Review: Chaos War: Ares
As Ares struggles to find a final resting place in the Greek underworld, he remembers a meeting he had with Nightmare and the Chaos King - - one that proved to have grave implications for the current war.
The Good
Considering how all the gods featured in this have such malignant domains, there’s a delightful upside-down, funhouse mirror, twisted quality to this temptation game in the garden. Oeming pulls out some clever and elegant turns of phrase for that portion, as Nightmare’s pleas to “make chaos together” sound like a wonderfully-grotesque parody of romantic dialogs. I haven’t encountered Segovia & Rodriguez before this, but their lush lines work was absolutely sumptuous.
The Bad
While this is great to set up Ares’ situation and his state of mind as it relates to Chaos War, it does feel like a story that might’ve been better suited as a short in an anthology; or maybe even as just a brief flashback sequence in the main mini-series. I feel like a lot of it could've been conveyed as well through off-handed remarks and inferences.
The Verdict – 3.5/5
As I mentioned, I question if this would’ve been better in some form other than a full-length one-shot. Still, it gives some great forboding hints about the Chaos King’s current play in the larger crossover. Also, it’s a great reunion issue for anybody who enjoyed the long-missed initial series that Oeming did featuring Ares however many years back.