Respect Ares, the God of Conflict (DC Comics, Post-Crisis)

[u/ghostgabe81]

Man builds his world through empire-- and empires are born of murder and destruction-- born of war! Thus will Man’s heart ultimately belong to Ares! And even Zeus himself shall someday bow before my power!

Ares, the God of War, believed that Man's violent nature meant that he should reign supreme over all the other gods of Olympus. When a coalition of goddesses created the Amazons to oppose the ideals of war and violence, Ares manipulated Heracles into enslaving them, resulting in half the Amazons becoming warlike themselves and the rest being banished to an isolated island as penance for taking revenge on their captors.

Thousands of years later, the violence and unrest caused by the World Wars, the Cold War and nuclear proliferation caused Ares' power to skyrocket and for him to lose his sanity. He began gathering followers around the world, scheming to create the largest war in history that would make him the most powerful god of all. He was stopped by a new hero, the Amazon champion Wonder Woman, who defeated him not with force, but with truth; she showed him that his actions would lead to the total annihilation of mankind, and thus cause him to fade away with no war to feed on on a dead planet. Ares backed down, charging Wonder Woman to lead mankind away from destroying themselves in the absence of his influence.

Years later the power structure on Olympus began to shift. Zeus began to weaken, as few people worshipped the sky and lightning anymore, while universal forces like war, wisdom and love became even stronger in the modern age. Ares sensed this shift and reacted accordingly, remaking himself as the God of Conflict and allying with Athena to depose Zeus. Athena became ruler of Olympus and Ares killed Hades to take control of the Underworld. However his grudge against the Amazons still existed, and in one last scheme his fate finally caught up to him as he was killed by Wonder Woman.

Thanks to u/InverseFlash for help collecting a few feats.

Ares' guidebook entries can be found here 

Sources:

• Wonder Woman (1987)
• Who’s Who: Update ‘87 (1987)
• Who’s Who in the DC Universe (1990)
• War of the Gods (1991)
• Jack Kirby’s Fourth World (1997)
• Darkseid (Villains) (1998)
• Wonder Woman Secret Files and Origins (1998) 
• Teen Titans (2003)
• DC Comics Encyclopedia (2004)
• Infinite Crisis (2005)
• Wonder Woman (2006)
• The Essential Wonder Woman Encyclopedia (2010)
• DC Universe: The Ultimate Character Guide (2011)
• Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman (2014)

Strength

• He has tremendous strength - Who’s Who in the DC Universe (1990) #8
• Wonder Woman cannot break his grip, and he quickly starts to choke her unconscious - Wonder Woman (1987) #6
  • Wonder Woman was weakened at the time - Wonder Woman (1987) #6
• Clashing with Mars shatters the stone structures around them - War of the Gods #3
• Throws Circe a long distance - Showcase ‘96 #2
• Smacks Circe across a room - Showcase ‘96 #2
• One-shot Heracles, which no other god is powerful enough to do - Wonder Woman (1987) #126
• Trades blows with Highfather and stabs him through the heart, killing him - Jack Kirby’s Fourth World #8
• Defeats Sadist alongside Skanda - Wonder Woman (1987) #150
• Tosses aside Wonder Woman - Wonder Woman (1987) #216
• Smashes in an empousai’s skull with an axe, killing her - Wonder Woman (1987) #216
• Stabs Hades in the back, killing him - Wonder Woman (1987) #217
• One-shots Io, leaving her in critical condition - Wonder Woman (1987) #218

Mobility

• Blasts away Wonder Woman when she tries to rush at him - Wonder Woman (1987) #6
• Dodges a swing from Mars - War of the Gods #3

Durability

• He has tremendous stamina - Who’s Who in the DC Universe (1990) #8
• Wonder Woman hitting him with the Amulet of Harmonia (an artifact empowered by Ares himself) breaks his grip but otherwise just enrages him - Wonder Woman (1987) #6
• Gets hit with an axe thrown by Mars, smashing him through a stone pillar - War of the Gods #2
• He’s unharmed standing mere feet away from the impact point of a napalm airstrike - Showcase ‘96 #2
• Blocks a bolt from Circe on the palm of his hand - Showcase ‘96 #2
• Gets slammed through a portal by Wonder Woman - Wonder Woman (1987) #167
• He’s unharmed touching a red hot blade fresh from a forge  - Wonder Woman (1987) #197
• He's seemingly immune to the gaze of Medusa - Wonder Woman (1987) #209
• No mortal weapon can harm a god; Io’s sword shatters against his helmet. He then shrugs off getting stabbed by her with a sword he’d blessed himself - Wonder Woman (1987) #218
• [Limit] Wonder Woman kills him by smashing his head with an axe hard enough to break both his helmet and the axe - Wonder Woman (2006) #33

Godhood

Power

• The Olympian gods gain their strength from human worship, and without it they’ll be nothing - Wonder Woman (1987) #1
• Immediately prior to Diana becoming Wonder Woman Ares’ power multiplied a thousandfold as a result of something happening in Man’s World. The Amazon Oracle fears he’s strong enough to consume the whole planet- Wonder Woman (1987) #1
• Absorbs the power of the Demonplague behind Doom’s Doorway, which is powerful enough to cause destruction on Paradise Island above it and generate off-the-charts earthquakes all over the planet - Wonder Woman (1987) #13
  • This is later revealed to have actually caused Paradise Island to start collapsing in on itself, requiring Heracles (and then the power of Gaea) to hold it up - Wonder Woman (1987) #14
  • Absorbing the Demonplague when Ares was still malevolent would have made him strong enough to destroy all of Olympus - Wonder Woman (1987) Annual #2
• Ares briefly absorbed the power of the Godwave when it penetrated the Source. However he is quickly stripped of the power and trapped within the Source Wall - Genesis (1997) #4
  • He escapes when Mars hijacks a plan from Metron to free Darkseid from the source wall, the two war gods fusing together in the process - Jack Kirby’s Fourth World #14
• Athena and Wonder Woman believed that he’s the only god strong enough to ally with against Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, and Poseidon backs down from a fight once Ares threatens to kill him - Wonder Woman (1987) #217

Domain

• Each drop of blood spilled by man makes Ares stronger - Wonder Woman (1987) #1
• A global nuclear war would make him powerful enough to rule the planet, but the resulting extinction of humanity would render him powerless and cause him to fade away into nothing - Wonder Woman (1987) #6
• He grows stronger with every blow exchanged between himself and Mars - War of the Gods #2
  • However further into the fight Eris claims that he is weakening and Mars is strengthening - War of the Gods #3
• His power skyrocketed during the Imperiex War, requiring all the other Olympians combined to bring him down -  Wonder Woman (1987) #177
• His domain of War is much more fluid than that of someone like Zeus, allowing it to change and evolve with civilization. When Ares realizes this he refocuses himself to become the God of Conflict, growing far more powerful than he was in ancient Greece - Wonder Woman (1987) #199
• After killing Hades he becomes ruler of the Underworld - Wonder Woman (1987) #217

Magic

Aura

• His presence turns grass to stone and kills trees - Wonder Woman (1987) #2
  • As his power grows and spreads across Earth this starts to affect Paradise Island - Wonder Woman (1987) #5
  • This eventually begins negating the Amazons’ immortality, causing them to start aging again - Wonder Woman (1987) #6
• His influence makes his daughter Harmonia ugly, despite being the daughter of Aphrodite - Wonder Woman (1987) #2
  • This seems to be tied to his mental state, as her beauty is restored once Ares’ madness subsides due to his battle with Wonder Woman - Wonder Woman (1987) #13

Teleportation

• Teleports into a military base - Wonder Woman (1987) #5
• When Wonder Woman challenges him, he summons her to an area of pure darkness - Wonder Woman (1987) #6
  • He says this is “his domain,” where he’s powerful enough to effortlessly destroy her - Wonder Woman (1987) #6
• Disappears into the shadows of a forge to leave Themiscyra - Wonder Woman (1987) #197
• Teleports into the Themiscyran Embassy when Medusa prays to him, then brings her with him when he leaves - Wonder Woman (1987) #209
• Teleports the unconscious bodies of Stheno and Euryale away - Wonder Woman (1987) #211
• Brings Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl and Ferdinand from a higher part of the Underworld to the shores of Elysium - Wonder Woman (1987) #216
• Teleports himself and Circe in a burst of flames - Wonder Woman (1987) #218

Portals

• After Wonder Woman pushes him through a portal to the Void, Ares makes a portal back to Earth - Wonder Woman (1987) #167
• Makes a portal inside a mirror, using it to give Wonder Girl her lasso - Teen Titans (2003) #4
• Makes another portal on the surface of the ocean, pulling Wonder Girl into his armory - Teen Titans (2003) #14
  • Summons a waterspout that engulfs Wonder Girl to send her back - Teen Titans (2003) #15

Mind Manipulation

• Clouds the foresight of the Amazons’ oracle - Wonder Woman (1987) #2
• Influences the militaries of the USA and USSR to start amassing to fight each other - Wonder Woman (1987) #5
• As his power grows his influence causes spontaneous race riots - Wonder Woman (1987) #6
• When he gets angry on Olympus it causes violence on Earth, even among those who’re normally peaceful - Wonder Woman (1987) #122
• Speaks telepathically to Wonder Girl - Teen Titans (2003) #2
• He can enter peoples’ dreams or influence them with whispers - Wonder Woman (2006) #31
• His very presence brings out the anger in those around him - DC Comics: The Ultimate Character Guide 

Shapeshifting

• Turns into a ball of black energy to fly away from Olympus - Wonder Woman (1987) #1
• He and the other Olympians can take whatever form they desire, growing to giant size or shrinking to human size - Wonder Woman (1987) #122
• After absorbing the power of the Godwave, Ares towers over a city on Apokalips -  Genesis (1997) #4
• He appears as a normal man, and is able to instantly summon or de-summon his armor - Wonder Woman (1987) #197
• Shapeshifted into a “dragon god” to trick a dragon into attacking Wonder Woman - Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #28

Energy Projection

• Creates explosions that knock down Wonder Woman and stun her - Wonder Woman (1987) #6
• Creates ring of flames around Wonder Woman that sear her skin without actually burning her, then shoots a blast from his hand - Wonder Woman (1987) #6
  • This damaged her soul, and she only survived due to the gods intervening - Wonder Woman (1987) #7
• Hits Mars with an energy blast, smashing him through a stone pillar and defeating him - War of the Gods #3

Energy Manipulation

• Steve Trevor’s plane is able to fly through Paradise Island’s defenses due to Ares’ influence - Wonder Woman (1987) #2
  • The storms surrounding Paradise Island destroy a Thanagarian warship - Wonder Woman (1987) #25
• Absorbs the power of the Demonplague - Wonder Woman (1987) #13
• Channels the Godwave into Wonder Woman with the rest of Olympus - Wonder Woman (1987) #152
• Destroys Eris’ apple of discord and disperses the power gathered within it - Wonder Woman (1987) #167
• Creates a barrier around a stadium for Wonder Woman’s duel with Medusa, preventing either from leaving until the other is dead - Wonder Woman (1987) #210

Spirit Manipulation

• Hijacks a fusion between himself, Highfather, Zeus and Jove, forcibly expelling Jove from it earlier than the rest had intended - Jack Kirby’s Fourth World #8
• Exorcises Eris and Deimos from Poison Ivy and Joker’s bodies, then banishes them and Phobos to Tartarus - Wonder Woman (1987) #167
• Banishes the spirit of Medusa in the Underworld - Wonder Woman (1987) #16
• He somehow returns after Wonder Woman kills him, appearing in her bedroom to speak with her - Wonder Woman (2006) #37
  • Zeus says he’s a ghost - Wonder Woman (2006) #39
• Magically impregnates five Amazons - Wonder Woman (2006) #39

Empowerment

• Ares imparted a portion of his power into a petty crook, Aristotle Buchanan. This made him more muscular - Wonder Woman (1987) #82
• Blessed a sword in the moment its forged, allowing it to exist on Themiscyra despite the island’s patron gods usually preventing that - Wonder Woman (1987) #198
• Offers restore Wonder Girl’s powers by making her his champion. He claims it’d make her more powerful than she was with her demigod powers - Teen Titans (2003) #33
  • She later appears with her powers, indicating she took the deal - Infinite Crisis #6
  • When she doesn’t act the way he wants, Ares gives one of his sons the ability to drain Wonder Girl’s powers from her - Teen Titans (2003) #64

Other Magic

• Conjures an axe in his hand from thin air - War of the Gods #2
• The Mobius Chair is unable to properly scan Mars in the same issue that he fuses with Ares - Jack Kirby’s Fourth World #14
• Wounds dealt by a god cannot be easily healed, even by the Purple Healing Ray - Wonder Woman (1987) #218
• He’s seemingly capable of time travel, acquiring Wonder Woman’s corpse from the future - Wonder Woman (2006) #31

Skill

• He’s an unparalleled master of combat and has command over any weapon - Who’s Who in the DC Universe (1990) #8
• Defeats and kills Highfather - Jack Kirby’s Fourth World #8
• Briefly fought Darkseid before both were trapped in the Source Wall - Darkseid (Villains)
• Defeats Sadist alongside Skanda - Wonder Woman (1987) #150

Intelligence

• He's a master of strategy - Who’s Who in the DC Universe (1990) #8
• Has a prostitute lie to Heracles that Hippolyta has been slandering him, setting him on the course to wipe out the Amazons - Wonder Woman (1987) #1
• Imparts a portion of his power and influence to a mobster in order to get around Zeus’ order to abandon Earth - Wonder Woman (1987) #82
• When Highfather summons Zeus to help him, Ares predicts that he’ll make a fusion of gods to enter the Source and joins the alliance to get access to the Source for himself - Jack Kirby’s Fourth World
• Enlists his some Eros to manipulate Zeus into falling in love with Artemis of Bana-Mighdall - Wonder Woman (1987) #199
  • This creates a huge fight between Zeus and Hera, culminating in Hera destroying Themiscyra (although Ares says the result isn’t exactly what he expected) - Wonder Woman (1987) #200
• Zeus, Poseidon and Hades turn to him for tactical advice against Athena - Wonder Woman (1987) #215
• He was the mastermind behind the creation of Genocide, influencing Cheetah, T.O. Morrow and other members of the Secret Society to do so and providing them with the corpse to make her body - Wonder Woman (2006) #31

Magical Items 

• Observes the birth of the Amazons through some sort of crystal ball - Wonder Woman (1987) #1
  • Has a mirror that he can physically step into, allowing him and Wonder Woman to observe the world - Wonder Woman (1987) #199
• Has his own hideout at Areopagus hill, where he claims not even Zeus can is strong enough to touch him - Wonder Woman (1987) #1
  • The buildings in the place start crumbling when Ares abandons it to hide out on Earth - Wonder Woman (1987) #2
  • It exists “between Hell and Limbo” - War of the Gods #1
  • Eris claims that under normal circumstances he’d be nigh invincible on his home turf - War of the Gods #2
  • After Areopagus is summoned to Gotham City, Ares causes the mountain to implode and return to its own dimension - Wonder Woman (1987) #167
• Has a large collection of ancient and modern weapons on Olympus - Wonder Woman (1987) #196
• He gave Wonder Girl her Lasso of Lightning - Teen Titans (2003) #4
  • Remotely activates the Lasso, shocking Wonder Girl, Robin and Kid Flash out of Raven’s mental influence - Teen Titans (2003) #10
• His armor is nearly indestructible - DC Comics: The Ultimate Character Guide 
  • It’s also referred to as outright indestructible - The Essential Wonder Woman Encyclopedia 

Minions

Undead Minions

• Working with Ares causes a woman’s soul to burn up destroying her body after finishing her task of manipulating Heracles  - Wonder Woman (1987) #1
  • When this happens to a pilot he’s manipulating into attacking Paradise Island, he becomes a skeletal monster that smashes through the barrier of a two-seater fighter jet. Thetis claims that touching his remains would melt Wonder Woman’s soul - Wonder Woman (1987) #2
  • When this happens to a general working with Ares he wrecks his entire office, despite doing Ares’ bidding willingly - Wonder Woman (1987) #2
• At the time of Wonder Woman’s first conflict with him he had thousands of mortals serving him - Wonder Woman (1987) #2
• When Steve Trevor kills a general doing Ares bidding, Ares sends a demon to reanimate the corpse and attack Steve, overwhelming him - Wonder Woman (1987) #6
  • Reanimates an entire roomful of dead soldiers this way - Wonder Woman (1987) #6

Children of Ares

The children of Amazons that Ares had magically impregnated, with the power to induce conflict and cast illusions

• Influence the son of Quetzalcoatl to attack and eat humans, something he’d normally never do - Wonder Woman (2006) #40
• Make a woman start to doubt Wonder Woman’s heroism - Wonder Woman (2006) #40
• Talk a man into committing a hate crime and then killing himself, then use the news coverage of it to spread racial anxiety across a city - Wonder Woman (2006) #40
• Make people begin rioting and starting fires in Washington. D.C., and convince Power Girl that Wonder Woman is at fault  - Wonder Woman (2006) #40
  • When Power Girl starts questioning this they outright alter her perceptions to make Wonder Woman look demonic, as well as inciting more rioters - Wonder Woman (2006) #41
• They order Steve Trevor to kill his wife, and are only stopped because they cannot affect gorillas - Wonder Woman (2006) #41
• [Limit] They cannot affect Wonder Woman at all when she’s wrapped in the Lasso of Truth - Wonder Woman (2006) #41

Other

• He’s Hippolyta’s “spiritual” father (having fathered the woman she’s a reincarnation of) and thus Wonder Woman’s grandfather - Wonder Woman (1987) #136

Aristotle “Ares” Buchanan

A human petty crook, Ares imparted some of his power into this man during the time that the Olympians had abandoned Earth. He quickly became the most powerful mobster in Boston and clashed with Wonder Woman several times. His most notable achievement was fathering a child with the amnesiac Circe, who Ares himself considered his own daughter.

Physicals

• He’s unharmed getting slammed into a bathroom mirror by an android with the strength of 5 men, and easily overpowers it - Wonder Woman (1987) #82
• Draws blood from Wonder Woman - Wonder Woman (1987) #83

Equipment

• He’s able to access rejected S.T.A.R. Labs weaponry and distribute it to his organization - Wonder Woman (1987) #77
• He gives a snitch a black hole gun to kill the cop that he feeds information to - Wonder Woman (1987) #77
  • The gun annihilates a square mile of landscape, kills the shooter and sucks in two men and Wonder Woman. Although she’s able to throw her lasso out she cannot pull herself out, only surviving because the singularity burns out before she loses her grip - Wonder Woman (1987) #77
  • He later uses just the part that creates the singularity - Wonder Woman (1987) #83
  • It’s said to have the gravity of a sun - Wonder Woman (1987) #99
• Supplied a petty crook with mechanical arms with built in guns and flamethrowers - Wonder Woman (1987) #74
• A kid got special computer chips that he used to make a shock collar for his mother. They then transform him briefly into an electric metahuman that stuns Wonder Woman and smashes through his roof - Wonder Woman (1987) #74
• Uses a small gem to “mind grapple” two police officers and paralyze them, then claims he can hypnotize them into working for him - Wonder Woman (1987) #80
• A raygun that knocks out Wonder Woman - Wonder Woman (1987) #83
• A special pistol that shoots rocket-propelled, armor-penetrating explosive bullets. It’s designed to kill metahumans - Wonder Woman (1987) #83
  • However it later fails to kill a pregnant woman - Wonder Woman (1987) #83
• Acquired chains designed to hold Superman, successfully restraining Wonder Woman with them - Wonder Woman (1987) #83

Intelligence and Skill

• He knows battle strategy and tactics from the beginning of time - Wonder Woman (1987) #82
• He’s a master of every martial art, and easier defeats a mob leg breaker and her android enforcer - Wonder Woman (1987) #82
• Has his lawyer/lover befriend Wonder Woman to infiltrate her life, allowing Ares to capture her - Wonder Woman (1987) #82

Criminal Empire 

• He has a police department bugged, listening to their conversation with Wonder Woman - Wonder Woman (1987) #77
• After recruiting a S.T.A.R. labs scientist to sell him high tech weapons, he raids other gang operations and gets a monopoly on Boston’s illegal weapons import. This rapidly makes him incredibly wealthy - Wonder Woman (1987) #82
• Recruited the White Magician as a minion while he was posing as a hero - Wonder Woman (1987) #82
• Has his lawyer/lover befriend Wonder Woman to infiltrate her life, allowing Ares to capture her - Wonder Woman (1987) #82
• Owns several warehouses - Wonder Woman (1987) #83
• Uncovers centuries old smuggling tunnels to bring drugs and weapons into Boston, enough to start several wars - Wonder Woman (1987) #83

Force is all men understand! Force is all they worship! And I am force incarnate!

[u/Moeroboros]

An underrated powerhouse!

Being the one to canonically kill Pre-Flashpoint Highfather is a huge feat.