Wonder Girl joined, despite "officially" being a teen-aged Wonder Woman at the time. Would this have forced DC to re-explain Superboy decades earlier, thus avoiding the Byrne-era wiping out of him from the mythos, and associated ramifications for the Legion?

The answer is "Yes!"

Took 6 years to come to that conclusion?

It would have made most Teen Titan stories sset on another Earth.

It would have meant: good luck finding something for Robin, Speedy and Aqualad to do!

Nonsense! Everyone know that in the Silver Age green kryptonite was readily available, even to biker gangs!

Mad Mod would have had a Kryptonite necklace, for sure!

Of course, no doubt the explanation for Superboy would've been that he was yet another survivor of Krypton, thus necessitating a massive retcon of his history post-Crisis anyway!

Ala Donna Troy!

Wonder Girl was originally a teen-aged Diana? Really?

Yep!

Originally Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl, and Wonder Tot were all the same character at different stages of development!

So how could she interact with Robin, Speedy, etc.? And when did she become a separate character/Donna Troy?

Short answer: Bob Haney apparently didn't realize she wasn't a seperate character when he created the Teen Titans!

Eventually, somebody figured out there was a problem with her teenage self appearing alongside her fellow JLAers sidekicks, which led to the classic TT #22, "Who is Wonder Girl?", which straightened out her continuity!

That "somebody" was a young Marv Wolfman! In fact, its often cited as the first time a comic book fan became a pro and took the liberty to 'fix' some of the major blunders the creators had done by not paying to continuity.

But yeah, Eryk is right! All those Wonder Girl stories in Wonder Woman in the Silver Age were starring a teenage Diana--even when she teamed up with herself! Thank crazy ol' Robert Kanigher, who loved that sort of off the wall stuff.

Did you mean he didn't realize she wasn't a separate character? Was that a classic Teen Titans story (as opposed to "Who is Donna Troy?" New Teen Titans story)?

Yessir! That's exactly it.

The Teen Titans writer originally had no idea that the Wonder Girl in Wonder Woman's comic was not a seperate character. He believed she was, while Wonder Woman fans all knew Wonder Girl = teenage Wonder Woman.

This last for a few YEARS. That really happenned.

Eventually in Teen Titans #22, the very first "Who is Wonder Girl?" story, they addressed it and fixed it by officially revealing this Wonder Girl was in fact Donna Troy (though the earlier writer never intended for that). That means the first 21 TT issues had a Wonder Girl whose name was not Donna Troy (but it was then retconned in).

It's why Donna's history has always been so screwy.

Yep! Just fixed it!

Yeah, "Who is Donna Troy?" builds upon her original origin story in TT #22!

Of course, once Wonder Woman's history was retconned out in Crisis, Wonder Girl created completely new problems for continuity!

Really? What problems were that?

Seriously though...it's great that the writer, adn editor presumably of one book had no idea who the character he was using was.

That was the beauty of the DC Atomic Age and Silver Age! The editors were super-powerful and held an iron grip on their comics.

Mort only had to say: No Superboy in Teen Titans! And boom--done.

Robert Kanigher, who IMO was a brillant writer on his war comics and apparently a great friend and good man, was also a notorious abrupt and ferocious editor. He edited all (5) war comics for DC, plus Wonder Woman and the Metal Men. These latter two comics were his "off the wall" type stuff that was just about the craziest two comics of all DC history.

If a writer came up to Kanigher to ask about Wonder Girl, Kanigher might punch him in the mouth! (That's a huge exaggeration but you get the point of the DC offices those days).

Kanigher basically edited and wrote Wonder Woman throughout the majority of her existance by the time the Silver Age was coming to an end. He started in the late Golden Age doing both. He also notoriously dumped his entire past continuity several times and started over. Her history was basically all up in his head. Its that kind of thing that inspired the creation of fanzines to straiten stuff out.

Yeah, Wonder Woman's own history was incredibly self-contradictory, and Wonder Girl's stories often conflicted with Wonder Woman's, so it's no wonder no one could figure it all out!

In the spirit of On-Topic Angel:

Superman always comparing Batman to Robin, whom he knew in his youth!