The recent discussion on Themyscira led me to reread Wonder Woman #1 by Pérez, and I think something finally clicked on why I felt uncomfortable with his take on the Amazons and their backstory.
On page 10, the goddesses (Athena, Artemis, Demeter, Hestia, and Aphrodite) appear to the Amazons, anoint them as "a chosen race--born to lead humanity in the ways of virtue". Hestia builds a city for them.
Next page we get what happens:
Then Heracles drugs Hippolyta, tricks her of the girdle, and enslaves the Amazons. But when Hippolyta prays and Athena appears:From their mouths pour wondrous tales—tales of a city-state governed solely by women--of a place where compassion and justice reign—a place the poets call Themyscira! In this way, the power and the glory of the Amazons is soon known throughout al Greece!
Yet, kings do not like popularity—nor do they like power—unless it is their own! Thus the rules of Greece grow jealous of the Amazons. And so the poets are seized—and bribed—and threatened.
Now are tales told of Amazon atrocities—of murders, wars, and thievery. Now do the godesses cry from Olympus' heights! For their daughters have become outcasts—regarded by all mankind as different… strange… and even inhuman!
And then a little later on:But you chose to withdraw from humanity—to ignore the purpose for which you were created—and you grew bitter and corrupt.
And that's how they end up on the isle of Themyscira, guarding Doom's Gates.My daughters—you have failed us! You have forgotten the source of your power—forgotten the trust placed in you! For these failures, you must do a penance!
Now what happens here? The Amazons do fail in their mission and withdraws to the original Themyscira, but the text presents it as that mankind rejected them—not because the Amazons didn't try, or because they forgot their mission, as the goddesses say. When they liberate themselves from their captors with violence, they are again berated.
The armbands also change in signifiance. Marston gave them "to teach you the folly of submitting to men's domination" or "a reminder that we must always keep aloof from men". Pérez had them as "reminder never to err again", and the context is changed so it is not meant in relation to men but rather to their relation to the goddesses.
In effect, the Amazons are given the blame that men were not listening, blamed for living in the city that Hestia built for them, and then again blamed for freeing themselves from slavery. Now, I can easily see Greek gods behaving in that way, but the text never interrogates that.
So Pérez's Amazons become idealised noble suffering victims: first of Heracles, then of their own gods.