What to do with Steve Trevor?

[Shockingjustice]

So recently in the thread about Wonder Woman playing second fiddle to Superman there was a reply that talked about Steve not having a lot of involvement and history with WW.

Now I honestly don't know much about the mythos of Wonder Woman having just got into her. I first read about her in the smallville season 11 comic, but I enjoyed Diana's interactions with Steve.

If Steve truly isn't involved with Wonder Woman's stories how would you fix that? A while ago I saw someone mention turning Argus into an organization that deals with mystical threats and Steve would be at the head. What would you do?

[kjn]

Some earlier threads that can make for background reading:

• Steve Trevor: Pacifist?
• What can Steve Trevor be the best at in the entire DCU?
• Why is Steve Trevor such a hard sell?
• Thoughts on How Steve Trevor Should Be Written?

[Sacred Knight]

He needs some sort of hook. One could argue Johns tried that in the New 52 to varying degrees of success with his Nick Fury angle. I personally think it was working and had potential but it got swallowed up in constant events where he was overshadowed, and over in Diana's main title Azzarello was doing his own thing which did not include Steve. Those things hurt the chances of that developing into a success. They could either go back to that now or do something new. I would imagine with Wilson on the title and thus the ball in her court, better chance of getting something new. But its gotta be something. All too often he's just there, not making much of an impression. That has to change.

I have certain ideas that would require a total reboot, so I'll ignore that one. Working within the framework of what we have? I'd create an organization specific to Wonder Woman's mythos. Not ARGUS but something that mainly revolves around her and her world. An investigative team or something consisting of Diana herself, Steve and the Oddfellows, Etta, maybe some others. Steve and his comrades straight up quit ARGUS and working for the government specifically for this purpose. Their specific aim being to investigate things on the mythological spectrum Diana occupies, but also overall magical things since that's being pushed as a big part of WW nowadays. Its separation from the government can be a sticking point and something they have to hide, maybe by way of a front, like the organization is actually passed off as just a general research center and library or something. In any case, this central setting and entity I think would allow Steve to create stronger dynamics with more than just Diana and develop a consistent place beyond just being her boyfriend. It would also now no longer be dependent on what the greater DCU is doing with those other larger entities. He, along with everyone else, become a little bit more Indiana Jones over solider/government agent. Taking jobs and inquiries driving certain plotlines as they also act essentially like private investigators.

My main inspirations I'm going for here is again, a little Indy, some Buffy Scooby Gang/Angel Investigations, and TNT's The Librarians. A mix of all those things. Obviously its an idea that would serve more than just Steve but the whole mythos, but at the same time Steve being a big part of it I think would really help his place in the stories.

[Shockingjustice]

He needs some sort of hook. One could argue Johns tried that in the New 52 to varying degrees of success with his Nick Fury angle. I personally think it was working and had potential but it got swallowed up in constant events where he was overshadowed, and over in Diana's main title Azzarello was doing his own thing which did not include Steve. Those things hurt the chances of that developing into a success. They could either go back to that now or do something new. I would imagine with Wilson on the title and thus the ball in her court, better chance of getting something new. But its gotta be something. All too often he's just there, not making much of an impression. That has to change.

I have certain ideas that would require a total reboot, so I'll ignore that one. Working within the framework of what we have? I'd create an organization specific to Wonder Woman's mythos. Not ARGUS but something that mainly revolves around her and her world. An investigative team or something consisting of Diana herself, Steve and the Oddfellows, Etta, maybe some others. Steve and his comrades straight up quit ARGUS and working for the government specifically for this purpose. Their specific aim being to investigate things on the mythological spectrum Diana occupies, but also overall magical things since that's being pushed as a big part of WW nowadays. Its separation from the government can be a sticking point and something they have to hide, maybe by way of a front, like the organization is actually passed off as just a general research center and library or something. In any case, this central setting and entity I think would allow Steve to create stronger dynamics with more than just Diana and develop a consistent place beyond just being her boyfriend. It would also now no longer be dependent on what the greater DCU is doing with those other larger entities. He, along with everyone else, become a little bit more Indiana Jones over solider/government agent. Taking jobs and inquiries driving certain plotlines as they also act essentially like private investigators.

My main inspirations I'm going for here is again, a little Indy, some Buffy Scooby Gang/Angel Investigations, and TNT's The Librarians. A mix of all those things. Obviously its an idea that would serve more than just Steve but the whole mythos, but at the same time Steve being a big part of it I think would really help his place in the stories.

I like these ideas a lot especially since not a lot of thinga cover magic in the DCU. Superman covers sci do aspects and Batman covers the regular and metahuman stories so it make sense for Diana to have grand adventure fantasy stories. A scooby doo like gang could be funny but also contain very serious stories like scooby doo Mystery Inc.

I'd imagine Steve would be more like Nathan Drake or Lara Croft.

[kjn]

My take on Steve Trevor (and Etta Candy) is that he should be largely independent of large organisations—he can very well have served in the military, but he should be ex-military relatively soon after meeting Diana. He should get into trouble relatively often, trying to help people, but also be ready to take risks and be effective in helping Diana. (See also "she's drawing all their fire, let's go" from the movie.) I wrote down some ideas for how I'd approach Steve, but it's rather far from the way that Rucka moved him in making him a special operations soldier:

Currently, Steve works as a pilot for a civilian transport contractor, which focus on humanitarian work, medical evacuations, and similar stuff. Some civilian government agencies also retain them for sensitive and discreet transports, helped by Steve's prior contacts. They also know that via Steve, they have a backchannel to Wonder Woman and the Justice League, outside of the military and security bureaucracies.

(More at the link.)

In a way, I want to pick up the humanitarian aspects from Trevor Barnes, but still have plenty of scope for man-of-action stuff. Have him as a guy capable of walking up to a bunch of IS (or equivalent) fighters besieging a refugee camp with nothing but attitude, and flying back out with a hundred women and children.

[brettc1]

Just write him like the movie, which is to say like Tom Tresser from volue 3, and he will be awesome.

[AmiMizuno]

Steve was kind of already doing thiose things in Marston's. He would help with charities or with little leagues. So it's showing off what he does he not in her work.

[Ascended]

I like a whole lot of what Sacred is saying and I dig that approach. But for myself I think, if I wanted to give him more of a defined role as well as relevance within Diana's sphere and the wider DCU, I'd make him the "face" of Argus. A specialized group would narrow the options too much, I fear.

Steve wouldn't be the head of the organization, just one of their top operatives. Whenever Argus appears in any DC title, odds are it's probably Steve and the Oddfellows who's there representing Argus' interests. We won't worry about the exact continuity of how that works of course, because that's too much minutia for a format as fluid as comics. This can bring Steve into adventures within Diana's sphere of influence, but since Steve wouldn't be limited to mythological-based missions it'd also be a great way to bring Diana to subgenres she doesn't usually deal with, like raw sci-fi. It keeps a solid government connection to Diana for the political narratives even if she loses all her other ties there. And since Steve is part of the Wonder-verse, his cameo's in other books will help increase Diana and her -verse's profile; just as having Lois Lane show up asking questions in a non-Super book reflects well on Superman.

Or you could just make him League liaison again and actually do something with it.

[Amazon Swordsman]

My basic ideas of Steve are:

He’s an expert in tactical espionage
His philosophy is that of a utilitarian nihilist

[Agent Z]

My take on Steve Trevor (and Etta Candy) is that he should be largely independent of large organisations—he can very well have served in the military, but he should be ex-military relatively soon after meeting Diana. He should get into trouble relatively often, trying to help people, but also be ready to take risks and be effective in helping Diana. (See also "she's drawing all their fire, let's go" from the movie.) I wrote down some ideas for how I'd approach Steve, but it's rather far from the way that Rucka moved him in making him a special operations soldier:



(More at the link.)

In a way, I want to pick up the humanitarian aspects from Trevor Barnes, but still have plenty of scope for man-of-action stuff. Have him as a guy capable of walking up to a bunch of IS (or equivalent) fighters besieging a refugee camp with nothing but attitude, and flying back out with a hundred women and children.

Wouldn't it be better to leave the humanitarian stuff to Barnes and let Steve be the military guy for diversity purposes?

On another note, i can't believe we've gone this long without pointing out a WW love interest shares a surname with a Captain America character.

[Fuzzy Mittens]

Wouldn't it be better to leave the humanitarian stuff to Barnes and let Steve be the military guy for diversity purposes?

On another note, i can't believe we've gone this long without pointing out a WW love interest shares a surname with a Captain America character.

If we did that, then we would also have to point out that another one of Dianas love interests is a guy named Trevor Barnes.

[Agent Z]

If we did that, then we would also have to point out that another one of Dianas love interests is a guy named Trevor Barnes.

Wait, I m confused. Trevor Barnes is who I was talking about.

[AmiMizuno]

Diana has learned from Steve just has much has Steve learns from Diana. Why can’t Steve know just has much on magic as Diana? Diana true Steve with protecting magically items that she has found? Why can’t he uses the objects for fighting some of her enemies. To be fair should he have his own enemy ?

[kjn]

Wouldn't it be better to leave the humanitarian stuff to Barnes and let Steve be the military guy for diversity purposes?

Because Trevor Barnes is pre-New 52 and gone from continuity, and was a rather boring administrator.

[AmiMizuno]

Why can we fuse the two together? Golden age Steve did a few humanitarian for charities.