back on their feet, relocating their studio to Blüdhaven in a bid to get her to join the Outsiders, which she did… after some persuasive words from an unlikely source, Lian Harper.

Using some space armor Kori had lying around on her ship and fusing it with some Amazonian details for some needed flair, Donna had the costume but still needed a name… and Koriand’r gave it to her, borrowing the title of the now defunct alien commando unit that once used this particular armor style: the Darkstars.

Trivia and Notes

 * Donna's Lasso of Persuassion, unlike Diana's Lasso of Truth, compels people to do what she says.
 * Donna is currently in a relationship with Roy Harper, and is best friends with Kori.
 * In comics, the Darkstar were not a difunct team, but with the Lantern Corps and the Manhunters already in Earth-27, Roy wasn't sure he wanted another sci-fi police force, so making them a thing of the past seemed the better way to go.
 * The clothes Donna wears in her civilian's picture is a nod to her comic book uniform while in the Teen Titans.
 * Donna was angry at Diana for a while for passing the mantle of Wonder Girl to Cassandra Sandsmark without consulting it with her. She made peace with Donna, but she still doesn't like Cassie, as she feel she hasn't earned the right to be an Amazon.

Links and References

 * Appearances of Donna Troy
 * Character Gallery: Donna Troy