Originally Posted by
Silvanus
You're not wrong about plot, but what about symbolism? A woman born without any paternal contribution turns out (even as a baby, on the very same page--see above) to be more wonderful and special than anyone around her? You don't think the symbolic implication is that that a woman born without sex and without male influence would be better and more pure? Some readers evidently inferred such a message from the clay birth; I don't think Herowatcher, who agrees with you in preferring the clay origin, was alone in getting the impression that
After all, Marston explicitly and emphatically said that Wonder Woman was all about teaching men to submit to women and recognize their superiority. (Again, I think this was a good counterbalance to the presumption of male superiority at the time, but I don't think it's an up-to-date feminist message today. In fact, I think a lot of feminists would argue that this kind of message of moral superiority or greater purity restricts womens' freedom by putting them on a pedestal.)
Well, you've got 'em. Hippolyta evidently deserved to be a mother even in the absence of a man, because, even with an absentee father and despite her grave mistakes, evidently she raised Diana pretty well. Diana certainly says Hippolyta was a worthy mother, and though she (like all real-world mothers who raise sons in the absence of men) had at least a "sperm donor," I don't think this dilutes the message that she didn't need that 'baby daddy" around to raise Diana. (And, no, I don't think Ares dilutes it either; everyone's going to interact with people other than their parents by the time they'll 12 or 13, but it's the job of the parent to raise the children well enough that they will be able to learn the right lessons, and not the wrong lessons, from those with whom they later interact.)
And participating in an adulterous affair was clearly a moral error for which Hippolyta was punished, even though a wonderful child resulted from it. If you look at the scene between Hera and Hippolyta in issue 4, I don't see how you can come away saying "yeah, the book shows that adultery between two consenting adults is victimless and fine."
I don't really agree that there was an anti-adultery message in the original, by the way. The book never really presented any kind of sex with men--whether adultery, extra-marital sex, or even marriage--as an option for Hippolyta, who was., of course, living on an island of women only. Since we don't see her actively choosing against adultery, I don't see a message that "a woman shouldn't partecipate to an adulterous affair even if the man involven is ok with it". The question just doesn't arise.