WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Wonder Woman: Earth One Vol.3 by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn and Todd Klein, on sale now.
In the Wonder Woman mythos, Steve Trevor is one of the cornerstones. He helped Diana of Themyscira understand that the world of man is filled with hope and possibility and he showed her what it meant to fall in love. It's why almost every Wonder Woman story, especially origin adventures, requires the pilot to be involved in some form, as he acts as her totem to humanity.
Now, courtesy of Wonder Woman: Earth One Vol.3, we finally have the best version of Steve Trevor yet.
Usually, Steve focuses on his relationship with Diana. As much as he believes in protecting the world, more often than not, he'll always put Wonder Woman first. This story, though, has Steve understanding that if loss gives way to victory, especially at his own expense, he has to embrace it. And in this case, his love for Diana can't trump what she needs to do to heal the world.
Steve follows Diana into the Underworld and frees her from Hades' realm, knowing it'll keep him instead. The deal he brokered allows Diana to return to the land of the living. He has no problem doing this because there's something more important than his love -- he trusts Diana to make the next big decision in their lives: controlling humanity.
Other versions of the character might find this harsh, but this Steve understands selfishness is needed to turn chaos into order, as mankind just can't be left to their own devices. He gives Diana his blessing and this is the catalyst for Wonder Woman to enslave the world with her love rays. Steve knows she's just bringing out the love in people's hearts, minds and souls, so to him it's a worthy sacrifice. In other words, he's looked past both his world and her world and realized what needs to be done to create a utopia for everyone. The fact that he's okay with it inspires Wonder Woman to take the controversial route.
She finally sees what he does: letting love loose is the only way to peace, even if it's what some people might call her a dictator. Steve has seen the worst of humanity, so much so he knows once Diana does this, she'll have to focus on the new era rather than him.
Steve understands that the world needs to be fixed. Mankind imprisoned him and spread nothing but hate and anti-feminism, so he wants to hit the reset button. Diana makes it clear that he's the answer to everything. When he's eventually resurrected, he isn't her lover anymore, but he's happy as long as he gets to help keep their paradise world going.
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