DC Just Confirmed the Death of a Major Character

DC has confirmed the death of a major core character of the DC Universe. Speculation leaked months ago (as per usual with previews) that this character had a death flag over their head – but now the death has been confirmed as about as official as any comic book death can be. Out of that death, however, has come a controversial birth, and DC fans are certainly feeling some kind of way about all of it!

WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS!

Wonder Woman #14 by writer Tom King and artist Daniel Sampere finally answers the big mystery of how Wonder Woman’s daughter Trinity was born, and who her father was. As many fans speculated from the start, Trinity is the daughter of Diana and her longtime beau and ally Col. Stever Trevor. However, not many fans ever guessed the twist that Diana would have to make her daughter out of clay and endow it with the entwined essences of both her parents – because her dad was already dead.

DC Kills Steve Trevor In Wonder Woman #14

The arc of Tom King’s Wonder Woman run has seen Diana taking on The Sovereign, the “secret king of the United States of America.” The Sovereign has manipulated public perception against the Amazons; imprisoned Diana and tortured her mind using his dark “Lasso of Lies”; gathered up a gang of some of Wonder Woman’s most formidable rogues and trapped her with her archnemesis Cheetah – and Diana beat it all. So when Steve Trevor attempts to go undercover and get intel from The Sovereign, he makes the fatal discovery that the villain has lured him to his home to be a sacrifice – a way of deeply hurting Diana by killing the man she loves. Trevor barely gets out a “Hello” before he’s shot point-blank in the chest and dies. The Sovereign has his body thrown into the Potomac River, only to have the corpse float into the waters of the Lincoln Memorial, causing instant public uproar and scrutiny.

The main portion of Wonder Woman #14’s story sees Diana swimming her way to the underworld and coming up in the River Styx, where Steve Trevor has already commandeered the ferryman’s boat and is waiting for her. Diana and Steve get their goodbye – which turns out to be part of some larger plan, as the witch Circe notices that threads of both Steve and Diana’s souls are missing – threads Diana later confesses to knowing they exchanged long ago.

After failing to bring Steve back from the dead, Diana takes a hair from her head and mystically(?) transforms them into the thread of Steve’s soul, and one of her own. She unites the threads which become a golden thread (thanks to the witches’ design), and that golden thread gets placed on a baby Diana fashioned out of clay on the shores of Paradise Island. The issue also provides the origin of Trinity’s alter-ego name, “Elizabeth,” as Steve reveals it’s the name of the grandmother he loved and is eager to see again in the afterlife.

To say that comic book fans have thoughts about Wonder Woman #14 and Trinity’s origin would be an understatement. At this point, we know from Tom King’s non-linear storytelling that Trinity is on some kind of mission to get information from The Sovereign. Could that information be how to bring back Steve Trevor? Or is the character now better served remaining dead, and letting his daughter carry on his legacy?

Wonder Woman #14 is on sale at DC.