The spoor of Ares are still children, though we have assumed an unnatural level of endurance and pain tolerance for their age. Intellectually, they are sharper than most adults - more articulate, more able to plan and with a higher level of initiative.

The boys have a supernatural ability to influence those around them, overriding their mind with thoughts of violence, hatred, war and guilt. They can easily trigger riots and incite large crowds to deadly violence. By focusing this ability on a single person they can take direct control, even against persons with a strong personality such as Etta Candy, Steve Trevor or Power Girl.

The Crow Children act by talking, though it’s clearly not normal social interaction - their words have an impossibly convincing effect when it comes to seeding hatred, resentment, envy, defiance and the like. Victims will even experience mild hallucination as a result of dissonance, for instance perceiving a trusted ally as demonically deformed to try to reconcile the words of the Crow Children about that person with reality.

History

The sons of Ares are the result of a plan of revenge by Ares against Wonder Woman after she slew him in battle. As a result of magic that Ares used in the underworld, five Amazons became inexplicably pregnant . While this normally would have been a momentous event, the times were greatly troubled on Themyscira, with the Amazon Alkyone having displaced Queen Hippolyte and Zeus having imposed Achilles as the first King of Themyscira. Men had also come to live on the island - the Gargareans - and though none of the Amazons apparently had sex with them, their presence was enough that immaculate conception was not the only possibility.

As a civil war situation arose on Themyscira, overshadowing the pregnancies, the mothers reached term abnormally quickly and were mystically summoned to a forgotten court by the ghost of Ares. This long-abandoned place had been built millennia before just in case children were ever born on Themyscira. Ares further summoned animals infused by his essence. After the five Amazons gave birth against their will, they were magically forced into an eternal sleep. The infants were raised by the magically corrupted animals, and grew up at an accelerated rate.

Thus mere months later the five brothers, looking to be about seven years old and having about thrice the maturity, were sent out in the world to turn it against Wonder Woman and the Amazons.

(This occurred in the final issues of Simone’s run on Wonder Woman, and seemed to be the prelude of a major storyline. Wonder Woman then went into major continuity upheaval, so Ares’ plan will almost certainly never be revealed.)

A murder of crows

The five brothers, wearing a sort of school uniform with cap emblazoned with a crow symbol, strolled through Washington D.C., where Wonder Woman then lived. Using supernatural influence they fanned the flames of intolerance, envy, petty hatred and bloodlust. They both attacked Wonder Woman’s reputation and the civil peace in the capital, triggering murders, arson and eventually riot. When the mighty heroine Power Girl responded, the Crow Children were delighted, taking over her mind and turning her against Wonder Woman.

Though the situation in Washington swiftly degenerated and even Power Girl couldn’t quite resist the mental influence of the spoor of Ares, the children had underestimated Wonder Woman. The Amazon, more proficient in martial techniques than Power Girl, put her opponent in a wrestling lock long enough to convince her to reject the evil influence of the sons of Ares. Debriefing the JSAer, Diana had Power Girl wrap her in the Lasso of Truth then flew off, tracking down the children while entrusting Power Girl with stopping the riots.

With some difficulty, Power Girl found it in herself to calm the riots by convincing everyone to stand down. Meanwhile, one of the Crow Children, who was mind-controlling Etta Candy and Steve Trevor into murdering each other, was taken down by their bodyguard - one of the Gorilla Knights of Wonder Woman.

Finding the other four, Diana proved immune to their influence, having armoured herself in truth via the lasso. Considering that they were still children, she gave them a thorough spanking then flew them to the new reformation island. While not hopeful, the Amazons considered that they had to try to reform the little monsters, if only because they were half-Amazons.

Description

The Crow Children all wear a sort of school uniform with dress shoes, white socks, shorts, a white shirt, a blazer, a striped tie and a cap. Both the cap and the blazer sport a red symbol with the stylised black crow head.

Personality

The five half-brothers affected a style and speech patterns well beyond their apparent years. They act more like preps - highly educated, mannered and articulate with an emphasis on what is proper and how society should behave. They constantly use sarcasm, denouncing violence and improper behaviour around them and the lack of morality of modern society while fully knowing that they are the direct cause for the chaos and hatred that surround them. Part of their schtick is to sound very sheltered, like a irate old man writing strongly-worded letters to a newspaper editor about the world of today and all of its perceived shortcomings.

Their schtick about how the world is terrible and brutal and exposes youths to the most unseemly sights and behaviours is not constant. They are also good actors, particularly when it comes to manipulating everyone around them and playing on their apparent status as innocent and very proper children.

Writeup completed on the 31st of December, 2011.