Oh the anguish of necessity! Yet while Ares and Mars must battle it out for supremacy, even in a duel whose outcome feels preordained, perhaps it’s good that these two brothers in arms did not rule over war together. Cross makes the global person and the epic intimate in this sublimely complex and touching goodbye scene.

Each entry in the Pantheon Wars series brings something of its own to the varied narrative of conflict, death, change, and inevitability. This piece in particular though, stands out to me. Ares and Mars, true to their identity, fully embody the concept of war, with its brutal fury as well as its inherent tragedy. The last line has a deliciously painful ring, as a warrior to the core laments his own victory. An astoundingly gripping one-minute play.

A striking moment in Cross' collection of The Pantheon Wars.