Ares (DC) vs. Ares (God of War)

## Description

*They both may be based on the same Greek God of War, but only one will survive on the battlefield.*

## Interlude

Hiro: Ares, the Greek god of war and courage. Son of Zeus and Hera, he is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the most hated of the bunch due to his lust for bloodshed and violence.

**MBStarscream: Are we just doing the same thing we did with Hades last year?**

Hiro: Yep. We are indeed.

**MBStarscream: Well, if you say so.**

Hiro: DC's Ares, arch-enemy of Wonder Woman and the Amazons.

**MBStarscream: And God of War's Ares, the god who created the Ghost of Sparta.**

Hiro: I'm Hiro Hamada.

**MBStarscream: I'm MBStarscream.**

Hiro: And it's our job to examine both warriors' strength, abilities, weapons, and weaknesses to see who would win in a fight.

## Ares (DC)

Hiro: Eons ago in the trans-dimensional plane called Skyland, Zeus and his wife Hera were the patriarch and matriarch of the Greek pantheon, a group of gods who resided on Mount Olympus. Among their many children was Ares, who, being the God of War, loved battle for its own sake.

**MBStarscream: Ares never favours one city or party over another, fighting on either side, as inclination prompts him, delighting in the slaughter of men and the sacking of towns. Despite being Zeus' son, Ares never fit in with the other gods of Olympus and created his own realm, the Areopagus.**

Hiro: Ares was hated by all his fellow immortals, from Zeus and Hera downward, except for Eris, and Aphrodite, who nursed a perverse passion for him, ultimately bearing his children, Deimos, Phobos, and Harmonia. In modern times, Ares would gain a more prominent enemy in the form of Wonder Woman, becoming one of her most formidable foes.

**MBStarscream: As the son of Zeus, Ares has all the attributes of a demigod alongside his unique abilities of war and death. He has nearly unmatchable strength that only increases as warfare grows, and is far more agile and faster than normal Amazonians or humans. He can withstand virtually limitless amounts of physical trauma with only mild to moderate injuries, and as long as his head is still attached, he will always regenerate from fatal wounds quickly.**

Hiro: Ares is an ageless being, living for at least millennia, and as the God of War, he is a master of every tactic and strategy used in any type of war. He is also a master of swordsmanship, marksmanship and hand-to-hand combat, having martial art form at his command.

**MBStarscream: Ares can mentally communicate with his worshippers, transmitting his image at interdimensional range, and possibly can do the same to any other intelligent being. He can also show what happen in other places by creating a illusion inside his cape, and when war is abundant, he can grow to giant size.**

Hiro: When Ares was also recognized as the Death God of the Greek pantheon, he had control over the dead itself, able to create minions out of deceased beings and even give them powers of their own. He can summon a flame that burns souls, alter his physical form into any shape that he chooses, summon darkness, teleport himself anywhere he wants, travel between Olympus and Earth, and summon enchanted weapons from the Areopagus.

**MBStarscream: Ares can directly control the minds of his living followers; they will degenerate and show cadaverous features, then die when the effects pass. He can turn any hard material into a weapon or armor, and can control and bend solid objects and substances to his will.**

Hiro: Like all gods, Ares is aware of the multiverse and the realms that lie beyond. This knowledge gives him an understanding of the universe and all life that transcends the capabilities of normal mortals. He also claims to have the ability to see into the future; when he met Grail, daughter of Darkseid, she threatened him by saying her father would soon arrive to free and would kill him in the process. In response to this, Ares calmly stated that he didn't see that in the future.

**MBStarscream: Ares can summon lightning from the skies to strike at a specific opponent that's strong enough to damage himself, as he was harmed when it was redirected back at him. He's able to hide his identity from both mortals and gods by appearing as a hooded man in civilian clothing, and is capable of absorbing the memories of others. This process is extremely harmful to his victims, as even someone as powerful as Wonder Woman became weak and began bleeding from her eyes as a result of Ares doing this.**

Hiro: Ares is capable of witnessing and understanding events that he wasn't present for, as if he was there. He knew about the relationship between his twin sons and Veronica Cale, and he also knew who Grail was even though they hadn't even been introduced to each other.

**MBStarscream: Ares is able to fly or levitate completely unaided by any form of technology, and is capable of constructing weapons out of pure energy. He wears armor that is virtually indestructible, and his weapons include swords, battleaxes, and various other weapons.**

Hiro: Ares is the most feared of the Olympians for good reason. He's usurped Hades' rule over the Underworld, played Zeus and Hera against each other as part of a plot to destroy Themyscira, nearly killed Wonder Woman without even attacking her, survived being in the center of a Godwave explosion, and killed Highfather in a fraction of a second.

**MBStarscream: And in one possible future, he killed just about everyone in the DC universe. Superman, Batman with prep time, Shazam, the Flash, everyone.**

Hiro: Don't think that all this means Ares is perfect. He will gradually lose his powers without war and is vulnerable to any attack from anyone who uses the Amulet of Harmonia.

**MBStarscream: Ares is also weak to love, specifically love from Aphrodite, as mere words from her can bend him to her will, and like most of the gods and demigods in the DC universe, Ares is vulnerable to magic-based attacks.**

Hiro: Ares' arrogance and overconfidence in his own abilities have often been his downfall. He tends to underestimate his opponents and can be easily provoked into making rash decisions.

**MBStarscream: His family ties can also be used against him. He has a complicated relationship with his half-sister Wonder Woman to say the least, and his father Zeus has been known to punish him for his misdeeds. But as long as there's enough war to go around, Ares' love for death and destruction will never die.**

*Ares: You need not worry for me. This carnage feeds my soul. Every arrow shot and life wasted strengthens me so that not even a woman scorned will save mankind from my wrath.*

*Enraged, Hippolyta charges at him and they clash swords.*

*Ares: For you may be the Queen of the Amazons, but I am the God of War.*

## Ares (God of War)

Hiro: A long time ago, in an ancient era at the peak of Greece, Zeus reigned over both man and god from his divine throne on Mount Olympus. However, one god wished to overthrow him, and entered into an alliance with the Furies themselves to help him do so.

**MBStarscream: This was Ares, the *other* God of War and oldest child of Zeus.**

Hiro: When Zeus saw premonitions of a Marked Warrior who was going to overthrow him, Ares conceived a son with Alecto in the hopes that this child would grow up to be the propheised "Marked Warrior" who would claim the thunder god's throne. But he would end up disowning his son when he did not meet his standards and wound up capturing Deimos, brother of Kratos.

**MBStarscream: Years later, Kratos was a brutal warlord and Spartan general, but was pushed to the brink against the Barbarians. He called out to Ares, pledging his allegiance in exchange for victory in the fight, and Ares complied, bestowing upon him the Blades of Chaos.**

Hiro: However, power is heavy; it derails you from your true self, and under the influence of blind rage, and the lasting effects of throwing away his humanity to serve Ares, Kratos murdered his own wife and child. The Ghost of Sparta was born, and Kratos' servitude to Ares... severed.

**MBStarscream: But Ares was no less tough a God of War than him. He was one of the mightiest gods of Olympus, possibly equal to or even exceeding his uncles in power who were second only to Zeus himself.**

Hiro: Ares' power is best displayed when he violently destroyed the Barbarians, stomped hard enough to make an earthquake, moved clouds with his hands, and destroyed mountains that he created himself. He more than lives up to his former title; he fought in the Great War against the Titans for hundreds of years, mastered all weapons used in the war, and fought Kratos on equal terms after the latter had gained power from Pandora's Box.

**MBStarscream: Ares is the embodiment of war itself and is able to draw power from it. Aside from being able to lay waste to huge armies effortlessly, he has control over a vast legion of monsters which serve as the backbone of his army. He can command harpies, minotaurs, gorgons, cyclops, even the undead of the Underworld.**

Hiro: Ares has shown the ability to materialize various weapons such as a gigantic war hammer, an axe, and a sword, all of which were enveloped in flames, and is able to sprout large, spider-like protrusions from his back that can be used in combat to hit and impale his enemies. These spider limbs are powerful enough to harm him and pierce through his own armor, all the while being capable of casually laughing off being pricked by the Blade of Artemis entirely.

**MBStarscream: Which is even more powerful than the Blades of Chaos, which are even more powerful than Mjolnir, which splintered Yggdrasil and sent Jormungandr backward through time.**

Hiro: As a god, Ares is innately immortal; neither aging beyond his prime nor succumbing to mortal frailty such as disease or impotence of any sort. He can not be slain by earthly weapons; only divine forces and weapons such as the power of Hope, Blade of the Gods or other immortals such as Titans can kill him.

**MBStarscream: Ares is able to grant a chosen warrior with a large variety of abilities and weapons, a power common among the gods, and can create a pocket dimension that he has complete control over.**

Hiro: It should be noted that this pocket dimension was confirmed to be a real physical action rather than a illusionary creation as seen within God of War II, as seen in a third person perspective. During his battle with Kratos, Ares trapped him in this dimension, where he was forced to protect his family from doppelgangers, only for for Ares to kill them after all, and almost broke his spirit.

**MBStarscream: Ares' other godly powers include creating illusions, telekinesis, teleportation, flight, telepathy, astral projection, and conjuring volcanic rocks to crush his foes.**

Hiro: Though he certainly would not live to see it happen, Ares would ultimately end up fulfilling the prophecy of the Marked Warrior who would destroy Olympus and end the reign of the gods. With Kratos being the new God of War after Ares' death at his hand, the Ghost of Sparta would go on to slay the entire pantheon of Greece as revenge for manipulating him throughout his life and travel to a land far north to live a humble life with a new family to call his own.

**MBStarscream: Being responsible for so much tragedy in Kratos' life, it's no wonder Ares was so hated and feared by his Olympian peers. And with Kratos now kicking ass and taking names in a whole new pantheon, it's safe to say that he definitely made him a great warrior.**

Hiro: A testament to what a great warrior *Ares* was as the former God of War.

*Ares: You have no idea what a true monster is, Kratos! [creates six blade-like protrusions in his back] Your final lesson is at hand!*

## Fatal Fiction

*Mario flips a coin.*

Hiro: Well, Athens is in trouble, as the Gods of War shall live up to their titles within its boundaries.

**MBStarscream: Where's Kratos when you need him?**

*Athens, Ancient Greece*

Explosions rocked the city of Athens as the armies of the Underworld assailed it without mercy, their leader watching over them from above. He resembled a giant warrior wearing a brown sleeveless tunic, shoulder pieces with cerberus faces built into them, and has bracers and boots with chains on them. His long hair and beard seemed to be made of flame as they blew in the heavy wind.

This was God of War's **Ares**.

As he watched his undead minions lay waste to the city he despised, an opening portal caught his attention. Out of it stepped a towering dark knight in blue plate armor and a cape, his red eyes shining through the slits in his helmet like hot coals. An undead army of his own soon followed, quickly meeting GOW Ares' forces head on and turning Athens into a battlefield.

DC's **Ares** had joined the fray. He spoke his doppelganger's name with burning hatred, like the name was poison on his tongue. "Ares... you dare claim my title as your own?! I will CRUSH those who imitate my image!" He drew out a large axe that he was ready to make good use of right here and right now.

Bladed spider legs erupted from GOW Ares' back as the other war god drew his fiery sword. "Fool!" He bellowed. "I am the only God of War, and you will die as a god of NOTHING!"

With those words, he charged at his fellow warrior.

**FIGHT!**

The Gods of War flew over the city and clashed their weapons, the godly force of their clash demolishing buildings and sending monsters scattering. GOW Ares drew back one of his spider blades, but it was parried by his foe's axe before it could skewer him through the chest. DC Ares kept parrying GOW Ares' spider blades and flew backward to dodge a swipe of the Olympian's fire sword. He then charged and put himself into another blade lock with his opponent.

GOW Ares pulled a cheap trick and teleported behind DC Ares, but the war god quickly whirled around to counter his opponent's knee strike, blocking with his hands. The force, however, wasenough to push him back a few feet, and GOW Ares attempted to capitalize on this by summoning an axe and hurling it at DC Ares. DC Ares blocked it with his own axe and summoned a sword to knock it away before charging at GOW Ares, but his copycat telekinetically summoned the axe back into his hand and knocked DC Ares aside with it, sending him flying.

"Pitiful!" GOW Ares spat before charging to run DC Ares through with his sword. He was surprised when DC Ares teleported out of sight and grabbed his spider blades, swinging him around before tossing him into a building. DC Ares laughed maniacally as he raised his hands into the air, summoning a bolt of lightning that GOW Ares managed to block with his sword. DC Ares came down with his axe as GOW Ares blocked with his spider blades. DC Ares teleported behind GOW Ares and kicked him in the back, launching him forward. GOW Ares turned around to see his opponent conjuring a pair of swords in his hands before lunging at him with his blades poised to strike.

The blow was countered by GOW Ares' spider blades, which were really starting to get on DC Ares' nerves. He would remove those blades and show this impersonator how a *true* God of War fought his battles.

He managed to parry one with one of his swords and pierce his opponent's shoulder with the shoulder, drawing a shout of pain from the god. However, another spider blade impaled through him in return, cutting right through his armor like it was wet paper. As GOW Ares lifted him into the air with his blade, DC Ares sliced through it with his sword, sending blood spraying as GOW Ares howled and staggered back.

DC Ares summoned his battle axe behind GOW Ares, grabbed him and knocked him onto it, then rapidly brought the axe up with a telekinetic tug, slashing at GOW Ares on the way before it returned to his hand as his swords disappeared. GOW Ares furiously drew his sword and slammed its point into the ground, sending out a wave of fire that DC Ares did his best to shield himself from. GOW Ares took this opportunity to create homing fire projectiles in the shape of hounds that DC Ares slashed at with his axe, allowing him to then summon enormous volcanic rock structures.

As the rocks were thrown at him like toys, DC Ares punched one to pieces, sliced through another with his axe, and called forth a bolt of lightning to obliterate the other, chunks of earth flying everywhere as a result. GOW Ares crossed his spider blades together as another lightning struck at him, pushing him back a good distance while two more chunks of earth still floated in the air.

"You have no idea what a true God of War is!" GOW Ares boomed before he started growing to titanic sizes and pierced the two rocks that were still suspended in mid-air with a spider blade each. He lunged forward and attempted to sandwich DC Ares between the rocks on his blades, smashing them to pieces in the process. By the time he noticed that his opponent had vanished, DC's god of war had already reappeared behind him, growing twice as large with each passing moment while chuckling maliciously.

GOW Ares looked up to see a massive axe coming down for his head and blocked it a spider blade, but DC Ares kicked him hard in the chest, knocking him down. He raised his axe again and swung it down, but GOW Ares stopped it telekinetically and lifted DC Ares into the air. GOW Ares got to his feet and laughed as he drew his sword, now many times larger than before as he prepared to bisect his fellow Olympian.

He again struck thin air as DC Ares disappeared. Now towering over the Earth itself, DC Ares drew a fist to punch a hole through the planet where his imitator stood.

He hit nothing. He *saw* nothing. Nothing but endless space in an endless void. He was also now his normal size, and he looked around in confusion and outrage. Just then, hundreds of copies of him appeared all around the God of War, and a giant apparition of GOW Ares' face appeared above DC Ares.

"Burn his flesh!"

The clones all charged at DC Ares as the god fought them off the best he could, but was soon overwhelmed by their numbers.

"Break his bones! Break his *spirit!* He started to cackle evilly as DC Ares was buried beneath his clones, the laughter echoing through the infinite void.

"**ENOUGH!**"

The thunderous roar erupted through the air before DC Ares burst out of the pile of clones, growing and growing until he was literally holding the pocket dimension in his palm. He looked down at the sphere he was holding with contempt and crushed it in his grip. By now, Earth was all but microscopic to him, with GOW Ares staring up at the sky in abject disbelief, where he could see his opponent's visage looming over him. He fell onto his knees, his sword falling out of his hand and clattering onto the floor as he lowered his head in submission.

"You *are*... a God of War..." He said, still not daring to look back up as he knelt. DC Ares raised up a giant hand, ready to bring it down.

"And you..."

GOW Ares lifted his head as DC Ares' voice boomed above.

"...are ***nothing.***"

All it took was a punch for the solar system to be smashed to pieces that travelled across the cosmos. DC Ares pulled back his hand and stared at what remained of the solar system before another portal his size opened up. Without a word, he floated backward into it until it closed, leaving behind an empty void that had been ravaged by war.

**FATALITY!**

## Results

**MBStarscream: That's *one* way to destroy Olympus. And... everything else...**

Hiro: Both mighty Gods of War, DC's Ares and God of War's Ares had their own advantages in this battle, with God of War Ares being a fairly powerful foe in his own right. Buying into DC and God of War lore for both combatants made this battle much closer... but only for so long.

**MBStarscream: DC Ares had just too many legs up over his fellow God of War. But before we jump to any conclusions, let's compare how they scale to Wonder Woman and Kratos, including Greek and Norse for the latter, to get an idea of the power gap here.**

Hiro: Starting with GOW Ares, it's worth noting that the Kratos he fought and was killed by had been empowered by Pandora's Box, which contains the powers to kill the gods of his universe, and Kratos has only gotten inconceivably more powerful than he was before over time, enough to flip the entire Upside-Down Temple on its axis and defeat Odin, who used the remains of Ymir to create Midgard itself; stabbing Ymir also caused all of creation to be swept up in a flood of his own blood.

**MBStarscream: And remember how we said the Blades of Chaos were even stronger than Mjolnir, which could knock Jormungandr and clash with Ingrid, which also held back an Asgard-destroying attack by Ragnarök? Well, God of War Ares has shrugged off the Blade of Artemis, an *even more* powerful weapon than the Blades of Chaos!**

Hiro: How does all this compare to DC Ares? Well... Wonder Woman is basically at a herald level of power within the world of DC, and so scaling DC Ares to her would put him on her level. Feats of Wonder Woman that we can reliably scale DC Ares to as a result include blocking trillions upon trillions of shards from across the universe, defeating Kryptonians like Superman and Supergirl, and recovering from an attack that the narration compares to... (clears throat) "ten times ten billion galaxies" exploding at once.

**MBStarscream: Yep. Nothin' in God of War was matching that.**

Hiro: God of War Ares' pocket dimension also wasn't going to help him out much, as DC Ares could easily force himself out of any dimension. And while both are able to alter their size to gigantic proportions, DC Ares can grow much, much bigger. He once grew big enough to rival the giants of the Promethean Galaxy, whose hands are the size of the solar system.

**MBStarscream: DC Ares has also seen a lot more than his counterpart has. God of War Ares at best has fought against the likes of the Titans, Kratos and a Barbarian army, but DC Ares has killed just about everyone in the DC universe in one timeline, while God of War Ares couldn't even overthrow Olympus and was killed by a Kratos that mind you is *weaker* than he is now by the time of the Norse era.**

Hiro: And with godly weapons or deities being able to kill God of War Ares outright, DC Ares only had an even bigger advantage. With his greater experience and superior lore scaling, DC Ares was always going to keep his title as the undisputed God of War.

**MBStarscream: War truly is ungodly.**

Hiro: DC's Ares wins.

## Advantages

### Ares (DC) (Winner)

* Stronger
* Faster
* More durable
* Far greater scaling
* Able to grow to far bigger sizes
* Experienced with a wider variety of foes than GOW Ares
* Capable of killing GOW Ares with godly weaponry and abilities