Kang the Conqueror
Kang the Conqueror is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Fantastic Four #19 as Rama-Tut, before being reinvented as Kang in The Avengers #8. A time-traveler, several alternate versions of Kang have appeared throughout Marvel Comics titles over the years, such as Rama-Tut, Immortus, Scarlet Centurion, Victor Timely, Iron Lad, and Mister Gryphon.
Kang the Conqueror has been described as one of Marvel's most notable and powerful villains. Kang has made media appearances in animated television and video games. Kang made his live-action debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, portrayed by Jonathan Majors, who previously appeared as different versions of the character in the Disney+ series Loki.
Publication history
The character who would become best known as Kang first appeared in Fantastic Four #19, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. This issue introduced the pharaoh Rama-Tut, a criminal from the year 3000 who had travelled back in time and conquered ancient Egypt. It was implied that he was a descendant or future incarnation of Fantastic Four villain Doctor Doom. After a second appearance the following year in Fantastic Four Annual #2, the character appeared again, this time under the identity of Kang, in The Avengers #8, also by Lee and Kirby. This issue also established that Rama-Tut was a younger version of Kang. A decade later, the character of Immortus, previously introduced in Avengers #10, was retroactively established to be a future identity of Kang's in Giant-Size Avengers #3.Fantastic Four #273 heavily implied that Kang was not descended from Doom, but from Reed Richards' father Nathaniel, via one of Reed's half-siblings. Building on this, Kang's birth name was revealed to also be "Nathaniel Richards" in What If...? Vol. 2 #39, a fact later incorporated into the primary continuity of the Marvel Universe. However, subsequent publications, such as Avengers Forever #9 and Doctor Doom #6, have continued to present Kang's ancestry as ambiguous, suggesting he may descended from one, both, or neither of the two men, in particular Kristoff Vernard: Doom's adoptive son and a half-sibling of Reed.
Kang featured in an eponymous miniseries in 2021.
Fictional character biography
Pre-Kang
Nathaniel Richards, a 31st-century scholar and descendant of Reed Richards's time traveling father Nathaniel, becomes fascinated with history and discovers the time travel technology created by Victor von Doom, another possible ancestor of his. He then travels back in time to ancient Egypt aboard a Sphinx-shaped timeship and reinvents himself as Pharaoh Rama-Tut, with plans to claim En Sabah Nur—the mutant destined to become Apocalypse—as his heir. The pharaoh's rule is cut short when he is defeated by the time-displaced Fantastic Four. An embittered Nathaniel Richards travels forward to the 20th century where he meets Doctor Doom, whom he believes might be his ancestor. He later designs an armor based on Doom's and, calling himself the Scarlet Centurion, pits the Avengers team against alternate-reality counterparts. He plans to dispose of all of them, but the Avengers manage to force him from the timeline, where a divergent version of him becomes Victorex Prime, archenemy of the Squadron Supreme.Nathaniel then tries to return to the 31st century, but overshoots by a thousand years, discovering that humanity has ruined the Earth through endless conflict using advanced weapons they no longer understand. He finds it simple to conquer the planet, expanding his dominion throughout the galaxy, and reinvents himself as Kang the Conqueror. But this future world is dying, and so he decides to take over an earlier, more fertile Earth.
Early appearances and Ravonna
On Nathaniel's first foray into the 20th century under the Kang identity, he meets and battles the Avengers, capturing everyone but the Wasp and Rick Jones, and informs the world that they have 24 hours to surrender to him. Jones and some friends pretend they want to help Kang, but double-cross him once they gain access to his ship, and the Avengers are freed. In an attempt to stop them, Kang releases radiation that only beings from his time are immune to, but Thor uses his hammer to absorb the rays and send them back at the warlord so even he cannot withstand it, and he is forced to escape. He later attempts to defeat the Avengers using a Spider-Man robot, but the real Spider-Man destroys it.In his own time, Kang falls for the princess of one of his subject kingdoms, Ravonna, who does not return his feelings. In an attempt to demonstrate his power, he kidnaps the Avengers and, after several escape attempts on their part, subdues them and the rebellious kingdom with the help of his army. When Kang refuses to execute Ravonna, his commanders revolt and he frees the Avengers to fight with him against them. They successfully subdue them, but not before Ravonna is mortally wounded when she leaps in front of a blast meant for Kang, realizing she does love him after all. Kang returns the Avengers to their present, and places Ravonna's body in stasis.
Kang appears in modern-day as he attempts to retrieve a rogue Growing Man construct who is growing larger with every blow. Both Thor and the police are not able to subdue the giant, until Kang appears from a time machine disguised as a boulder. He fires a ray, shrinking and subduing the Growing Man to doll-sized so he can be "re-hidden". He later reactivates the Growing Man to kidnap an incapacitated Tony Stark and draw the Avengers into his game, though the purpose is not revealed. Thor fails to keep Kang from escaping into the time-stream.
In hopes of restoring his love to life, Kang enters a wager with the cosmic entity Grandmaster, using the Avengers as pawns in a game which, if won, can temporarily grant him power over life and death. The first round ends in stalemate when an unaware Black Knight intervenes and prevents a clear victory by the Avengers, although the team definitively wins the second round. Due to the first round's stalemate, Kang does not earn the power of both life and death but is forced to choose. He selects the power of death over the Avengers, but is stopped by the Black Knight, who, not being an Avenger at the time, is unaffected.
Next Kang kidnaps the Hulk and sends him to 1917 France to kill the Phantom Eagle before he can save Bruce Banner's grandfather from a cannon. This would prevent the Hulk from existing and consequently, the formation of the Avengers. However, the Hulk destroys the cannon which sends him back to the present while Kang is projected into the Limbo.
The Celestial Madonna
Some time later Kang reappears at Avengers Mansion seeking the "Celestial Madonna", who turns out to be Mantis, desiring to marry her as she is apparently destined to have a powerful child. The heroes are aided by a future version of Kang, who, tired of conquest, had returned to ancient Egypt and his identity of Rama-Tut, ruling benevolently for ten years before placing himself in suspended animation to revive in the 20th century, desiring to counsel and change his younger self. While Kang is successfully foiled, Rama-Tut is unable to prevent the accidental death of Swordsman. During an adventure in Limbo, it is revealed that Immortus is the future incarnation of both Kang and Rama-Tut.While attempting to travel to the time of the Crusades, Hawkeye accidentally comes across Kang, sending both to the Old West. The warlord begins to develop a stronghold to conquer the 19th century, thus also conquering the present. Aided this time by Immortus, the Avengers, with some assistance from the Two-Gun Kid, confront Kang. While trying to muster the strength to defeat Thor, Kang overloads his armor and destroys himself, apparently erasing Immortus and Rama-Tut from existence.
Prime Kang and creation of alternate selves
Years later, the Beyonder plucks a living Kang from the timestream to participate on the villains' side in the first of the Secret Wars. Soon after, it is revealed that while Kang had indeed died, his constant time-traveling had created a number of alternate Kangs. The Kang to discover this had been drawn to Limbo after his time-travel vehicle was destroyed by Thor. Finding Immortus' remains inside his fortress, Kang assumes the "Lord of Time" to be deceased and discovers the alternate versions of himself using viewing devices he finds, although he does not realize that Immortus is also a version of himself. At one point, he brings Ravonna to Limbo from the moment before her death, unintentionally creating an alternate reality where he was slain. Determined to be the only Kang, he joins with two particularly cunning divergents whom he determines he cannot easily eliminate, the three forming a council that systematically destroys the other alternate versions. He destroys one of the other two Kangs, then brings in the Avengers as part of a plot to destroy the other one, although the latter Kang eventually discovers the plot. This Kang is delayed by Ravonna, who tells him that if he truly loves her he must not kill the first Kang, but he ignores her, goes after him anyway, and is destroyed. Immortus then reveals he faked his death and manipulated everything from behind the scenes. Now only the one "Prime" Kang remains, who Immortus tricks into absorbing the memories of all the slain Kangs, which drives him insane. Immortus then sends the Avengers back to their own timeline.This Kang diverges into two alternate Kangs, and one is invited to join the Crosstime Kang Corps, which consists of a wide range of Kangs from multiple timelines who are searching for a Celestial "Ultimate Weapon". This Kang calls himself "Fred" and has a brief encounter with the Avengers while trying to stop "Nebula" from interfering with a timeline. The Prime Kang, having recovered, then attempts to manipulate the Avengers from a time vortex, and encounters the Fantastic Four in a bid to capture Mantis and use her to defeat a Celestial and the other Kangs, and "Fred" is incinerated by a Nebula-possessed Human Torch during a later battle with the Fantastic Four.