Archive of Our Own

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the Wonder Woman/Steve Trevor pairing. :) After 30+ years of being in limbo, they’re back in canon again. And, boy, do I have fanfic ideas! The following is an overview/history of the Diana/Steve pairing.

Wonder Woman’s creator, William Moulton Marston, enjoyed a polyamorous triad relationship by marriage to wife Elizabeth and living with the younger Olive Byrne. Both the women lived together for the rest of their lives after his death in 1947. He had unconventional ideas about women and applied them to his new creation, Wonder Woman, in 1941.

Diana’s origin told the tale of American pilot Steve Trevor crashing close to Paradise Island. Diana saved him and when he opened his eyes, saw an ‘Angel’ and fell in love. Diana also had fallen in love ‘at first sight’, a fairy tale beginning that is important to her story as we’ll see later.

Diana wins the Amazon contest to return with Steve to America to fight the Nazis in the guise of Wonder Woman. The relationship between the two is outstanding for two reasons: Marston chose to make it a role reversal, with the woman far superior in strength to the man, and the man attracted to the woman because of her beauty but also because of her power.

Think about that: in 1941, most men would not be willing to admit an attraction for a woman with the strength of Superman (and would probably be true today). Marston cleverly gave Steve the occupation of fighter pilot, a glamorous and traditionally-masculine job that was further enhanced by World War II. He could not have made the same points with a college professor.

Diana was outspokenly feminist, a bold move for the 1940s, even though there was a spate of feminism as women had to take over for the men in war factories and other masculine endeavors. She clearly advocated the equality of women, and Steve never objected, not to her views or to her saving him frequently. As was the norm in those days, the superhero’s love interest had to be in jeopardy on a regular basis, and Steve’s wartime occupation made that easy.

The second outstanding feature of the Steve/Diana relationship was their mutual respect. She came from a world that considered women superior, yet loved and admired a man, and he respected a woman whose strength and power was vastly superior to his own, and he overcame the sexism of his culture and occupation. And genuine love helped. J

One story that stood out from the era was a tale in which a villain enhanced Steve’s physical strength to levels over Wonder Woman through the use of an energy globe. In the simplicity of the times, Steve declared that now she could marry him because of his superior strength (and that meant that Wonder Woman would be retired from the superhero game, as most women gave up their jobs when marrying), but when Wonder Woman said that she couldn’t love a man stronger than she was, Steve immediately destroys the globe. He would rather have Diana’s love than take on the traditional role of stronger male.

The Steve/Diana relationship in this era is remarkably progressive for its time, and would still be today if we saw it again in an updated version.

Comics had thrived during the 1940s, especially during World War II as servicemen loved to read the patriotic/adventure tales, but after the war numbers dropped and many of the costumed heroes faded away. Comics publishers churned out more war and horror comics. By 1954, the final nail in the coffin arrived in the person of Dr. Fredric Wertham, a psychologist who declared Batman and Robin homosexuals (little did he know! ;) ) and Wonder Woman a lesbian!

Wonder Woman’s creator Marston and signature artist (Harry G. Peter) had died and now Robert Kanigher took over the writing duties with Ross Andru as artist. As the Comics Code came into being, romance comics blossomed as a non-threatening way of capturing the young female audience, and the horror and war comics were toned down. Also, the 1950s were rigidly defining the male/female roles, and Wonder Woman’s feminism was dropped in favor of a romance comic-style relationship with Steve.

Unfortunately that meant no more Etta Candy and the Holliday Girls, and the Amazons became less outspoken for women’s rights. Both Diana and Steve were often badly written in this era and probably is the reason many people disliked the pairing. Remember, this is the era of Lois trying to trap Superman into marrying her, and Steve was given the task of asking Diana to marry him just about every issue! Yet despite some incredibly OOC stories, the core of the characters still rang true.

I remember a particular two-story issue (WW #169) that I was delighted to find a summary for here at the Amazon Archives. The details of the plots are there, and the elements that stand out most to me are these: in the first story, Diana is defeated time after time by the Crimson Centipede, a creation of Mars (Ares), and begins to lose confidence in her abilities. Despite Steve’s obligatory “Now you can marry me, Angel” if she gives up being Wonder Woman, he’s worried about her and shadows her to make himself available to help when she meets the Centipede again. After a battle with the Centipede, Wonder Woman loses her Bracelets of Submission and goes into a frenzy, starting to tear down buildings. Steve picks up her bracelets and despite knowing that she could injure him (or even kill him) he heads straight for her and is successful in getting the bracelets back on. His courage and love for her was undeniable in this story.

In the second tale, Steve takes Wonder Woman for granted and doesn’t take her dating General Darnell seriously (she’s teaching him a lesson). Diana and the general wind up prisoners of crooks and Steve comes to the rescue, taking out the guards but overhearing Wonder Woman praise Darnell in such a way that he believes he’s lost her after all. Distracted, he’s knocked cold.

Diana sees this and savagely knocks out the criminals. A nice ‘making-up’ scene ensues with both apologizing to the other for silly romantic games.

The Silver Age is definitely up-and-down, but there are gems there! :)

The end of the Silver Age saw Diana de-powered and Steve killed off as the Diana Rigg era began (Diana in a white jumpsuit plying martial arts). Eventually this little experiment was ended (thanks, Gloria Steinem!) and Diana was given her powers back, and eventually Steve as well, though DC was foreshadowing from the very beginning that it wasn’t going to work. Which puzzles me, as why bring him back if they weren’t going to use a golden opportunity?

The 1970s saw the first wave of the modern Women’s Liberation Movement, and a serious relationship between Steve and Diana could have been fascinating to watch against that backdrop. For whatever reasons, DC didn’t delve into what could have been a rich relationship. Instead they forced Steve Trevor to assume a ‘secret identity’ (he was supposed to be dead, after all) and dye his hair black! (groans for the loss of her blond) as Steve Howard. A role reversal of the relationship was Steve interested in talking about them but Diana putting him off. She disliked the new identity though you’d think the fringe benefits would have been cool as they were living together. ;)

DC in its infinite wisdom killed Steve off a second time in 1978, but then chose to bring him back two years later. Except not exactly.

Diana’s memory of the first Steve was erased (an insult to the dead, IMO) and a new Steve Trevor from another dimension arrived in 1980, crashing close to Paradise Island in his jet. Sound familiar?

DC re-created the origin, gave us back a blond Steve (well, at least they did something right!) who had no memory of the other world he came from, and a new Steve/Diana romance began, using a more modern backdrop of the previous decade’s Women’s Movement with Golden Age balancing of respect and male/female issues.

The relationship actually worked quite well, then Crisis On Infinite Earths arrived, and just before it, Steve (who had been merged with the original Steve Trevor’s spirit) and Diana are married. Then COIE happens and both the Earth-1 and Earth-2 Steve and Diana (the Earth-2 couple having been married for years with a daughter, Lyta) are winked out of existence.

Most people are familiar with the George Perez reboot in 1986 and the more god-like Diana more familiar today. Also, he aged Steve thirty years or so and married him off to Etta Candy, and they left the comic.

That’s like aging Lois a few decades and marrying her off to Jimmy or Perry.

There was no Steve/Diana in this era, except for a friendship between the two.

When the Nu52 Reboot came along, Steve and Diana had enjoyed a romance, but the Reboot started ‘five years later’ across the board and the couple were already broken up, and Diana started a romance with Clark, whose marriage to Lois had been lost in the Reboot.

Happily, a new Reboot is occurring (Rebirth) and Diana and Steve are a couple again. And of course, we’ve got the Wonder Woman movie now.

In the 1970s, we got Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, and in Season 1, she came from Paradise Island with Steve Trevor to fight the Nazis in World War II, which was her original origin in the comics. There were delightful hints of romance between her and Steve in that first season, then the show was updated to the 1970s in Seasons 2 and 3, and Diana was in her Diana Rigg phase and working with the son of Steve Trevor, so no romance.

The 2009 animated movie gave us Ares as the villain, but Steve was up-and-down, written OOC in some scenes and like his true self in others.

I was just reminded (thanks, GreenPhoenix3) of a Justice League: Unlimited animated episode in which Steve is featured, and is a fan favorite.

The movie gives us the First Meeting matching the old canon, despite switching the era from World War II to World War I. Also, when Steve crashed off the shores of Paradise Island (Themyscira’s name in the comics until the Modern Era), there were no Germans invading the island after him.

We clearly see a connection between the two at first sight, and gradually their marvelous moments together build up to “I love you”, despite the ultimate outcome. This Steve is more battle-hardened, having witnessed the horrors of World War I, and Diana’s naivete gives her fresh insights into Man’s World, but leaves her vulnerable to the ultimate shattering of faith. Steve suspects the way this is going and tries to gently prepare her, but Diana is pretty strong-willed! Yet we are given a romance with lighthearted moments, Diana’s first snowfall, and a night of love.

Whether or not Steve figures into the sequel or not remains to be seen.

Years ago, Adam Hughes had spoken of his plans for Steve/Diana inAll-Star Wonder Woman. It sounds intriguing, at least. I would love to see a mature, modern romance blossom between these two. They’re both warriors, and both could be interested in peace, as it’s often said that soldiers make the best peace-bringers, having seen war. Steve would be a success in his own right as a fighter/test pilot and would be an interesting guide for Diana in Man’s World. Unfortunately, the project never got off the ground.

Oh, and Steve not being just eye candy? C’mon, a little eye candy never hurt, right? ;)

In its best days, the relationship has always been about balance. Diana comes from a world of women and Steve is a product of his patriarchal society, but both are not typical of their worlds. She is willing to acknowledge that men can be trusted comrades and has given her heart to a man. He is willing to acknowledge that women can do great things if given the opportunity and sees that exhibited every day by the woman he loves, Wonder Woman, and this from a military environment that is extremely male-oriented.

Both face external hostility to the relationship. Diana’s mother, Queen Hippolyta, disapproves because of her own disastrous history with Heracles, and Steve faces whispers about his willingness to be involved with a woman of vastly superior strength. After the first wave of “Wow, did he get lucky!” some men would wonder how he could feel comfortable in the ‘weaker’ half of the relationship.

This ‘us-against-the-world’ situation can only make their bond stronger, a theme I used in Stained Glass I: Shattered. Literally, Diana and Steve have only each other after being captured on a hostile alien planet in the middle of a war and must depend on each other for survival.

Even though my own preference is for this relationship, I can see why others might want Diana paired with a woman, for instance. Believe me, I am highly amused by the fact that after reading and writing almost exclusively in the slash genre for many years, my favorite partner for a woman who comes from a female-only island is a man! :) But chemistry knows no logic.

And let’s face it: do you honestly believe that DC would ever give Diana a female love interest? Not anyone in the Trinity! Clark and Bruce’s subtext must remain sub despite how loudly it shouts at times, and they can only be in love and marry by proxy (Apollo and Midnighter). No way is DC going to give us a slash pairing with Wonder Woman as one of the pair.

So I feel that a mature, male/female relationship would be the better way to go.

Why does Wonder Woman need anyone? She doesn’t, really, and many people like her unattached. My own personal take? I read the new Reboot years ago but gave up because she seemed so god-like and distant. I know that giving her female guides in Patriarch’s World was a good idea, but I felt no connection to humanity there, or at least only a faint one. Now, this is my opinion. Others may disagree with me and that’s absolutely okay. I firmly believe in IDIC. :) But for the case to be made for Steve/Diana, this is why I’m making it.

Steve gives Diana a connection to humanity in ways that even her friends do not. She doesn’t have to have a boyfriend (or girlfriend, for that matter) but it’s a relationship that I believe can benefit her and us. Instead of love in the abstract, Diana is loving on a real, day-to-day basis (and I would say the same thing if Steve were female).

Wonder Woman’s origin: probably due to her mythical background and Goddess-given powers, it often plays like a fairy tale: an island inhabited only by women and who by decree of Aphrodite must not let a man touch its shores. Steve crash-lands nearby and when Diana rescues him, it’s love at first sight, just as it is for him when he opens his eyes and sees her for the first time and calls her ‘Angel’.

Ordinarily I prefer a build-up of a relationship, from being friends first or having a strong attraction to each other at first sight, but love? That’s very mystical/mythical, but in this case, it works. The power of the love that Diana and Steve feel for each other helps drive her to win the contest to return with him to Man’s World (and though some object to this, I see it as one element of a woman who was already restless to see the outside world, anyway. A pretty blond pilot was just icing on the cake, baby!). ;)

Diana is mythical herself with her powers and the Greek Gods and Goddesses as important elements of her Amazon background. Steve becomes the mystical guide to a new world, and together they are the bridges between their respective societies.

Unfortunately, DC didn’t see it that way. While they did re-create the origin faithfully three times (once in the Golden Age, twice in the Silver Age), they revamped it for the Modern Era with Steve’s mother Diana the one to crash-land off the island, and when he crashes years later, there is no ‘love at first sight’ or any romance at all. This was a substantial change.

The origins of three other iconic characters, Superman, Batman, and Robin/Nightwing, were not changed no matter how many times they were told. Small details might have been changed, but not major ones. Diana’s is the only one of the Trinity to have a major element of her origin changed/deleted.

My take on the origin happening the same way so many times is that it’s Destiny for Steve and Diana to be together! ;)

Okay, I’m going to be shallow here. ;) I love the idea that the pre-COIE Steve Trevor was gorgeous.

Wouldn’t it be less shallow if Diana had fallen in love at first sight with a man not beautiful? Yes, but would it be as much fun? ;)

It amuses me that a woman with the beauty of Aphrodite is given a man whose own beauty could rival that of the Gods. The words ‘pretty boy’ ‘eye candy’ and ‘blond boy toy’ have been used in the past to describe Wonder Woman’s boyfriend, and I’m happy!

Look, I think it’s too bad that looks are the end-all and be-all of society, but for a fairy tale-style romance, I want to see a matched set! I want to see the beautiful Diana paired with a beautiful man. So sue me! :)

Also, how amusing would it be for Diana to realize that she can be just as shallow as the rest of us when it comes to looks? J It would be a nice internal monologue of hers to realize that beauty does indeed matter. Would she have fallen in love at first sight if Steve had been less than gorgeous? Interesting question!

So, I have written several stories about the pairing that take the best of what they have been in the past and let the gold shine through any dross from past eras. The Steve and Diana I write respect each other (canon except some of the Silver Age) with Steve not threatened by Diana’s superior strength (again, exception being some Silver Age stories). He is an exceptionally-skilled pilot and trained warrior (canon) which matches with warrior Diana, and their love endures all (pretty much all of canon! LOL!).

In Wonder Woman #300 (pre-COIE), Diana meets her Earth-2 counterpart and discovers that she’s married to Steve and they have a daughter, Lyta. Many other good stories are in this special issue! But Diana begins to wonder, since the marriage is successful on Earth-2, could it be for her and her Steve as well on Earth-1?

Their ‘forever’ love actually was depicted in the last of the pre-COIE issues as they were married and honeymooned on Olympus before the Crisis struck. Diana herself believed they had been destined since the beginning of time to meet and be together.

It is ironic that in other media, the romance seems to be a given. In the ‘70s TV show, there were strong hints of it in the first season. In a movie that had been proposed, Steve Trevor was one of the cast. But in the comics? It’s back, baby! It only took 30+ years. And we’ve got a big-screen movie, too!

The Steve/Diana fandom was extremely small (before the movie), due to factors discussed above (lack of romantic canon for decades and some people disliking the pairing, probably mostly due to Silver Age poor writing/characterization). Yet we are a hardy band! :) It’s not tooting my own horn to say that I’ve written most of the Wonder Woman/Steve Trevor fanfic out there when the movie kept getting shelved for years, but there are other wonderful authors as well:

You can find my works at my AO3 Account and those of many others, particularly since the movie came out.

I’m running the BradyGirl-12’s 2017 DCU Fic/Art Wonder Woman Diamond Anniversary Challenge from June 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017. All fanworks are welcome, and you receive a gorgeous banner created by ctbn60 for participating. I am hosting it on my Wonderwomanlove comms here on (LJ) and (DW).

There is a Tumblr blog, Wonder Woman's Boyfriend, that has not been updated since 2013 but contains lots of goodies that you can peruse.

There is a very active Tumblr blog, HeckYeahSteveTrevor that also contains lots of goodies and resources!

Hit your Local Comics Shop (LCS) and dig around in the back issues. In the ‘70s, Giant issues often had Golden Age reprints. Also check out those early ‘80s issues of Wonder Woman, #300, and #329, her final issue before Crisis On Infinite Earths wiped out Steve/Diana for the next 30 years. The Amazon Archives are an excellent resource.

Enjoy your foray into the wonderful world of our favorite Amazon and her Pretty Pilot! :)