DC’s Best Heroine Has the Most Underutilized Family

Wonder Woman is the third member of DC Comics’ Trinity, standing right alongside Superman and Batman. Despite this, she’s received far fewer adaptations outside comics, and even on the printed page, her relevance is much smaller. This extends to her supporting cast and the number of books she has, and it’s something that an upcoming book is highlighting more than ever.

Writer/artist Phil Jimenez, an avowed Wonder Woman fan who previously worked on the character, recently revealed images from an upcoming project involving Diana’s sister, Donna Troy. Donna is synonymous with notorious retcons, and she’s also barely been explored in Wonder Woman’s actual comic books. The same goes for the rest of Wonder Woman’s family, making the need for multiple books featuring them a must at this point.

Wonder Woman Has the Most Underrated Sidekicks

The Wonder Woman Family Never Gets Its Due

Phil Jimenez is seemingly working on a new book or miniseries about Wonder Woman and her relationship with the first Wonder Girl, Donna Troy. Given that she’s the classic sidekick of the biggest superheroine in comic books, it’s strange that Wonder Girl isn’t relevant in pop culture. This is the opposite of Robin, the most popular comic book sidekick. Likewise, Speedy/Arsenal, Aqualad and Kid Flash have all had more adaptations, whereas Donna Troy has had few.

The same treatment has been given to the Cassie Sandsmark and Yara Flor Wonder Girls, with the latter falling to the wayside despite a successful introduction. She seemed to be reaching a popularity that few newer comic book characters achieve, but DC fumbled the ball with her right out of the gate in terms of doing nothing with her. That’s almost as bad as the fate of Fury, Wonder Woman’s daughter from the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths era.She has been completely forgotten and is unlikely ever to be used in modern comics, let alone adapted in other media.

The only exception to this was in the Netflix adaptation of Sandman, but she didn’t even resemble her comic book counterpart, and her ties to Wonder Woman went unmentioned. It’s the exact opposite of other superhero families, like the fairly bloated Batman family, and it speaks to how mishandled Wonder Woman is by DC. Her equivalent to Robin is usually absent from Diana’s adventures, whereas various Robins are practically fighting to join Batman on his.

The Wonder Girl Mantle Is More Defined by Other Books

Wonder Girl Is More Known for Being a Teen Titan

Strangely enough, the various characters who have been Wonder Girl are rarely shown interacting with Wonder Woman. After debuting in the Silver Age of Comics, Donna Troy was seen more in the pages of the Teen Titans comic books. She was completely irrelevant to the actual Wonder Woman title, and this was a big part of why she never felt as integral to Diana as Robin, Supergirl, and others were to Batman and Superman.Even Fury was mostly seen as part of the Infinity, Inc. team, and Yara Flor was the same way decades later.

However, Cassie increasingly appeared less and less in the series, which would never be tolerated long-term by members of the Batman Family. Likewise, as Donna Troy has aged and taken on different superhero titles, she’s been even less important to her older sister, Diana. At one point, she was a member of the intergalactic Darkstars team, which has more to do with the Green Lanterns and Star Sapphire Corps than Wonder Woman. It was one of the worst developments in terms of the Wonder Woman branding and showcased how it lacked the same level of attention and care as other heroes.

Even when similar things happened with other characters, there was still a deeper sense of connection. For instance, the post-Crisis Supergirl was initially a shapeshifting protoplasm and not Kara Zor-El, as DC editorial demanded that Superman be Krypton’s true “last son” in the rebooted continuity. In the Peter David Supergirl run, she was also revealed to be an Earth angel and had even less to do with the Man of Steel’s mythos. Even then, this divergent Supergirl was still a central part of the “Triangle Era” Superman comic books and a major member of the overall Superman Family.

However, this isn’t always the case with Wonder Woman’s extended family, especially since so many writers come along and throw out everything that fans know about Diana and her origins whenever their runs begin. With Wonder Woman constantly in flux, it’s no wonder her sidekicks and supporting cast can barely get a foothold.

Another Wonder Woman Title Is More Necessary Than Ever

DC Must Revive This Classic Series

One Wonder Woman comic book seems barely enough to expand the Amazing Amazon’s world, especially with her sometimes divergent paths. Her stories are a mix between typical superhero stories and mythology-based fantasy, and some runs can focus more on one or the other. Sometimes, the story takes precedence over the overall mythos and supporting cast, making Diana the only recurring part of the series. This is an obvious issue when only one Wonder Woman comic book isrunning at any given time. There is a new Trinity series, but this spins out of the somewhat controversial Tom King Wonder Woman series.

It’s past time for DC Comics to bring back Sensation Comics as a secondary Wonder Woman comic book title. This would act as her equivalent to Action Comics and Detective Comics for Superman and Batman, allowing for different stories for her and her supporting cast. For instance, the main Wonder Woman book could focus more on magic and mythology, whereas Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman could be the more overtly “superheroic” of the two books.

Likewise, Sensation Comics would be a great place to put the larger Wonder Woman Family on display. That actually is happening in Tom King’s current run, but this extended cast could become even more prevalent in a secondary title that’s essentially tailor-made to spotlight those characters. Donna Troy, Cassie Sandsmark and Yara Flor would all be constantly shown working alongside Diana, cementing them as important to her world as other sidekicks and supporting characters to their corresponding heroes.

Most importantly, this would be another Wonder Woman monthly title, which she lacks compared to Batman and Superman. If DC is truly intent on having her be a part of the Trinity, it needs to be reflected in multiple comic books featuring the work of great artists and writers. The current Tom King run is a step in the right direction in drawing attention to the main book, but this needs to be built upon to truly make Wonder Woman books into must-read ongoing titles.

This way, her status quo and supporting cast would truly be mainstream and known just as well as those of other brands. The more places that she and her sisters appear, the better, and it could result in the title of Wonder Girl being a more well-known sidekick than that of the Boy Wonder.