Ares

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**Ares** is the son of Zeus and the Olympian God of War. After years of fighting against the Avengers, Thor, and mostly his own brother Heracles, in order to eliminate his enemies, Ares joined the ranks of the Dark Avengers, led by Loki's HAMMER.

## Biography

**Ares** is the eldest son of Zeus. Shunned by his fellow gods and even his own father Zeus as one of the most hateful Olympians, Ares constantly yearned to serve alongside the "Gods of Light" who ruled atop Mount Olympus. During the Trojan War, in which the Mycenaean Greeks attacked the city of Troy in Asia Minor during the 13th century B.C., Ares initially fought on behalf of the Trojans; battling the Greek warrior Diomedes, he was repelled by Athena, who had guided Diomedes' sword. Ares later rejoined the battle and stood alongside the Greek warrior Achilles, serving as the demigod's patron lord of war ever since. With the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire during the 4th century A.D., Zeus allowed the worship of the Olympians to die out, forbidding Ares to act as the patron god of warriors and causing dissatisfaction with Zeus's rule over the centuries. At some point the ancient goddess Nox posed as Venus, seducing Ares and then bearing his children, Deimos and Phobos.

Ares's enmity towards his half-brother Heracles extends as far back as the latter's mortal days. Hercules came into conflict with Ares's son Kyknos, who waylaid travelers and was using their skulls to construct a temple dedicated to the God of War. Not wishing to see his son slain at the hands of Heracles, Ares descended from Mount Olympus and engaged his half-brother in combat. With the aid of Athena, Heracles was able to wound the God of War, thus driving him from the battlefield and allowing Hercules to defeat and subsequently kill the son of Ares. Ares has never forgiven Heracles for this slight.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Superhuman Strength:** Ares possesses superhuman strength greater than that of the vast majority of Olympians and can lift approximately 70,000 tons. Among the Olympians, his strength is equaled only by Pluto and Neptune and exceeded only by Hercules and Zeus.

* **Superhuman Speed:** Ares' super humanly strong legs allow him to run and move at speeds greater than the finest human athlete.

* **Superhuman Stamina:** Ares musculature produces almost no fatigue toxins during physical activity. As a result, his body possesses almost limitless physical stamina in all activities.

* **Superhumanly Dense Tissue:** Ares' skin, muscle, and bone tissue has roughly three times the density of the same tissue in the body of a human. This contributes, at least somewhat, to Ares' superhuman strength and his weight.

* **Superhuman Durability:** The tissues of Ares' body are considerably harder and more resistant to physical injury than the body of a human being and most gods. Ares is capable of withstanding great impact forces, exposure to extremes in both temperature and pressures, falls from great heights, and powerful energy blasts without sustaining injury in a level comparable to Thor. He takes full advantage of his great durability by performing many actions that would normally kill a human being. He has gone as far as Kamikaze feats and even lighting himself on fire and charging against his opponents as a living fireball. However, enchanted godly weapons such as Mjolnir, capable of destroying mountains upon impact, have been shown to injure him.

* **Superhuman Agility:** Ares' agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete.

* **Superhuman Reflexes:** Ares' reaction time is enhanced to a level that is beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete.

* **Limited Magic Ability:** As an Olympian god Ares has the potential to use magic. While not as accomplished at magic as many of his fellow Olympians, Ares can sense the presence of other gods, demons, and the use of magic, call other gods, summon weapons from Olympus, and transport himself by teleportation to Olympus and to Earth at will. Ares lacks the ability to fly such as his half-siblings Athena, Hermes, or Aphrodite. Ares recreated Olympus after being wounded in a battle with Kyknos.

* **Immortality:** Like all Olympians, Ares is functionally immortal, more truly so than the Asgardians or Kami, who are merely considered long-lived. He has not aged since reaching adulthood and is immune to the effects of aging. He is also immune to all known Earthly diseases and infections.

* **Regenerative Healing Factor**: Despite his body's high degree of resistance to physical injury, Ares, like all Olympians, can be injured. However, he is capable of repairing damaged or destroyed tissue with superhuman levels of speed and efficiency. However, Ares is not capable of regenerating missing limbs or organs without the aid of outside magical forces.

* **Warfare Expertise:** Ares is an expert in all areas of warfare.

* **War Manipulation:** The ability to manipulate war, strife, combat and other forms of conflict Ares as God of War has the power to influence all forms of conflict including mental, physical, spiritual and conceptual ones, regardless of the area and numbers involved, control how they progress and draw power both from the conflict alone as well as the dying. Ares is naturally, extremely skilled in all forms of fighting, weapons and both strategy and tactics as well as statistics of war. Ares can start conflicts by influencing people or events, rise personal and fanatical armies, control and create weapons of every kind and even grant others extensive abilities of combat. Ares has the incredible power to invoke war and chaos within an enormously large radius, ranging from a city to an entire continent. With this power he has full control over the city or continent that is in war and chaos at the time.

### Abilities

* **Master Combatant:** Ares is a master of a variety of hand-to-hand combat skills and all of the ancient Greek forms armed and unarmed combat. Also Ares is a master of all Olympian weaponry and most human weapons ranging from clubs to firearms and explosives. Well versed in military tactics, torture, combat engineering, and Ares is one of the most talented and ruthless warriors that has ever fought on Earth.

* **Expert Marksman:** He is extremely accurate in throwing projectiles and sharpshooting.

* **Expert Tactician:** He has a vast amount of military history particularly focusing on battles and wars that involved Greek and Roman (or Italian) soldiers and armies.

* **Interrogation Expert:** Ares is well versed in various interrogation methods including torture.