Ares

Ares is the Greek god of war. He is currently a member of Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers.

Origin

Brotherly love

Ares is the son of Zeus, monarch of the Olympian Gods, and his wife Hera. Ares was worshiped as the God of War in both ancient Greece and ancient Rome. After the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, Zeus allowed the worship of the Olympians to die out, and Ares was no longer allowed to act as patron god of warriors. As a result over the ensuing centuries Ares grew increasingly dissatisfied with Zeus' rule. He has tried to conquer Olympus on several occasions sometimes in league with his uncle Pluto, god of the Olympian underworld. His half-brother Hercules has opposed his attempts at conquest almost every time sometimes with the help of his allies including Thor the Asgardian god of thunder, and the Avengers.

Ares has hated Hercules since Hercules killed Ares' monstrous Stymphalian birds during Hercules' original twelve labors. Ares has recently been recruited to the Mighty Avengers, the Initiative team of New York City. He has aided them in several battles and saved lives of millions during the Ultron attack, symbiote infestation, and the attack on Doctor Doom's palace.

Ares mini-series

Ares own mini-series starts with Ares contemplating his life, The gods of Olympus wished to have nothing do with him and he loathed what he had become. He decided to leave and live a relatively peaceful life on earth with his son, Alexander. Alexander knew nothing about his fathers former life as the god of war, nor did Ares want him to find out. But one day Hermes paid Ares a visit with a message from for him, they needed his help once again to fight off a new threat, Amatsu Mikaboshi, the Japanese god of evil. But Ares had not forgotten the treatment they gave him and refused to come to their aid. Zeus had Alexander kidnapped to force Ares to pick up his old ways and come to . After a furious outbreak on earth hurting some police officers. Achilles comes to him and tells him why they’ve done this, Asgard had been destroyed and would be to, they could not hold out for much longer.

For his son he agreed to return with Achilles but when arriving at the building where his son was kept in safety was destroyed and there was no sign of Ares son anywhere. Alexander was taken by Mikaboshi and showed him who his father truly was, and who he really was so he would fight for him.

Alexander’s mind was poisoned somehow with a drink which him furious at his father. In the meantime Ares agreed to fight with Zeus against the invader but only to regain his son. At the walls of Olympus began their final battle. Ares fought valiantly side by side with the Olympians to secure the safety of and retrieve his son from the hands of Mikaboshi. While Zeus was leading his troops he spotted what seemed to be Alexander in the battlefield. He races towards him to protect him but he was tricked, it was not truly Alexander but it was Mikaboshi who pretended to be him. Mikaboshi managed to mortally wound Zeus and take him out of the battle. Enraged by this, the two brothers Ares and Hercules fought with Mikaboshi and managed to make him retreat. They returned to to heal Zeus and are greeted by Inari, a messenger from the remaining gods of the east.

They will help him if they ask but Ares refuses to beg for help, the messenger asks for a bit of water to quench his thirst and then leaves. But in secret he goes to his gods and says that this water had been offered by whom requested their help. From here the story skips five years into the future where a large battle is being held at the Mammoths gate, the gates that guards Japan’s hell and behind them, Mikaboshi. Ares finally faces his son Alexander, but his mind is clouded and attacks Ares ramming a sword into his fathers body. In the meantime Zeus and Apollo get wounded in battle which enrages Zeus seeing his three sons wounded. He shows a magnificent display of power but is mortally wounded once more by Mikaboshi. With one final act he lifts the spell of Alexander, seeing what he just did to his own father Alexander goes into a rage and attacks Mikaboshi for what he had done to him. In the meantime the gods of the east arrive on the battlefield to aid the Olympians. They wash away the evil with a giant wave while Alexander kills Mikaboshi. The evil army had been defeated and Alexander was once more Ares’s son.

Secret Invasion/Dark Reign

As a Mighty Avenger, Ares aided the Earth against an enormous Skrull invasion. After the invasion, Ares remained a registered superhuman and accepted a place in Norman Osborn's Avengers alongside on of his teammates from the Mighty Avengers, Sentry. He did not understand why his former team leader, Carol Danvers (Ms. Marvel) was against working for Osborn. He viewed his new alliance with the ex-villain simply as continuing the fight that the original Mighty Avengers had started on terrorist-level superhuman, and natural threats against America and even the entire planet. Ares now fights with the Dark Avengers headed by Norman Osborn

The first mission of Ares and the rest of the Dark Avengers was to assist Doctor Doom and the rest of Latveria as they were under attack by Morgan Le Fay. As the Dark Avengers arrived in Latveria, they saw Victor knocked cold on the floor. They see Morgan and Osborn tells Sentry to go all out. Sentry easily rips off Morgans head and the Dark Avengers seemed successful in their first mission. Sentry started to scream and there was a big explosion. After it cleared, Morgan Le Fay was seen back and Sentry was gone. Ares confronts Morgan and tells her that he is the God of War and son of Zeus and demands that she goes back to the time she came from. Morgan then casts a spell that turns Mac Gargan, Venom, crazy and he tries to eat Ares. Morgans army and the Dark Avengers then begin battle. However, ares is not eaten by gargan although he is turned to stone shortly after.

After Morgan is defeated, Doctor Doom returns Ares to normal, commenting on how Morgan used a easily reversed spell because she probably feared the wrath of the gods. Upon returning to America, he intervenes in a somewhat childish argument between Bullseye and Venom, in which he backhands Bullseye for acting like a child, causing a grudge to form, he later returns to his home in the Bronx where he discovers his son missing, and multiple truancy notices in his room.

Ares is next seen in the X-Men/Avengers crossover event, Utopia, where he jumps in front of San Francisco City Hall in order to defend it from rioters, warning both sides to stay away, for coming too close will incur his wrath.

Powers

As an immortal god, Ares possesses vast strength and endurance. His physical capabilities are superior to those of the majority of Olympian gods. He has virtually inexhaustible stamina, and does not tire appreciably after any exertion.He is stronger than the average Olympian, strength level estimated to being able to lift c. 70 tons. Only zeus and hercules is stronger than him.

Like all Olympians, Ares is immortal, possessing a life essence that cannot be ended by any conventional means. He can be wounded in battle, but his godly life force gives him incredible recuperative abilities. He can fully recover from penetration wounds (such as by knife, sword, or bullet) in anywhere from minutes to hours, depending on their severity. Only an injury of such magnitude that it incinerates him or disperses a major portion of his bodily molecules could cause him physical death. Even then, his life essence may still be unharmed, and Zeus may be able to resurrect him.

Superhuman strength, stamina, durability, agility, and reflexes. He has also been shown to be injured by weapons of magical nature such as Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor. He also has some low-level magic abilities such as summoning weapons or sensing if magic is being used.

Abilities

Ares is the god of war and is a master of a variety of hand-to-hand combat skills. Ares is also a master of all Olympian weaponry and most human weapons ranging from clubs to modern firearms and explosives. Though having normal intellect Ares' military tactical skills are at genius-level, and he is also well versed in torture, combat engineering, and knows vast amount of military history particularly focusing on battles and wars that involved Greek and Roman (or Italian) soldiers and armies. Ares is one of the most talented and ruthless soldiers that has ever fought on Earth.

Weaponry

Ares uses a variety of weapons which includes ancient Greek and Roman javelins, axes, swords, knives, shields, spears, and flails. Also uses Celtic spears, Roman Helmets, Middle Eastern scimitars, Arthurian swords, as well as Native American axes. Ares also is an expert when it comes to using modern day weapons, such as a variety of different firearms, gases, and explosives.