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Wonder Girl is a fictional superhero character owned by DC Comics, and is connected to their more famous Wonder Woman character. Wonder Woman was a member of the Amazon race, daughter of Queen Hyppolyta, who has come to "man's world" to represent her people and fight for justice. Wonder Girl, while considered a sort of teen sidekick to Wonder Woman, has actually ony recently begun to fight at her side.
There have been three different characters called Wonder Girl.
The First Wonder Girl (Diana)
Wonder Girl's original look.
The first was created during the early Silver Age of Comics, and was merely Diana (Wonder Woman) when she was a young girl, growing up on Paradise Island. This Wonder Girl first appeared in Wonder Woman #105 (1958), and was created by Robert Kanigher. Later, Wonder Girl’s adventures as a toddler were featured calling her “Wonder Tot”. This corresponded with the treatment of Superman, whose Superboy character was “the adventures of Superman when he was a boy” and tales of “Superbaby” told of his life as a toddler.
After a while, the writers began to have Wonder Girl adventures that seemed to take place in modern time. This confusion may have a role in the creation of the second Wonder Girl, Donna Troy. When Bob Haney included her in the Teen Titans (see below), he may not have understood that she wasn't supposed to be a contemporary character.
In the current continuity, Diana was never referred to as Wonder Girl, which makes sense considering she was not named Wonder Woman until after she left Paradise Island for the United States.
| Wonder Girl
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Donna Troy's second costume.
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| Gender
| Female
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| Publisher
| DC Comics
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| Origin
| Paradise Island, (also called Themyscira).
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| First Appearance
| Brave and the Bold # 60 (1965)
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| Creator(s)
| Bob Haney and Bruno Premiani
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| Alter ego
| Donna Troy
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| Aliases
| Wonder Chick, Darkstar, Troia, Wonder Woman
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| Abilities
| Superhuman Strength, speed, stamina; flight, hand-to-hand combat, magical weapons able to block bullets shot at her with her femininium bracelets.
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| Affiliations
| Teen Titans
Themyscira
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The Second Wonder Girl (Donna Troy)
In her first official appearance, Wonder Girl joined Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad to create the Teen Titans, a kind of Junior Justice League, made up of the teen sidekicks of Justice League members. At this time, it was unclear really who this Wonder Girl was. She wore a smaller more demure version of Wonder Woman's costume. In Teen Titans #22 (July-August, 1969), she finally got a name and origin.
She was a baby orphan rescued by Wonder Woman from a tenement building which caught fire, and raised on Paradise Island by Queen Hyppolyta, Wonder Woman’s mother. The Amazons used their advanced science (they had a Purple Ray which could do just about anything) to give her Amazon-like powers. Since Wonder Girl was not a native born Amazon, she was free to come and go as she pleased. She took on the name Donna Troy, and established a secret identity for herself. In that very issue, she got a sexy new red costume spangled with stars.
After Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985) Wonder Woman’s history changed. They were going to start her over again, like a new character, and people would meet her as if for the first time. They realized that this meant Wonder Girl would have to have made her debut before Wonder Woman. So they scrambled for a new origin.
The new idea was that Wonder Girl was rescued by the Titans of Myth instead of Diana, and raised with eleven other orphan children and granted superpowers. They were trained and educated on the moon called New Cronus, and then returned to their native planet with false memories. Each of these orphans were named after a Greek city, as in “Troy”.
After the return to their worlds for some years, one of the orphans named Sparta went mad, and began killing the other Titan orphans. After a battle with her, the truth of Wonder Girl’s true origin came out. Wonder Girl changed her superhero name to Troia, and returned to Earth and to the Teen Titans. She now wore a black costume with a star field.
Some years later, Troia’s origin was rewritten again. In her next origin, which by-and-large still holds, she is a magic duplicate of Wonder Woman created when Diana was a child and lonely for someone her age to play with. She was created out of a portion of Diana’s soul by Magala, an Amazon sorceress. She was kidnapped by the super villain Dark Angel who thought she was Diana, and left to live different tragic lives in different dimensions. At the end of each unhappy life, Donna’s memory was restored so that she could recall the suffering from her past lives. She would then begin again in a new life, and everyone who knew her would forget about her. This was done in revenge for Hyppolyta defeating Dark Angel during World War II. Her life as Wonder Girl on Earth was just another of these lives, ending with the death of her husband, Terry Long, and their child in fatal car crash.
With Wonder Woman, Hyppolyta and Flash’s help, this cycle was finally broken, and Donna was recreated one final time, still a younger woman than Diana, and she came back to live on Paradise Island as Troia. Because she was made out of a part of Wonder Woman’s soul, Hyppolyta acknowledged her as a true Amazon princess, and Diana became her adopted sister.
Her origin has been tweaked again since Infinite Crisis (2005), but Donna Troy continues as Troia, Wonder Woman’s younger sister, her origin essentially intact. For a while, when Diana gave up her Wonder Woman role, she even took on the role of Wonder Woman for a limited time.
| Wonder Girl
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Wonder Girl confers with Robin
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| Gender
| Female
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| Publisher
| DC Comics
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| Origin
| Mortal and God hybrid.
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| First Appearance
| Wonder Woman #105 (January, 1996)
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| Creator(s)
| John Byrne
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| Alter ego
| Cassandra (Cassie) Sandsmark
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| Aliases
| Drusilla
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| Abilities
| Superhuman Strength, speed, duability; flight, hand-to-hand combat, magic lasso that channels Zeus’ lightning.
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| Affiliations
| Teen Titans, Young Justice
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The Third Wonder Girl (Cassandra Sandsmark)
Cassie is the daughter of archeologist Dr. Helena Sandsmark, a good friend of Wonder Woman. Cassie discovers that her father is Zeus, King of the Greek Gods the Amazons have traditionally worshipped. From Zeus, Cassandra acquires some magical artifacts (the gauntlet of Atlas and the sandals of Hermes) and fashions a costume, and, calling herself Wonder Girl, comes to Diana’s aid. Later, Zeus grants her real powers as a reward for services, and Cassandra is now Wonder Girl. Her mother has reluctantly decided to support her daughter in this endeavor, though Zeus gave Dr. Sandsmark the ability to “turn off” her daughters powers if she chooses to.
This Wonder Girl wears a red blouse with symbols reminiscent of the original Wonder Girl costume, and blue jeans emphasizing her youth. Cassandra has been trained in combat by the Amazon Artemis. She was a founding member of Young Justice, and is currently a key player in the Teen Titans. She had a romance with Conner Kent, the Modern Age Superboy, and has been plagued by intense grief since his death during Infinite Crisis (2005).
Wonder Girl (2007) is a six issue limited series starring Cassie as the title character.
Portrayals
In the three episodes of the first animated Teen Titans, featured on the Saturday morning cartoon TV series, The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure (1967-1968), Wonder Girl was voiced by Julie Bennett.
Debra Winger as Wonder Girl (right)
A version of the Wonder Girl character was played by a young Debra Winger in three episodes of the 1976 Wonder Woman (TV series).
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