God of War
Cover of God of War #1 (March 2010). Art by Andy Park.
Publication information
Publisher	Wildstorm
Schedule	Bi-monthly
Format	Limited series
Genre	Action/adventure
Publication date	March 2010 – Jan. 2011
No. of issues	6
Main character(s)	Kratos
Creative team
Written by	Marv Wolfman
Artist(s)	Andrea Sorrentino
Editor(s)	Ben Abernathy
Collected editions
God of War	ISBN 1-4012-2972-7

God of War is a six-issue comic book limited series published by the company Wildstorm, and written by Marv Wolfman with art by Andrea Sorrentino.

The series chronicles the adventures of Kratos, the protagonist of the God of War video game series. The comic book series is set between God of War and Ghost of Sparta.

The series was announced at the 2009 Comic-Con International with a launch date of October 2009,^[1][2] but was rescheduled for March 2010 to coincide with the launch of the video game God of War III. The series was released on a bi-monthly schedule, with a new comic releasing every two months until the sixth and final comic was released in January 2011.

Set after Kratos' defeat of the God of War Ares, Kratos, the new God of War, is on a quest to destroy the legendary Ambrosia of Asclepius, an elixir with magical healing properties that Kratos once found.

Kratos also has flashbacks to this earlier time, searching for the Ambrosia to save his new-born daughter, Calliope, then a sufferer of the plague, and the King of Sparta. Given until the next full moon, General Kratos travels with a host of Spartans to find the Ambrosia. During this period, Kratos also takes counsel from Captain Nikos, Kratos' then-superior in the Spartan army who instructs him about the Spartan code of honour. Nikos eventually passes on the rank of Captain to Kratos when he sacrifices himself to save Kratos.

Several of the Olympian Gods (Artemis, Helios, Hermes, Poseidon and Hades respectively) decide to enter into a wager with Ares: each will choose a champion (Pothia, warrior-queen of an Amazonian tribe; Cereyon, who controls fire; Danaus, who commands the beasts; Herodius, a warrior from Thera and the Barbarian Prince Alrik) who will seek the Ambrosia (unknown to Kratos, Ares has nominated him as the god's champion). Statues must then be erected in Greece in honour of the god whose champion is successful.

Several of the champions have their own reasons to seek the Ambrosia: Pothia wishing to make the Amazons whole again (as they could not conceive children); Danaus to save the dying animals of his village (which in turn is causing starvation); Herodius to save his village from the plague (created by Poseidon) and Alrik to save the life of his dying father.

Kratos kills two of the champions (Herodius and Pothia) and repels attacks by various monsters sent by the gods to thwart him, although a desperate Hades kills Nikos, who sacrifices himself for Kratos. Danaus is killed by Alrik, with the barbarian retaining his head to possess his magical ability. Kratos locates the "Tree of Life", the source of the Ambrosia and located on a small island, and confronts Cereyon. After being almost burned alive, Kratos drowns his foe and successfully retrieves the Ambrosia, but on leaving he and his Spartan troops are ambushed by Alrik's horde of barbarians. When Hades observes the Spartans defeating the Barbarians, the god attempts to have the Spartans dragged to Underworld. Alrik uses the head of Danaus to summon rocs to attack Kratos as he flies away on roc with the stolen Ambrosia. Kratos pursues Alrik on a captured roc, knowing that although his men will be taken to the Underworld, they will be honored in Sparta for their sacrifice. Alrik and Kratos battle, with Alrik critically wounding Kratos. The Spartan, however, is subsequently healed by the powers of the Ambrosia during their battle.

Kratos gains control of the head of Danaus and uses its power against Alrik, who is torn apart by rocs. Having also been covered with the Ambrosia, Alrik is revived only to be killed once again until the Ambrosia is spent. Kratos then escapes and returns to Sparta with the Ambrosia, saving both his daughter, and the King of Sparta. Kratos is then awarded the rank of Captain in the Spartan army. Bitter at having lost the wager, Hades resurrects Alrik, who becomes King after his father dies and swears vengeance against Kratos.

In the present, Kratos overcomes several obstacles in his quest to find the Ambrosia, including defeating a giant spider, ignoring Athena's pleas to stop his quest and overcoming the reanimated corpses of Captain Nikos and his men—a final attempt by Hades to stop the Spartan. On returning to the island, Kratos discovers that the island itself is in fact one of the Chaos Giants, Gyges. An outraged Gyges explains that Kratos thwarted the Titan's plans: having intended to use the elixir to resurrect his brothers Briareus and Cottus and then reclaim the world. Kratos' fiery battle with Cereyon inadvertently burned off the one hundred arms of the fifty-headed Gyges, with Kratos then stealing the Ambrosia. Now lacking arms and unable to reach the Ambrosia, Gyges was forced to wait for Kratos' return. During the battle with Gyges, Kratos reveals that he seeks to destroy the elixir to prevent the worshippers of the slain god Ares from resurrecting their master. Kratos uses the Fire of Apollo to destroy both the Tree of Life and Gyges.

The series is collected into a trade paperback:

• God of War (144 pages, March 2011, ISBN 1-4012-2972-7)

• God of War at the Wildstorm blog
• God of War at the Grand Comics Database
• God of War at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)