Quote Originally Posted by Agent Z View Post
I mean, having the Amazons worship a sextet of goddesses as opposed to one isn't exactly in contradiction to the matriarchal narrative of the WW mythos either. Aphrodite may not have done much but she's one out of several female characters in Perez's run who all contribute something worthwhile in some way. It isn't like Perez downplayed the role of female characters completely. There's no reason to put Aphrodite above all the other goddesses except for preference. Even Marston's idea of the love Aphrodite presents is rather shallow and doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
But it's one of the problems of the WW franchise and DC comics in general: they can't even keep the basics of their lore consistent, and changing it up in the 80s has contributed to that problem, no matter how many people have come away liking some of those changes (same with the New 52). The sextet of goddesses didn't add anything to the narrative that Aphrodite and Athena weren't already covering by themselves, it just added more unnecessary moving parts. What did they add to the story to justify the change? What exactly did Aphrodite contribute in the Perez set up? She gave them love and then cried because her kids (Deimos and Phobos) were causing trouble. That's all.

It's superhero fiction, pretty much everything is shallow and simplistic. It's why, like in that Morrison quote, kids are able to digest it more easily because it's all make believe, which in a way makes them more mature than adult fans who demand things of it it wasn't necessarily designed to give. A simplified Aphrodite giving the Amazons love is perfectly fine in these make believe stories about a magical Amazon princess and her invisible plane. How is Marston's presentation of Aphrodite's love more shallow than the vague message of equality (which isn't a revolutionary message) that Perez's multiple goddesses presented? And isn't including all of them just because they are women also kind of shallow? Why should they all give a crap about the Amazons?

Quote Originally Posted by Agent Z View Post
If you leave out all the murder, torture, rape, cursing humans for petty reasons. Yeah I guess they can't really be called evil.
You kind of have to ignore all of this as far as the Amazon patrons are concerned, because the WW franchise falls apart if the lead is worshiping the shallow monsters that they could be in some of the myths. WW is already asking us to ignore every negative thing about the Amazons.