Characteristics

History

One of the three children of the supreme Greek Gods, Zeus and Hera, Ares is the God of War, loving battle for its own sake. Ares never favors one city or party over another, fighting on either side, as inclination prompts him, delighting in the slaughter of men and the sacking of towns.Despite being Zeus' son, Ares never fit in with the other gods of Olympus and created his own realm, the Areopagus.Ares is hated by all his fellow immortals, from Zeus and Hera downward, except for Eris, and Aphrodite, who nurses a perverse passion for him, ultimately bearing his children, Deimos, Phobos, and Harmonia. Recently, through his deceit and manipulations, Ares deposed Hades and became ruler of the underworld.

Ares opposed the plan of his half-sister Artemis to create a new race of mortals on Earth , a race that would make me worship the gods as never before. Ares was outvoted by the other gods and, through the efforts of Artemis and the other goddesses, the new race was created from the swirling souls of women whose lives had been cut short by man's fear and ignorance. This new race was called the Amazons. From that moment on, Ares became the Amazons' sworn enemy.Athena, Aphrodite, the patrons of the Amazons, swore that their women would save the world with love from the hatred and warfare of Ares.

Ares did his best to destroy the Amazons, using Hercules against them. When the Amazon oracle Menalippe sensed a tremendous surge in Ares' poser and influence that threatened to consume the very Earth itself, the Amazons were commanded by the gods to choose a champion to confront Ares in the World of Man. The winner of the tournament was the Princess Diana, daughter of the Amazon Queen Hippolyta. She was chosen just in time to fight Ares as Steve Trevor's plane, driven by one of Ares's human puppets, crashed into Paradise Island. His plot was to fire the missiles between the United States and Russia at the same time, provoking World War III. After confronting Decay, an agent of Ares' son Phobos, the Phobos and Deimos themselves, Princess Diana finally confront the God of War himself, and after battle she was able to defeat him with cunning.Diana managed to make him see, trapped in her magic lasso, how this chaos would lead to his own disappearing, with Ares having no one to worship him.

Although Ares abandoned his plans that time, he managed to possess an unimportant criminal, Ari Buchanan. Possessing his body, he changed his name to Ares Buchanan. He began climbing the business ladder by providing hi-tech weapons for gang wars. As Buchanan, he had a relationship with his lawyer Donna Milton (who was Circe in disguise, although not even she knew it then), conceiving a daughter named Lyta. Lyta has been shown to possess a great amount of magic, which she is still practicing using. However, Ares didn't care much about Donna, shooting her while she was pregnant. Circe, as Donna, later tried to help Diana out of a trap he laid. She used the last of her forces to shoot a gun, which produced a sort of mini-black hole and absorbed Ares into it. She, Diana, and the child survived. This would not be the last time that Diana and Ares crossed paths, but soon Ares attention would be brought back to his home in Olympus.

As opposed to ancient times, the role of various gods were shown to have altered somewhat according to modern practices and beliefs. Because of this, the actual faith-based power Ares' father Zeus received proved to be very much diminished. On the other hand, other gods such as Athena, Aphrodite, and Ares began to gain more power due to the appearance of the computer age, love never diminishing, and conflict remaining consistent. Realizing that conflict proved to maintain his strength over the output of war, Ares changed his title to the God of Conflict. To celebrate this change he altered his appearance to a more approachable visage. This was just the first of many changes. Ares, as well as his sister Athena had been waiting eons to prove themselves worthy of the Throne of Olympus. Yet in the end it was Athena who dethroned their father Zeus. Using her champion, Wonder Woman, she was able to best her father and prove herself a more worthy ruler.   Ares was able to solidify his own place in the power structure by helping her to keep the throne.

After his dethronement, Zeus immediately began plotting with his brothers to regain his position.  Ares played a double agent, and gained Zeus' trust. Yet when Athena sent her champion Wonder Woman to Tarturas to face Zeus' alliance, Ares betrayed his father to help his sister. He also managed to garner more power for himself, though he was part of the new trium-virate of power as the God of Conflict his rule under this name proved to be short-lived, as he sought a realm of his own to control. While he had gond to help Athena when the opportunity arose, he killed his uncle Hades and assumed control of the netherworld. With the god Hades was overthrown and Ares was all too eager to take up the mantle of God of the Dead.The three godly siblings, Ares, Athena, and Aprhodite have replaced the sons of Cronus as the rulers of Olympus.

Realizing that a crossroads for the gods of Olympus was at hand, Ares confided in his half sister Cassie Sandsmark about a future war. In exchange for additional powers, the only wish he requested in return from his sister was her love. He then traveled to Themyscira and kidnapped his daughter Lyta who was under the protection of the Amazons. Discovering this fact, Circe confronted Ares and was surprised to learn of his new godly title. She agreed to remain as his consort and to raise their daughter Lyta in the Underworld.

During Ares' family bonding with Cassie, he blessed her with a powerful lasso able to expel Zeus's lightning in times of anger for her to use in her persona as Wonder Girl. Ares has since appeared to Cassie repeatedly in order to warn her about "the coming war." The Teen Titans were thrown ten years into the future, where Cassie had inherited the mantle of Wonder Woman after Diana's death. She was also referred to as "Ares' champion."

Ares appeared to Cassie for apparently the final time where he revealed that the gods were leaving this plane and Zeus was taking the power he had granted Cassie as well. In exchange for acknowledging their siblinghood and becoming his champion, he offered her some of his power, saying only that she would be "more powerful than [she's] ever been." The full extent of Cassie's powers has not been revealed, though it has been indicated that she has retained all of her former powers.

Later, duringthe course of the Amazonian Invasion, discovered that Ares left Circe and kidnapped their daughter to raise on his own. As he and Lyta were only spoken of during the storyline, their presence is yet unknown.

Recently it has been revealed that Ares has a son, Lord Lycus, whom he has sent to interfere with Cassie's powers. When Their father Zeus warned Cassie, he also revealed that by accepting Ares' gifts she had severed the link between them, making her completely reliant upon Ares for her power.