Make It Work Better: Steve Trevor as Diana's paramour

[bardkeep]

I feel like Steve was portrayed as Diana's true love all the way back to the Golden Age and her earliest appearances.

He was always a love interest, but by "true love" I mean the central relationship in her stories. The women in her supporting cast were much more important and positively portrayed - Marston's Amazons had a law that they weren't allowed to get married and Diana settling down with Steve was depicted as "surrendering" to him. The Steve romance only became central after Marston's death, as part of a broader effort to wring out all of the feminism (which also included axing Etta and the Holliday Girls because the CCA threw a fit about them being lesbians).

Also Perez was far more of an influence on current WW than Marston, and his Steve was a much older dude married to Etta. Rucka's Rebirth run was the first comic in nearly 30 years to make him a love interest and Chris Pine popularized him with the general public.

[Donpayne]

He was always a love interest, but by "true love" I mean the central relationship in her stories. The women in her supporting cast were much more important and positively portrayed - Marston's Amazons had a law that they weren't allowed to get married and Diana settling down with Steve was depicted as "surrendering" to him. The Steve romance only became central after Marston's death, as part of a broader effort to wring out all of the feminism (which also included axing Etta and the Holliday Girls because the CCA threw a fit about them being lesbians).

Also Perez was far more of an influence on current WW than Marston, and his Steve was a much older dude married to Etta. Rucka's Rebirth run was the first comic in nearly 30 years to make him a love interest and Chris Pine popularized him with the general public.

And with both Rucka's Steve and Pine's portrayal having drawn interest to the character, the new writers can flesh out more of a personality. A user Mel Dyer had started an interesting thread on this. If the script writers of the movie can bring out a personality, then the only thing stopping the comic book writers is lack of will. There's a gold-mine waiting for them if they can just put their minds to it. The movie Steve didn't have any superhero powers or origin story but was humanized and presented with care and genuine interest.

The 80 year special and a few after #780 from Cloonrad had some promise but I don't know where they plan to take Steve. He is also mentioned to have a mystery girlfriend (dunno if they have an arc in mind there).