Aphrodite Ourania

Creation

Venus was created by Stan Lee and Lin Streeter and first appeared in Venus #1.

Character Evolution

Golden Age

During her appearances in her solo series, set in the 1940s and 1950s of the Marvel Universe, the goddess Aphrodite named herself Venus and was the ruler of the planet Venus. She traveled to Earth out of boredom. The nature of the comic series gradually changed, from matchmaking advice and magazine work to supernatural encounters, beginning with an evil figure identified as Loki (according to the official hadbooks,he was the famous Thor’s adopted brother). Venus acted as both ingenue and heroine during her encounters with other strange creatures (including a demonic vampire, creatures created from a co-worker’s mind, Neptunia, the Skrull Velmax, and the gargoyles of Sylvia Corpo). Her station as the Goddess of Love was reinforced by appearances from other major mythological characters such as Thor and Hercules.

Silver and Bronze Age

Aphodite (as Venus) made sporadic appearances throughout the Silver and Bronze Age of Marvel Comics, notably she appeared in the first 3 issues of Champions where she allied with the titular super-team which included her “cousin” Hercules. Perhaps her major appearance of the Silver and Bronze age was when she featured heavily in What If? #9, the first appearance of a team of 1950s Avengers, who would later be revived decades later as the Agents of Atlas.

Modern Age

Venus’ situation was changed Agents of Atlas.In that series, it was created a new character Venus, a siren who claimed to be to true Olympian Goddess of Love. The impostor was confronted face-to-face with the real goddess Aphrodite, who finally appointed the Siren Venus as Goddess of Love

and we learn that Venus’ even fooled Zeus, Hercules and the rest of the Olympian Gods. Following the encounter, Venus was appointed the Goddess of Love when Aphrodite saw her as more worthy of the role than her. y.

Major Story Arcs

Beauty Magazine

Prior to her coming to the United States, Aphrodite (under the name Venus) traveled around Europe. In 1948, in search of adventure and romance, Venus came to New York City. She found employment at none other than the magazine, Beauty, under the alias Victoria Nutley Starr (or ‘VNS’, an allusion to her adopted name). Beauty Publisher, Whitney Hammond, and his secretary, Della Mason, doubted her claims of godhood; however, Hammond decided that her beauty would garner publicity for the magazine and she became a journalist and editor. ‘Victoria’ and Hammond had romantic chemistry, while Della Mason schemed to ruin their budding relationship. Venus realized that her immortality would separate her and Hammond, so she quit her job and once again began traveling the world, before returning to Olympus.

Years later, Aphrodite would return to an elder Hammond and brought him to Olympus with her.

During her absence from Earth, a siren co-opted Aphrodite’s Venus identity and was active as a costumed crime fighter during the remainder of the 1950s.

Acting as goddess.

Venus briefly resurfaced on Earth in the early 1960s, changing her appearance to fit more with the times. She became enthralled by a Nazi criminal called the Rumor, who manipulated her love powers to make a loyal army to overthrow the American government.

In the 1975 series, Champions,Aphrodite (As Venus) became involved in a plot by Pluto who convinced Zeus to marry her to Ares while marrying Hercules to Hippolyta, thus eliminating his two greatest obstacles for an invasion of Olympus. This plan led to the formation of the group Champions of Los Angele sand together with the goddess Venus, they defeated Pluto.

Confronting the impostor

When Aphrodite dicovored the siren Venus and learnead about her wild claims, she became enraged, She arranged the capture of the impostor by centaurs .The Agents of Atlas, with the help of the X-Men, tracked down the siren Venus using Cerebro and rescued her from the temple.

Assault on New Olympus

After the destruction of Olympus and the death and rebirth of Zeus, the goddess Hera took control of the Olympus Group, a corporation that handled the Olympians’ Earthly enterprises, and used her power to create a product that would bring about mankind’s extinction. In order to stop her,

Athena and Amadeus Cho devised a plan which first involved seeking Aphrodite’s help. Aphrodite agreed to stall Ares from defending the Olympus Group by sleeping with him, and in turn Athena agreed to aid Aphrodite in confronting Venus.