Greetings. This is the first installment of ARTISTIC LICENSE, but it's
not the first time I have spent time redesigning existing characters. It's a fun
exercise, which I highly recommend.
Who am I, to be fooling around with other people's creations? Well, I'm an
artist and writer, who wants to work in comics, one day and, who knows, one or
two of my ideas might influence the comics we read, some day. For now, I just do
this as entertainment, for myself, and for anyone who might take interest in this
kind of thing.
I've chosen a somewhat obscure character for my first try. She's had several
different names, probably best known as Wonder Girl, formerly of the Teen Titans.
Whether as Wonder Girl or her "real name", Donna Troy; she's also gone by the
somewhat bizarre name "Troia" and for awhile she was a member of the now-defunct
galactic police agency known as the Darkstars. Most recently, she's been put
through a meat grinder in John Byrne's run on Wonder Woman.
This poor girl has been through hell.
Literally.
Originally, she was Wonder Woman's foster sister, a baby rescued from a
burning building, taken to live among the Amazons, where she was granted powers
making her the equal of any of her Sisters. Later, with the "de-creation" of Wonder
Woman during DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths, Donna was cast adrift, no
longer the "younger sister" of Wonder Woman, suddenly, she was approximately the
same age as her former mentor. Rewriting history can be such a pain, eh?
Donna went through the revisions, her powers, now the result of alien/godly
intervention, she became Troia, for a time. Later, in stories, I must admit, I
have not read, she gave up her Troia identity for a "normal life". Later, she
became one of the Darkstars, just prior to that group being disbanded.
I don't claim to know, or understand all the details of her life, my aim is
to give her a new look.
Most recently, in Wonder Woman, she has been revealed to be a sort of "magical
clone" of Wonder Woman, herself. The details don't matter, really, suffice to say,
she regains a connection to Wonder Woman, something that I think is all to the good.
Unfortunately, Mr. Byrne left her in a "costume" that he must've created on a bad
day. Boring doesn't begin to describe it.
COSTUMES
Donna has been through several changes of costume, in her time. From what looks
like an "Under-oos Wonder Woman" outfit, apparently designed to, in no way, appeal
to the prurient interest of the readers. After all, she was supposed to be very young,
at this point, and "sexy" was not in the vocabulary of the artist, for obvious reasons.
Next, she got into my personal favorite, the "classic" Wonder Girl costume. The
simplicity of this design appeals to me, not just because it's relatively easy to draw,
but because it manages to invoke the design elements of the "parent", Wonder Woman,
and yet manage to be distinctive, in it's own right. There is also an element of
practicality to it, something I always try to keep in mind, when designing costumes.
This design is a true "fighting suit", while still being visually appealing.
Then came TROIA.....as much as I am a fan of George Perez, I have to say, I hate
this costume. Perez does this, every so often. He designs these costumes that are just
too "busy". There seems to be a lot of unnecessary ornamentation, here. I'm sorry,
it just doesn't work for me. Though I do like the "starfield" look.
After her Troia period, Donna got the spend a little time as a Darkstar,
a member of a galactic police force run by The Controllers, cousins of the
Guardians of the Universe. I kinda like the Darkstar uniform, it's just a little
"busy", but the red, black, and white looks very sharp. It's also one of those rare suits that
works as well with the female as the male character.
And, last, and certainly, least, is the sort-of interim outfit designed by John Byrne for
his last issue of Wonder Woman. Solid black, with the "starfield" design on the upper parts,
across the shoulders and almost to the waist. Simple, yes, but also, very dull. Maybe some
ornamentation would've helped this, I doubt it, it's a throw-away design, I figure.
So, looking at all the outfits she's worn in her career, I tried to work in design elements
from each. The choice of colors was, to me, obvious, red and black, with gold accessories. Overall,
I tried to evoke the "feel" of the second Wonder Girl costume, with the "jump-suit" styling. The
gold "bird" is evocative of Wonder Woman's "double-W", while still being different enough to make
Donna an individual. Instead of the gold, 5-pointed stars, I went with the black starfield, as
homage to her days as Troia, as well as her time in the Darkstars, as an interstellar policewoman.
Of course, she has to have the bracelets, how could she go without them?
In the end, the design, I think, manages to capture the feel for her Glory Days as Wonder Girl,
while acknowledging her later identities. Also, the suit is practical, it provides good coverage,
as superhero costumes go and still has sex-appeal, without being ridiculously skimpy.
What's in her future? Well, I know she's going to be in the new Titans book, no word yet on
whether or not she will take a new nom du guerre. For my money, I'd call her VIRAGO.
It's strong, it's simple and it evokes her Amazon roots, while making her different from Wonder Woman.
Well, that's the first show "in the can" as they say in the movie industry. My thought and
my drawings, my ideas, I'd like some feedback. Even some ideas, if you'd like to share them.
Next time? A friend from on-line mentioned he'd like to see what I'd do with the Legion
of Superheroes, which has always been my favorite super-team. I think I'll have some fun
with them, next month. Be here.
