Is Steve Trevor Wonder Woman's One True Love?

[Celgress]

I can’t really say SM/WW pairing has worked in Elseworlds either since it’s always presented as Clark’s rebound/consolation prize for not being with Lois.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of that interpretation either. I hope that someday we get an emotionally healthier SMWW Elseworlds in which their relationship is built on mutual respect and a desire to be together rather than tragedy and/or settling for "second best".

Edit The closest example I can think of regarding a mutually beneficial SMWW "Elseworlds" story is the anime Project A-ko: which isn't even officially Diana and Clark even though it is fairly obvious they are the inspiration for the star Magami's former superhero parents.

[PCN24454]

I can’t really say SM/WW pairing has worked in Elseworlds either since it’s always presented as Clark’s rebound/consolation prize for not being with Lois.

They're probably praised for not vilifying Lois to sell the ship.

[TheCape]

The only SM/WW elseworld that i had seen praised is Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and even then both Superman and Wonder Woman fans found their charactherizations there as spotty.

[Vordan]

The WW movie has absolutely established him as an essential supporting cast member in a way he wasn’t before. Dunno about one true love though, that depends a lot on if they start using Steve in other stuff more consistently. Lois & Catwoman pretty much always show up in Batman & Superman media. Steve isn’t there yet.

[Gaius]

The WW movie has absolutely established him as an essential supporting cast member in a way he wasn’t before. Dunno about one true love though, that depends a lot on if they start using Steve in other stuff more consistently. Lois & Catwoman pretty much always show up in Batman & Superman media. Steve isn’t there yet.

I think it's more that WW just doesn't have much solo media stuff in comparison to those two, when she does get stuff to herself Steve showing up is usually a safe bet alongside Hippolyta; the 70s show, the two animated films, even an episode in the DCAU JL show.

[Vordan]

I think it's more that WW just doesn't have much solo media stuff in comparison to those two, when she does get stuff to herself Steve showing up is usually a safe bet alongside Hippolyta; the 70s show, the two animated films, even an episode in the DCAU JL show.

True. If he’s consistently paired with her as her love interest like how Lois is the default LI for Supes and Catwoman is the default for Bats, then yeah he’s the OTL. Similar to how MJ is *the* Peter LI despite her not being the first, she’s been the main one of all the major Spidey solo stuff: cartoons, games, etc.

It’s similar to how Cheetah is seen as WW’s arch because Cheetah tends to be the only WW Rogue who shows up in outside media. People assume she must be the arch because she’s the one WW foe who shows up regularly, even though before Rucka Rebirthed her I found Cheetah fairly lacking (and still don’t think of her as the arch). If Steve is consistently portrayed as her one true love then he will be in the eyes of the general audience.

My own personal take is whoever WW’s one true love is, whether Steve or someone else, it needs to be a character wholly part of the Wonder Mythos. So no Bats or Supes, don’t mind her dating either of them occasionally, but I can’t get behind either of them being an “endgame” LI outside of Elseworlds. The reason is that Diana needs her own corner of the DCU that’s wholly hers without having to share spotlight with one of the other big heroes.

[Robanker]

The WW movie has absolutely established him as an essential supporting cast member in a way he wasn’t before. Dunno about one true love though, that depends a lot on if they start using Steve in other stuff more consistently. Lois & Catwoman pretty much always show up in Batman & Superman media. Steve isn’t there yet.

As Gaius said, show me the Wonder Woman media they're making. All the ones I can think of (Lynda Carter and the DTV movies) have Steve front and center. He's not in Justice League, but Lois and Catwoman hardly are if at all so it's not really fair to hold that against him. Doesn't he show up on DCSHG so Diana can make moon eyes at him?

There's just so little WW media compared to the rest that it feels like Steve never shows up, but he always does.

My own personal take is whoever WW’s one true love is, whether Steve or someone else, it needs to be a character wholly part of the Wonder Mythos. So no Bats or Supes, don’t mind her dating either of them occasionally, but I can’t get behind either of them being an “endgame” LI outside of Elseworlds. The reason is that Diana needs her own corner of the DCU that’s wholly hers without having to share spotlight with one of the other big heroes.

She absolutely needs to build up her corner unassisted by Bruce or Clark. As for elseworlds, I've just been soured on it. I used to think SM/WW was kind of fun for Elseworlds but between stuff like Superman: Distant Fires, Red Son and Injustice, I'm really tired of Diana being a prop or just outright simping hard for Clark. It doesn't get much better on Bruce's side where she respects him so much as a warrior and yet she grew up with people with that same warrior spirit as for thousands of years and he's somehow unique I guess? I just don't really get Batman/Wonder Woman, if I'm being honest. All his deceit and flaws are the exact things I feel would repel Diana romantically, so while she'd love and respect him as a friend, the attraction wouldn't be there. What does he offer her that Amazons don't, you know? I guess she doesn't have to worry about breaking up and seeing him around the island in 70 years I guess? I know Rucka ships it hard so I'm sure someone will point to his work or the animated show but each time they always felt really off to me.

I don't want to derail this further, but relationships with Superman and Batman put development of her supporting cast on hold at best and outright undermine her at worst. There's no benefit at this point.

[Agent Z]

As Gaius said, show me the Wonder Woman media they're making. All the ones I can think of (Lynda Carter and the DTV movies) have Steve front and center. He's not in Justice League, but Lois and Catwoman hardly are if at all so it's not really fair to hold that against him. Doesn't he show up on DCSHG so Diana can make moon eyes at him?

There's just so little WW media compared to the rest that it feels like Steve never shows up, but he always does.



She absolutely needs to build up her corner unassisted by Bruce or Clark. As for elseworlds, I've just been soured on it. I used to think SM/WW was kind of fun for Elseworlds but between stuff like Superman: Distant Fires, Red Son and Injustice, I'm really tired of Diana being a prop or just outright simping hard for Clark. It doesn't get much better on Bruce's side where she respects him so much as a warrior and yet she grew up with people with that same warrior spirit as for thousands of years and he's somehow unique I guess? I just don't really get Batman/Wonder Woman, if I'm being honest. All his deceit and flaws are the exact things I feel would repel Diana romantically, so while she'd love and respect him as a friend, the attraction wouldn't be there. What does he offer her that Amazons don't, you know? I guess she doesn't have to worry about breaking up and seeing him around the island in 70 years I guess? I know Rucka ships it hard so I'm sure someone will point to his work or the animated show but each time they always felt really off to me.

I don't want to derail this further, but relationships with Superman and Batman put development of her supporting cast on hold at best and outright undermine her at worst. There's no benefit at this point.

Steve was also in the Justice League show and was one of the few non-villainous Wonder Woman characters to appear. He was also the first Wonder Woman supporting character to appear in the New 52 animated movies, albeit in a very small role. The only other Wonder Woman characters that can rival Steve in number of appearances in adaptations are Diana and Hippolyta and the latter's role is often much less significant compared to Steve.

[Gaius]

As Gaius said, show me the Wonder Woman media they're making. All the ones I can think of (Lynda Carter and the DTV movies) have Steve front and center. He's not in Justice League, but Lois and Catwoman hardly are if at all so it's not really fair to hold that against him. Doesn't he show up on DCSHG so Diana can make moon eyes at him?

There's just so little WW media compared to the rest that it feels like Steve never shows up, but he always does.



She absolutely needs to build up her corner unassisted by Bruce or Clark. As for elseworlds, I've just been soured on it. I used to think SM/WW was kind of fun for Elseworlds but between stuff like Superman: Distant Fires, Red Son and Injustice, I'm really tired of Diana being a prop or just outright simping hard for Clark. It doesn't get much better on Bruce's side where she respects him so much as a warrior and yet she grew up with people with that same warrior spirit as for thousands of years and he's somehow unique I guess? I just don't really get Batman/Wonder Woman, if I'm being honest. All his deceit and flaws are the exact things I feel would repel Diana romantically, so while she'd love and respect him as a friend, the attraction wouldn't be there. What does he offer her that Amazons don't, you know? I guess she doesn't have to worry about breaking up and seeing him around the island in 70 years I guess? I know Rucka ships it hard so I'm sure someone will point to his work or the animated show but each time they always felt really off to me.

I don't want to derail this further, but relationships with Superman and Batman put development of her supporting cast on hold at best and outright undermine her at worst. There's no benefit at this point.

Seems Rucka only really ships when Batman when Steve isn't an option, which is how it was during his first run. Reading through his run again rather recently, there are some scenes that hint at it but they're fairly minor and if anything suggest Bruce is more into her than she is to him (aside from the Blackest Night tie-in mini he did).

Of course the most notable interaction he did with Bruce and Diana was when she had her boot on his head.

[Dipter]

Steve may be a blank slate, be he's undeniably the closest thing she has to a true love. And since the majority of writers have no interest in exploring Diana's love life, he's destined to hold that title forever. Which is fine by me, anything to prevent her from being paired up with Bruce.

[Jim Kelly]

I think it matters more that Diana is Steve's one true love, than that he is hers. She's the Daenerys to his Ser Jorah.

[Celgress]

I think it matters more that Diana is Steve's one true love, than that he is hers. She's the Daenerys to his Ser Jorah.

This is true, an apt comparison. Steve certainly needs Diana more than Diana needs him for any degree of relevancy.

[DochaDocha]

Since the Justice League cartoon, Steve's shown up a lot in animation. He was on The Brave and the Bold, the 2009 animated movie, Bloodlines, Gods and Monsters. I think there's been an active push to reverse/undo his 25-year absence/irrelevance from the comics, and now that Chris Pine has elevated his importance, he's going to stick around longer.

Of course, I should also point out that The Brave and the Bold is not a good showing for Steve. Yeah, they point out he's important to the Wonder Woman mythos, but it's hard to shake the feeling that they were strongly implying the character pretty much sucks.

[Darkspellmaster]

Since the Justice League cartoon, Steve's shown up a lot in animation. He was on The Brave and the Bold, the 2009 animated movie, Bloodlines, Gods and Monsters. I think there's been an active push to reverse/undo his 25-year absence/irrelevance from the comics, and now that Chris Pine has elevated his importance, he's going to stick around longer.

Of course, I should also point out that The Brave and the Bold is not a good showing for Steve. Yeah, they point out he's important to the Wonder Woman mythos, but it's hard to shake the feeling that they were strongly implying the character pretty much sucks.

Are we meaning the one where she saves him? I thought it was more a gag on the idea of how typically it was the female characters that Bats saved in the same way and that Steve was being used as a gag to that nod. Thing though is that the implication is it's more in line with the 1930s Superman cartoons and Steve is more like Lois was there, where she could mostly hold her own to a point only to be captured when she got overwhelmed by someone. My guess is that Steve was in tricky situations not because he sucked, but because he got overpowered by super villains. People tend to forget that Steve is totally fine with being saved by Wonder Woman, and hell he was saved a lot in her original run.

I'm just glad that they're rectifying this, because showing a character like Steve being able to be okay with being saved by a woman can go a long way in getting people to drop some toxic ideas about heroes.