Ares (Marvel)
Ares is a male comic character that features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Ares was one of the race of deities known as the Olympians where he was the son of Zeus and served as the God of War. As a result, he reveled in war and combat in all its myriad of forms with him not caring about sides or victims.
An uncounted time ago, he was called by the pantheon to aid them against the armies of Pluto who assailed Mount Olympus where he was instrumental in defeating their foe. However, the Olympians were horrified at the acts he had conducted and believed Ares to be a wild force for destruction that they had to call upon to do their darker deeds. (Ares v1 #1)
During the Trojan War, he was noted to had supported the Trojans in the conflict. During one of his adventures, Hercules was noted to had had killed the monstrous Stymphalian birds that were pets of Ares thus earning the Prince of Power the war god's enmity. Ares hatred for his brother Hercules only deepened when he saw that his father Zeus favored the Prince of Power as his beloved whilst the war god was shunned for his brutal behavior. This was only added by the fact that in the modern age war was shunned and disliked causing people to hate Ares whereas Hercules was beloved by the mortals.
At one point, he formed an alliance with Pluto that saw the kidnapping of Krista in an attempt to foster war between Olympus and Asgard. Afterwards, he plotted with Pluto and his own daughter Hippolyta with her seeking to marry Hercules whilst Ares took Venus for himself.
He began to live a relatively peaceful life with his son Alexander when he was approached by Hermes who requested his aid in protecting Olympus against the threat of Amatsu-Mikaboshi. With Asgard fallen, Mikaboshi used the chaos to extend his own influence and sought to capture Olympus and crush the Olympian gods. As the Olympians were close to being defeated, Mikaboshi sought to cow the other pantheons into surrendering to his rule. However, Ares was bitter at the treatment he had received at the hands of the other Olympians and refused to aid them. In desperation, Zeus had Ares's son Alexander kidnapped and brought to Olympus in order to goad the war god into action. During this time, Alexander was kept under the care of Achilles and his Myrmidons. On Earth, Ares was involved in fighting with the police who had discovered that his social security number was a fake. At that time, one of the policemen stated that the New Avengers had recently formed as a team.
Avengers
Ares grew to despise what he saw himself and decided to relinquish his position as a god of war with him deciding to start over again as a mortal on Earth. He took on the identity of John Aaron a carpenter where he sold some Greek relics to start up his new life. During this time, he had a son by the name of Alexander Aaron who he attempted to raise to be strong without a woman's touch as he believed that would make the boy soft and weak. (Ares v1 #1)
Still insistent that his son have a mortal upbringing, Ares returned to his life as a construction worker in Dover, New Jersey where he worked during the enactment of the Superhuman Registration Act. Immediately following the superhero Civil War over its legislation, Iron Man and Ms. Marvel traveled to Ares' construction site to recruit him for their new Avengers team. Agreeing that the heroes had ruined his civilian cover, Ares eventually agreed to join the team after Iron Man threatened to deport him to Olympus if he did not register with the U.S. government and promised a salary similar to that of his construction job. (Mighty Avengers v1 #1) The shrunken Ares entered into Ultron's body where he disseminated the virus that purged the artificial intelligence from Tony Stark's body thus returning him back to normal. (Mighty Avengers v1 #6)
Dark Avengers
After the death of Veranke, the Skrull invasion was thwarted and Norman Osborn was hailed as a hero for ending the threat. He was appointed as Tony Stark's replacement where in the aftermath of the dismantling of S.H.I.E.L.D. he created a successor agency named H.A.M.M.E.R.. Osborn also created his own incarnation of superheroes that were the Dark Avengers with Ares joining them as he deemed Norman as a worthy warrior for his actions in the Secret Invasion.
Although Ares was able to get along with most of the Mighty Avengers, his morals and tactics on saving the Earth for the greater good differed. After the invasion, Ares remained a registered superhuman and accepted a place in Norman Osborn's Avengers alongside Mighty Avengers teammate Sentry. He did not understand his former team leader Carol Danvers' (Ms. Marvel's) reluctance to work 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. (Dark Avengers v1 #1)
In pursuit of the New Avengers, he along with his comrades followed them into the sewers where he fought his quarry. (New Avengers v1 #58)
One day, he decided to secretly follow his son's activities where he witnessed Alexander willingly going with Daisy Johnson to a secret safe house belonging to Nick Fury and his Secret Warriors. The Olympian war god broke through the safe house with Fury ordering his people to stand down. It was then that Ares had a private discussion with Fury stating that he wanted his son to live a life different from his own and asked Alexander if he wanted to stay with he Secret Warriors. Alexander stated that this was his path and Ares departed without further fighting nor did he reveal their location to Osborn. (Dark Avengers v1 #9)
Osborn later convinced Ares after an incident with Volstagg that Asgard that as now located in Broxton, Oklahoma had fallen under the secret control of Loki. Thus, it was considered a threat and that the home of the Asgardians needed to be removed from Midgard with Ares creating the strategy to lead the offensive against it. (Siege v1 #1) This led to H.A.M.M.E.R. forces bolstered by supervillains under Director Osborn to attack the city with Ares participating in the attack. During the fight with Balder, he encountered Heimdall who only spoke truth and revealed the nature of the deception. This resulted in Ares turning against Osborn and intended to claim the Director's life for his lies. Norman then called upon the Sentry who attacked Ares with the Olympian putting up a fight but he was ruthlessly ripped in half by the Reynolds in a public showing that shocked everyone. (Siege v1 #2)
Return
Following the Secret Wars, reality itself was restored following the collapse of the Multiverse and its focus on Battleworld. In this time, Ares remained in the afterlife of Elysium where he was happy and with his son Alexander. This was until minions of the Collector arrived where they abducted him to be part of the Contest of Champions. Ares managed to break his crystalline prison and attacked the Collector's Summoner the Maestro but ultimately relented to work on his team against the Collector's opponent the Grandmaster. (Contest of Champions v2 #2)
After surviving numerous battles, Ares returned to his home reality when one of the contestants, Outlaw, managed to seize control of the ISO-Sphere from the Maestro, who in turn had taken it from the Collector earlier. Outlaw used the power of the ISO-Sphere to return the contestants to their homes. Ares returned with Outlaw to England, and together with the contestants native of his universe, appeared interested in the idea of forming a team. (Contest of Champions v2 #10)
During Hydra's takeover, Ares became a member of Champions of Europe. (U.S.Avengers v1 #7) Together with Enigma and Squirrel Girl, the team was able to free Paris from Hydra. (U.S.Avengers v1 #9)
During the War of the Realms, the forces of the Dark Council invaded Midgard with Ares participating in the battle against the invaders alongside the Champions in Europe. He was then approached by Sindr Queen of the Fire Demons who wanted his aid in finding Laussa the daughter of Odin and Frigga where in exchange she would help Ares return to the afterlife to be reunited with his son Phobos. This saw him pursuing his quarry that was being protected by Balder along with a team of Avengers. (War of the Realms: Journey into Mystery v1 #2) He later received word that one of his sons who was the serpentine dragon Drakon Ismenios had been captured by Davi Naga the goddess of Madripoor. Thus, Ares sought to find a weapon that could slay a god and looked to acquire the Sword of Fu Xi from Lin Lie. However, the young hero alongside Shang-Chi managed to speak to Ares to reveal his intentions and the decided to work together. Upon arriving at Madripoor, they looked to battle the serpent goddess but she revealed that she was not a villain and rather she had given shelter to Drakon Ismenios. This was because the serpentine dragon had angered the Atlanteans by stealing their great treasure after their own guardian dragon went missing. Thus, Drakon had to go into hiding and the belief that he had been kidnapped was simply a misunderstanding. (Sword Master v1 #5)
Overview
Personality and attributes
To his worshippers, he was regarded as the Berserker Saint. (Hulk vs Hercules v1 #1) One guise he used when he masqueraded among humans was the identity of Mr. Tallon. (Avengers v1 #98)
For eons, he had found the world of mortals dull and boring since the rise of animals. However, the age of man interested him due to their use of treachery and deception. (Savage Axe of Ares v1 #1)
Ares said that he served no one except himself. (Savage Axe of Ares v1 #1)
He had lashed out against his fellow Olympians but this was out of rejected love and a loss of respect among them. Ares had overheard the words of his fellow pantheon and felt that they would never accept him among the ranks of the gods of light. Thus, he concluded that only those with more baser instincts revered him and Ares loathed them for it. He came to loathe himself even more as he looked at himself and despised what he had seen. (Ares v1 #1)
With regards to his children Deimos and Phobos, he regarded the pair as his spawn rather than as his sons. He thought of them as being bloody butchers with no innocence, warm or compassion and Ares not grieving their deaths. (Ares v1 #4)
However, he came to struggle in communicating with his son Alexander. According to Ares, everything he knew about fatherhood was the actions of his father and his grandfather. As such, he felt he could not raise his son nor did he know how to communicate with him. Ares had wanted his son to see the world differently than himself and desired a better future for his child. (Dark Avengers v1 #9)
One of the people he considered a friend was an exiled Nidaveller Dwarf master smith named Orgarb who for centuries had supplied Ares with weapons when Hephaestus refused to do so. (Sword Master v1 #3)
Powers and abilities
Nate Grey had described him as being war personified on every plane and in every future with him admitting that even he could find nothing to counter someone such as Ares. Ares was able to tear through the fabric of time itself to reach and overpower X-Man claiming that such could not 'limit' him with the temporal conflict sending ripples across the stars and disrupting the timestream itself. (Dark X-Men v1 #3)
On Olympus, there resided the armory of Ares where numerous weapons of the gods were located. Yellow-crested Titans were known to stand watch and guard the site. (Herc v1 #6.1) Among the weapons included in his arsenal was the Black Sword of Ares. (Sub-Mariner v1 #57)
He had a number of followers that were known as the Warhawks that desired war and conflict. (Avengers v1 #98) Its members were expected to die by the sword if they failed in their duties. (Hercules: Heart of Chaos v1 #1) Another were a group of worshippers gathered as a criminal organization called the Apostles of War. (Punisher v13 #2)
A number of mystical creatures of Olympus served him such as satyrs that could disguise themselves as humans and play music as pipers that could control the minds of those living beings that heard it. (Avengers v1 #98)
One of the creatures that served him were his Dragonborn that he sowed and formed into existence. (Sword Master v1 #3)
Notes
- Ares was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby where he made his first appearance in Thor v1 #129 (June, 1966).
Alternate Versions
- In Hercules v1 #2 (1982), Ares appeared in the alternate timeline that was situated on Earth-829.
- In Fearless Defenders v1 #4AU (2013), Ares appeared in the alternate timeline of the Age of Morgana le Fey that was situated on Earth-26111. On this world, Ares sided with Morgana le Fey during her conquest of the Earth where he massacred the Amazons with him claiming that he killed Artume and the others to avenge Hippolyta. Afterwards, Ares took stewardship of Latveria and wielded Mjolnir that had lost its magic after the death of Thor. To maintain his rule, he operated through a Doombot and used Doctor Doom's identity as a means of gaining the peoples support.
In other media
Television
- In The Marvel Super Heroes, Ares appeared in the Thor segment of the animated television series in the episode "The Verdict of Zeus".
- In Avengers Assemble, Ares appeared as an antagonist in the animated television series fourth season Secret Wars in the episode "The Incredible Herc" where he was voiced by actor Trevor Devall. He was the god of war of the Olympians who acquired the Mace of War that served as a key to opening Tartarus where he intended to unleash its monstrous denizens onto Earth. However, Hercules stole the Mace and escaped onto Earth where he was pursued by Ares beasts that were initially defeated by his brother and the Avengers. Ares then later pursued his brother to Earth where he overwhelmed the Avengers before taking his brother back to Olympus. Once there, he opened the gateway to Tartarus to release a Kraken that was being sent to Earth but he was confronted by the Avengers. Together with Hercules, they defeated Ares who they threw into the pit into Tartarus whereupon they sealed the doorway thus thwarting and trapping the god of war.
- In Marvel Future Avengers, Ares appeared in the setting of the animated television series. He was shown as being a god that was a member of the Masters of Evil. Alongside Enchantress, the pair were to recover the Winter Soldier after he failed in his mission to eliminate the captive Red Skull. Ares then confronted the Avengers where he also battled Captain Marvel but was ultimately defeated though he was recovered by the Winter Soldier before he could be arrested.
Video games
- In Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Ares appeared in the video game as the Olympian God of War who was one of the most brutal and fearsome warriors of all time. He was a genius-level military tactician and a master of all weaponry, both ancient and modern who had joined the Dark Avengers.
- In Marvel: War of Heroes, Ares appeared as multiple playable cards in the video game.
- In Marvel Future Revolution, Ares appeared as a boss antagonist in the setting of the mobile video game. A version of him operated as a gladiator on Sakaar where he served as the reigning champion of the Maestro.
Appearances
- Thor v1: (1966)
- Avengers v1:
- Ares v1:
- Savage Axe of Ares v1:
- New Avengers v1:
- Dark Avengers v1:
- Siege v1:
- Contest of Champions v1:
- War of the Realms: Journey into Mystery v1:
- Sword Master v1:
- Punisher v13:
External Links
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