The New Steve Trevor in Absolute Wonder Woman

As Thompson and team create a Wonder Woman for a new era and a new feminism, one obvious question becomes how Steve Trevor, Wonder Woman’s iconic male paramour, will fit into that narrative and align with that symbolism. #wonderwoman #stevetrever 1/12

Where the classic Wonder Woman narrative sees Steve washing up on Paradise Island and compelling feels of romantic love from Diana, Thompson’s narrative goes in an entirely different direction with some important echoes of this past. 2/12

Steve washes up on Diana’s island in hell, not because he’s a war hero inspiring Diana to join the cause but because he is damned (so it seems). This is an interesting interpretation that puts Steve on a lower moral plain than in past iterations. 3/12

From there, the story emphasizes Steve’s helplessness. Despite his courage and will, he’s nowhere near the level of Diana or Circe and thus he (quite credibly) has to be constantly protected and eventually placed into a sort of protective custody, barely able to leave the house. 4/12

This last detail reads as an inversion of the forced domestic servitude concerns identified by Betty Friedan in her foundational text “The Feminine Mystique.” She asks: ““Why should women accept this picture of a half-life, instead of a share in the whole of human destiny?” 5/12

We can also add a mythical layer to Steve’s confinement in the manner through which it can be read as a gender-swapped take on the Persephone myth, an easy leap to make given that Persephone is quite literally Diana’s neighbour and friend in this story. 6/12

Steve expresses his unhappiness with domestic confinement and that’s rather interesting. What’s perhaps more interesting, however, is Diana’s decision to sever her own right arm in order to set him free – a condemned man who she just met. She just does it because it’s the right thing to do. 7/12

Thompson states in interview that this Diana is not in love with Steve, noting as well that “It’s not wrong to think or consider romantic love as a factor in her decision, but reading it as such feels like ignoring a lot of the other things we’re saying—in both literal text and subtext.” 8/12

Thus, the story forms a compelling critique of the ongoing gender divide in Western society, a critique in which AWW makes clear that patriarchal power is innately wrong on a moral level and, when given the choice, the superhero symbol of feminism chooses to set things right. 9/12

Steve returns from hell a better man. Inspired by Diana’s example and her heroism, Steve gets placed in the role of nurturer for her, reminding her of her humanity in order to help her recover from the Medusa transformation. 10/12

As she returns to herself, Wonder Woman reiterates: “One good man can save the world” providing a sort of atonement with the father in the Joseph Campbell sense, but here an atonement provided by a heroic and powerful woman instead. 11/12

All told, Thompson’s Trevor, like Thompson’s Diana, can be read as a compelling juxtaposition to earlier iterations of the character. It’s another fresh take that helps to push the symbolism Thompson’s working with into new territory, helping to breathe new life into an old story. 12/12