The Four Color Media Monitor

A writer at ComicBook asks if DC is going to reverse the death of Steve Trevor, the USAF intel colonel who began in the Golden Age as Wonder Woman's boyfriend, following Tom King's political metaphor where he exploited the characters for the sake of his personal agendas:

Wonder Woman has been going through some major changes in the current volume of Wonder Woman. It all began with the introduction of Trinity, the daughter of Wonder Woman, in Wonder Woman #800. Wonder Woman’s battle against new villain the Sovereign has seen the Amazons outlawed, starting a war that has pulled in everyone in Wonder Woman’s life, be they hero or villain. However, Wonder Woman has lost something to the Sovereign — the life of Steve Trevor. This led the war to the next level, as Wonder Woman and the Wonder Girls did their level best to destroy the Sovereign. They succeeded, and readers learned how Trinity was conceived, before getting a chilling glimpse of the future of Wonder Woman. Throughout Wonder Woman, we’ve also gotten Trinity back-up stories. The popularity of these back-ups led to the fantastic Trinity: Daughter of Wonder Woman #1, a book that plays into a lot of ideas introduced in Wonder Woman. The ghost of Steve Trevor haunts Trinity #1 almost from the beginning. The book’s main plot — a time travel story that sees three different versions of Trinity meet up, accidentally turn their Jon Kents and Damian Waynes into Corgis who then steal a Time Bubble, forcing the three girls to travel through time to find and change them back — is set up by the death of Steve Trevor. The loss of Trevor is a major part of Trinity’s life, and the issue does a great job of setting all of this up. However, all of that raises a question — will Steve Trevor be resurrected? The answer to that question is more complicated than a simple yes or no.

This isn't an opinion so much as it is a hint the writer's actually okay with leaving Trevor's matter unrepaired, if at all. And explains what's wrong with these so-called columnists - they're way too loyal to the publishers to voice a clear opinion whether any charcter who was wronged by PC should have their fates reversed; note how he's so quick to embrace a King-influenced direction, even for the Trinity book. It's no wonder Identity Crisis' worst results remained influential for nearly 12 years, as these same columnists made feeble comments but never clearly stated the most abominable crossovers should be de-canonized and abuse to the characters should be reversed, nor did they support a boycott of DC/Marvel to send a message that even the most minor characters matter. The following makes pretty clear where the columnist of this puff piece stands:

Steve Trevor has always been a very important part of the Wonder Woman mythos. In most versions, Steve crash lands on Themyscira and Diana becomes so enamored of him that she decides that she wants to go to Man’s World, entering the contest that earns her the name Wonder Woman. Trevor became Diana’s de facto significant other throughout the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages, and has always played a role in getting Diana off Themyscira. However, their relationship hasn’t always been as important as it once was. While Steve was always positioned as Wonder Woman’s Lois Lane — a resourceful, intelligent human that proves to be the equal of Wonder Woman — in the modern days, that relationship has often fallen to the wayside as Wonder Woman has developed as a character. Many readers were quite surprised that Steve Trevor was made so important in latest run of Wonder Woman, but it worked. It was obvious that Tom King had a story he wanted to tell, and wanted it all to lead to the birth of Trinity. King did a tremendous job of making their relationship work even for fans that might not like it very much. Since his death, Wonder Woman has done a tremendous job of selling the importance of Steve Trevor and his death. Readers got to see Diana bring him across the River Styx to the Underworld, and also saw him in the afterlife, missing Diana. He appears in Trinity #1, tying up the Fates and telling them that he needs to see his daughter.

So King did a great job, because the pretentious columnist says so, not the audience. There may have once been a time when WW was developed as a character, but that's because the assigned writers did an impressive job giving Diana personality and character drama. That's been far less the case since the turn of the century, and I can't stand Greg Rucka's shoddy take on WW today. As for the relationship between Diana and Steve? I'm quite fine with it, provided it's written with merit, which King's writing lacks. The only story he had to tell was an anti-Donald Trump metaphor, which predictably goes unaddressed here. And then, the columnist makes things worse, yet very telling, with the following:

One of the things about superhero comics that can be rather infuriating is the tendency to revert everything to the status quo. The main reason for this is because fans from outside superhero comics don’t really know anything but the basics of character. So, for example, Batman couldn’t marry Catwoman at the end of Tom King’s Batman, which has been rumored to be the way it was supposed to end, because casual Batman fans might get confused if they picked up a Batman comic where he was married. So, looking at the death of Steve Trevor from that perspective, it seems like it should only be a matter of time before he’s resurrected, especially with the announcement of a new Wonder Woman movie being planned by DC Studios. However, one of the things I’ve noticed about DC is that they are less likely to actually to reset everything for fans from outside of the comics. On top of that, Wonder Woman writer Tom King is the man who killed Alfred and Alfred has stayed dead since 2020. Wonder Woman and Trinity #1 both have teased the return to life of Steve Trevor, but so far, Steve is still dead. And, honestly, maybe it should stay that way. As someone who has advocated for the return of Steve in the past, I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe things are better this way and DC won’t bring him back.

Well, I guess this says all we need to know just what kind of defeatist is lecturing us. It's not difficult to guess he's concluded it's okay for Steve to remain entombed because it serves to make a shoddy "point" for King's writings, not because it helps the WW legacy as a whole. And then the columnist even tells us it's bad if status quos are reverted. The problem here is that as history's made clear, if they do today, it's not for the right reasons. As for whether Batman should marry Catwoman? Maybe it could work, but not under a writer as awful as King's proven to be, and all the while, these mainstream "opinionators" have worked tirelessly to sugarcoat what's wrong with his scriptwriting.

The only reason Trevor should remain in the afterlife is because, what if he were brought back to star in a shoddy political metaphor? That's the only obstacle to resurrection, and while resurrection in science-fantasy is not inherently wrong, it's shameful and offensive when it all hinges upon forcing the abused characters into a story that could be considered a fate worse than death, politically or otherwise. For now, this is some of the most bottom of the barrel, meaningless propaganda I've ever seen from a site like ComicBook, and makes clear they're really not relevant anymore.

Labels: bad editors, dc comics, golden calf of death, history, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, Wonder Woman