Thoughts on How Steve Trevor Should Be Written?

[7-Love]

I wanna hear everyone's different points of view on how they feel like the character Steve Trevor should be best written?

In my personal opinion, in addition to writing the character as to how William Moulton Marston had wrote him, I also think that the character Steve Trevor should represent the very best that mankind (mankind meaning his gender in this particular context rather than humanity as a whole) has to offer.

I've always looked at Diana/Wonder Woman as the very best that womankind has to offer, I am also a spiritual person who believes in the law of attraction & in twin flames, so I think that Diana's twin flame, Steve Trevor, should represent the very best that mankind has to offer.

This thread is for all people's views on how the character is best written, not just Steve & Wonder Woman shippers like myself. You could be a Superman & Wonder Woman shipper, or ship Wonder Woman with a female, or not care about shipping at all in general, but still like (or love) Steve separately as a character & offer your view on how the character should be written.

[LordTrump]

Well, there's the useless Golden Age version, the a hole silver age version, the constantly dying Bronze Age version, and the old man Post Crisis version.

Basically, make him a good guy that almost tries to be the silver age version. Like, basically imagine Clark Kent trying to act like Hal Jordan or Guy Gardner. He's genuinely good, but feels almost forced to take on a false maschismo that society forces on men. Thus, he ends up getting captured a lot.

[Lex Luthor]

The Golden Age version is the best. Sweet, charming, cheesecake-y, and a bit oblivious but genuinely a good guy who fails sometimes.

[OBrianTallent]

I mostly agree. I don't want Steve to be oblivious. I don't think this version of Diana would be attracted to a man who is oblivious. I would think Steve should straddle the line between Superman and Batman. He's syringe, confident, secure...but he's also rather reserved, not real close to others necessarily.

[gwangung]

I mostly agree. I don't want Steve to be oblivious. I don't think this version of Diana would be attracted to a man who is oblivious. I would think Steve should straddle the line between Superman and Batman. He's syringe, confident, secure...but he's also rather reserved, not real close to others necessarily.

He's gotta be a top drawer guy...both from a literary viewpoint and a readers viewpoint you can't gave a Steve who's....ordinary.

Extremely confident....but maybe the entrance of Diana started a process that made him question things in his life...I think as a counterpoint to her, he's someone who would reflect how best a man would handle a woman who challenges a lot of norms. He comes from a tradition that's very staid and somewhat hidebound...what kind a personal journey does he take when he feels he has to evolve to be where Diana is (by the same token, where Diana feels she should change to be where Steve is). And thus isn't just on a romantic level...it's on a level where two close friends from two different traditions feel they have to change in view if their friendship.

So, yes, someone who has a good heart, who's sometimes obtuse, but works constantly to be better on a personal level.

[brettc1]

The only problem I have with Steve as he is now is that he is almost too good.

It may be a bit of cliche in stories these days, but I think it's still true that you can't have heat without at least a LITTLE friction. The great thing about the character for Tom Tresser [for me] was that he hid his light under a pretty big bushel and it caused some grief between him and Diana even when they were obviously working well together.

I would prefer a Steve that does NOT agree with Diana all the time. He has to have a mind and opinions of his own. Sometimes his will end up being wrong, but maybe sometimes Diana learns something from him.

He has to contribute something to the relationship. Both personally and in the field. Again, a reason I liked Tom is that he could do things that Diana could not. She could rip the door off a bank vault with ease, but he's the one that could hack a computer system or defuse a bomb. Wonder Woman should be the star of her book, but if the purpose of Steve Trevor is to show that a man can have a girlfriend who is powerful then showing him as weak or redundant is self defeating. Its saying that only a weak or ineffectual man can be in a relationship with a strong woman.

[Super-Wonder]

I actually like the way that Steve is written in the New 52 and currently by Rucka.
He's assertive and caring with a noble sensibility that is selfless and earnest.

@brettc1 I like your points about Nemesis as Diana's significant other. About Steve being too good, the romantic in me understands that this is fiction but so far it's nice to see a guy that isn't a jerk in some respects.
He's respectful, devoted, and dedicated there just isn't much of that and it's nice (For me anyway). I wish ideals like this were more socially acceptable so we could see it represented more often.

[SiegePerilous02]

Rucka writes the best Steve so far. He's not the most interesting character, but he's an all around good guy and I can see why she's attracted to him. I just can't believe it took 75 years to get it right.

[Stanlos]

I like 'Good Guys' so I am really enjoying the Steve Trevor as written by Rucka in the title. He is a man of duty, action, and has compassion and tenderness. He's a good guy and I am loving it.

[Jim Kelly]

I think, at the time, the Perez creative team were right to split Steve off from Diana, as a love interest, giving him an interest in Etta instead, while still maintaining him as one reason Wonder Woman comes to Man's world and as her worthwhile peer. Although, I think making Steve so old and attaching him to the Vietnam War was a misstep.

Sometimes the fact that Diana loves Steve gets in the way of him standing on his own two feet as a character. The same with Lois Lane re Superman. You first got to show that Steve is a strong character for reasons apart from Diana, before you can throw him together with Wonder Woman.

[LordTrump]

I think, at the time, the Perez creative team were right to split Steve off from Diana, as a love interest, giving him an interest in Etta instead, while still maintaining him as one reason Wonder Woman comes to Man's world and as her worthwhile peer. Although, I think making Steve so old and attaching him to the Vietnam War was a misstep.

Sometimes the fact that Diana loves Steve gets in the way of him standing on his own two feet as a character. The same with Lois Lane re Superman. You first got to show that Steve is a strong character for reasons apart from Diana, before you can throw him together with Wonder Woman.

Um...they really aren't supposed to stand alone. Like, imagine, who would read a Jimmy Olsen book?

[SiegePerilous02]

Um...they really aren't supposed to stand alone. Like, imagine, who would read a Jimmy Olsen book?

Well...people used to read a Jimmy Olsen book. He had an ongoing before any of the Bat-Family did.

And while Lois and Jimmy were meant to be supporting characters and can only stand on their on so much, their characters are so well defined that you can tell the occasional story with them without Clark. Lois in particular lends herself well to that. Steve, up until now really, hasn't really had that, though that is in part due to there being so few Wonder Woman-related comics at any given time compared to Superman and Batman's stuff.

[Jim Kelly]

Exactly. The character has to be someone we have some respect for and we can envision functioning on his own without Wonder Woman's help. Otherwise, readers soon start to wonder where does this guy get off sharing a life with Diana, how does he rate? And a lot of resentment builds up against such characters. On the other hand, if you start to give him too big a role in the Wonder Woman stories then he becomes like Felicity Smoak--and again fans resent when these characters take over the story from the character who's actually supposed to be the star. So the way I see it--the best way to prove that Steve or Jimmy or Lois really do rate is to give them a limited run series of their own, so we can see that this character can function without the super-hero running in to save the day. Then when we see them in the super-hero's adventures, we know they have a right to be there.

[Sacred Knight]

Physically, very unassuming. He can still be a military man in origin, just a rather faceless one. Not guns blazing and roid musicles tearing through his shirt. I picture him as kinda thin and lanky, maybe even glasses. In other words the complete opposite of a physical specimen compared to Diana's male superhero comrades. He should be a combat medic, showing that his talents are in healing, not fighting. Personality wise I'd have him as shy, sweet, and funny. Similar to what an adult Peter Parker might have been like if he never got powers. I'd rework the origin where the mission in which the plane crash happens that lands in on Paradise Island has him being a small cog in the operation, just there, but when the trouble happens, everyone bails except Steve, who stays to try and treat someone badly injured. The person in question, perhaps a senior officer whom in those last moments finally sees the quality of Steve and what makes him special, does indeed end up succumbing and dying however, making Steve the lone survivor of the crash. He meets Diana, she and the Amazons see his inner-strength as well, and the origin continues on from there with her taking Steve home. Afterwards I'd have him leave the service, and work on becoming an M.D.

[Javier Velasco]

When WW was created, Marston was trying to have a character who challenged society's beliefs about women's abilities and male/female relationships. Steve Trevor was necessary as a personification of the "power" that Diana was speaking "truth" to. It was not an adversarial relationship, because Diana came to teach, not to fight. But it was important that Diana's primary relationship was one that furthered the purpose of the character.

Just as Lois Lane existed so that Superman could have someone to save, since he was essentially a savior. Steve Trevor (and the Holliday Girls) existed so that Diana could have characters to teach.

So Steve should be written in such a way that his relationship with Diana is central to the theme of the book. Or else, he is simply a secondary replaceable character.

The romance with Golden Age Steve Trevor may have been written in a clunky fashion, but seeing a typical Alpha Male having to come to grips with the idea that his girlfriend was superior to him in every way was just as (if not more) important as the woman to woman empowerment messages in the book.