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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chaos_war_2010_5.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:Things aren't going well.]]
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4''Chaos War'' is a 2010 miniseries by Creator/MarvelComics, written by written by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente. The miniseries follows up on plot threads started in ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules'' and a couple of miniseries featuring Amadeus Cho.
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6The Japanese evil god Amatsu-Mikaboshi, who got a hold on many enslaved [[FantasyPantheon alien gods]] during ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'', goes on a rampage across the multiverse. He intends to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy all of creation]] and return everything to primordial chaos. Unlike [[ComicBook/{{Annihilation}} Annihilus]] however, he takes out gods and other supernatural entities first. Hercules, who has just come back from his supposed death with a significant power boost, assembles a [[SuperHeroGods team of]] [[PhysicalGod gods]] and [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens close enough individuals]] to combat the king of chaos.
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8[[folder:Titles Involved]]
9* ''Chaos War'' #1-5
10* ''Chaos War: Chaos King'' #1
11* ''Chaos War: Dead [[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers]]'' #1-3
12* ''Chaos War: ComicBook/AlphaFlight'' #1
13* ''Chaos War: God Squad'' #1-3
14* ''Chaos War: ComicBook/{{Ares|Marvel}}'' #1
15* ''Chaos War: ComicBook/XMen'' #1-2
16* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulks'' #618-620
17[[/folder]]
18
19----
20!!''Chaos War'' provides examples of:
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22* AndIMustScream: Ares got turned into Chaos King's puppet and sent to murder his son ''while staying conscious''.
23* TheAntiGod: Amatsu-Mikaboshi, who was previously thought of as ''only'' the Japanese god of evil, is revealed as the personification of the PrimordialChaos that predated the universe. Eternity (the AnthropomorphicPersonification of the universe itself) explicitly calls the Chaos King this trope, and states he cannot help the heroes, as without Amatsu as the other side of the coin, he will cease to exist, despite the King's victory meaning he will be destroyed either way.
24* ApatheticCitizens: Hercules comes back from the dead to announce the death of the multiverse, but who cares? Is it that part of the month again?
25* BackportedDevelopment: ''Chaos War: Ares'' shows [[GodOfChaos Amatsu-Mikaboshi]] wearing his present-day duds in a flashback to the original Ares miniseries.
26* BackupFromOtherworld: Since the various death gods were obliterated, a number of dead heroes got back into the land of the living, which came rather handy with most living people being put in a coma.
27* BigBad: Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the Chaos King.
28* BroughtDownToBadass: Hercules burns out all of his godly powers at the end of the miniseries, leaving him without any SuperStrength at all, but he still fights supervillains and criminals. He has access to some magical weaponry and is highly skilled at using it, but even then can barely keep up. Yet he still kicks butt.
29* DestroyerDeity: Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the Japanese god of evil, is revealed to be an EldritchAbomination made of living darkness and older than the universe itself, and seeks to return the cosmos to the void by devouring everything. He almost succeeds but is tricked by Hercules and trapped in a pocket dimension.
30* DeusExitMachina: Eternity appears but refuses to fight Chaos King because [[MindScrew he can't exist without him even though his victory means Eternity will cease to exist]].
31* DoAndroidsDream: ComicBook/TheVision is one of the Avengers temporarily brought BackFromTheDead, suggesting he is actually a living being. This contradicts ''ComicBook/TheThanosImperative'', where a parallel universe Vision was immune to possession by {{Eldritch Abomination}}s specifically because as a [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot synthezoid]] he was never really alive to begin with.
32* DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength: Hercules trying to give a heads up on the end times is stymied by inexperience with his recent omnipotence. His cries are quite literally explosively thunderous and his steps are earth-shaking.
33* EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse: Near the climax, Gaea explains that she was the first being to emerge from primordial chaos. Earth is the final battleground of the Chaos War and it's where Amatsu-Mikaboshi, who is a counterpart to Eternity itself, was imprisoned.
34* EldritchAbomination: Amatsu-Mikaboshi is revealed to be an entity of living darkness predating the multiverse itself, and seeks to return it to the void by devouring everything in existence.
35* EleventhHourSuperpower: Thor is fighting an eldritch abomination named Glory, and losing, but manages to pull out the strength to win via a powerup from a woman who was praying to him.
36* TheEndIsNigh: Hercules suddenly appears in New York, claiming that the end is coming.
37* EvilVersusOblivion: Amatsu-Mikaboshi is trying to reduce the entire universe to nothing and that includes evil entities like Nightmare and even the Marvel universe version of ''{{Satan}}''.
38--> '''Satan:''' We all assume a role, Chaos King. [[NotSoDifferentRemark You and I are not so different]]. Each of us in our own world was cast to play the villain-- \
39'''Amatsu-Mikaboshi:''' [[ShutUpKirk I am NOT like you]]. You choose evil over good. I choose nothingness.
40* FastballSpecial'': In ''Chaos War: Dead Avengers'', [[Characters/MarvelComicsMarvels Mar-Vell]] did this with Swordsman.
41* GenericDoomsdayVillain: The Chaos King wants to destroy the entire multiverse, just for the heck of it.
42* GodIsInept: Hercules sacrifices his omnipotence to recreate the Universe, destroyed by Chaos King. [[StatusQuoIsGod Everything goes back to exactly how it was before]], including all villains and various monsters. Hercules claims that he was [[OmniscientMoralityLicense "Guided by wisdom beyond human understanding"]] but considering he accidentally brought Ares's son Knykos back to life, it's rather clearly this trope.
43* GodOfChaos: Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the Chaos King, is the primal god of chaos from Shinto legend. Predating reality, its motivation [[OmnicidalManiac is to destroy the multiverse]] so as to return to the peaceful state of nothing it once came from.
44* GodOfDarkness: Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the Japanese god of darkness, is the embodiment of the primordial void that existed before the universe was created. Seeking to return the universe to a state of absolute darkness, the Chaos King almost succeeds in devouring all that exists before being tricked into trapping itself in a pocket dimension, Hercules burning out his new [[TopGod Skyfather]] powers to restore the cosmos.
45* GoingCommando: The Chaos King implied this to be the case in a FourthWallMailSlot section in the first issue.
46-->'''Reader:''' [[FalseDichotomy Boxers or Briefs]]? \
47* GrandFinale: For ''The Incredible Hercules'' (though Hercules would get a post-event spinoff that would serve as a final coda).
48* GratuitousIambicPentameter: Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the Chaos King, speaks in {{Haiku}} / [[RuleOfCool for added coolness]].
49-->"When Chaos triumphs, / [[CessationOfExistence even Haiku will vanish]]. / [[WickedCultured Only then I weep]]."
50* ImAManICantHelpIt: In ''Chaos War: Dead Avengers'' #2, Swordsman explains why he flirts even as the world comes to an end:
51--> '''Swordsman:''' Ah! Forgive my manners. I cannot help myself sometimes. [[EveryoneLooksSexierIfFrench I am French]].
52* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Athena by Hercules, in defiance of her request that he continue to be TopGod.]]
53* LameComeback: {{Invoked|Trope}} by the [[GodOfChaos Chaos King]] in the FourthWallMailSlot in Issue #2.
54--> '''Amadeus Cho:''' C'mon, dazzle us with some REAL invective! \
55'''Chaos King:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Shut up, you]]. Yeah, you. / [[OhGodWithTheVerbing Start with the shutting up now]]. / Then shut up some more.
56* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: In issue #3, while under the influence of Venus's magic song, Amadeus admits to Thor that he loves him. Thor says he loves him too, and then says not to speak of it ever again.
57* LudicrousPrecision: When almost the entire population of Earth was put into a trance, Amadeus warns that at least 32451 people could die due to things such as being in speeding vehicles or in the middle of surgery.
58* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Hercules reveals the [[TopGod Godheads]]' whereabouts to force them to fight back against Mikaboshi instead of hiding. Mikaboshi simply slaughters them and their realms, adding to his already immense power.
59* NoSuchThingAsSpaceJesus: Averted, as the gods of various alien cultures are every bit as real as the Asgardians and Olympians, although most of them were dead in the aftermath of ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion''.
60* NotSoOmniscientAfterAll: Hercules temporarily becomes omniscient. Despite this, he is tricked repeatedly and has to be guided to victory by others. Omniscience is useless if one either ignores it or does not bother to use it.
61* NumberOfTheBeast: In ''Chaos War: Chaos King'', Thrann's journal in the prologue starts with 66.6.01, with the first entries being about the creation of the universe and Thrann's arrival in Zenn-La. Entry 66.6.06 turns it into an ApocalypticLog.
62--> '''Mental Note 66.6.06:''' That was the beginning of all things. [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt But now]]--
63* OffstageVillainy: Mikaboshi is said to be destroying the Multiverse, but is only shown attacking Earth-616 and its adjacent pocket dimensions, leaving his decimation of other universes completely unshown.
64* TheOmniscient: Hercules is imbued with true omniscience beyond anything possessed by skyfathers or most cosmic beings. He knew anything he put his mind to. Unfortunately, it was completely useless thanks to his LeeroyJenkins attitude. He either charges in blindly or is tricked by the BigBad into letting the villain into the heavens. It is only when his super-smart best friend Amadeus Cho and MotherNature both call him out on how dumb he is being with it that he bothers consulting it at all.
65* OmniscientHero: Hercules is granted omniscience. This turns out to be practically worthless because Hercules either didn't bother to use it or purposely ignored it constantly making things worse. Only changed when all of his allies called him out on his crap and even then he had to be guided by others to victory.
66* PlanetDestroyer: Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the Chaos King, absorbs the pantheons of many alien worlds and then destroys them in his quest to [[OmnicidalManiac return the world to nothingness]]. He succeeds in absorbing 98% of the known ''multiverse''. Later in the story, Hercules is given the power to rival him and sacrifices it to undo all of the damage across the multiverse that Mikaboshi had done.
67* PocketDimension: A provisional solution was to move most people on Earth to one of those. Amadeus did not like to play God and decide who lives and who dies. Eventually, he found another solution: [[spoiler:put the Chaos god, at full power, in this dimension, where he believes he ''did'' win... while the majority of the multiverse has a reset that brings back those he killed.]]
68* PowerOfTheVoid: Amatsu Mikaboshi is the personification of primordial chaos, with his ultimate goal being to consume all of creation and return the universe to non-existence.
69* PrescienceByAnalysis: This is played with, as Amadeus Cho and other super-intelligent characters accept that the BigBad Mikaboshi is unbeatable, but [[NeverTellMeTheOdds Hercules refuses to accept it]].
70* ResetButton: At the end Hercules [[spoiler:used his super-god powers to restore the almost entirely destroyed multiverse, bringing several characters BackFromTheDead while he was at it.]]
71* RightForTheWrongReasons: Played with. In the flashback of his first moment after being created, Vision discussed with Ultron about Rene Descartes. Vision said that he was incorrect because an imperfect being (Henry Pym) created a perfect one (Ultron). Ultron was infuriated by his answer, yes, Rene Descartes was wrong, right, but not because of that. Descartes was incorrect because he was [[PunyEarthlings human]]! Ultron is not, and he generates his own logic! But, as both of them were taking deductions from Ultron's InsaneTrollLogic premise (he's not perfect), then ''none'' of them were actually right.
72* RomanticFusion: In ''Chaos War: Thor'' #2, after apparently losing his powers, Thor’s human alter ego, Donald Blake, merges with his love interest Becca Steinhardt to become Thor once again.
73* RousingSpeech: At first subverted, with heroes being of not very high opinion about Hercules, but played straight soon after.
74* SeenItAll: Iron Man is not surprised at all to see Hercules resurrected. That's a common tradition in the superhero community.
75* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the Chaos King, has taken to speaking in haikus exclusively.
76* TooDumbToLive: Hercules has been granted [[TheOmniscient omniscience]], along with omnipotence, which would allow him to know beforehand if a plan is going to work or the proper course of action to win. He never uses it which causes him to make one mistake after another including letting Mikaboshi into heaven by the front door. He also insists on punching Mikaboshi even after it doesn't work. It takes getting his butt kicked, his hyper-smart friend Amadeus Cho, [[MotherNature Gaea]], and finally an attempt at consulting his omniscience to make him consider trying something else. Except he goes back to trying to punch Mikaboshi and is losing until Cho tricks Mikaboshi into another completely empty universe. Some god of gods.
77* TookALevelInBadass: Both Hercules and Amatsu-Mikaboshi. Since they were PhysicalGods, to begin with, Hercules obtains [[TopGod Skyfather]] levels of power while Amatsu-Mikaboshi reveals his true form as an EldritchAbomination.
78* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Hercules comes back from the dead, but nobody finds it surprising or stares at him in disbelief. See ApatheticCitizens and SeenItAll.
79* WarArc: The miniseries is this for ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules''.
80* WhoDares: Eternity says this after having been summoned by Hercules.
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