WARNING: The following contains spoilers for God of War: Fallen God #2 by Chris Roberson, Tony Parker, Dan Jackson, Jimmy Betancourt and Dave Rapoza on sale now.
Kratos’s penchant for engaging in horrific, bloody battle is on full display in the latest issue of Dark Horse Comics’ side-story for the Ghost of Sparta. In God of War: Fallen God #2, Kratos may have just raised his blades against a god straight from the Egyptian pantheon.
After traveling for months through the Egyptian wilds, Kratos finds himself ensnared by his own guilt and anger. He seeks to escape the past that was wrought by his hands, and in a break from his more traditional display of character, penance for the atrocities he committed. It’s a terrible path he walks as even the goddess Athena appears to him in a dream, telling him that he must return home and face his destiny. Kratos awakes in anger and defiance and continues on with his journey.
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After walking further still, Kratos finds himself returning to the village he had only just visited those months past. Despite having little more than a conversation with the mysterious old man during his last visit to the village, Kratos is recognized by the villagers. They rush to him, pleading to him for help. A creature they refer to as the Chaos Beast, a giant crocodile, is terrorizing them aa they implore Kratos to defeat it. They see Kratos’s return as an answer from the gods to their prayers, but Kratos replies that this is unlikely because, from his point of view, gods are monsters.
The villagers turn and flee in terror from the approaching Chaos Beast while pleading with Kratos one last time to save them. The mysterious old man again tells Kratos that he cannot outrun his past or his destiny. He scolds Kratos for his selfishness in allowing innocent people to die due to his desire to be left alone. Growing tired of the riddles and the deception, Kratos turns to the Chaos Beast and draws his blades, ready to draw the creature’s blood for its interference in his life.
While not stating explicitly what or even who the Chaos Beast truly is, there is the real possibility that Kratos is entering into combat with an Egyptian god. Sobek is an Egyptian deity that is represented by the Nile crocodile or West African crocodile and is depicted as either a human with a crocodile head or as a full crocodile. Sobek is revered as a god of protection, but he also possesses the viciousness associated with the crocodile. Sobek’s apotropaic nature, one that denotes him as a deity that repels evil and danger, would be fitting within the setting of the story. Kratos is a killer of gods and the source of Greece’s destruction. If Sobek sensed Kratos within Egypt, it would make total sense for him to challenge this god.
On the other hand, Sobek was protective of the people of Egypt, so it would be strange for him to terrorize Egyptian villagers. And if Sobek appeared due to Kratos’s presence in Egypt, why didn’t he attack him earlier? The comic states very clearly that Kratos had been traveling through Egypt for months. If there’s one thing that is certain in the universe of God of War, though, it’s that the true nature of the gods, be them Greek, Norse or Egyptian, is a mystery known only to them. The gods are just as mischievous and jealous and dangerous as the mortal men and women that pray to them. If the Egyptian pantheon is anything like the Greek and Norse, then Kratos can only expect to be subjected to even more dangerous battles and cryptic prophecies.
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