The Conqueror comes, and all of creation will tremble.
Hi everyone, let’s talk about Kang.
Don’t worry, I’ll cover The Suicide Squad and Black Widow this week as well, I
just wanted to start off doing a villain profile since Kang is kind of a big
deal and it’s been a while since I’ve done a character profile.
Is he actually balancing the
dagger, or future tech? You
Decide.
Now, Kang’s history can be kind of
confusing. He is Marvel’s most famous time traveler, and has used this power to
meddle with the events of history on many occasions. Younger and older versions
of the character have popped up as well. I’m going to try to present his history
as straightforwardly as possible, but obviously that can be kind of hard as
Kang has done some chicken-egg meddling in his own timeline. But I’ll get into
that in a minute. Oh, and as a reminder, with some exceptions, time travel in the
Marvel universe works on multiverse theory. Kang is able to go back and change
things about the past, because he’s actually going to and creating a parallel
universe. Huh, that’s kind of complicated… Oh, I know how I could keep it
simple, stupid. Have you seen Loki? Kang’s arrival at any point in time is a Nexus
Event. Keep in mind, in the comics Kang didn’t set up a TVA like in the series.
Get it? Got it? Good! Let’s get to it, shall we?
Our story begins in the 31st
century. The being who would become known as Kang the Conqueror was born Nathaniel
Richards, named after the time traveling father of Reed Richards. The 30th
century is an idyllic time; peace has been achieved by Richards’ interventions
and everyone has a Jet ski… Yes, that was a Loki reference. Nathaniel was a
scientist and philosopher, living a life of peace and general contentment.
Naturally, it was boring as hell, and Nathaniel jumps at trying to liven things
up when he discovered a time machine. He used the time machine to travel to ancient
Egypt, and used his advanced technology to set himself as Pharaoh Rama-Tut. He
ruled for a time, and attempted to recruit a young bandit to become his minion
and heir. The bandit being En Sabah Nur, the original Omega Level Mutant, Apocalypse.
His attempts to recruit, or maybe more accurately enslave, Nur just lead to Nur
leading a revolt against the cruel Rama-Tut. This revolt, and the inference by
the time traveling Fantastic Four, caused Nathanial to retreat. I should also
note that Tut’s hasty exit is how Apocalypse got his hands on the anachronistic
technology that turned him from a powerful but finite problem in the grand
scheme of things into the nigh immortal monster he is. Rather annoyed by this
defeat, Nathanial tried to return to his present, but is forced to appear in
the modern era of the main Marvel timeline due to a time storm. There he met
and was inspired by Dr. Doom. Victor von Doom, as it turns out, MIGHT be Nathaniel’s
ancestor. He’s also speculated to descend from Nathaniel Richards Sr, so regardless,
the costumed villain thing was kind of in his DNA. But more on that later.
 |
| Yeah, he's beaten a LOT of Avengers |
Nathaniel caused trouble in the
modern era for a little bit, briefly taking on the title The Scarlet Centurion
before going by Rama-Tut again. He attempts to return to the 31st century,
but he hit another… or perhaps the same, time storm and was thrown a thousand
years farther into the future. Apparently, between when Nathaniel left the 31st
century and his return, a massive war/wars broke out, leading to the collapse
of society and blasting the people that survived back to the stone age
technology wise. A lot can change when you dip out for a thousand years, no?
While the locals don’t know how to use the more advanced technology, Nathaniel
was a scientist so it only took a bit of time for him to get things up and
running. Using the tech, he made a new blue masked costume, and created his
most iconic identity, Kang the Conqueror. Kang quickly conquered Earth and not
too much time later began conquering nearby space. He created an empire that
spanned much of the galaxy, but after having spent time in the “Heroic Age” as
it is known in another series set in the future, he became somewhat obsessed
with conquering that era as well.
After making a brief stop to Time Square
circa 1939, an appearance that was written off as a hoax by the people at the
time, Kang arrived at the Modern Washington, DC, blasting a landing strip for
his ship. He easily dispatched the military force sent against him, as his soldiers
had laser cannons, advanced tanks, and all the other nifty gadgets that Iron
Man won’t make for the US government for ethical reasons. Which, you know, is
fair. The Avengers are called in, but the time traveling despot easily dispatches
them. He captures and begins processing the heroes. Captain America is able to
break free and he and Kang battle. Part way through the fight, Kang realizes
that Captain America is from the 1940s and uses his time traveling powers to
send Steve back to 1945. Well… crap.
Wasp and friend of Hulk and Captain
America Rick Jones are the only two to escape capture. They get in contact with
Mr. Fantastic and the three come up with a plan to defeat Kang. They’re able to
recover Captain America from the past, and working with the sidekick group The
Teen Brigade, they’re able to free the Avengers and battle Kang. He is forced
back this time, his suit even being damaged, and Iron Man was able to destroy
his Neutrino Missile, his ace in the hole. He tries to kill the Avengers with a
radiation blast, but Thor is able to refract the attack back at Kang. Kang is
forced back to the future, but obviously this isn’t the last we see of him.
I honestly can't think of a greater hell for me than
having to work with other versions of me.
Oh, and I should point out, that
(to use Loki Terminology) Kang’s travels to the past have caused multiple Nexus
Events and multiple Variants of Kang to crop up. He has also gone back to his
own pat to try to save himself from a past trauma, and to hopefully kickstart
his path to evil that much sooner. Unfortunately, for Kang anyway, this Variant
of Kang was horrified by the being he’ll become. He takes the armor that Kang
offers, but uses his time travel powers to go to the modern era, and founds the
Young Avengers as Iron Lad in the hope of turning himself from his dark future.
The results are unsuccessful and he eventually becomes yet another iteration of
Kang. But I’ll do an Iron Lad profile at some point and go into more detail. There
is also a chronologically much older version of himself, Immortus, that has
given up his dreams of conquest and instead tries to protect time and space.
But I’ll get more into that in an Immortus profile.
Kang has made several attempts at
conquering Earth, often battling and losing to the Avengers. He’s created
Chronopolis, a city out of sync with time, where he rules his galactic and
temporal spanning empire. The city as I said exists outside of time, which
gives him access to the resources and technology from multiple timelines and realities.
So yeah, it’s no shock that he keeps coming back. He also been searching for the
Celestial Madonna, a woman prophesized to appear and eventually mother the most
powerful being to ever exist. I assume this was a 60s plot because… well, the
obvious sexism. The Madonna turns out to be the Guardian of the Galaxy member,
Mantis, but he’s always foiled in his attempts to capture her and “sire” his
heir. I felt gross just writing that.
Imagine being the kind of asshole that
makes YOURSELF Evil.
Kang is a genius even by his far future
standard, being able to develop technologies like Time Travel and advanced robotics.
He also has access to resources and technology across multiple timelines and
the resources of several galaxy spanning empires. When Kang arrives, he usually
comes with a small battalion of minions at the very least. And while he has a preference
for fighting with guns and cannons when he does dirty his hands, he is a
skilled hand to hand combatant and has fought Captain America to a standstill. After
traveling to the 40th century, he built his battle armor. His suit
is made of a neuro-kinetic metal that lets him control it with his mind. The armor
enhances his strength, speed, and endurance, has a built-in time travel device,
is capable to shooting blasts of energy, summon his weaponry, and can keep him
alive for 30 days. Oh, and future technology keeps him relatively young.
Chronologically, he’s in his 70s, but his tech has kept him in his mid-40s in
looks. The most iconic part of his costume is, of course, his bright blue mask.
Kang has been used a few times
outside of the comics. He’s seen as on par with Thanos, Dr. Doom and Galactus,
namely that it often takes not only the Avengers but allies like the Fantastic
Four and the X-Men to hold him off. This is both because he has highly advanced
weaponry, a devious tactical mind, and usually brings a few thousand troops and
tanks along with him.
The earliest appearance I
personally saw of Kang was as a cameo in X-Men: Evolution. It’s an unspoken cameo,
and he’s really only there as Rama-Tut to explain how the series ultimate antagonist,
Apocalypse, got his hands on anachronistic technology. We really just see him
slam his staff down and disappear into the time stream. Still, props for
including Kang in Apocalypse’ origin.
Kang made an appearance as a
recurring antagonist in The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest heroes. He’s first
introduced in the mini-sode “Meet Captain America” where he was researching the
hero. His timeline has grown unstable and he has determined that Captain America,
the man out of time is sthe cause. His reality starts to destabilize again. He
rallies his troops to travel to the past, but his wife Ravanna is caught in the
blast, putting her in a coma. His ship, Damocles base, finally returns as the
full villain in “The Man Who Stole Tomorrow” the start of a three part story arc.
Still furious at his time’s destabilization and Ravanna’s coma, he leads a massive
offensive against Earth. He claims to the Avengers that he is going to conquer
the planet and upgrade its technology in order to fend off the calamity that
destroyed Earth and lead to his future being destroyed. The Avengers attack with
a force of Ultrons and other allies to defeat him. Kang is arrested and taken
to Prison 42 to be held. He’s held there and later transferred to Hydro-Base after
Prison 42 shuts down. He’s freed from prison in “New Avengers” by the Council
of Cross-Time Kang’s, Variants of him from alternate timelines. He attempts to
use a temporal void trap to capture the Avengers. While that works, it triggers
Tony’s contingency plan that sends messages to recruit a team of new Avengers.
The group, consisting of Spider-Man, War Machine, Wolverine, Iron Fist, Luke
Cage and the Thing, are able to defeat Kang’s forces and free the main Avengers.
We finally learn the event that lead to the destruction of Earth that destroyed
Kang’s future in “Operation Galactic Storm” where the Kree attempt to build a
wormhole to connect our solar system to their empire. It’s explained that our area
of space is pretty malleable, making it a desirable way-stop for cosmic forces.
Cap is able to Not destroy earth, though, and the crew travel to the Kree homeworld
in an attempt to finally stop their invasion attempts.
I should note, that while Kang has
been shown to have a more normal skin tone in most of his appearances, Avengers:
EMH depicted his blue mask as his natural face and skin tone. Cuz.
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| He'll be back. |
He Who Remains, a variant of Kang
the Conqueror, appears in the finale of Loki, portrayed by Jonathan Majors. He’s
the power behind the thrown of the Time Variance Authority, having created the organization
to police Time and Space to ensure that no Nexus Events occur that will eventually
lead to the creation of more Variants of himself. He claims that forcing time to follow his
dictated path is the lesser of two evils, as his Variants had caused a cross-dimensional
war between himselves. He Who Remains was the One that remained because he
discovered Alioth, a monster beast that could eat space, time and matter. The
TVA uses reset charges to send matter to the End of Time and have Alioth devour
the leftover matter to destroy possible timelines utterly. He claims to be immensely
old and offers to turn control over the TVA to Loki and Sylvie. Loki wants to
take him up on it, but Sylvie, traumatized by ages of running from the TVA
tries to murder him. The two Loki’s duel for a while, while He Who Remains
watches weirdly gleefully. She sends Loki back to the TVA and then kills He Who
Remains, whom ominously says “see you soon,” before croaking. Back at the TVA,
Loki finds that his friend Mobius doesn’t recognize him, and a single statue of
Kang replacing the fictitious Timekeepers. Loki is most definitely going to be
dealing with the true Kang… A true Kang, in season 2.
Jonathan Majors is set to reprise
this role as Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and
presumably in other projects. You don’t set up that there will be multiple
versions of this guy and NOT give us multiple versions.
Oh, and he was the main villain of Lego
Marvel Superhero’s 2. He uses time crystals to merge different eras of Manhattan,
Asgard, Xandar, and an area of England together into Chronopolis. Using the
Avengers, X-Men and other Marvel Heroes, the player battles Kang and attempts
to return everyone to their proper space time. Kang pops up periodically and uses
his almost comically depressed wife Ravanna as his hype man.
I enjoy Kang as a villain. While a
lot of the Avenger’s biggest bads are alien or extradimensional in nature, it
is kind of neat that Kang is a 100% human problem, albeit a far future one. Everything
that this villain is within human nature, within us all. There’s no the self-delusion
that no person is crazy as Thanos, he is who any sufficiently bored,
intelligent mind can become. His design, a combination of blue mask, purple
armor and a green robe, is visually impressive. He’s basically an all-Tech
version of Doom. If one remembers Clarke’s 3rd law, any sufficiently
advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Like his possible ancestor,
he could do a lot for the world but refuses to due to his own hubris and pride.
That said, I do wonder how much of what he is, is genetic. I mean, he’s
potentially got Doom in his DNA and one meeting convinced him that he needed a
metal suit and mask? There’s inspiration and then there’s possible genetic
memory. His intense personality and weird charisma almost make you think that
he’s right and should be in charge of all that is, was or will be. Jonathan Majors,
I think, captured Kang’s weird intensity really well and that was as a very
passive Kang. He has one moment when you can see how scary he can be when he
shouts “Grow up, Sylvie!” when he gets tired of listening to the lady Loki’s
sob story. I’m excited to see how good he is when he’s a very active Kang,
presumably in Ant-Man and the Wasp 3, and/or Loki season 2, whichever comes
first. And that’s all I have to say about that. Have a good night,
everybody.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/55350175
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
Photos: By Marvel Comics - Lunapic, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48578439
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