Wonder Girls
Just as Diana isn't the only Amazon to serve as Wonder Woman, several young women have held the title of Wonder Girl...
Diana
In 1959, there began a series of "flashback" stories about Diana's childhood on Paradise Island. They showed her at various stages of her youth, often interacting with different incarnations of herself as Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl, and even Wonder Tot. Along with Queen Hippolyte (as her name was originally spelled), they were the Wonder Family. These silly, sweet stories often featured young Diana's would-be suitors Mer-Boy and Bird-Boy and were first supposed to be part of actual continuity, but due to their fanciful, impractical nature, they soon came to be called "Impossible Tales".
(please visit Carol A Strickland's WW Site for an in-depth look at these stories).
Donna Troy
When DC began publishing Teen Titans, it featured a line-up of popular kid sidekicks: Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Wonder Girl. Originally, she was supposed to be the same young Diana from the "Impossible Tales" over in Wonder Woman, but, well, impossible and all. So she was given a new identity: Donna Troy, the character with possibly the most convoluted and complicated identity in all of comics. Queen Hippolyta found her as a baby, the Titan Rhea found her, she's a normal human girl, she's a mythological New Titan, she's several different people's daughter... the discrepancies go on. So John Byrne decided to "simplify" Donna's backstory by deciding that all of Donna's myriad origins are true. According to his design, Donna was created as an avatar of Diana so that the young princess would have a playmate her own age. A villain named Dark Angel, who was angry with Hippolyta, sought to punish the queen by kidnapping her daughter, but she grabbed the wrong girl. Donna was then subjected to lifetime after lifetime of pain, and every time she reached her lowest point, the villain crammed her back through time to start over.
When Dark Angel was defeated, Hippolyta acknowledged Donna as an adopted daughter, making her the second princess of the Amazons for a short time before the monarchy's dissolution. Using the codename Troia, Donna was the heart of the Titans (no longer teens), and she and Diana shared an apartment in New York, regarding each other as true sisters, until Donna's death at the hands of a Superman doppelganger.
Cassandra "Cassie" Sandsmark
Conceived by John Byrne, Cassie began life as a fairly uninteresting (and frankly, annoying) character, but she had one thing going for her: chutzpah and lots of it. After several unwelcome attempts to help Diana, Cassie took Zeus aside and asked him to give her some superpowers of her own. Zeus was so impressed by her moxie that he granted her request, and Cassie became Wonder Girl.
Under Peter David's pen, Cassie became a spirited, fun, well rounded and self-confident character. As a member of Young Justice, she often stepped in to act as leader of the group when the publicity-shy Robin chose to stick to the shadows, and she filled the role so well that the team officially elected her to the position. With the dissolution of Young Justice, Cassie has joined the ranks of the re-formed Teen Titans.
Drusilla
This Wonder Girl, played by Debra Winger, only existed on the TV series. Originally charged with bringing Diana home to Paradise Island, Drusilla was fascinated by Man's World and occasionally returned to visit her older sister in her adopted guise of Wonder Girl.
Just as Diana isn't the only Amazon to serve as Wonder Woman, several young women have held the title of Wonder Girl...
Diana
In 1959, there began a series of "flashback" stories about Diana's childhood on Paradise Island. They showed her at various stages of her youth, often interacting with different incarnations of herself as Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl, and even Wonder Tot. Along with Queen Hippolyte (as her name was originally spelled), they were the Wonder Family. These silly, sweet stories often featured young Diana's would-be suitors Mer-Boy and Bird-Boy and were first supposed to be part of actual continuity, but due to their fanciful, impractical nature, they soon came to be called "Impossible Tales".
(please visit Carol A Strickland's WW Site for an in-depth look at these stories).
Donna Troy
When DC began publishing Teen Titans, it featured a line-up of popular kid sidekicks: Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Wonder Girl. Originally, she was supposed to be the same young Diana from the "Impossible Tales" over in Wonder Woman, but, well, impossible and all. So she was given a new identity: Donna Troy, the character with possibly the most convoluted and complicated identity in all of comics. Queen Hippolyta found her as a baby, the Titan Rhea found her, she's a normal human girl, she's a mythological New Titan, she's several different people's daughter... the discrepancies go on. So John Byrne decided to "simplify" Donna's backstory by deciding that all of Donna's myriad origins are true. According to his design, Donna was created as an avatar of Diana so that the young princess would have a playmate her own age. A villain named Dark Angel, who was angry with Hippolyta, sought to punish the queen by kidnapping her daughter, but she grabbed the wrong girl. Donna was then subjected to lifetime after lifetime of pain, and every time she reached her lowest point, the villain crammed her back through time to start over.
When Dark Angel was defeated, Hippolyta acknowledged Donna as an adopted daughter, making her the second princess of the Amazons for a short time before the monarchy's dissolution. Using the codename Troia, Donna was the heart of the Titans (no longer teens), and she and Diana shared an apartment in New York, regarding each other as true sisters, until Donna's death at the hands of a Superman doppelganger.
Cassandra "Cassie" Sandsmark
Conceived by John Byrne, Cassie began life as a fairly uninteresting (and frankly, annoying) character, but she had one thing going for her: chutzpah and lots of it. After several unwelcome attempts to help Diana, Cassie took Zeus aside and asked him to give her some superpowers of her own. Zeus was so impressed by her moxie that he granted her request, and Cassie became Wonder Girl.
Under Peter David's pen, Cassie became a spirited, fun, well rounded and self-confident character. As a member of Young Justice, she often stepped in to act as leader of the group when the publicity-shy Robin chose to stick to the shadows, and she filled the role so well that the team officially elected her to the position. With the dissolution of Young Justice, Cassie has joined the ranks of the re-formed Teen Titans.
Drusilla
This Wonder Girl, played by Debra Winger, only existed on the TV series. Originally charged with bringing Diana home to Paradise Island, Drusilla was fascinated by Man's World and occasionally returned to visit her older sister in her adopted guise of Wonder Girl.
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