The Top 20 Donna Troy Covers

Who is Donna Troy? She's everything Wonder Woman can't be. From teen sexpot object of the entire Titans team's affections to wife and mother, you can actually do stuff with Troy without protesters taking to the streets. Of course, that only worked when Donna was an accidentally created Titans property, rather than being Wonder Girl. Wonder Woman was an absentee "sister" for the better part of thirty years before her revised continuity and creators misguided need to drag Donna into it ruined the character for the last quarter-century. They tried everything, none of it worked, and made such a mess that now nobody can do anything with her.

Dishonorable Mention:
The New Titans #92 (November, 1992)

Of course conceiving a child with Terry Long would result in a mass murdering psychotic demi-god, but did Donna have to go and invest in her own gold lamé goddess suit. 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Think This Went All Wrong, especially the part where Troia gave up her powers to become a housewife and den mother to the Team Titans.

Obligatory Mention:
The Brave and The Bold #60 (July, 1965)

Once again, the obligatory first appearance cover rears its ugly head, fending off objectively better but less heralded pieces.

20) Firestorm #19 (January, 2006)

Donna Troy: happy, free, and leading a purposeful life. That won't happen much on this list.

19) Teen Titans #21 (June, 1969)

Who is Donna Troy? She's just the girl-- the Wonder Girl-- the girl U want! It really can be that simple, guys.

18) Titans #20 (February, 2010)

A sexy, mature Donna Troy in her trademark red. We don't get anywhere near enough of this.

17) Titans #23-25 (January-March, 2001)



I'm counting this triptych as one cover, not only because it's one image broken up into three, but because they're all boring and indistinguishable from one another. Phil Jimenez, when will you learn that less is more? Your covers are choked to death by excessive detail that congeal into one mass of blah. Your attempts to reconcile Donna Troy's many contradictory elements had the same effect. Also, thanks for sticking Donna in that ink blot of a costume, thoroughly concealing her girlie parts.

16) Teen Titans #22 (August, 1969)

Imagine "those things" are Wonder Woman's editorial office, and the true horror sets in that the Titans boys lost their grip on Donna as a viable character.

15) Wonder Woman #135 (July, 1998)

Okay, Wonder Girl Diana didn't have a playmate, so one was created from her mirror reflection. An evil sorceress who was mad at Hippolyta accidentally kidnapped the duplicate Diana and subjected her to countless traumatic lives as a weird sort of torture. One such life became Donna Troy, who was unmade and recreated from the memories of Wally West. There! Fixed! Right? No? Awww...

14) Blackest Night: Titans #2 (November, 2009)

A baby ate my dingo! Wasn't Robert Long a toddler when he died? Anyway, zombie babies biting their mothers is memorably jacked-up.

13) Teen Titans: Year One #5 (July, 2008)

Were we ever this young?

12) Teen Titans #26 (April, 1970)

The habit of Titans' stripping off their costumes and walking away started here, but screw the symbolism with that high hard heinie on display.

11) Teen Titans Go! #36 (October, 2006)

This is just groovy enough to break the top ten. It's okay to be Twiggy in a cartoon that embraces heroine chic in all character design.

10) Countdown to Final Crisis #1 (April 23, 2008)

Donna Troy as the central figure and leader of a super group that doesn't entirely suck, paving the way for the next big DC crossover epic. Well alright, there is Jimmy Olson, and plainclothes Batman hangers-on, and whatever that robot thing is. Look, nobody who read this thing, myself excluded, wants to remember the grisly details. Let's just focus on the Kubert and the blessed end!

9) Darkstars #26 (November, 1994)

This cover has no significance. It's just really badass, in your face, Donna and Kory blasting the hell out of something x-treme '90s goodness.

8) Wonder Woman #134 (June, 1998)

A great big blank surrounded by more together super-heroes and the words "Who is Donna Troy?" Apropos of something...

7) The New Titans #55 (June, 1989)

We all love George Pérez to death, but he's a terrible character designer, isn't he? All those dated and excessively ornate looks! I mean, everybody loved drawing sexy Wonder Girl on Titans covers, but as soon as this dreadful Troia get-up made the scene, even Pérez himself abandoned her to necessary interiors only. Barely over a year later, Troia got stuffed into a refrigerator for another year, came out a temporary goddess in monochromatic gold and soon a full-time nothin'. Nobody wanted to draw this thing, but it's a nice enough cover swiping Troy's first major costume change.

6) Darkstars #23 (August, 1994)

The return of Donna Troy as a super-heroine after the gymnastics in explaining her lack of ties to the rebooted Wonder Woman became so unhealthy that she lost her old identity altogether.Goodbye husband and child, hello space adventures, a vastly reworked Titans team, and a romance with Green Lantern Kyle Rayner.

5) Action Comics #584 (January, 1987)

The Titans versus Superman, drawn by John Byrne, with Wonder Girl the last woman standing! Plus, those pants are really tight and flow so deliciously into her boots...

4) The New Teen Titans #38 (January, 1984)

Meant to finally put to rest the relationship between Wonder Girl II and Wonder Woman, the only satisfying answer to the question of "Who Is Donna Troy" was undone just a few years later. Now, this serves a reminder of the question that never ceases to be asked to this day.

3) Tales of the Teen Titans #50 (February, 1985)

A detailed but uncluttered and lovely wedding picture. Not enough comic books can rein in their baser impulses long enough to get this right, with Reed and Sue getting the finger for the shenanigans standard. Shame about the groom.

2) Solo #7 (December, 2005)

I somehow missed this outstanding Mike Allredcover on my first attempt, but I updated the entire list to rectify. Batusi!

1) Teen Titans #23 (October, 1969)

The exciting debut of the first wholly Donna Troy costume, visually setting this Wonder Girl apart from Princess Diana. Also signifies her transition from pre-teen to jailbait, fulfilling her Bronze Age defining role as "the hot chick." If only Donna could break free of the drama and crippling continuity cock-ups as easily as she burst through that portrait!

Honorable Mention:
Teen Titans #31 (1966)
Teen Titans #44 (1976)
Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe Vol.XXVI
The New Teen Titans #20 (1984)
Teen Titans Spotlight #12
The New Titans #50
The New Titans #51
Wonder Woman #47 (1987)
Green Lantern #69 (1990)
Green Lantern #70 (1990)
Green Lantern #74 (1990)
Wonder Woman: Donna Troy #1 (1998)
Green Lantern #118 (1990)
Titans #6 (1999)
JLA/Titans #3
Outsiders #31 (2003)
DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy #1
DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy #3
Teen Titans: Year One #1
Teen Titans: Year One #3
Wonder Woman #27 (2006)

Check out more spotlight countdowns of great art from the past 75 years of DC Comics Covers at DC75: Top Character Covers of the Dodranscentennial