VILLAINS! Your Thoughts On: Ares

[Agent Z]

Pretty much. Add to that that Perez pretty much made him a complete idiot ("yeah, Ares, if you wipe out mankind with nukes, you will have a hard time having followers. But be thankful WW is here to point out the flaws of your own evil plan, you morron."), and .....let's just say I had a hard time taking him all that seriously, despite his "Darth Vader" costume.

I attributed that to Ares' nature making him blind to his own flaws like other gods. Out of curiosity how do you think he should be like if he were a villain.

[AmiMizuno]

Perez's was much closer to the Myth. He cared only about the bloodshed is was the other part of War. He was murderer. He only cared about getting people to War and spreading Fear or anything to get people to War . Ares and Eris would spread Chaos together to get people to war.

[Auguste Dupin]

I attributed that to Ares' nature making him blind to his own flaws like other gods. Out of curiosity how do you think he should be like if he were a villain.

Well, if it was Ares' nature, he would have went on with his plan regardless of the realization it would kill him. A bit like a vilainous twist on "it's what I do" if you will.
As for how I would see him if he was a pure villain, well....
For starter, he should be physically undefeatable, at least by the heroes. Not only is he a god, but his nature as god of war makes him the greatest master there is at any technic designed to kill. Swords, axes, kung fu, fire arms (Hephaesteus made, of course....).....all this and much more. Trying to fight Ares on his grounds means an humiliating defeat, even for Wonder Woman. But he mostly plans behind the scenes, not because he wants to, but because he wishes to keep his machinations hidden for his family, notably the "good" ones (a relative term for Greek Gods), like Athena. He's pretty good at it, but his temper and his hot blood can get the better of him and ruin everything.
He isn't trying to preach the ways of war. The ways of war are spreading themselves just fine by themselves, thank you very very much. Many mortal conflicts are his doing one way or another, often simply by existing. Sometimes he even joins in himself, mostly for fun.
War, death, and desolation are things he finds immensely enjoyable. But he's not without his, let's say "positive" traits. He's an honorable man, in a villainous kind of way. While anything goes when it comes to plotting, he always respects his physical opponents, notably Wonder Woman, who genuinely impresses him. In fact, he even considers her a worthy opponent, perhaps even an agent of his in a twisted way that Diana completely rejects. Although it's partially out of high esteem for himself, he always fight fairly, and in general, has the qualities of an amoral, but brave soldier of fortune. Because, the secret is, while in many ways, he's a card carrying villain, in many other ways, he's not a villain at all. He's just doing his part in the great order of the universe. he doesn't want to destroy the world. Where would he play after that? The world needs war, the same way it needs death, or the sun. It just needs people like Wonder Woman to contain it.
As far as his look goes, well...he wouldn't have a definite look.Like the other gods, he only appears human to give us something we can comfortably look at. As such, depending on the situation, he would either drink some champagne in his business suit, before rocking out a samurai armor to beat up some one.
Pretty much something like that.

[Dr. Hurt]

Let's see ... which version simply looks more God of War -ish?

Exhibit A?


or

Exhibit B?


Definitely preferred Perez's powerfully malevolent diety over Azz's tired one.

1) Azzarello's version is closer to the original greek version, simply because his entire pantheon is capricious, moody and grey, as opposed to black and white, good and bad. Obviously we never got a myth about Ares growing weary and tired of his role, but it was within the possibilities judging from the ambiguous way the other gods would behave all the time. At the end of the day it's a nice twist for him.

2) You're not doing him justice by showing his death scene. Either show death scenes for both, or show awesome scenes for both. I'm sorry but your choice of pictures is prejudiced at best.

[AmiMizuno]

Than how should Ares be shown as a villain