Re: Ares Series Discussion **Spoilers**
My post from MW, because I'm too lazy to rewrite it (though I did throw a little more snark in, only for "all ya'll"):
I'm still snickering about the fact that ARES, God of War, drives a Hum-Vee. Bet it's got a W sticker on the back. Of course, he is like 8' tall (literally) so maybe it's all he fits in. I enjoyed the issue from a set-up point. There are a few clankers in the narrative, where Ares get a bit overwrought and mistakes his tenses and particples ("trod" is past tense and past particple for "tread" but it's being used in present tense), but I forgive him because he's Greek yet kind enough to think in English so I can understand him. Or maybe Oeming was just a bit confused in his translation of the original text... :wink:
There are a few concepts that I'm interested to see play out - I don't believe that Ares' main problem in life is that his Daddy doesn't love him and I don't really thing that was what Oeming was implying anything quite that simple in the scene in which Ares turns away from Olympus. Ares is the God of War, created and given that task for a purpose, so whether the task shaped him to be the way he is or whether he'd have been this way regardless is kinda a moot point. He is this way, and the rest of the pantheon looks down on him for his skills at "war without honor" yet they (frequently) require those skills to survive.
It remains to be seen what Oeming is going to do with this - he could be stepping up for a very complicated look at the nature of war, at the fact that you can't really be "civilized" if you are flat-out at war and the civilization conducting the war has to understand, if not embrace, that facet. Interesting parallel with the conditions some of the US soldiers sent to Viet Nam faced when they returned home, after the stories of napalm carpet bombing and My Lai hit the presses.
A 5 issue miniseries makes that seem unlikely, though, especially since we're looking at probably an issue for Ares to go to Olympus and demand Alex back and be refused and for Zeus to come up with some suitable threat such that Ares doesn't just take Neptune's trident and clock Zeus with it.
I remain in hope, though, because I like some depth with my four color funnies, and I think this is a promising start.