Call this the “Thorification” of Ares. The God has turned his back on Olympus because he is worshipped only by “base men” on Earth, which means he never gets full glory on the mountaintop. The other Gods will never treat him with the deference he believes he is due, so he goes to Earth.

He has a son now, named Alex, and he works construction.

He’s hardly the model dad, encouraging his son to kick the crap out of his classmates.

He also hasn’t told his son who he really is, opting instead for a mortal life of a single dad.

Of course that doesn’t last. Mikaboshi, a.k.a. the God of Chaos, storms Olympus and gives Zeus’ pantheon a beatdown. Ares, who is as much of a dick (or more) as Thor, doesn’t help because he’s still bitter about not being treated as one of the cool kids.

This leads Zeus to kidnap Alex, hold him hostage, and force the God of War to help his brothers out.

Ares robs a police munitions depot…

…and heads out to Olympus to give Zeus a bit of a beat down.

Unlike previous iterations of the Greek Gods–and quite unlike any depiction of Odin, ever–Zeus in this series is portrayed as weak and beaten. And kinda fat.

Unfortunately, by the time Ares gets to Olympus, Mikaboshi’s army has raided Olympus again and stolen Alex away.

And so Ares leads the forces of Olympus (including Hercules) to go save his son.

Even Hercules can tell that Ares is a little unhinged.

We are certainly familiar with the “nice dad goes psycho after his kid is kidnapped” idea. Modern stories are full of examples. The added layer here is that Ares is the God of War–so this is bringing out of him his true purpose, the very reason he exists, and by the end of the story, he realizes he cannot put that back in a bottle.

While Alex is held by the Chaos God he is brainwashed and taught expert combat skills.

Mikaboshi wears many faces in this book via kabuki-style masks, but in the end is revealed to be just a big black shadow.

The “Eastern Lords of Light” (aka the Japanese Pantheon) ride in with Mercury to save the day.

The story, though, is really about the father-son relationship between Ares and Alex.

Alex’s brainwashing is reversed when he is forced to nearly kill his father, and the child attacks Mikaboshi–saving the day.

We get a happy ending after the war epic is done–father and son are reunited and live in the African plains, where Ares teaches his son the ways of a god of combat.