While Thor may be one of Marvel's most popular characters, he's not the only god to walk the Earth, and when the Son of Odin was indisposed, the Avengers turned to the Greek God of War, Ares, to replace him.
An Olympian who belongs to the Greek pantheon, Ares ranks among the strongest characters in Marvel's canon and has served as both hero and villain, spending time as a member of both the Avengers and the Dark Avengers during Brian Michael Bendis' tenure with the franchise. Unlike his Asgardian counterpart, Ares has a more savage side to him, and is often depicted as being at odds with a more civilized world.
The sworn enemy of the Avenger Hercules, Ares has troubled the team many times, and has a unique moral code that has led to some fascinating - and deeply tragic - adventures. Here's everything a Marvel fan needs to know about the Avengers' brutal God of War.
Origin and Powers of Ares
First appearing in the Marvel Universe proper in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's 1966 comic Thor #129 (following a Golden Age debut in Comedy Comics #10, depicted by Ramona Patenaude), Ares is the son of the Greek gods Zeus and Hera, and was worshiped across Greece and Rome. He grew distasteful of his father's view that humans should be allowed to stop worshiping the Olympian gods, frequently attempting to wrest control of Olympus from Zeus. Ares hates Hercules with a burning passion that started when the hero slew Ares' scared birds, but his anger was perpetuated by the demigod's status as Zeus' favorite son.
Ares spent most of his time warmongering throughout history and acted as a foil to Hercules. By the time of Mike Oeming and Travel Foreman's 2006 Ares miniseries, he has decided to settle down and live among humans as a construction worker in New Jersey, in order to raise his son, Phobos - aka Alexander Aaron - away from Zeus' tyrannical influence. However, Ares was brought back into the world of superheroes and divine beings when the Kami kidnapped Phobos and trained him to wage war on Olympus. Ares and the Olympians brought Phobos back and cured him of the Kami's brainwashing, but the ordeal put Ares on Iron Man's radar, who sought to have him join the Avengers following the superhuman Civil War.
Ares' powers include all those of the standard Olympian, but to a higher degree: superhuman strength, reflexes, durability, and speed. He is immortal and possesses an insane regenerative healing factor. He is not too adept in magical capabilities like his godly siblings, but what he lacks in that he makes up for with knowledge of tactical warfare and mastery of all weapons and fighting styles, including modern techniques and inventions. Ares' divine nature also grants him a degree of immunity to magic and reality manipulation, as seen in Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk's Dark X-Men when he's able to step outside time in pursuit of the powerful mutant X-Man.
Ares' Avengers History
In Brian Michael Bendis and Frank Cho's Mighty Avengers #1, Iron Man sought out Ares for the Avengers after being informed by Carol Danvers that he could be a great replacement for both Thor and Wolverine, considering he has both of their skill sets. He was reluctant to join the team, only doing so because Iron Man threatened to deport him back to Olympus. However, he proved himself as an asset to the team time and time again, playing a huge part in many of their supervillain battles.
Ares helped defeat an Ultron-infected Iron Man by fighting it head on and then shrinking down to destroy it from the inside. He then went on to aid the Avengers in saving a symbiote-infested city, taking down Doctor Doom, and fending off the Skrull invasion. He was given a chance to get back at Hercules when he was put in charge of punishing and torturing the demigod for allying with Hulk and the Warbound after the events of World War Hulk. Hercules escaped and then bested Ares in single combat, fueling the god's hatred for his half-brother even more.
Ares eventually cut ties and left the Avengers, believing their idea of the greater good was not compatible with his own. When Norman Osborn took over and formed the Dark Avengers, Ares joined the team believing that he would be able to continue the good work he did on the Avengers, but with much looser rules. He joined the team alongside former teammate Robert Reynolds, aka the Sentry, and several villains in the guises of heroes. He completed several missions with this iteration of the Avengers, beginning with Bendis and Mike Deodato's Jr.'s Dark Avengers #1, and faced major foes like Morgan Le Fay and the Molecule Man, as well as attacking the X-Men on Osborn's orders.
During Siege, Norman Osborn led Ares to believe that Asgard's presence was a threat to Earth and manipulated him into leading an assault on the city. While Ares and the Dark Avengers battled Thor and Balder, Ares learned the truth about Osborn's deceptions and that the threat and assault on Asgard was all a lie. Furious, Ares sets his sights on Osborn, vowing to kill him for what he had done, but was intercepted by Sentry. Sentry delivered a heavy barrage of blows to the war god before grabbing him and ripping Ares in half, resulting in his shocking death.
Where Is Ares Now?
Ares was absent from comics for a short while after the events of Siege. Eventually, the character was rediscovered in the afterlife alongside his son Phobos, who had been slain by the Gorgon. Ares was eventually brought back to life to take part in one of the Grandmaster's "Contest of Champions." Since his return, he has taken on smaller, low-key roles in the Marvel Universe.
Ares was last seen in the 2019 series Sword Master - from Shuizhu, Greg Pak, and Gunji - in a predicament involving Atlantis and the supposed capture of another one of his sons, Ismenios, alongside Shang-Chi and Sword Master. It turns out that the guardian sea serpent of Atlantis had gone missing, and Ismenios took advantage of its absence to raid the sunken city. After realizing that his son was not captured but instead being punished by the Mother Goddess, Ares attempts to leave with the boy, but the group is ordered by the Mother Goddess Davi Naka to find the serpent or face the wrath of Atlantis. The strange thing is that Ares seemingly disappears after this, as only Shang-Chi and Sword Master are present in the following Atlantis Attacks miniseries. Until somebody clears this up, Ares is currently assumed to be wandering Marvel's Earth, a warrior antihero once again.
Ares started out as a minor character but has grown to be an impactful player in Marvel's vast continuity. While originally chosen by Iron Man as an explicit replacement for Thor, Ares is a hero in his own right, and while he is far less well-regarded by the Avengers due to his often outdated and aggressive attitude, he has allied with them against some major threats and proved his abilities many times over. Hopefully, fans will see Ares again soon, as the Avengers' Thor replacement continues to cut his own unique path through life.