LoreReads
Comics and novels that fill in Kratos's years between the games
Santa Monica Studio's God of War follows Kratos, a Spartan warrior who serves and then hunts the gods of Olympus through the Greek-era games. Years later he turns up in Midgard, the world of Norse myth, with a young son, Atreus, in God of War (2018) and Ragnarök.
The books are a small shelf of official tie-ins. Three novels retell the first, second and 2018 games. Marv Wolfman's WildStorm comic shows Kratos as a Spartan soldier with a family, and two Dark Horse comics cover the years between God of War III and the Norse games. There's also Atreus's journal from the 2018 game as a lore book, and a parody alphabet book.
You don't need any of them to follow the games, which tell their own story well. If you've just finished the 2018 game and want to know how Kratos got north, read the Dark Horse comics. If you'd like to see him before the first game, with the family the games only glimpse, the WildStorm comic is the place.
Play the games in release order through the Greek era, then move on to the Norse games. The one exception is Sons of Sparta, the 2026 game about a teenage Kratos and Deimos, which comes right after Ascension so the Greek games stay together and Ghost of Sparta has already introduced Deimos. Each book sits right after the game it retells or builds on. The two Dark Horse comics wait until after the 2018 game even though they're set before it, since they're written for people who've finished it. B is for Boy, a parody, is left out.
Kratos, a Spartan general, has spent ten years doing the Olympian gods' bidding in the hope they'll free him of the nightmares of his past. Athena offers him one last task: kill Ares, the God of War, who is laying siege to Athens. The only thing that can kill a god is Pandora's Box, and it sits in a temple chained to the back of the Titan Cronos.
A prose retelling of the first game. Kratos has served the Olympians for ten years, and Athena sends him to kill Ares, who is besieging Athens. The means to do it lies in Pandora's Box, in a temple on the back of the Titan Cronos. Alongside Kratos's quest, the novel spends time with Athena on Olympus, where the game never goes.
It follows the first game closely, so you're mostly getting the same story in prose: the siege of Athens, the Desert of Lost Souls, Pandora's Temple. What's new is the time with Athena and a little more room for Kratos's past in Sparta. Reader reviews are mixed. Several say it never takes Kratos past what the game already showed, and that he talks more here than he does on screen. Pick it up if you want the first game as a book; otherwise it's easy to skip.
Two stories told side by side. In the present, set after the first game, Kratos hunts for the Ambrosia of Asclepius, a legendary healing elixir, so he can destroy it before anyone else uses it. In the past, he's still a Spartan soldier, racing rival champions of the gods to find that same Ambrosia and save his sick baby daughter, Calliope.
The flashback half is the reason to read it. It shows Kratos with his wife Lysandra and daughter Calliope, who the games barely show, and introduces Captain Nikos, the officer who teaches him Sparta's code. Marv Wolfman wrote it with input from Santa Monica Studio. The present-day half is a more ordinary monster hunt. Reviews were mixed, and Andrea Sorrentino's dark art splits opinion. It collects six issues, so it's an hour or two.
Kratos now sits on Olympus as the new God of War, and the other gods have had enough of him leading Sparta's army across Greece. During his attack on the city of Rhodes, Zeus steps in, and Kratos's war with Olympus begins in earnest. With help from the Titan Gaia, he goes looking for the Sisters of Fate, who have the power to change what has already happened.
Robert E. Vardeman's retelling of the second game. Kratos has taken Ares's place on Olympus, but the other gods resent him, and Zeus has no patience for a God of War who answers to no one. When Olympus turns on him, Kratos looks to the Titans, the gods' old enemies, for a way to take revenge and quiet his nightmares.
Like the first novel, it tracks its game closely, from Rhodes to the Island of Creation and the Sisters of Fate, so expect few surprises. It won't change how you see God of War II. It's for people who want the game's story in prose, and it reads as a straight continuation of the first book, though Vardeman wrote this one alone. There's an unabridged audiobook read by Peter Berkrot if you'd rather listen.
Years before the first game, Kratos is still serving the gods to be rid of his nightmares. He's sent to Attica to drive back a Persian invasion, and then the sun goes out. Helios has vanished, and Morpheus, the god of dreams, is putting the world to sleep in the dark. Kratos sets out to find the missing god. Ready at Dawn made it for the PSP, and it's one of the shortest games in the series.
The story picks up the moment God of War II ends, with Kratos climbing Mount Olympus alongside the Titans to bring down Zeus. The assault doesn't go to plan, and Kratos has to fight his way across the Underworld and back up the mountain, facing one Olympian after another. It closes the Greek trilogy and was the series' first game on the PS3.
Between the first two games, Kratos rules as the God of War, but visions of his mortal past won't leave him alone. They lead him to Atlantis, to his mother Callisto, and to the younger brother he lost as a child, Deimos. Ready at Dawn made it for the PSP, and it's the game that tells you most about the family Kratos grew up in.
Kratos has broken his blood oath to Ares, and the three Furies, who punish oath-breakers, have him chained in their prison. With help from Orkos, the oath keeper, he sets out to break free and end his bond to the God of War for good. It's set long before the first game, and it was the first in the series with online multiplayer.
Long before he serves any god, a 13-year-old Kratos is training at the Agoge, Sparta's school for soldiers, alongside his younger brother Deimos. When another cadet goes missing during field training, Deimos talks Kratos into heading out across the wilds of Laconia to find him. A grown Kratos tells the story to his daughter, Calliope. It's a 2D Metroidvania, a big change from the rest of the series.
Many years after Greece, Kratos lives in the forests of Midgard with his son, Atreus, and the two have just lost Atreus's mother, Faye. Her last wish was for her ashes to be scattered from the highest peak in all the worlds, so father and son set out to keep the promise. They've barely begun before a stranger comes to their door looking for a fight.
J. M. Barlog's retelling of the 2018 game. Kratos and his son Atreus leave their home in the forests of Midgard to carry Faye's ashes to the highest peak there is. A stranger has already come to their door looking for a fight, and he won't be the last thing to get in their way.
It sticks very close to the game, scene by scene, so it's a retelling more than an expansion. What you get is a few more of Kratos's private thoughts and admissions than the game has room for. Reviewers called it steady and workmanlike rather than special. The author is the father of the game's director, Cory Barlog. If you'd rather listen, the audiobook is read by Alastair Duncan, who voices Mímir in the games.
Some years before the 2018 game, Kratos is living quietly in the Norse wilds and trying to keep his rage buried. When he steps in to save a stranger from a monstrous bear, he lands in a feud with a cult of berserkers, and the trouble soon reaches his young son.
A short, simple story about Kratos before the 2018 game, still learning to be a father and to hold his temper. The berserker plot is thin. What works is the quieter material about his hopes and fears for his son, plus a few nods toward who Atreus is that only land once you've finished the game. Tony Parker's art suits the snowy setting. It collects issues #0 to #4, so it's well under two hours.
Some time after God of War III, Kratos tries to leave Greece and everything he did there behind. He throws away the Blades of Chaos and sails for a distant desert, but his rage and guilt follow him there, and he finds he can't fight his way out of either.
This is the comic for the question the games skip: how Kratos got from Greece to the north. It covers his time in a desert land with Egyptian gods before he moves on. Reviews were poor. Critics felt it does little with the Egypt material and gives Kratos almost no room to change, and the art is the part most of them liked. It's four issues and quick to read. Pick it up if the gap bothers you, not for the story itself.
Atreus's journal from the 2018 game, recreated as a hardcover. It follows him and Kratos from the Wildwoods of Midgard to Jötunheim, with his notes on the places, people and creatures they meet, plus a bestiary and dossiers on the main characters. It was written with Santa Monica Studio's writing team.
If you read Atreus's codex entries as you played, you'll recognize a lot of this. It's his in-game journal with more room and new art around it. The bestiary and character dossiers add background the game only hints at, and it's all in Atreus's voice, which keeps it light. It covers the whole 2018 game, so save it until you've finished. Browse it rather than reading it straight through.
Three years on, Fimbulwinter is ending and Ragnarök is coming. Kratos wants to keep Atreus safe and out of it, while Atreus wants answers about who he is and what the prophecies say about him. Odin and Thor turn up at their door in the opening hour, and soon the two are traveling across all nine worlds of Norse myth, with Mímir along for the ride.
After finishing Ragnarök's main story
After the events of Ragnarök, Kratos goes to Valhalla with Mímir to face a series of trials. It's an epilogue built as a roguelite: you fight through repeated runs, and between them the place keeps pushing Kratos to face his years in Greece. It was a free update for Ragnarök, so you need the base game to play it.
Last reviewed October 11, 2026