Since his debut, Air Corps intelligence operative Steve Trevor has been portrayed as Wonder Woman‘s love interest. Though some comic book, film and TV adaptations have rendered his relationship with the Amazonian heroine more platonic than romantic, the character’s sexuality has always remained the same. That is, until a recently-released graphic novel – Tempest Tossed – reimagined him as gay.
In what pop culture news site CBR calls “one of the boldest, most effective revisions in the story,” writer Laurie Halse Anderson changes the character from a single, straight individual to two married men whose relationship with Wonder Woman is neither romantic nor sexual.
On top of that, these new iterations of Trevor are also no longer white, but Asian and African-American. The black member of the couple, Trevor, resembles the original character not only in name but in occupation as well. A soldier employed by the UN and sent on a mission to inspect a refugee camp in Greece, he’s in a loving relationship with Steve Chang, an Asian physician. While in Greece, the couple run into Diana who, excommunicated from Themyscira, is helping said refugees to brave the violent storms of the Aegean seas.
This change in Trevor’s character comes as the latest in a series that aims to make mainstream storytelling more inclusive. Earlier this year, for instance, Pixar produced its first short film whose protagonist was openly homosexual. This move, in turn, followed a number of gay minor characters introduced in previous features such as Onward.
Anderson’s Trevor (or Trevors) stand in stark contrast to the character as he appears in Patty Jenkins’ generally well-received Wonder Woman, as well as the upcoming Wonder Woman 1984. Portrayed by white actor Chris Pine, this version of Trevor is familiar to readers of the original comics: heterosexual and exhibiting an evident attraction towards Diana.