Why I Love Golden Age Steve Trevor

[mosellegreen.insanejournal.com]

There are from Sensation Comics #1, 1942.

So, this first scan is about why I love Wonder Woman, rather than Steve. When I was eight, I got a collection of 40's WW comics, which I still have today, and this was one of the stories in it. I always loved her playful attitude towards her feats; playing "Bullets and Bracelets" was "fun", not something she faced with grim determination and fear.


This one is in because when I was eight and hadn't yet gotten it through my head that sometimes the grownups who wrote comic books and TV shows like The Land of the Lost just couldn't be bothered to make sense, it really broke my brain. Just as I experienced considerable distress trying to understand what was going on in a particular LotL ep that involved a computer studded with magic gemstones, I also went over this panel hundreds of times, checking my own math. A mile a minute is 60 miles an hour, right? So when he was driving 60 miles an hour, he should've been keeping pace with her, right? If she was going a mile a minute and he was going 80 miles an hour, shouldn't he have passed her?

Yes.

[At that age, I was also wondering: since Speed Racer was constantly getting trapped under water in his car and squealing, "We're going to run out of air!" why didn't he just keep a plant in the Mach 5 to convert the carbon dioxide back into oxygen? The car had everything else, why not a plant?]


Steve has read such alarming news that even though his doctor claims he isn't fully recovered, he has to go fight Nazis.




Notice he's not at all displeased to see that his "beautiful angel" is strong enough to break down doors. He thinks it's neat.


Again, he's totally impressed with her, not resentful of her superior physical abilities at all. And he readily concedes credit where it's due, sometimes even dismissing his own contributions to their adventures. Compare that, for instance, with Larry Lance, who always used to claim credit for the Black Canary's Golden Age exploits.

...You know what? I don't think anybody got tied up in this whole issue. That's gotta be a record for WW.

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Comments

[randyripoff.insanejournal.com]

Lost in all the bondage and other fetishes is that Marston probably wrote the best Wonder Woman ever. I miss the Diana that enjoyed challenges, that had fun on her adventures, that would have a good laugh from time to time. It seems as if ever since he died, she's become this dour, ultra-serious character who has zero fun whatsoever.

[fredneil.livejournal.com (from insanejournal.com)]

"Lost in all the bondage and other fetishes is that Marston probably wrote the best Wonder Woman ever. "

It's not lost by me. I'd also say that he was one of the best writers of the era. Compared to a typical story then, one of Marston's Wonder Woman stories is almost a novel in both plot and characterization.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Well, you must remember that Marston had a much higher pedigree than most other comics writers of his era. Most of the other writers DC had working for them were kids in their late teens or early-to-mid-twenties, most of whom had no education past high school level, and were pretty much flying by the seats of their pants in terms of writing skills; they learned as they went along. Marston, on the other hand, was a man in his forties who was not only college-educated, he was a professor of psychology; he'd invented the lie detector, been interviewed for magazines - I mean, the guy was a minor celebrity in his own right. It's hardly surprising that he was a good writer. The man had talent; he succeeded in just about everything he put his mind to - and luckily for us, the main part of that was Wonder Woman.

[katsaris.insanejournal.com]

"A mile a minute is 60 miles an hour, right? So when he was driving 60 miles an hour, he should've been keeping pace with her, right?"

He was keeping pace with her at 60 miles an hour. That's what he's saying: that she's still ahead. So at 60 miles an hour he can't reach her, because they have the same speed.

"If she was going a mile a minute and he was going 80 miles an hour, shouldn't he have passed her?"

He needs to reach her before he can *pass* her. Once he has reached her of course he will need to slow down in order not to pass her.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, I've never really understood people who are always complaining about what a useless character Steve is. I think they're confusing him with the Silver-to-Bronze-Age Steve, who WAS pretty useless - he was basically a testosterone-fueled male version of Lois Lane. Golden Age Steve, on the other hand, is a two-fisted, pipe-smoking manly-man who nonetheless has no problem with the fact that his girlfriend is so much better than him at practically everything - in fact, that's one of the reasons why he loves her. He has his jealous moments, as was probably inevitable, but overall, he's a peach of a fellow.

[bradygirl_12.insanejournal.com]

I agree with you on the fun Wondy used to have! :)

Also, Golden Age Steve always impressed me by his admiration of his Angel's power and skills. :)

Ditto on Silver Age Steve. They turned the comic into a romance comic and made him a jerk and Diana wimpy.

I do think that early '80s Steve was written pretty well, though. I also think that DC missed a golden opportunity to bring their relationship as up-to-date as Clark/Lois after the reboot in '86, but instead pretended the relationship had never existed at all.

[fredneil.livejournal.com (from insanejournal.com)]

Mid-late 80s? I might be misremembering the cultural atmosphere at the time, but I think there was something of a backlash against the idea of the "sensitive guy," so DC might not have thought the time was receptive to the idea of a guy who obviously adored his more-powerful girlfriend.

[bradygirl_12.insanejournal.com]

I'm not sure if there was a backlash enough to cause DC to wipe out the Diana/Steve romance, but there were other reasons. I suspect they wanted to give Wonder Woman independence and not have her allied with a man at all, which they've pretty much continued except for some ill-fated romances scattered throughout the past 23 years.

A pity they can't try again (like the Mists of Nepenthe couldn't work! ;) ) with Steve. Give him that sensitivity that appreciates Diana's power and also emphasize his heroism and occupation as Marston did in the Golden Age. There could be good stories of the two of them trying to adjust to each other and their particular issues, but I think it could be fun. I think Diana could use a partner who is portrayed as mature and self-confident and lose the frat boy elements *cough* Nemesis *cough* :)