Teen Titans/Outsiders: The Death and Return of Donna Troy

Teen Titans/Outsiders: The Death and Return of Donna Troy

By Phil Jimenez, Judd Winick & various (DC Comics)
ISBN12: 978-1-84576-248-3

For the continuity conscious comic reader, Wonder Girl – or Donna Troy, or Troia, or whatever — has always been a problem. From the very first moment that she joined the rest of the DC Universe in Brave and the Bold #60 (a Teen Titans tryout issue) she was a vital part of the team, despite actually only being a projection of the adult Wonder Woman in her home comic. Over the years a succession of writers has tried to retrofit the character into a semblance of logic without much success. Best then to just accept that she’s there and leave it at that, if you can.

This volume collects the latest attempt to validate her existences, reprinting her last major stories just prior to the DC Infinite Crisis storyline which reset everything. Featured here are Teen Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day #1-3, Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files 2003 and DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy #1-4; a series of specials that attempted to reposition some of the company’s core titles in advance of that looming mega event.

‘Graduation Day’ saw a sexy robot arrive from the future as the juvenile superhero team Young Justice was breaking up. Her confused actions inadvertently release a deadly android stored at S.T.A.R. Labs, which neither the child heroes nor the Teen Titans can stop. In a cataclysmic battle both Omen and Donna Troy are killed. These tragedies lead to the dissolution of Young Justice, the formation of the covert and pre-emptive Outsiders and the reformation of a new Titans group dedicated to better training the heroes of tomorrow. Even though a frightfully contrived ploy to launch some new titles, this tale is still a punchy and effective thriller from writer Judd Winick, penciller Alé Garcia and inkers Trevor Scott, Larry Stucker and Marlo Alquiza.

‘Who was Donna Troy’, written and drawn by Phil Jimenez, with inks by Andy Lanning is a short but moving eulogy for the character set at her funeral with friends and guest-stars discussing her life and career.

‘The Return of Donna Troy’, scripted by Jimenez and illustrated by José Luis Garcia-López and George Pérez, reveals that Donna Troy’s soul was intercepted by the Titans, the mythical progenitors of the Greek Gods who reanimated her body and elevated her to their ranks. The backstory of this is much too complicated for this review, but if you’ll just accept that in one of her previous refits Troy was revealed as an adopted child of these morally ambivalent deities and they have returned to exploit her you’ll be fine.

These Gods are using her to further a plot to conquer a planet with a cosmic secret, but Troy’s near seduction to the Dark Side is thwarted when her old superhero comrades get involved. However, although beautifully drawn this tale menders and waffles way too much to be anything more than eye-candy for the faithful and a big headache for any fool brave enough to try it without a degree in Teen Titans continuity.

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