Who Is Kang The Conqueror: A Menace Throughout Time

Today we are going to learn about who is Kang the Conqueror. Thanks to the MCU, an essential Marvel villain will soon take a lot of relevance.

For good heroes to exist, it is essential to have good villains. Marvel Comics has been aware of this and has always known how to create weighty counterparts to face our favorite superheroes.

One of the most fearsome villains about to dominate the big screen is Kang the Conqueror. This villain is a character native to the 31st century of Earth-6311. His real name is Nathaniel Richards. So it is presumed that he is a relative of Reed Richards or Mister Fantastic, although it is also possible that he is related to Victor Doom.

The first appearances in the comics of this character are in The Avengers and The Fantastic Four. Therefore, he is considered a direct villain of these two groups of superheroes. 

Kang was for the first time in Marvel comics in #8 of The Avengers and Fantastic Four #9. His creation was in charge of Stan Lee, in conjunction with Jack Kirby. This not only has a presence in the comics, but he was also seen in several animated series of The Avengers and the Loki saga of Disney +.

Soon he will also be on the big screen, making his first appearances, promising to be a villain on the level of Thanos.

Biography of King the Conqueror

Image: Marvel Comics

As a character, he has a futuristic origin. He lives in the 31st century with the name of Nathaniel Richards. This has an unparalleled genius, demonstrating outstanding skills in the area of science. He also showed interest in history, leading him to become a prominent multiversal villain and time traveler. 

Pre-Kang

The Pre-Kang era occurs when Nathaniel Richards, in 31st-century, finds the technology developed by Doctor Doom for time travel. He is in charge of studying and reconstructing it to be able to travel in time, being his first destination, ancient Egypt. 

In this era, he becomes the pharaoh Rama-Tut and decides to take En Sabah Nur as heir to the throne, a mutant who would become apocalypse. His reign ends, thanks to the Fantastic Four, who travel back in time to stop him. When defeated, he took refuge in the twentieth century, enraged and embittered by his defeat, meeting with Doctor Doom.

At this time, he builds an armor similar to that of the archenemy of the Fantastic Four. When using it, he takes the name of the Scarlet Centurion and decides to attack the Avengers, using other versions of them from other universes. However, he is defeated by them as well and thrown out of that time.

There he would try to return to his time. However, he made a mistake and traveled 1000 years ahead of his time. Upon arrival, he realizes that a senseless war has destroyed the earth. He takes advantage of this and conquers the whole world and the entire galaxy, taking the name Kang The Conqueror of Worlds. Since, at this time, the earth very deteriorated, he decided to conquer a younger and more fertile version.

Kang First Appearances

Image: Marvel Comics

The first appearance of this character is in a battle against the Avengers in the 20th century. He captures most of them except Rick Jones and the Wasp, who infiltrated among his men to rescue the rest of the team. In the end, this team of heroes manages to defeat Kang and prevent him from dominating the world.

Upon returning to his time, Kang feels affection for one of the rulers of one of the conquered worlds, Princess Ravonna. He tries to demonstrate his power, kidnapping and capturing The Avengers and subduing them. However, they would be released by Kang’s commanders when he refused to eliminate the princess.

The Avengers would be imprisoned again. However, Princess Ravonna sacrifices herself to save Kang from an explosion. With this gesture, Kang understands that the princess loves him and proceeds to leave her body in freezing and returns the avengers to their respective temporal eras.  

After her death, Kang decides to revive her at any cost. For that reason, he makes a bet with the Grandmaster. To do so, he decides to bring the Avengers to participate in a game, using Growing-Man to kidnap Iron Man, who was incapacitated then.

The game is played in two rounds. However, the first is a draw due to the intervention of the Black Knight, and the Avengers win the second. Because of this, he could not obtain the power of life and death but had to choose one of the two. He decided to use death to eliminate the heroes, but the Black Knight stopped his plans.

The Celestial Madonna

Image: Marvel Comics

Kang returns to the 20th century looking for the Celestial Madonna to get married since this being was destined to have powerful offspring. It turned out to be Mantis and The Avengers with a more adult version of Kang named Rama-Tut. This character stops him, although they cannot prevent the fall of the avenging Swordsman. At this point, it is discovered that another of his allies, Immortus is a future version of Kang.

Kang travels to the 19th century to conquer it and thus make it into the 20th century. However, he is spotted by Hawkeye and The Avengers, along with the incarnations of this villain, go to stop him. In the fight, the villain dies when he explodes with his armor, trying to gather energy to eliminate Thor.

Who Is Kang: First Resurrection

Doctor Strange brings Kang back to life to participate in the Secret Wars. In the story, there are many versions of him due to all the time travel he did. Subsequently, he decides that he wants to be the only version and undertakes the mission to eliminate all other versions.

He joins two divergent ones to carry it out, forming a council dedicated to eliminating the rest of the Kang. In the hunt, he eliminates several versions and uses The Avengers to destroy another. He absorbs their knowledge and memories and becomes Prime Kang but goes insane. This was Immortus’ plan, who manipulated everything from the shadows. In the end, the latter returns the Avengers to his dimension.

New Empire

Image: Marvel Comics

Prime Lang shows up again to fight against The Avengers with a new ally named Terminatrix. This turns out to be Ravonna, who was resurrected and subsequently takes command of her husband’s army. This after being seriously wounded by Thor’s hammer while trying to save her. 

She is confronted by a being named Ailoith, who threatens to wipe everything out. Ravonna asks for help from The Avengers and accelerates Kang’s healing to fight this being. They defeated the entity. However, the conqueror waited first to eliminate Crosstime Kang Corps.

The Inhumans and All-New

Later the Inhuman king Black Bolt asks Kang for a favor to take care of his son Ahura. Before giving it to him, he sprays him with Terrigen mist so that he develops his Inhuman form and powers. In the end, he leaves him with the conqueror and leaves for his fight in the realm of Attilan.

Kang stays with the child and prevents the rest of the race from finding the whereabouts of this infant. While another of its versions, called Mister Gryphon, attacks The Avengers and confirms that there are still more editions of this, caused by the different temporal ruptures. Ultimately, both versions are defeated, and Wasp returns Ahura to his people.

Kang Fresh Start

Image: Marvel Comics

This character appears in a new saga of the Doctor Doom series called Pottersville. This one gives the impression that a cosmic and quantum event links Kang and the protagonist of this series. This causes the appearance of the conqueror to an unexpected way. 

Powers and Abilities

As for special physical powers and abilities, he doesn’t possess any. However, he possesses an incredible intellect in various sciences, such as history, technology, physics, engineering and mathematics.

Kang has access to the technology of the year 4000, highlighting his armor that can emit energy rays and create holograms. He can create time gates with his staff, allowing him to jump between eras. He also has a ship that can change shape. When he traveled to Egypt, he turned it into a Sphinx. 

Who Is Kang: Character Variations

Image: Marvel Comics

Due to the multiple time jumps, Kang had many versions in different Marvel sagas. On many occasions, these fought each other and may or may not have a direct temporal relationship.

Immortus

Immortus is one of the many versions of Kang. He would be a future version of Kang. He dwells in Limbo and seeks to prevent his younger version from following the paths of conquest and destruction. It is assumed that this would be the final destination. However, the strong will of the villain in a break of time in the saga Avengers Forever unlinked both characters.

Iron Lad

Iron Lad, a younger version of Kang, learns of his future and decides to stop himself to avoid it. To do so, he steals the armor of his future self and joins a team formed by Vision called the Young Avengers. Together with this team, they stop and eliminate his adult version. The problem with all this is that it creates temporary chaos and forces the teenager to repair the damage and take his place.

Rama-Tut

Rama-Tut is the name this character took when he ruled the lands of Egypt. He took this identity before becoming Kang the Conqueror of the world and would take it back some time later. He would help the Avengers stop his younger version with the help and guidance of Immortus. Although this ended when he discovered that the latter was just a game piece of entities called the Timekeepers.

Victor Timely

It is an alternative version of the character positioned in 1901 in the city of Timely. In this one, he has a temporary base, where he acts as mayor and helps a promising young man named to advance in science, called Phineas Horton. Horton gives him brilliant ideas, which lead to the origin of the Original Human Torch.

Scarlet Centurion

The Scarlet Centurion is a name that carries several versions or characters close to this one. Initially, he was called this way when he faced The Avengers, using other editions. 

Another who used that name was his son Marcus Kang also known as Marcus XXIII. This one appeared in the comic book Avenger Forever, actively participating in the fight against the Avengers.

There was also a version of the villain who never changed his name and continued using that name. He conquered his reality and appeared in Earth 712.

Kang Appearances

Image: Marvel Studios

Television

On television, he appeared in animated series as the Fantastic Four in the version of Rama-Tut. Using this same character edition appears very quickly in X-Men: Evolution. 

The first appearance of Kang the Conqueror of Worlds, we see it in The Avengers: The Strongest Heroes of the Planet. In this one, he tries to eliminate Captain America since he considers that he was the cause of a temporary rupture that left his wife Ravonna in a coma. 

During the fight, Kang first dominates them, but Stark manages to handle the technology of the 40th century. By the end, they subdue the conqueror and lock him in the maximum security prison built in the Phantom Zone by Reed Richards.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Image: Marvel Studios

In the MCU, Kang appears in the series Loki, portrayed by Jonathan Majors. The villain already showed his might, causing the terror of the Norse god. This one shows the version in which he takes the place of the He Who Remains, a being who protects time.

Later we will see him in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), although it needs to be more in-depth about what kind of participation he will have. We will have more of this amazing character in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (2025).

Video Games

This character is the boss in several game titles of the Marvel Universe. One is Marvel Avengers Alliance, which has the option to unlock and play with him. We also have to fight him in the Marvel Contest of Champions.

Finally, we face this and can play with him in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2. 

Board game

We can find him in the card game Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game in board games. This one appears in an expansion of this one and comes with four versions, including Rama-Tut, Scarlet Centurion, Iron Lad and Immortus. 

Music

This character appears in a song dedicated to him by the musical group Ookla the Mok in the album Vs Evil released in 2013. 

Relationships of Kang the Conqueror

Kang has several powers, so this is pretty messed up and misogynistic. (Image: Heroes Reborn: Squadron Savage #1, Marvel Comics)

Allies

Among his allies, we can detail his subordinates when he becomes the ruler of time. We also have his wife Ravonna and son Marcus. Also featured are the secondary characters Mobius M. Mobius, Hunter B-15 and Hunter E K-5.

Enemies

If we consider the comic book, his enemies include The Avengers and The Fantastic Four. We can also detail versions of himself as Immortus and Iron Lad. In more recent productions, we find Loki and Sylvie Laufeydottir.

Kang The Conqueror: One of Marvel’s Most Daunting Villains 

Kang, The Conqueror of Worlds, is one of the most imposing villains in the world of Marvel comics. He can stand in place of Thanos himself and Galactus the Planet Eater. Despite not having powers like these, his intelligence led him to be able to travel and even be the ruler of time.

As part of Phase V and VI, we will see how this character develops in the MCU, seeing his first appearances in the Loki series. We will see more in-depth what this character is after in the Ant-Man Quantummania movie. We will likely see part of his power and goals in this new version presented by Marvel Studios.

Featured Image Via Marvel Comics 

 

I am a circus aerialist influenced by Dick Grayson and Spider-Man. Fortunate to write about the characters that inspired me. I also have a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and a Master's degree in International Trade.