Who is Donna Troy? is a 1984 story of the Teen Titans, in their issue #38. It is one of the most remembered stories by Marv Wolfman and George Perez with the Titans.At this point, Donna Troy knew very little about her origins. Sometime in her infancy she was in an apartment that caught fire, she was rescued by Wonder Woman, taken to Paradise Island, adopted as Wonder Woman's sister, and received similar powers with the Amazon science. But her lfe before the fire was a complete mistery. In fact, Wonder Woman could not identify her parents because the apartment was not even rented, nobody was supposed to be there.In modern day, Terry Long proposed marriage to her, but she's unsure, because she does not know yet about her past. So, Terry asked Robin, the best detective he knew, to investigate it. Checking around the burned house, Robin found an old doll. It had something written, that he carefully restored: "From uncle Max from Mystic Mt. Newport news". Grayson located this "Uncle Max", who used to repair toys for an orphanage using that alias. The orphanage is now closed, but he found the woman who ran it, Elmira Cassiday. This elder woman recognized Donna on sight. Donna's mother had put her on adoption because she was dying of cancer, she gave her the doll, and Donna was adopted by the Stacey family. Happy ending?Not yet. Dick Grayson wanted to know why did they die in an apartment that was not being rented. They eventually found Fay Stacey (now Fay Evans); they were not the parents who had died. Mr. Stacey had died and Fay go to bankruptcy and could not keep Donna. Those who died had not adopted her, they were just in that apartment waiting for someone else to ilegally sell Donna; and then the explosion. That's it, now Donna Troy know everything about her past... at least until the next crisis crossover.
Who is Donna Troy? contains examples of:
- Canon Discontinuity: Unfortunately, this story became obsolete in the aftermath of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Wonder Woman was reimagined as a rookie who had just discovered the world of men. And so, Donna's origin had to be changed as well. Wonder Woman was removed from the fire flashback and replaced by a common firefighter, and she was never raised by the Amazons. She was raised by benevolent aliens instead, and returned to Earth with fake memories.
- Determinator: Dick Grayson. There were FIVE times in the story when he could had stopped, think that they know enough details, and nobody would criticize him at all. And yet, he continued. In fact, Donna Troy had already given up at the first difficulty.
- Dumb Struck: Elmira Cassiday. Her first word after some many years was "Donna!" when she recognized her.
- Happily Adopted: Donna Troy has absolutely no problems with the Amazons that raised her after the fire. It's just that she wants to know what had happened first.
- Never Recycle a Building: After so much time after the fire, at least a decade, the burnt building is still there.
- Platonic Life Partners: That's how Robin described his relation with Wonder Girl.
- Quest for Identity: It had been an ongoing issue for Donna since a long time.
- Slice of Life: Robin and Wonder Girl fight no supervillains here, in fact there are no fights. And they only use the costumes here and there because they can't help it, but stay most of the story in their civilian clothes.
- Status Quo Is God: One of the mysteries of Donna's past was her birth name, as she was named "Donna" by the Amazons. Guess what, her original name was Donna after all.