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  1. #1
    The Comixeur Mel Dyer's Avatar
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    Default Steve Trevor...What Can You Do With Him? Is It Time For Steve To Go?

    Is it time to replace Steve Trevor with another love interest? Replace his backstory, with something broader ..or more interesting?

    Is it time for Steve to be retconned, as an entirely different character or having a different backstory? Like most of you, I can throw some things against a wall and imagine what might stick, but can't really picture him, as anything, but, what he has been, since the Golden Age: swaggy, All-American flyboy hero. That's problematic for me, frankly.

    I have suggested that Steve's role in Diana's world should change. I would prefer it go back to something building in intensity, but unstable and playfully unfinished. What I find really boring is the present scenario, with Steve having landed the Diana-plane and claiming her, as his prize--vice versa. That has been firmly in place, since before Kanigher, and it is boring, as Hell. I think things, between Steve and Diana, should be hotter and more uncertain. If that means introducing a rival for Diana's affections, Keith Briggs or I Ching Jr, I would welcome that ..or ditching him, entirely.

    And what is US Military still doing in the Wonder Woman comic, ..this far out of World War II? Frankly, I don't know what you do with Steve, if he's not a career soldier. Is it time for the Military to be taken out of the WW origin story and Steve's backstory, specifically?

    I like Steve in the comic, but, they are not an exciting or even interesting couple, and it's not her. It's him. It's all him.
    COMBINING THE BIGBADITUDE OF THANOS WITH CHEETAH'S FEROCITY, IS JANUS WONDER WOMAN'S GREATEST SUPERVILLAIN?...on WONDABUNGA!!! Look alive, Kangaliers!

  2. #2
    hate cant reach you here Harpsikord's Avatar
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    Steve is, inherently, going to be in an even stickier place than usual going forward what with Diana's new origin placing her as being active in World War II and with the Justice Society of America.

    Steve is intrinsically tied to the reason that Diana comes to Man's World and that includes the war that he was involved in, and that means that by the time the modern day comes along Steve would either be incredibly old or dead, particularly when compared with an individual that doesn't exactly age in the same way - or at all - as normal humans like Diana. Etta Candy would be in a similar position, but it isn't as necessary for the sorority sister Etta Candy to be the same character as the Etta Candy in modern day... and I think it offers a bit of a solution if they make the modern, black Etta the grand-daughter of the original Etta in a Sharon Carter/Peggy Carter kind of situation.

    But you can't do the same thing with Steve, because with Steve there's an emotional attachment there. Steve is the first man that Diana met. He's the first man that Diana fell in love with. He's the reason that she fell in love with the idea that all of Man's World doesn't inherently need to be flawed or be bad. Assuming that the timeline is the the one that we saw for 5G, Diana leaves after World War II becomes nuclear; what if Steve dies there and effectively becomes a symbol? To keep up with my analogies, he should be the Sharon Carter to Wonder Woman's Captain America.

    That way he can still mean the world to Diana... but he's gone now and Diana recognizes that, she continues to live and help man's world because she has seen the best that they can be through Steve. She strives to help man be the best that they can be to live up to his own expectations for his people, to who they could and should be.

    That said I also think that Diana deserves to have a long-term love interest, like Bruce and Clark currently have in Selina and Lois. Someone that she can rely on, someone that she can consider a partner; do I think that has to be someone mundane? No, but I do sure think that it would help and it would probably take someone seriously interested in telling that kind of romance story with Wonder Woman to keep up with it. And someone willing to make sure that it's pushed as status quo for a long time, even if the idea outlives the writer's run on the book. And she could spend time with her new partner - because I stress that it can be either a man or a woman - coming to terms herself with her feelings for Steve, who is gone, and this new person.

    But yeah, I guess all this to say that Steve should be a symbol for Diana of the greatness of what man could be.
    "We come into this world alone and we leave the same way. The time we spent in between - time spent alive, sharing, learning together... is all that makes life worth living." - Jean Grey

  3. #3
    Ultimate Member Gaius's Avatar
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    Don't really think ditching one of the only semi-consistent non-Amazons supporting characters in WW's mythos would be good for her.

    As for how he should be written. Idk, I though the movie provided a good model for how he should work or the way Marston wrote the character could still work.

  4. #4
    The Last Dragon Perseus's Avatar
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    You know Steve doesn't have to be apart of the military 100% and ARGUS doesn't need to reflect the US military either.

    I like Steve and Diana together and there is nothing wrong with being prized by your partner, so long as it works both ways. They should be a passionate couple with some banter between the two of them every now and again. Their relationship has been all over the place currently so there is no definitive base to work from.
    Zaldrīzes Buzdari Iksos Daor

  5. #5
    Extraordinary Member AmiMizuno's Avatar
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    I'm sorry if Lois and Selina can stay why not Steve. We have seen Steve used well. It's unfair to say it's time to get rid of him. Just because he has some bad runs means nothing. Selina and Lois both have bad runs that don't mean they will get rid of him. Once again Marston shows us that Steve has a lot outside the military going for him. He likes working with kids. He has a sister. This is why giving him something outside the military to do. Why does his family need to be evil? Both Marston and Rucka have written Steve well. Once again in the comics, he did stop the League. Not only that but thanks to Diana he should know how to at least stop certain things without Diana. Like what if he made a machine. With Diana what about his religious views.
    Last edited by AmiMizuno; 07-15-2020 at 04:45 PM.

  6. #6
    Extraordinary Member Dr. Poison's Avatar
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    With how long Steve was essentially out of Diana's life Post-Crisis/Pre-Rebirth, I don't think he's outlived his usefulness. I think things are just getting restarted between him and Diana. I'm hoping he returns to the book soon in a prominent role especially with WW84 coming out soon.
    Currently(or soon to be) Reading: Alan Scott: Green Lantern, Batman/Superman: World's Finest, Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Jay Garrick: The Flash, Justice Society of America, Power Girl, Superman, Shazam, Titans, Wesley Dodds: Sandman, Wonder Woman, & World's Finest: Teen Titans.

  7. #7
    Ultimate Member Sacred Knight's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AmiMizuno View Post
    I'm sorry if Lois and Selina can stay why not Steve. We have seen Steve used well. It's unfair to say it's time to get rid of him. Just because he has some bad runs means nothing. Selina and Lois both have bad runs that don't mean they will get rid of him. Once again Marston shows us that Steve has a lot outside the military going for him. He likes working with kids. He has a sister. This is why giving him something outside the military to do. Why does his family need to be evil? Both Marston and Rucka have written Steve well. Once again in the comics, he did stop the League. Not only that but thanks to Diana he should know how to at least stop certain things without Diana. Like what if he made a machine. With Diana what about his religious views.
    I don't think its time to get rid of him, but at the same time he's not really comparable to Lois and Selina if we're being honest. They are far, far more popular characters and always has been. Steve was basically designed to be Diana's Lois, but he never resonated like she did. So they have a lot more backing them at this point of time from a legacy perspective. Everyone knows who Lois Lane and Catwoman are. I'm betting when the movie came out, Chris Pine's Steve was the first a lot of people ever even heard of him. Again, I don't think he needs to be gotten rid of, but he needs to be built on a lot, because he's not in Lois Lane's stratosphere.
    "They can be a great people Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you. My only son." - Jor-El

  8. #8
    The Comixeur Mel Dyer's Avatar
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    I favor employing an Eros/Anteros principle, of sorts - creating an Anti-Steve, spurring regular Steve to grow apace, with him. Like most of you, I can think of some other things to throw at a wall.

    1) Steve, while an important man and romantic interest, is no longer THE man in Diana's life.

    2) Steve has an anti-Steve, a serious, non-superpowered human rival for Diana's love, creating uncertainty for us, readers. Maybe, he's a professional peer or Steve's brother. He is NOT heroic Perez Hercules ..or Hercules, in any form. He is not a superhero, from another comic. He is not Orion.

    3) Steve is specifically a highly capable, military intelligence guy, in plain clothes, with the highest imaginable clearances. A beloved companion, his professional situation also makes him very useful to Diana's work.

    4) Wonder Woman almost always calls or goes to Steve, because she needs his special skills on a mission, and he has other very important junk to do. Steve is perpetually busy with his stuff, creating suggestion of his importance, outside of Diana's world.

    5) Wonder Woman flying in to help or save Steve out of a volcano ..should be rare.

    6) Steve has a tragic past that justifies his need to believe in angels and good will.

    7) Steve's family is sinister and determined to destroy Wonder Woman.

    All of that is purely speculative. I'm out of ideas, ..for now.
    Last edited by Mel Dyer; 07-15-2020 at 03:41 PM. Reason: clarity
    COMBINING THE BIGBADITUDE OF THANOS WITH CHEETAH'S FEROCITY, IS JANUS WONDER WOMAN'S GREATEST SUPERVILLAIN?...on WONDABUNGA!!! Look alive, Kangaliers!

  9. #9
    Extraordinary Member kjn's Avatar
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    To me, Steve's basic problem is that he was created as a bland protagonist-observer to Diana. He was the closest thing to a reader insert that Wonder Woman received. For the 1940s that's fine, but to keep things going you need something more.

    Having Steve as a military pilot during the Second World War made a lot of sense, but it makes less and less so for both Diana and Steve as the world has changed, especially from a moral standpoint, or if Diana's role as mediator, agent of change, and critic of patriarchy is deepened (as I think they should). He also is in desperate need for some more personality and for a character arc to call his own. Steve's story hasn't been told yet.

    Well, except for the movie, but there his character arc killed him, which is something I'd prefer to avoid.

    The solution to me would be to have Steve in the military—as a pilot, not some special operations dude—when he encounters Diana, and then have him moving away from the military. Put him into a role similar to Harald Edelstam afterwards.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mel Dyer View Post
    I favor employing an Eros/Anteros principle, of sorts - creating an Anti-Steve, spurring regular Steve to grow apace, with him. Like most of you, I can think of some other things to throw at a wall.

    1) Steve, while an important man and romantic interest, is no longer THE man in Diana's life.

    2) Steve has an anti-Steve, a serious, non-superpowered human rival for Diana's love, creating uncertainty for us, readers. Maybe, he's a professional peer or Steve's brother. He is NOT heroic Perez Hercules ..or Hercules, in any form. He is not a superhero, from another comic. He is not Orion.

    3) Steve is specifically a highly capable, military intelligence guy, in plain clothes, with the highest imaginable clearances. A beloved companion, his professional situation also makes him very useful to Diana's work.

    4) Wonder Woman almost always calls or goes to Steve, because she needs his special skills on a mission, and he has other very important junk to do. Steve is perpetually busy with his stuff, creating suggestion of his importance, outside of Diana's world.

    5) Wonder Woman flying in to help or save Steve out of a volcano ..should be rare.

    6) Steve has a tragic past that justifies his need to believe in angels and good will.

    7) Steve's family is sinister and determined to destroy Wonder Woman.

    All of that is purely speculative. I'm out of ideas, ..for now.
    A few comments on this list.

    (1) and (2) would imply another will-they-or-won't-they. I'd much rather see Steve's and Diana's personal relation to have a real romance arc and exploration on what they mean to another as a couple.

    (4) won't work. If Steve is absent from a story, it doesn't imply he's important. Quite the opposite.

    (6) and (7) complicates stuff too much, and falls into the superhero trope that Everyone Has To Be Special.
    «Speaking generally, it is because of the desire of the tragic poets for the marvellous that so varied and inconsistent an account of Medea has been given out» (Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History [4.56.1])

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