Since I’m going in chronological order, we’re past what is considered the “proper” Golden Age and in the interregnum before the Silver Age.
Appropriately, let’s begin this part of the hero origins retrospective with a comic that is not entirely in the superhero genre.
Venus #1 (1948)
by Stan Lee & Lin Streeter
cover by Ken Bald & Lin Streeter
This book is somewhere in between romance comics and “good girl art” comics.
In fact, our protagonist is mostly stuck in glamour poses.
We begin on planet Venus, described by this comic as basically a perfect paradise.
Well the ACTUAL planet Venus has a surface temperature hot enough to melt lead, a surface pressure 92 times higher than Earth’s, an atmosphere of over 90% carbon dioxide and thick clouds of sulfuric acid that don’t let sunlight reach the surface, so… sounds legit, I guess.
I mean no wonder the gods moved there from Olympus, the rent must be much cheaper.
I could not find any source for “Mount Lustre” being from mythology.
Our protagonist is Venus the goddess, who lives on Venus the planet. Because that’s not going to be confusing.
Also she’s apparently the ruler of Olympus in this version.
Although we don’t see any other god, at least in this story. Venus’s job seems to consist entirely of walking around having servants opening doors for her, despite being able to turn intangible.
Just wishing she could get to Earth actually brings her there. You might think this means Venus the goddess has to abandon her responsibilities as ruler of Venus the planet, but it’s not like she was actually doing anything.
We cut to Earth, where the publisher of Beauty Magazine is looking for ideas to bead the competition.
And of course he just happens to run into Venus the goddess.
The story is PROBABLY by Stan Lee, who in the Silver Age will be REALLY fond of having civilians mistake the wildest things for a publicity stunt.
That trope will become very ridiculous very fast, but even this early… yeah I’m sure there were lots of actressess walking into traffic to get publicity.
You might think she’s get into trouble for not understanding how traffic works, but nope: it’s that seeing a woman sleepwalk into traffic is “demoralizing”.
Wait, what!?
And BY AN AMAZING COINCIDENCE, the publisher comes up with the idea that Venus the model is the descendant of Venus the goddess, who lives on Venus the planet.
Despite some hiccups, the Golden Age wasn’t always as sexist as you’d imagine.
That’s about to change, because if I had to summarize the attitude of A LOT of 50s comics… this would do nicely.
Even if Venus the model continuously insists that she’s Venus the goddess, the publisher never believes her.
He’s REALLY insistent on this idea of saying that she was discovered on a desert island.
Is the cover story that she’s been living in a cave on that island? Because if not, she’s remarkably pale.
For some reason, he has trouble believing her story.
Good on Venus the goddess for calling it quits before the gag is run into the ground.
There’s an easy solution if she wants to demonstrate she’s a goddess. Remember how back on Venus the planet she walked through a wall?
Well don’t.
On one hand, the publisher is trusting this complete stranger who just tried to prove she could walk thorugh walls.
But on the other hand she’s hot so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The magazine’s director loves this idea of the island girl descending from Venus the goddess, but the editor resigns in protest.
Surely the publisher won’t be insane enough to promote to editor a secretary who has no experience on the job, right?
Nah, that would just be silly.
He gives the job to a girl he met like twenty minutes ago. When he doesn’t know her name, if she’s ever done anything having to do with publishing, and who tried to demonstrate could walk through walls.
And that’s already the ending of the first story about Venus the goddess, who came to Earth from Venus the planet to become Venus the model.
I am slightly annoyed that the magazine isn’t also called Venus.
In the second Venus story of the book, in a surprising bit of continuity the editor who quit ended up at a rival magazine.
So Venus the editor returns to Venus the planet as Venus the goddess, to gather her “handmaidens” that win a beauty contest.
Historical significance: 1 / 
Venus ends up having a tiny impact.
Silver Age-ness: 10 /
While I know very little about them, romance comics ARE still a part of the Silver Age and this anticipates most of their trends.
Does it stand the test of time? 0 /
I’m a little hesitant to rate this one since it’s soooo outside of my regular reading habits.
It’s moderately inoffensive and the artwork has a certain timeless charm about it, but the story is VERY dated and VERY silly.
How close is this to the modern character? 0 /
The Venus series lasted only 19 issues, but it’s a wild ride.
Issue 2 changes her into a blonde, which will be her classic look from now on. Bizarrely, she keeps her white hair on the covers for a couple more issues.
They’re pretty much the kind of stories you’d expect after #1.
Which is to say she can pretty much do anything as long as she’s on Venus the planet, but she ends up doing very little besides posing for the camera.
Although something tells me nobody was reading Venus the comic for the plot.
Issue 3 has a bit of mythological connection, with a male model who reminds Venus the goddess of Narcissus. I am annoyed that the model is not also called Narcissus.
Issue 3 finally brings in other gods, in this case Apollo. Why exactly Venus is in charge of the Olympian gods is unclear.
Now THAT’s the kind of Olympian god I recognize.
Brief tangent here. Venus #3 has a FASCINATING column urging readers to resist the witch hunt against violence in comics.
The same page has the full list of the comics being published by Atlas at the time.
It’s an impressive 49 titles (!!!); while I’m not familiar with all these series, you can see that superheroes are already the minority when only 8 are superhero titles.
Venus #4 provides a bit more insight about who’s part of this mythology. Impressive that they manage to remain consistent in using the Roman names for the gods…
…but they include Samson for some reason?
You can tell the anti-comics sentiment was strong because Venus #4 has ANOTHER letter from the editor.
Venus #6 has the first ever appearance of Loki in a book that is (supposedly) still part of the Marvel Universe. Both writer and penciler are unknown.
Also, DECADES before Loki started turning into a woman, he’s already possessing the secretary.
Then again it’s not surprising, Loki even gives birth in Norse mythology.
To a horse (look it up).
Venus #7 has already forgotten the premise because now the gods are back to Olympus and Jupiter is their ruler. We’re also introduced to his scheming daughter Joya, because I guess Jupiter doesn’t have enough children in mythology.
Venus #8 makes me think that, despite being ostensibly a romance comic, the primary target was not teenage girls. Just a hunch.
Venus #9 is the last time she’s the star of the book. 
By this time, the publisher has learned that Venus the editor is really Venus the goddess.
Starting from Venus #10, the book becomes a science fiction anthology (although the goddess is still featured), with the book lasting until #19 in 1952.
She fights Satan (!!!), dragons on the Moon (!!!), an evil daughter of Neptune, and she’s trapped into a photograph (!!!).
She also prevents the Sun from destroying the planet (!!!) by urging her attendants to make a mad scientist’s crush hotter (!!!).
On a slightly less insane note, she also shows up in Marvel Mystery Comics #91 (the next-to-last issue). It’s a story of a man who falls in love with a statue of the goddess Juno, so Venus brings the real Juno to meet him.
And that covers the Golden Age of Venus.
We wouldn’t see her again until Sub-Mariner vol2 #57 in 1973, where Namor saves her from Ares.
You’d expect Roy Thomas to do this, but it’s by Bill Everett.
She’s been living like a mortal for quite some time at this point.
From this point onward, she mostly appears as Aphrodite (instead of Venus) in several stories that involve the Greek gods and usually Hercules. Her past as a hero is barely ever mentioned.
Venus would have been relegated to occasional Hercules stories if it wasn’t for What If #9 in 1978, which showed a reality where the Avengers formed in the 50s… and since she was active in that period, she’s one of the heroes.
That story served as the basis for the Agents of Atlas series in 2006, which resurrected Namora and recruited Venus as well.
Agents of Atlas is an AWESOME series, but I really disliked its Venus retcon.
The series revealed that the 1950s heroine wasn’t really the goddess, but a siren pretending to be her.
Which means that Venus the editor was Venus the siren pretending to be Venus the goddess from Venus the planet.
Marvel has stuck with this retcon so far. In 2010, Aphrodite officially bestowed the title of “goddess of love” to the siren.
Venus versus Aphrodite ending with both making out with each other is the most mythologically consistent part of this whole thing.
I believe this is still the last appearance to date about Venus the goddess.
Venus the siren has made a couple of appearances here and there with the Agents of Atlas.
Like I said “Agents of Atlas” is a good series, and it’s received a few relaunches over the years that are still good. But I preferred the idea of having the goddess of love in the team.
There is, however, a sort of epilogue to the original series.
That would be the 1997 “Marvel Valentine Special”, with artwork by legendary Archie artist Dan DeCarlo.
And it’s an incredibly 50s stories, to the point of bringing in Chili Storm (the rival of Millie The Model) and a goofy alien monster.
Venus defeats the alien by summoning his perfect date.
And it’s a happy ending, because Venus ends up brining her old love interest to Olympus with her.
While I didn’t much care for him as a character, in my headcanon both Venus the siren and Venus the goddess co-existed and this is still canon.
What else was in Venus #1?
We have another model series, Hedy DeVine by Vic Dowd.
She lasted longer than Venus! First in her own book, then on “Hedy of Hollywood” where she remains until 1952. Stan Lee wrote several of those.
