Steve Trevor

Publication history

Steve Trevor first appeared in All Star Comics #8 (December 1941).

As originally introduced, Steve Trevor was a U.S. military intelligence officer in the US Army Air Corps who became stranded on Wonder Woman's homeland and developed a close relationship with the heroine. Though a military man with experience in the field, storylines involving post-Marston Steve and Wonder Woman typically involved inversions of the damsel in distress trope, with Wonder Woman coming to Steve's rescue. Steve's visibility in comics varied through the 1970s to the 1990s, with his character either absent or sidelined in favour of fantasy and action-adventure Wonder Woman stories without romantic interests. In more recent portrayals, and particularly since DC's 2011 reboot, Steve is portrayed as a senior government agent and super spy whose close connection to Wonder Woman makes him the United States' liaison to the Justice League. In 2013, in his capacity as a skilled government agent, Steve himself became the member of a new incarnation of the Justice League of America.

The character has been adapted for other media several times. He has been voiced by actors such as Tahmoh Penikett, Nathan Fillion, and George Newbern among others in various Wonder Woman and Justice League productions. In live action depictions, Lyle Waggoner portrayed the character in the 1970s Wonder Woman series, and Chris Pine is set to take on the role in the 2017 theatrical Wonder Woman film, which is set in the DC Extended Universe.

Golden Age

In the original version of Wonder Woman's origin story, Steve Trevor was an intelligence officer in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II whose plane crashed on Paradise Island, the isolated homeland of the Amazons. He was nursed back to health by the Amazon princess Diana, who fell in love with him and accompanied him when he returned to the outside world. There she became Wonder Woman (and also his coworker, Diana Prince).

Steve Trevor, modeled from the Orion archetype, was portrayed as a blonde American military hero who often fought battles both alone and alongside Wonder Woman. At the same time, he was also a traditional superhero's love interest and gentleman-in-jeopardy: getting kidnapped and requiring rescuing from peril by Wonder Woman, as well as pining after the superheroine in the red-and-blue outfit while failing to notice her resemblance to his meek, bespectacled co-worker Diana Prince. But he also rescued Wonder Woman at times.

The reason Steve was made blonde stems from William Moulton Marston's theory that the best romantic combo is a blue-eyed brunette girl to a light-haired man. He asserted that blonde males tend to be more submissive to brunette females.

Post-Marston

After Marston's death, much of the original supporting cast had less attention paid to them. Under writer-editor Robert Kanigher, both his and Diana's personalities were compromised considerably, with Steve beginning to seem threatened by his heroine's power, and with Diana almost beginning to seem apologetic about it. As with Superman stories of the same period, the question of marriage was never far from the couple's minds. There was also considerable attention given to the threat of the Amazon's secret identity being revealed.

Wonder Woman often found herself agreeing to Steve's contests for her hand in marriage, which he typically cheated at using government tracking equipment. Afraid that she loved someone else; Steve once again misused government spying equipment to stalk Wonder Woman, finding her with her childhood boyfriend Mer-Man; whom he felt the need to prove himself better than.

In 1968, Diana chose to give up her powers and cut ties with her native Paradise Island to stay close to Steve. Trevor was killed off in the next issue. He was thus absent for the next few years of the comic. In the mid-1970s, following the return of the heroine's powers, Trevor was brought back to life by Aphrodite, and given a new identity as the brunette Steve Howard. In 1978, he was killed off again. He would be replaced in 1980 by a double from another, undisclosed dimension of the Multiverse. For the next few years the classic relationship of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor would be essentially restored, and explored with some detail. In 1985 with issue # 322, writer Dan Mishkin dealt with Trevor's three separate "lives," and after much explanation merged the "new" Steve with the old.

During this same period in early 1980s issues of Wonder Woman, the villainous Doctor Psycho fused Steve's image with Wonder Woman's abilities and became "Captain Wonder," sporting a costume similar to Wonder Woman's. In the final issue of the original Wonder Woman series, Steve and Diana get married.

Post-Crisis and Beyond

The 1985 comic book storyline Crisis on Infinite Earths redefined the previous history of the DC Universe.

At the end of the series, the Wonder Woman and retired four-star General Steve Trevor of pre-Crisis Earth-Two traveled to Mount Olympus to live with the Greek gods and goddesses, as many of the other pre-Crisis Earth-Two heroes died or merged into a new streamlined continuity. The Wonder Woman of pre-Crisis Earth-One was devolved back into the mystical clay from which she was formed (technically dying), thus allowing Wonder Woman and her supporting characters to be re-introduced with new origins, backgrounds and plotlines.

With the restart of the series in the second volume after the Crisis on Infinite Earths series, Steve Trevor was revamped to be considerably older than Diana. In addition, the two of them never had a romantic relationship. Years before Trevor's crash landing on Themyscira (the modern name for Paradise Island), his lost mother, Diana Rockwell Trevor, a pilot for the Women Airforce Service Pilots, had also crashed there, finding the Amazons battling a large monster. Seeing they were close to defeat, Diana Trevor used her pistol on the beast, giving the Amazons an advantage in the battle. Trevor dies as a result. After her death the Amazons considered the outworlder to be an honored hero for her sacrifice. It is from her that Queen Hippolyta named her daughter Diana and also from her that the Amazons came into possession of a gun originating from Man's World. It's this familial link that led to the god Ares to manipulate Steve into bombing Themyscira to eliminate the Amazons. However while in flight and guided to the island, Trevor realized he was about to needlessly bomb civilians and attempted to abort the mission. Steve's co-pilot, a minion of the war-god, transforms into a monster in an attempt to continue the attack. Diana rescues Steve from the resulting disaster.

Bringing the unconscious Trevor to the island, Diana recognized his American flag insignia on his uniform mirrored her own armor's color motif and took this as a sign of where she had to go to begin her fight against Ares. Thus inspired, Diana took Trevor to 'Man's World' in the city of Boston and began her calling. Since then, Trevor and Diana have been close friends despite him being old enough to be her father. This version of Steve Trevor went on to marry Etta Candy and became the Deputy Secretary of Defense for the U.S. government.

Infinite Crisis

Following the Infinite Crisis limited series, Wonder Woman's origin was yet again revamped, as was her supporting cast. Diana is no longer a recent arrival to man's world, but instead has been around for a considerable time, having been involved in the creation of the Justice League of America (as was the case in the group's Silver Age introductory story in 1960). Although Steve still remains close friends with Diana and married to Etta, his history with Diana has not fully been developed.

The New 52

In the aftermath of the Flashpoint storyline, history is rewritten. In a conversation between Steve Trevor and Amanda Waller five years ago, Steve tries to convince Waller that Diana and the Amazons are not a threat to global security, as they are benevolent. Steve then becomes Wonder Woman's U.N. liaison during her stay in Washington, D.C. and later becomes the head of the newly formed A.R.G.U.S., (Advanced Research Group for Uniting Super-Humans), as well as the UN's liaison to the newly formed Justice League. Promoted to the rank of Colonel, his assistant is Etta Candy and he has made his feelings and attraction to Wonder Woman clear to her, although his feelings were not reciprocated. The hero Black Orchid is revealed to be A.R.G.U.S. Agent Alba Garcia, working covertly for Justice League Dark to monitor John Constantine.

Steve is also a member of several team books, including Team 7, which launched in September 2012, and Justice League of America, launched in 2013.

In Convergence, versions of Steve, Diana and Etta Candy from before Crisis on Infinite Earths work to better the fate of Earth One's Gotham City while stuck under an alien dome for a year. When vampiric versions of Gotham criminals from Earth-43 invade a makeshift church service, it is up to Diana and Steve to keep them from spilling out into the streets. Steve falls prey to the vampires, arising as one of them. However, he manages to maintain his own free will, taking down a vampire and falling under the rubble of the collapsing church.

DC Rebirth

In the Year One storyline that retells Wonder Woman's origin, Steve crashes on the island of Themyscira and is the only survivor. He is saved and nursed back to health by the Amazons, and a competition is held to determine the one to take Steve and the bodies of his fallen comrades back to America. Diana is the winner and unknown origins. Steve, however, they journey in an invisible plane back to America, where Diana is detained for a while because of her vouches for her and she is eventually released to explore a mall. He aids Diana in defeating a group of terrorists who attack random pedestrians. Etta Candy and Barbara Ann Minerva discover the men were infected by a virus that induces homicidal rage in its victims and Steve spends more time with Diana to discover the scope of her powers. Later on the Greek god of war Ares appears, planning to use Steve as a way to garner the location of Themyscira as Steve was the first man to set foot on it. Diana saves Steve and subdues Ares with her lasso, and Steve joins her on going around the world to find other sources of the virus. After the conflict is over and Diana has been indoctrinated into man's world, Steve reveals Diana has been given the codename Wonder Woman.

In the "Lies" story arc set years later Steve is part of a group of soldiers are sent to track down the cult of Urzkartaga and Andres Cadulo, who has abducted a group of young African villagers. Steve is taken prisoner by Cadulo and is nearly sacrificed to the god Urzkartaga until Wonder Woman intervenes, saving him and causing the god to turn into a plant. They return to America where Steve and Diana reconnect. Barbara Ann Minerva (freed from her curse as the Cheetah because of Urzkartaga's defeat) discovers a way to locate Paradise Island and Steve accompanies Diana there, where they are seemingly greeted by the Amazons. However, Steve notices many inconsistencies with what he remembers: the Amazons look unfamiliar, their society is different, and they all speak English despite having been presented as having their own language. Wonder Woman realizes this is because everything she thought she knew was a lie: the price for leaving the island with Steve years before was to renounce going back. Wonder Woman has not been back to the island since then. This renders Diana nearly catatonic and she loses her grip on reality, forcing Steve to find a way to get them off the island. However, he finds his contacts have been compromised by a military group called "Poison" who are trying to capture Diana. Steve relies on his training and experience to ward them off while having to protect Diana, who is rendered vulnerable, and they are finally rescued. Steve reluctantly places Diana in a mental hospital while he tries to figure out what the group Godwatch--led by Veronica Cale--are up to with Etta Candy.

Justice

The Silver Age Steve Trevor makes an appearance in Alex Ross' Justice. He is among the sidekicks and loved ones attacked by the Legion of Doom, and can be seen embracing Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman: Amazonia

In the Elseworlds Wonder Woman: Amazonia, Stephen Trevor is a Royal Marine who tricks the Amazons into being loyal, but then calls down the British Empire and slaughters them all except Diana. He brings her to Man's World to put her into stage plays re-enacting Biblical stories. Diana later kills Stephen as revenge.

Amalgam Comics

In the Amalgam Comics universe, Steve Trevor is fused with The Punisher/Frank Castle to form Trevor Castiglione/Trevor Castle.

Flashpoint

In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, Steve and Wonder Woman have no relationship; instead, it appears that he is in love with Lois Lane. Steve made an appearance in London where he is waiting at a rendezvous point for Lois Lane as he is attacked by Wonder Woman and the Amazons. Wonder Woman catches him by the neck with her Lasso of Truth and begins interrogating him after he is temporarily able to resist the lasso's effects. He explains that he was hired to extract Lois Lane from New Themyscira because she was sent to gather information on the Amazons for Cyborg who's amassing superhumans to stop the fighting between Wonder Woman and Aquaman. Steve's fate remains unrevealed, as a subject of Wonder Woman asked her what to do with him.

Wonder Woman: Earth One

Steve Trevor appears in Wonder Woman: Earth One in a similar manner to his original counterpart, though this time presented as African-American.

The Legend of Wonder Woman

Steve Trevor appears as a major supporting character in this alternate re-telling of Wonder Woman's origin. Similar to Marston's original comics, the young pilot Steve Trevor crash landed on Paradise Island.

Live Action

Animation

Live action

Animation

Web series