Kang

Origin

Nathaniel Richards was born in the year 3000 A.D. of an alternate reality dubbed Earth-6311, or counter-earth, that never went through the dark ages. Named after his alleged ancestor who had brought peace and prosperity to the planet, Nathaniel attended robotics school as a child. An exceptionally bright student, he was bullied constantly. When he was sixteen, a bully slashed his throat, causing him to miss a year of school while recuperating.

It was during this time that Kang become obsessed with adventure, watching historical videos from his family archives. Nathan was particularly fascinated with the Fantastic Four, a team lead by a distant relative of his, Reed Richards. Nathaniel longed for adventure.

Creation

Kang the conqueror was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Kang made his first comic book appearance in the pages of Fantastic Four #19 though it was in his Rama-Tut persona. Kang the conqueror made his first appearance in the pages of Avengers #8.

Character Evolution

Kang has traveled to many timelines, one of the first in which he takes on the mantle of Rama Tut back in ancient Egypt. In another timeline he becomes The Scarlet Centurion, and far in the future he becomes Immortus.

Rama-Tut

At the age of 25, Nathaniel discovered the remains of a time machine in the archives of a famous ancestor. Using his scientific genius to restore the device, Nathaniel adopted the mantle of Rama-Tut and built a time machine in the shape of the ancient Sphinx in order to capitalize on the religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians. Though Nathaniel was temporarily blinded when his ship crashed, he used his far flung futuristic technology to subjugate the Egyptian people. Rama Tut ruled for 10 years before being run out of Egypt by a combination of losses to a young En Saba Nur (the mutant who would one day become known as Apocalypse) and The Fantastic Four (which was led, oddly enough, by Rama’s own ancestor.)

Rama Tut fled to the future, but a time storm (which was later revealed to be the work of his possible future self, Immortus) interfered with his travel and stranded him in the 20th century. There he aided a space-lost Doctor Doom (another possible ancestor of his) and convinced him that they might actually be the same man. Some time after, Rama Tut had a short run in with the time-traveling mutant Cable. Defeated, Tut escaped into the time-stream.

Kang the Conqueror

It was in his 35th year of life that Nathaniel Richards first diverged. When entering the timestream, one divergence of Nathaniel Richards ended up in an alternate 20th century, where he took over that Earth under the guise of the Scarlet Centurion; The other divergence found himself in the war-torn 40th century. Inspired by his meeting with his possible ancestor, Nathaniel constructed his own body suit from a futuristic 40th century metallic alloy, and conquered that planet. On that day, Kang the Conqueror was born.

Kang returned to the 20th century; various sources conflict on whether the Conqueror wished to challenge The Fantastic Four or his ancestor Doctor Doom. Unfortunately for the conqueror, he found neither, and was defeated by the Avengers; this affront would earn the Avengers the eternal enmity of Kang.

Later, Kang went through time to the moment that his throat was about to be slashed. He stopped the incident, and showed his younger self what he would one day become. The young Kang did, however not want to become this. He fled to the twenty first century, where he tried to contact the Avengers for help. Upon not being able to reach them, he formed the Young Avengers to get their attention. This endeavor ended, because young Kang realized that he was destroying the time-line.

Major Story Arcs

Celestial Madonna

For More Information: Celestial Madonna, Avengers

In Avengers Vol.1 #129-135 and giant Sized Avengers #2-4, Kang kidnaps Mantis, the Scarlet Witch, and Agatha Harkness to determine which will give birth to a being of great power.

Infinity War

For More Information: Infinity War

During the Infinity War, Kang teamed up with Doctor Doom in order to steal a collection of Cosmic Cubes from Adam Warlock’s evil side, the Magus. It was an unsteady alliance, both needing each others knowledge and technology, but both planning on betraying one another. They nearly succeeded in defeating the Magus on their own, but Doom was the first to betray. Doom was almost victorious but was defeated by the Magus when the Infinity Gauntlet he had obtained was activated by Eternity.

War of Kings

For More Information: War Of Kings, Realm Of Kings

When Black Bolt detonated the Terrigen Bomb during the War of Kings this caused changes throughout time that Kang could not ignore. The explosion created the Fault, a massive fissure that would consume all of reality. It was not this that concerned Kang, but the fact that Adam Warlock stopped it’s spreading. To do so, Adam overlapped an unused future over his time, a future in which he became the Magus. This caused all possible futures to be Magus futures.

Kang, assisted by dozens of Starhawk’s whose time-lines had been destroyed, saved members of the Guardians of the Galaxy. He chose Starlord to help deal with the Magus problem, as it would be easily detected were Kang himself to try. Kang gave Starlord the last Cosmic Cube. He would send them to moments before Adam’s transformation and the cube would create a local time flow hiatus, extending the time to stop Adam from becoming the Magus by a few more minutes. He told Starlord to do whatever it takes to save the universe. Starlord did do whatever it takes and using the cube changed the Magus back into Adam and killed him.

Marvel Now!

Ragnarok Now

Kang kidnaps the Apocalypse twins (Uriel and Eimin) the children of Archangel and Pestilence (Ichisumi) to serve in a part of an elaborate scheme. After he takes the new born babies,he raises them in the future to hate humans by sending them to the red skull’s mutant concentration camps.

Raised believing that humans are the enemies of mutants and the only way to save their people (the mutants) is to take them and leave the planet, therefore allowing Kang to rule without having any mutant enemy. The Apocalypse Twins agreed to take their people away, however their hatred of Kang made them scheme for revenge as well, so when they escaped to the past, they took the enchanted axe Jarnbjorn to blame man kind for the death of Celestials so the the Celestials would destroy Kang’s kingdom.

After Havok destroyed the tachyon dam Kang and a group of allies he had collected from the 7 prime times came to save the Earth by sending the remaining members of the Unity Squad to the past.

After Thor stopped Existar, Kang shows up and proclaims that this was always his plan, he will absorb the soul of Existar and rule everything.

The Unity Squad with the help of Immortus and the Infinity Watch managed to stop him, but before defeating him, Kang disappears and tells Havok that all is lost now.

Powers & Abilities

Kang ages at a slower rate than modern humanity, increasing his longevity. Kang is an expert of time travel and manipulation of space-time. He has mastered advanced technology and is presumed to have above average intelligence. He is an expert strategist for whom struggle is a necessity. His will is supposedly “indomitable”. He is a veteran of armed and unarmed combat through numerous eras and time-lines.

Kang wears a full-body armor which enhances his strength. He is able to lift c. 5 tons when wearing the armor. The armor can project a force field covering a circle twenty feet around its user. The force field is durable enough to protect its user from direct nuclear strikes. The suit is supplied with air, food and water, allowing him to survive for quite a while before exhausting his resources. It comes with its own waste disposal system. The armor is equipped with various weapons, including “anti-graviton particle projectors in his gauntlets, concussive force blasters, circuitry accessing his ship’s time machine, allowing him an “automatic recall” of a few seconds” and others. Kang has even demonstrated technology transferring his mind to alternate bodies when a body of his dies. He might thus extend his life indefinitely.

Kang typically carries various weapons, such as an anti-matter defense screen generator, a “vibration-ray” projector, an electromagnetic field-amplifier, neutrino-ray warhead missile launcher (hand-gun size), electrical paralysis generator, nerve gas sprayer, and a molecular expander. Kang commands a vast armada of warriors from across the galaxy of his future era. He uses numerous robots, most notably his Growing-Man stimuloids, packed with the “Growth Pollen” of the world Kosmos, which causes them to grow in size and strength by absorbing kinetic energy.

Kang maintains strongholds in various alternate realities. His primary base used to be Chronopolis, a fortress serving as a crossroads to every era in human history but itself outside the time-stream and undetectable. The palace and its inhabitants were immune to the passage of time. This base was destroyed in conflict with Immortus, an alternate version of Kang. Kang can presumably recreate it at some point.

Kang has created a device that allows him to alter a time-line without causing that time-line to divert into a different one, with the use of this machine he was able to construct Chronopolis.

Alternate Realities

Earth-9997

In the Earth X reality Kang was using the Immortus guise.

Earth-6311

The various Kangs in each reality combine: Rama-Tut, Kang, Scarlet Centurion and Immortus, they all converge into one reality.

Earth-267

Kang destroyed the Avengers.

Earth-86501

The Avengers almost got destroyed by a nuke that killed Kang instead.

Earth-1610

In the Ultimate Universe, Kang is a female character, who claims to have a plan to prevent the Earth’s destruction. Quicksilver, The Hulk, and Reed Richards are recruited by her as part of her plan to steal the Infinity Gauntlet and also the destroy the Triskelion.

Earth-138

On Earth-138, Kang is Kang the Conglomerator. He travels from the future to present day fascist America to retrieve Spider-Punk. Kang had commodified him in the future, but sales are down. So, he intends to bring Spider-Punk to the future to enslave him as a sellout.

Other Media

Television

Fantastic Four (1967)

Kang made an appearance as Rama-Tut in the 1967 animated series, voiced by Mike Road. He first appeared in the episode “Rama-Tut,” which adapted his first encounter with the Fantastic Four.

In the episode, the Fantastic Four decide to go back in time to the 10th century in order to find a cure for Ben Grimm’s condition, where they are captured by Rama-Tut. He explains that he comes from the year 3000, a peaceful and enlightened time. Bored by his idyllic existence, he traveled back in time to ancient Egypt, but became stranded after his equipment was damaged. Rama-Tut enslaves the Fantastic Four, but the heroes are able to escape and free the rest of his thralls. Panicking, he attempts to flee in his damaged time machine, which explodes. The heroes are left wondering if Rama-Tut perished, or if he managed to escape before the explosion.

Avengers: United They Stand (1999)

Kang appeared in the episode “Kang,” voiced by Ken Kramer. Like most of the other characters in the series, he was heavily redesigned to sport a more armored, anime-inspired appearance, likely to help sell toys.

In the series, Kang was a dictator from the 41st century who was eventually overthrown and imprisoned between dimensions. In the present day, Sam Wilson‘s nephew, Andrew, accidentally frees Kang by using a special obelisk that can open a portal to his prison. Using his superior technology, Kang threatens to destroy New York unless the Avengers give him the obelisk. Ant-Man seemingly surrenders the obelisk, but reveals that he actually booby-trapped it to explode. The resulting explosion destroys the obelisk and reverses Kang’s machinations, trapping him in his prison forever.

The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (2010)

Kang first appears in the episode “Meet Captain America” voiced by Jonathan Adams, where he is shown investigating the final mission of Captain America. Kang is depicted in much the same way as he is in the comics, a brutal, totalitarian dictator from the 40th century, whose timeline is rapidly being erased due to an unknown event changing the past. As such, Kang visits the past under the belief that the Captain’s fate is the cause of the temporal disturbances, and upon discovering that Cap’s resurrection will effectively wipe out his time line, Kang orders an immediate jump of the Damocles time ship to the 21st century, hoping to prevent the change from happening. During the process however, Kang’s wife, Princess Ravonna, is exposed to chronal energies, causing her to be trapped in a state of temporal flux that will erase her from existence. Motivated by the fate of Ravonna, Kang states to save the future, he must conquer the past.

Kang returns in the three-part episodes “The Man Who Stole Tomorrow,” “Come the Conqueror” and “The Kang Dynasty” where he engages Captain America and Iron Man at Avengers Mansion, stating that the Avengers’ attempts to stop him are “primitive” and “amusing” due to his advanced technology. Kang’s abilities especially frustrate Iron Man, as his own understanding of Kang’s weaponry are hindered by the technical constraints of the 21st century. When the other Avengers appear, Kang transports them 10 years into the future where he reveals that Captain America is presumably responsible for the destruction of humanity, as his actions in the upcoming Kree-Skrull war will end up causing the sun to be destroyed and end all life on Earth. Unwilling to let Kang kill Captain America and conquer Earth, the Avengers distract Kang while Iron Man hacks Kang’s floating throne, eventually managing to bring everyone back to the present. Defeated, Kang transports back to the Damocles and prepares his fleet to invade Earth. In “Come the Conqueror,” the Avengers oppose Kang’s army and allow Iron Man to find his ship. In “The Kang Dynasty,” the Avengers manage to board Kang’s ship in an effort to stop the invasion forces by destroying the Damocles’ engine core. Ultimately, Kang engages the Avengers and an Ultron Synthezoid near the ship’s time drive until Iron Man hacks Kang’s technology and orders Ultron to transport the Damocles back to the 40th century. However, Wasp arrives in time to explain that Princess Ravonna will die if the ship is returned to it’s former time. In the aftermath of the battle, S.H.I.E.L.D. acquires the Damocles base while Hank Pym and Mister Fantastic are shown looking for a way to keep Ravonna alive. Kang, defeated and stripped of his empire, is remanded to Prison 42, proclaiming that the future will still end, and that it is all Captain America’s fault.

In season 2, he was freed by representatives of the Council of Kangs and fought the Avengers again as well as the New Avengers (a team made up of War Machine, Spider-Man, the Thing, Wolverine, Luke Cage and Iron Fist), but was defeated in the end.

Avengers Assemble (2016)

Kang appears in the third season, voiced by Steven Blum. He makes his debut in the episode the episode “The Conquerer,” where he arrives in present day New York to retrieve technology that A.I.M. has stolen. He attempts to destroy New York with the Damocles, but is thwarted by the Avengers. However, when he returns to his own time, most of the Avengers are brought along for the ride. The story is continued in “Into the Future,” where it is revealed that an elderly Thor helps lead a resistance movement against Kang’s tyranny. The Avengers team with the rebels to overthrow Kang, and he is ultimately left trapped in the Jurassic Period. Sometime in between this, he begins fighting Arno Stark, the future son of Tony Stark. He sends his robots disguised as HYDRA agents to kill Howard Stark, but he and Peggy Carter accidentally are transported into the future, where they meet Iron Man and Captain America. Howard and Tony work together to defeat Kang, but not before he’s pulled back into his time by Arno Stark.

He returns in the two-part Season 4 episode “Avengers No More,” now acting as part of the Leader‘s Cabal. However, the Enchantress, and the other members of the group are ultimately revealed to have only agreed to join the group in order to manipulate the Leader for some unknown purpose. He later returns in another episode where it’s revealed that in the future, he had agreed to let New York be if Falcon came to work for him to stop a wormhole from destroying the planet. Red Hulk, Vision, and the Wasp help them, but not before Kang betrays them all. He’s captured and is taken to prison in that future, with him not making another appearence in the show again.

Marvel Future Avengers

Kang the Conqueror appears in the Marvel Future Avengers anime as a major villain and the leader of the Masters of Evil. He is prominently featured in the episodes “Conqueror Kang,” “The Darkest Hour,” “Out of Time,” “Operation Barrier Breakthrough,” “The Final Fateful Battle” and “The Future Avengers.” He serves as the main antagonist of the first season’s final story arc, with Hurricane, Charade and Codec having to team up with the Avengers to thwart his invasion of present day Earth. They later have to stop his ship, Damocles Base, from crashing into the Earth and destroying it.

He was voiced by Jiro Saito in the Japanese original and Steve Blum in the English dub.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Loki

Kang appears in “For All Time,” the sixth and final episode of the first season of Loki. During the finale, Loki and his Variant, Sylvie, arrive at a castle at the end of time, where they are confronted by He Who Remains (a variant of Kang). He explains that long ago, he was a scientist from the 31st century who found a way to make contact with his Variant counterparts from alternate timelines. After a bloody war with these Variants for control of the Multiverse, He Who Remains established the Time Variance Authority in order to prevent the creation of further timelines that might give rise to further Variants of himself. He warns Sylvie that if she kills him, this may result in the creation of just such an evil Variant. The final shot of the episode reveals that the death of He Who Remains has indeed led to the introduction of just such a Variant, as Loki discovers a massive statue of Kang the Conqueror inside the TVA headquarters.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Kang appeared in the third Ant-Man film, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, portrayed by Lovecraft Country star Jonathan Majors.

Video Games

• Kang appears as a boss character in Marvel Avengers Alliance.
• Kang appears as a boss character in Marvel Contest of Champions.
• Kang appears in Super-Skrull‘s ending in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
• Kang appears as a playable character in Lego Marvel’s Avengers.
• Kang appears as the main antagonist in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2, which takes place in Chronopolis. The game is scripted by Kurt Busiek, who wrote some of Kang’s most iconic stories in the comics. Kang was voiced by Peter Serafinowicz.

Merchandise

• Kang was featured in Mattel’s original Secret Wars toyline.
• Kang was featured in ToyBiz’s line for Avengers: United They Stand. Strangely, despite the toyetic nature of the show, Kang’s action figure looks nothing like his TV design.
• Kang was featured in ToyBiz’s 6″ Fantastic Four Classics line.
• Kang was featured in Hasbro’s Super Hero Squad line.
• Kang was featured in Diamond Selects Minimates line as part of a two-pack with Ms. Marvel. Prior to that, he was featured in an exclusive set with Captain America.
• Kang was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the Ares Build-a-Figure wave. The figure was a repaint of the Fantastic Four Classics Kang.
• Bowen Designs released a bust of Kang.
• Kang was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Universe line.
• Kang was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the Joe Fixit Build-a-Figure wave.