Changes: Ares (New Earth)

Ares, whom the Romans call Mars, is the god of war. He is a member of the Olympians, a extra-dimensional race once worshiped as a deity by the people of Ancient Greece. He represents the physical or violent aspect of war. He is the son of Zeus the king of the gods and his wife Hera.

Despite being Zeus's son, Ares never fit in with the other gods of Olympus and created his own realm, the Areopagus. Aphrodite, the patron of the Amazons, swore that her 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, but Diana was born and raised just in time to fight Ares as Steve Trevor's plane, driven by one of Ares' 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, but Diana managed to make him see, trapped in her magic lasso, how this chaos would lead to his own disappearance, 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 Buchanan's 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 learning to wield. 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 laid by Ares. She used the last of her forces to shoot a gun, which produced a sort of mini-black hole that absorbed Ares. She, Diana, and the child survived.

As opposed to ancient times, the role of various gods were 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. Thus the three godly siblings eventually took over Olympus as the godly home's new masters.

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. His time under this name proved to be short-lived, as the god Hades was also overthrown and Ares was all too eager to take up the mantle of God of the Dead at the same time his sister Athena with whom he had an alliance took over Olympus.

Family Reunited

Realizing that a crossroads for the Gods of Olympus was soon to be reached, 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' 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 relationship as siblings 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 and she has retained all of her former powers.

During the events of Amazons Attack it is 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.

Cassie is confronted by Ares' son, Lord Lycus, whom Ares has sent to interfere with Cassie's powers.

Death

Shifting himself into the future, Ares stole the dead body of Wonder Woman and brought it back into the present. He then manipulated several villains to use the body to create his bride and chief agent Genocide. He then embued this new creature with his own magical dominance, causing the new being's persona to be more deadly but also completely obedient to him. Ares' plans to destroy the present day Wonder Woman went awry when Diana was able to destroy Genocide, leaving the monster's dead body to drown in the ocean. Angered, Ares commanded a son of Poseidon to cause a swarm of deadly sea creatures to attack Themyscira and the new island nation of Thalarion. During this battle Diana deduced that Ares was the grand manipulator and confronted him. Not allowing Ares much time to gloat in his latest masterpiece of war, Diana took a battle axe and used it to strike Ares' head, splitting his helmet in two. The then dead Ares falls to the floor uttering in his last breath, "Amazon what have you done?"

Post-Mortem

Ares has since appeared to Diana, now sans helmet, his head crudely stitched together, to reveal he has gone to some level of the afterlife reserved for the gods, where he is being tortured by all those who have died in all the world's wars.

Despite being gone from the mortal world he reveals he is still manipulating events to lead to the end of the Amazons. This new plot involves the birth of five male children via five random Amazons. Once they are born he takes them under his wing before Ares is banished from Themyscira both in body and spirit by his father Zeus.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Necromancy: When Ares was also recognized as the Death God of the Greek Pantheon he had control over the dead.
Superhuman Strength
Superhuman Speed
Energy Projection^[2]
Flight: Ares wrap himself in dark energies and flies.
Pyrokinesis: Ares can summon a flame which burn souls.^[3]
Dimensional Travel: Ares could travel to any dimension and summon enchanted weapons from Areopagus.
Size Alteration: When the war is abundant, Ares can grow to giant size. ^[4]
Metamorphosis: Olympians can alter their physical form into any shape that they can choose.
Decelerated Aging: Olympians do not age the way a normal human does.
Invulnerability: Olympians cannot be physically harmed by conventional means.
Power Distribution: Olympians can bestow a portion of their power unto others.
Superhuman Stamina: Olympians can operate for prolonged periods of time without tiring.
Mind Control: Ares can directly control the minds of his living followers; they will degenerate and show cadaverous features, then die when the effects pass away.^[2]
Darkness Manipulation:Ares can summon darkness and can choose targets to become visibles into this condition.^[2]
Telepathy and Illusion Casting: Ares can mentally communicate with his worshippers, transmitting his image at interdimensional range, and possibly can do the same to any other intelligent being. ^[3] He can also show what happen in other places by create a illusion inside his cape. ^[2]
Magic: Olympians have the power to manipulate vast amounts of magic energy to nearly any effect they desires.

Abilities

Weaknesses

Power Loss: Ares will gradually lose his powers without worshippers, but he can derive indirect worship from the wars.^[2]
Ares is vulnerable to any attack from a person who use the Amulet of Harmonia.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Mystic Armor
Crystal Orb: Ares can watch other places and dimension with this artifact.^[3]

Weapons

Various enchanted and normal weapons.

Trivia

In Greek, Ares' name means battle strife.
For much of the Golden and Silver Age, the God of War encountered by Wonder Woman was referred to as Mars; later appearances established Ares and Mars are different characters.

External Links

Ares biography page at the Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe
Ares article at the Marvel Database Project
Ares - the Greek God article at Wikipedia
Ares at the Guide to the Mythological Universe

Footnotes

↑ Wonder Woman (Volume 2) #136
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 ^2.4 Wonder Woman (Volume 2) #6
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 Wonder Woman (Volume 2) #1
↑ Wonder Woman (Volume 2) #177

Wonder Woman Villain(s)

This character is or was primarily an enemy of Wonder Woman and the Amazons in any of her various incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Wonder Woman Villains category."

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Ares (DC Comics). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

[1] Wonder Woman (Volume 2) #136

[WW6-2] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 ^2.4 Wonder Woman (Volume 2) #6

[WW1-3] 3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 Wonder Woman (Volume 2) #1

[WW177-4] Wonder Woman (Volume 2) #177

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

@@ Line 36: / Line 36: @@
 | HistoryText             = '''Ares''', whom the Romans call [[Mars]], is the god of war. He is a member of the [[Olympians]], a extra-dimensional race once worshiped as a deity by the people of Ancient [[Greece]]. He represents the physical or violent aspect of war. He is the son of [[Zeus (New Earth)|Zeus]] the king of the gods and his wife [[Hera (New Earth)|Hera]].
-Despite being [[Zeus]]'s son, Ares never fit in with the other gods of Olympus and created his own realm, the [[Areopagus]]. He murdered one of the Poseidon's sons <ref name=WW1>{{c|Wonder Woman Vol 2 #1}}</ref>. [[Aphrodite (New Earth)|Aphrodite]], the patron of the Amazons, swore that her women would save the world with love from the hatred and warfare of Ares.
+Despite being [[Zeus]]'s son, Ares never fit in with the other gods of Olympus and created his own realm, the [[Areopagus]]. [[Aphrodite (New Earth)|Aphrodite]], the patron of the Amazons, swore that her 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, but Diana was born and raised just in time to fight Ares as Steve Trevor's plane, driven by one of Ares' 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]], but Diana managed to make him see, trapped in her magic lasso, how this chaos would lead to his own disappearance, with Ares having no one to worship him.