Mortlake on the Schuylkill

At the "5.2 about 52" segment at Newsarama, a reader posed the following question about the "History of the DCU" section of the comic.

What is the goal of the History of the DC Universe backups currently? If it is to clear things up for most people, it seems that using the most muddied and not-so-recognizable character of Donna Troy isn't a great choice. Putting out history in the first two issues that some of which might be confirmed as wiped out in future parts of this backup seems confusing, too.

It didn't surprise me that the questioner freely expressed a hostility towards Donna Troy. Given my reading of the DC Message Boards and perusal of reviews of 52 so far, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of goodwill for Donna Troy out there, and this section of the weekly comic hasn't fared too well, either.

Prior to her emergence as the universe's historian, I might have remained silent on the question of Donna Troy's right to exist. However, now that she's taken on Harbinger's role as keeper of records, it's my duty as a fellow historian to speak in her defense, asking all who might feel negatively about Ms. Troy: can't we all just get along?

Though I'm clearly biased because of my profession, I've got to say that I am thoroughly enjoying the "History of the DCU." And I presume that, as a person who is "uniquely connected to a thousand universes," Donna Troy undoubtedly has some kind of future ahead of her in the DC universe. (Though Harbinger's end admittedly wasn't a glorious one.) She's going to be around for awhile, and we might as well get used to her new role.

And sure, I'll admit that Donna's role as leader of the "space team" during Infinite Crisis was ill-defined and somewhat tangental. However, she did recognize the danger in that one particular act of earth-smushing that Alex Luthor was about to perform, and directed the team to concentrate its efforts to prevent it.

So let's please cut Donna Troy some slack.

She's a practicing historian.

She's lived a thousand lives, for goodness' sake!

And a few of them really, really sucked.

One last item, also on the subject of Amazons and the "History of the DCU." Commenting on this section of 52, Steven Wacker divulged the following information:

And speaking of the back-ups, Adam Hughes and Laura Martin’s backup in issue #12 (which I just got this week) is ridiculously beautiful. Between this and the Heinberg/Dodson book, it's a good time to be a Wonder Woman fan.

My countdown to week 12 begins right now.