Customer Reviews

Teen Titans: The Death and Return of Donna Troy

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm going to admit right away that I'm a big fan of Donna Troy. She's one of my favorite comic book characters, and I was extremely glad to have her back. Even so, I don't love everything that this TPB contains.

The first half of this TPB is the Titans/Young Justice "Graduation Day" crossover, where Donna dies. This is not subtle storytelling. Despite the fact that it is a team crossover, the entire story centers on Donna and is used as a just a storytelling device rather than a story itself. That does not mean that it is devoid of good parts. The scenes between Troia and Nightwing were well-written, and the funeral scene was extremely emotional. Although the art left something to be desired, particularly compared to the second half of the TPB, the overall package gets the job done and creates a nice set up for the upcoming Teen Titans and Outsiders.

The "Return" part, while not as tight in storytelling, is a fantastic tribute to the character. It is obvious that Jimenez cares for Donna, as he treats her character lovingly. Such superior treatment has not been seen since the early days of Wolfman/Perez. The first issue does nothing but set up mostly unnecessary exposition. Honestly, if you went to the second issue, the only thing you'd be missing out on is the gorgeous artwork by Garcia-Lopez and George Perez, the man himself.

The second issue, however, starts a fantastic build up of why Donna Troy is important. It concentrates on what she means to some of the important members of both the Titans and the Outsiders, from Wonder Girl to Arsenal. It even manages to remark on how his best friend's death affected Nightwing in the ongoing Outsiders without getting too far into depth and angst. And it isn't only Donna Troy who Jimenez respects with the writing--all of the characters are well-done, and it ties in well enough to the ongoing series that it would have worked just as well if it had been a crossover extra between them. The man has done his homework and he knows the Titans better than many writers have in the past.

It is not the best story to have been written, but as a character piece that highlights what makes Donna Troy "wonderful" and pays homage to the rest of the Titans, this is a true triumph.

I loved this book and that's why I gave it 5 stars. I'll do you a favor and tell you how to read it in continuity. Read the first part that collects the Young Justice/Titans "Graduation Day" storyline. Then put the book down and start reading Outsiders: Looking for Trouble and Teen Titans Vol. 1: A Kid's Game. Those are the two books that spin off of "Graduation Day".

Then, around middle of Teen Titans run by Geoff Johns and the Outsiders run by Judd Winick go back and read the second part of the book, the Return of Donna Troy.

That's how I should have read it, but even though I didn't it read like a cool prequel. The Graduation Day storyline is cool, and the funeral is very well done. I found myself clearing my throat to avoid getting choked up. The Return story is epic. Great artwork and just a vast plot that really felt like a big deal.

Good stuff.

This volume collects all the issues in which Donna Troy was killed, the aftermath, and her return.

The First part of the volume completely fails at putting any emotion or interest into the storyline. The 2 teams of Young Justice and the Titans are brought together by a cooperation looking for a tax pay off. Then a random robot comes in and tries to kill everybody. Oh, and Donna's been having dreams about a random warrior life which is beginning to like. The groups' main members quickly recover when the meet a random Superman robot that kills the Titan Omen and then later kills Donna Troy in a way that the S-robot could have killed anybody. The heroes of the DC universe then decide to have a funeral where both teams disband but have cliffhangers that unless you buy 2 other books doesn't get resolved. The dialogue in this storyline is very bad and the art looks like it wasn't inked at all. 2-stars for the first part because its random and doesn't let you feel for the characters unless you have a deep knowledge of their histories.

The second part of the storyline is where things start to get better. We see why Donna Troy was such an important addition to the DC Universe. It starts out with Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) trying to deal with Troy's death, then sees what the other heroes are going through. At the very end it shows Cassie and Wonder Woman helping each other with what's happened and is a very emotional, tear-jerking story. 5-stars, the writing is well done and the art is perfect. Never has a death of a hero felt more important.

The third part of the storyline is a mix of what the other parts had-emotion that makes you cry but randomness. We get to see what the other heroe's think of her return before it's even happened (which I guess means they've just been expecting this to happen for a while now and waited). The storyline is fun but then tries to fix Donna Troy's origins and gets very confusing. It ends with a cliffhanger which to see what's going you have to buy another book (again). The writing is okay except for a piece of dialogue in which Jade is more worried about what her ex is going to think about Donna Troy coming back instead of how Donna will be able to handle the changes that have happened. The art is okay, but is inked by George Perez who even though he is a fabulous artist, in this he makes it look like his own pencils. 3 and 3/4 stars.

So even though the first part is lacking a lot and the third part isn't great, the second segment in which you realize how important this event was raises the book one star.

I was never able to get the specials when DC first published the death of Donna Troy and then later her return so I was overjoyed to see the collection here. I did have a problem with how easily they killed her off and the limited amount of grief Superman had considering his robot killed not only Donna but Omen. I've loved the Donna Troy character pretty much since I first read about her (and I won't date myself by mentioning what year I first started reading about her and the Teen Titans).
The artistry was pretty good but I didn't get what the whole *pouting lips* thing was through the first section. It pretty much looked like everyone was acting like they just ate something sour or getting ready to go on a major temper tantrum.
Still over all I enjoyed the collection, I do wish the PTB's hadn't re-made Donna's history and left it as it was with Diana finding Donna in a burning building and her being adopted by the Amazon's and getting bits of their powers. Ah well ...

Eh... they killed her off so they could bring her back later. By collecting the stories back to back they only make it look like a stunt. It really goes to show how circular the story telling in these comic book universes can be sometimes. Some nice Phil Jimenez art in the second half at least.

I get Donna Troy is an important person in DCU, but I don't find her interesting, and I found myself not caring about her death or her resurrection--though I'm still a little unclear on how that happened. It's just not that great of a story.

This is made from more than one comic title, so the first part, Titans/Young Justice, has some obvious manga stylings. The later part is more straightforward, and involves battles on other planets, laying waste to a world, ancient gods, and a Sun-Eater, to top it all off.

At the core though, is emotion - mostly centred around dead and not so dead girls, and women. With a funeral cameo by Superman and Batman, just because they can.

Way back when, Teen Titan Donna Troy, the original Wonder Girl, met an untimely demise. This crossover between the Teen Titans and the Outsiders finds that Troy is alive and kicking, literally, as the Titans and Outsiders seek to bring her back into the fold. This confusing and convoluted tale is scripted mainly by Phil Jimenez, who is better known as the superb artist for Infinite Crisis as well as his Otherworld series and segments of Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men, and while it has it's fair share of action and intrigue, it just doesn't work. The overall story is confusing, and while Donna Troy is an important character in the DC universe mythos, I'm not entirely sure she's worthy of her own "return from the dead" comic special. The art in this TPB is quite good though, featuring pencils from Jimenez and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez is what makes The Death and Return of Donna Troy worth checking out alone. Other than that though, there's no other reason why you should bother with this unless you're a die hard Troy or Titans fan, or are collecting all the trades that lead up to Infinite Crisis.

I liked Wonder Girl/Donna Troy in the silver age. She had as much personality as Aqualad or Speedy. Not saying a lot there, but she was a solid teen sidekick and member of the Teen Titans.

I liked her a lot more in The New Teen Titans. Marv Wolfman and George Perez did much to turn her into a human character with concerns that readers could get behind.

Then, somewhere along the way, she became DC's soap opera character.

She went through some image and name changes, returned to her roots, then died.

And now...

comes back...

...for some reason.

I just don't see it as all that big a deal.

The first half of this TPB is so hard to follow, so easy to fall into a stupor over, that I felt cheated.

The second half got better, since more heroes from the DCU entered the scene, and the last quarter or so, (as reflected on the TPB's cover) heavily involved members of the DCU and the Teen Titans.

That's the payoff of this book.

And it tells me that this story could have been told in a better fashion if it was done in a shorter fashion.

One issue of about 40 pages could have been enough.

Instead we get a lot of wasted pages, a lot of confusing and boring build up for the return of a B list hero.

Look, I give one solid star for the art alone. I'd give MORE stars for the art if more pages of this book actually mattered.

As it stands, I can only really get behind the last 30 or so pages of the TPB fully, less so for the 10 to 20 pages that lead up to them. And I can, in no way, support the first half of this TPB. You pretty much have to read them to get to the end.

But Jimenez should have written a more compact, concise story, not some drawn-out personal vision.

Now I know Donna Troy is a very important person to the Titan's and to the rest of the DCU, and I might be harsh by saying this, but her death was about 10 times more entertaining then her return. The first half has action and great art, good story telling. The second half is nothing more then a history of Donna and an odd telling of a story loosely based on Greek mythology.

An interesting thought was presented to me about this book, my friend complains that no one in comics stays dead. To a degree he is right and it can be a problem (I'm not a supporter of the return of Hal Jordan), but some characters people just miss. He is relatively new to comics and I've started him on Young Justice and worked him through all the new Titan's books out. I'm curious as to whether or not he'll change his mind on the subject, considering he's become really attached to Superboy. He's going to have an interesting book to read when September rolls around and it could be interesting to see if he still holds true to his thoughts. I on the topic of Donna Troy, probably couldn't care less, and I'm a fan of the old Titans like Arsenal and Nightwing, and a big fan of the new Titans, and a huge fan of Kyle Rayner who she dated. So it makes me wonder why anyone from the outside would care at all.