Who is Donna Troy? (1983) The New Teen Titans #38
By Marv Wolfman, George Perez, and Romeo Tanghal
The story opens with Terry Long, Donna's fiance, meeting with Robin (Dick Grayson) after a phone call. Terry hires Robin to find out what Donna's real past is.
Donna meets with the duo in her apartment. She briefly describes what she remembers of her past. She remembers a fire. She also remembers a vague memory of Wonder Woman in her mind.
Donna is taken to Paradise Island by Wonder Woman. Upon her arrival, Donna is taken to the Amazonian Chief Scientist, Paula. While there, Paula modifies the Amazonian life-restoring purple ray which siphoned a small fractoin of all the powers of the Amazons. These powers were then given to Donna. Wonder Woman returned to "Man's World" while Donna was raisied on Paradise Island. Wonder Girl was born. Donna grew up among her sisters and was trained as an Amazonian warrior.
After this small flashback, Donna admits thats all she remembers. Terry tells Donna no matter who her parents are, he will still love her. It's at this instant that Robin realizes the love between Terry and Donna. He'd always wonder what Donna saw in such an ordinary man.
Donna and Robin return to the scene of the fire to help piece together a beginning. Donna informs Robin that she has searched through the rubble a dozen times. Robin shows her the blueprints for the building. These blueprints show a hidden door in the floor. He discovers a coal bin.
Inside this coal bin is a metal box. Donna breaths in with anticipation as Robin opens the box. He discovers a doll; badly smoke damaged and worn. Donna immediately remembers a close feeling with the doll, but nothing more.
The duo question the owner of the collapsed building, Mrs. Channing, with no luck. Dick decides to investigate the doll found in the ruins of the old building.
He discovers two things. First, he collects shredded pieces of paper located in the box where the doll was found. After assembling them, Dick discovers a few sentences: "Hello. My name is Donna." Secondly, Dick discovers more writing on the arm of the doll: "From Uncle Max of Mystic Mt., Newport News." Without alerting Donna of this developement, Dick jets off to Newport News to look for Uncle Max.
Upon arriving at Newport News, Dick Grayson discovers the Mystic Mountain Toy Shoppe where Uncle Max works. After a brief conversation, Dick uncovers that Uncle Max didn't make the doll, but only repaired it. He also uncovered that a Mrs. Cassiday of Willowbrook Orphanage used to being old damaged dolls and toys to Uncle Max. The orphanage was colsed down for almost 15 years because of some child slavery scandal, so Dick ran into a dead end.
Dick began to sought out Mrs. Cassiday to get more information for Donna, but was unsuccessful. Later at night, an African-American gentleman came to Dick's hotel room knowing where Mrs. Cassiday was. This gentleman was her gardner. He told Dick that she was in the Sunharbor Nursing Home down in Cherry Lake Farms, Florida. Dick quickly informed Donna of the lead. They met up in Florida to seek out Mrs. Elmira Cassiday.
On the drive down to Cherry Lake Farms, Donna admits to being nervous about meeting someone who knew her before the fire. She was excited that Mrs. Cassiday would know her real name. Her name.
"Sunharbor Manor was both a sad and happy place. Sad because the elderly have to pay for a lifetime of loving, caring, and hard work with sickness, infirmity, and pain. Happy because the people working here seemed to care for their charges and did their best to make them comfortable," Dick thought. The nurse showed the duo where Mrs. Cassiday was lounging in the sunlight in her wheelchair. She commented that Elmira hadn't spoken a full sentence in the 10 years she had been there. She also added that no one had ever come to visit her.
When Donna and Dick turn to meet Mrs. Cassiday, she says nothing. Donna quickly wants to give up. However, Dick shows Donna's doll to Mrs. Cassiday. She remembers the doll and says "Donna".
Mrs. Cassiday tells the story of Donna's mother leaving her at the orphanage. She believed Donna's mother had cancer. She was alone and so scared.
Mrs. Cassiday told Donna that she never let go of this doll. She informed the duo that Donna was adopted by a young couple by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Stacey. After this information, Donna could see the faces of her adopted parents in her mind. She tells Mrs. Cassiday that she's "the most wonderful person in the whole world. You're not going to be alone here any more. I'm going to visit all the time." The duo thank her and leave.
Dick and Donna drove to the nearest restaurant to eat. They returned to Virginia and drove through town (Newport News). Donna remembered the area.
Donna remembered a house and quickly pulled over. She sees a family raking leaves in the front yard. She quickly gets out of the car, grasping onto her doll, and begins to cry. The woman looks at her, then screams "Donna".
The two women hug each other with tears of joy.
The family invites Dick and Donna into their home. They learned Fay Stacey was now Fay Evans. Hank Evans learns that his wife had a daughter when she was married to Carl Stacey. While only being adopted, the Stacey's cared for her as if they were their own. Carl died in a job accident two years later. She quickly went bankrupt after his death. A lawyer from an adoption agency, Mr. Harrison, told Fay Stacey that the state was going to take Donna away because she was bankrupt. She loved Donna so much that she didn't know what to do. Mr. Harrison convinced Fay to give Donna up so another family could adopt her so she could grow up with both support and love. At that moment Donna had another flashback. She remembered being taken to a dirty room. Then the fire began.
She deduced that the bodies in the fire must have been the other people who adopted her. She remembered being hit and told to be quiet. She believed they hated kids, so she began to wonder why they adopted her. Even with this harsh memory, Donna returned to her new found family. Even Hank took her in his arms and told her welcome home. The newly formed family hugged each other. They flipped through old, long hidden photo albums and Donna continued to remember.
Even with all this new information, Dick wasn't satisfied with all of it. There were too many unanswered questions: Who were those people who had died in the fire? Did they adopt Donna as well? Dick went to Lancaster Penitentury to "chat" with Mr. Harrison as Robin to finally clear up all these unanswered questions. Robin turned up the heat on Harrison. It worked and Harrison cracked. He told Robin about the apartment, the couple (not really her parents or adopted ones), and the scam of selling Donna for $20,000. He admitted about using the apartment of Sam Channing, but he didn't start the accidental fire. Robin left satisfied with the answers.
Donna and Dick went to Dorothy Hinkley's grave site for final closure. Donna wanted to say goodbye to the mother she never knew. She forgave her mother for putting her up for adoption. She told her mother that she had met someone who truly loved her and wanted to be with her forever. But most of all, Donna wanted to tell her that she believed in family and she was going to keep her inside herself forever. At that moment, Dick gave Donna her doll, having been fixed up by Uncle Max. Donna cried and hugged Dick.
Dick stopped the tape recorder as he looked upon a picture of his girlfriend, Cory (Starfire). The reader realizes this entire tale was a flashback. He calls Cory and tells her that he loves her.
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This story was the first complete origin for Donna Troy. However, this origin was in pre-crisis time. The basics of the story would remain in post-crisis time, but would be added to and some parts will be deleted. This story won various awards for its artwork and story structure.
This is my personal favorite story of Donna's origins. She becomes very emotional throughout the story. It shows her as a caring individual.