Justice League: Paradise Lost

## Lead-Up

Ares was imprisoned on Paradise Island by the Amazons. Wonder Woman left Paradise Island with Steve Trevor to help guide Man's World.

## **Chapter One - "The Witch"**

Circe arrives in Scotland, killing a man and a woman as a sacrifice to the gods of moon and sun; Hecate and Eclipso. She grows in power, and is gifted a vision of a war god trapped, the amazon's frozen, and the first man to step on Themyscira as the key to it all. Circe smiles and embarks on her plan.

Steve, Diana, and Barbara Minerva arrive at the crash site of the ARGUS team on Aeaea. However, its a trap, and they are attacked by the former soldiers transformed into beasts. The team loses contact with ARGUS as Circe knocks back the agents and takes Steve, leaving Diana trapped in the rubble.

Circe uses Trevor as a portal to Themyscira, arriving on the Paradise Island. She unveils the head of Medusa, turning the Amazons to stone. Diana summons the League. Hippolyta destroys the gorgon head, but Circe defeats her. Phantom Stranger arrives and saves Hippolyta at the last second but Circe frees Ares from his prison. He emerges pale, having been cut off from the sphere of the gods magic. Hippolyta and Stranger take Trevor and escape.

Phantom Stranger and Hippolyta arrive with Trevor, and the Amazon queen raises her blade to Trevor's kneck: believing that they must kill Trevor to shut the door so Ares and Circe cannot enter man's world. The League disagrees with Hippolyta and conflict, but Stranger explains that there's no point because it's already too late; Circe and Ares together are powerful enough to walk between dimensions (he is one of the 7 olympians). Ares goes with Circe to the war torn country of Bialya where he siphons energy from the conflict. He gets power, and just as the League arrives; Ares snaps Circe's neck and steals her chaos magic, gaining his full strength back and more.

## **Chapter Two - "Warpath"**

Ares knocks the League back and disappears to wreak havoc across the world. Ares incites conflict in all of mankind, plunging it into a new world war. Stranger isolates the League from Ares influence and the split up to save Earth.

Diana explains to the league that long ago there was a war in olympus between titans and gods. Ares and Hades betrayed zeus and their brethren. most of the gods were killed, with zeus remaining alone on olympus.

Aquaman raises the legions of Atlantis to seize the nuclear subs while Flash races across the world to disarm rogue nations. J'onn infiltrates the United Nations building and throws the leaders into a telepathic boardroom to clam their minds. Hal is tasked with air space control and must contain nuclear missiles

We also get hinting of Circe and Stanger previous relationship, and Hippoyta and Stranger are super pissed when circe dies. The reveal is that Circe was once an amazon named antiope who was corrupted by circe.

Stranger and Ares clash, but Ares gains strength through his link to the sphere. Stranger tells hippolyta to enact their final plan. Superman gets clowned by Ares, this is when he discovers his weakness to magic. Diana is able to resist ares magic, clashing with the war god. She lasso's his sword, turning it on him and cutting his stomach open unleashing a maelstrom of raw magic. Ares falls, and Diana rushes into the eye of the storm. Superman and Stranger chase after her, and Diana sees that the only way to contain the magic and stop it from blowing a hole in the Earth is to put on Ares helm which can funnel it. She leaves her lasso for her allies and puts on the helm.

## **Chapter Three - "Gods of War"**

Hippolyta and Batman find Corrigan in gotham and reveal that he is the spectre. Diana becomes the new war god, traveling back to themyscira and freeing the amazons. They prepare to kill all mankind as a plague to the earth, but the league comes full force alongside Stranger and the Spectre.

They discover that circe in some form is still inside of her. Steve grabs the lasso and is able to break through to her; they kiss, spell is broken (love overcomes rage/war). Stranger and Hippolyta bury Antiope. After this event, it is established that the quintessece is now reunited to deal with the age of heroes and the new threats that will come. Ares goes missing.

## Timeline

* This event is part of the **Silver Age**
* It is preceded by **Teen Titans S1**
* It is followed by **Justice League Year Two**

## Links

* Full Reading Order
* Wonder Woman Reading Order
* Justice League Reading Order