Justice League: How Did Ares Defeat Darkseid When Zeus Couldn’t?

When Darkseid invaded Earth the first time in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, how could Ares defeat him, but not Zeus? The Snyder Cut finally introduced the iconic DC Comics foe in live-action, with Ray Porter bringing the supervillain to life. Darkseid was originally going to appear in 2017, but the theatrical edition of Justice League removed him altogether. Instead, Darkseid was relegated to just a simple name-drop by Steppenwolf. But thanks to HBO Max, Snyder’s vision was given a chance to come to light, including the original History Lesson session. In the Snyder Cut, Darkseid was the one that tried to invade Earth thousands of years ago, not Steppenwolf, as the theatrical version told.

However, before taking the name Darkseid, he was Uxas and tried to conquer Earth while searching for the Anti-Life Equation. In Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the Old Gods came together with the Amazons, Atlanteans, the Green Lantern Yalan Gur, and the human race to fight the forces of Apokolips. While Uxas manages to withstand the attacks of Zeus and Artemis, it is ultimately Ares that manages to get in an effective shot at Uxas. Ares slams his battle ax into Uxas’s shoulder while also destroying his spear at the same time. However, why did Uxas survive attacks from the other gods, but only Ares managed to hurt him severely? It all goes back to the fact that Ares is established as the God of War.

Even though Artemis and Zeus are Gods themselves, it is imperative to remember that Darkseid is one too, as he is a New God. But when Uxas came to Earth, it was still in his young days as he hadn’t become the fearful legend that he is known to be in the galaxy. The mere fact that Uxas even came to this planet, not considering that there may be defenders, shows how naive and ignorant he was back then. Obviously, Darkseid had become even more powerful, thousands of years later when the Justice League met him for the first time.

While they didn’t have a showdown in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Darkseid would probably have held up better than he did when facing the Old Gods. Ares being the one to wound him symbolizes the Old God living up to his title as the God of War. This was also a younger Ares who was at full strength, compared to when he fought Diana Prince in Wonder Woman. The outcome would likely have been different had Ares taken on Uxas when he wasn’t at his full divinity. Although at that point, Ares would still have Artemis and Zeus by his side, so it wasn’t as though he would have been on his own.

There’s also a point to be made that during the showdown in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Uxas wasn’t entirely immune to the other attacks. Artemis’s arrows did at least go through him while Zeus’s lightning had Uxas occupied, rather than shrug it off. Atlan’s shockwave attack from his trident even seemed to affect Uxas, as well, as shown in the Snyder Cut’s History Lesson. So in the end, Uxas’s initial defeat may have come down to the fact that it was a team effort. If Ares battled Darkseid without Zeus, Artemis, and Atlan, even with all of his strength, who knows how things would have gone in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

About The Author

Andy Behbakht
(1037 Articles Published)

Andy is a senior writer at Screen Rant as he has covered the world of entertainment journalism since 2010, including superhero/comic book media. In addition to his work as a reporter, Andy co-hosts The Flash Podcast while running and producing the entire DC TV Podcasts network. He is also the founder/editor-in-chief of The Marvel Report since Fall 2015. Andy has previously written for sites such as FanSided, KSiteTV, TV Fanatic, It’s Just Movies, Heroic Hollywood, TV Overmind, and more.

More From Andy Behbakht