A review by bengriffin
Dark Avengers: Ares by Manuel García, Michael Avon Oeming, Travel Foreman, Kieron Gillen

2.0

I gave this a try because it had Gillen's name on it and it was a character I knew nothing about, not the Marvel version anyway. I'm not sure why I expected the god of war to be more nuanced than just a violent killing machine but there you go, I'm an idiot. There's a bit about him being sick of being a means to an end and about him caring for his son but mostly it's just a pseudo Punisher story with lots of guns and not much for me to latch on to. Wanton violence and macho bullshit just aren't enough for me sadly, and the lack of any decent female characters was very noticeable. It's my own fault for expecting anything more really because you can't do much with a god of war without completely changing his very nature. That said, I've read nuanced takes on Lucifer, the actual devil, and Gillen's other work is usually great so it's not entirely on me. It's also worth noting that Gillen isn't the main writer in this volume, he only has a three issue arc whereas Michael Avon Oeming gets the majority of the volume. If you like big violent action things this might be for you, but it definitely wasn't for me.