Kang the Conqueror

Kang the Conqueror is a supervillain in Marvel Comics. He is a time traveller from the 30th Century who has frequently travelled to the present day and fought the Avengers. He first appeared in Avengers #8 and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Origin

The Beginning

The man who would become Kang was born in an alternate post-apocalyptic timeline. The Earth there was made into a paradise thanks to Nathaniel Richards however he, a scholar, was restless in this peaceful world, and studied the history of war to longing for a more savage and driven age. He discovered time travel technology that one of his ancestors (who may have been Nathaniel Richards or Doctor Doom) had invented.

Kang travelled back in time to ancient Egypt and became the Pharaoh Rama-Tut. There he ruled until he was driven off by the time-displaced heroes of the 20th Century including the Fantastic Four and the West Coast Avengers, he left the past and came to a post-apocalyptic 40th Century and reinvented himself as Kang the Conqueror. From there he created his interstellar, interdimensional and inter-temporal empire that would not only include Earth, but future versions of the Brotherhood of the Badoon, the Shi'ar Empire and the dimension of Kosmos.

On his first foray into the twentieth century, he was thwarted by the Avengers, and they have remained his enemies ever since, having fought him on dozens of occasions. However due to the efforts of his time travelling technology, multiple and sometimes divergent versions of himself were created, and eventually most of them were eliminated by the Council of Kangs set up by one of the them to rid himself of his counterparts.

Destiny War

At some point in his personal timeline, Kang became (or will become) weary of battle, due to frustration and the loss of his son Marcus and consort Ravonna in several timelines. He was approached (or will be approached) by the alien Time-Keepers--time travelers from the end of the universe, the last living creatures in existence--to become their agent, preserving timelines rather than conquering them in exchange for immortality. He accepted (or will accept), and reinvented himself again, this time as Immortus. He again came (or will come) into conflict with the Avengers, but under different concomitance, and more notably with his younger self, who was unable to see the reasoning behind Immortus' actions.

Immortus faked (or will fake) his death several times before ultimately turning on the Time-Keepers to assist the Avengers and, as punishment, was truly killed. However, he was resurrected minutes later as temporal energies--from the Time-Keepers attempts to turn Kang directly into Immortus and thus fulfill the time loop--caused a backlash that created Kang AND Immortus as separate beings, freeing Kang from what he saw as a destiny as a "doddering old scholar."

Kang Dynasty

Kang would then go on to launch his most vicious attack yet on present-day Earth, being the first villain in Marvel history to subdue it by physical means as opposed to some form of mental domination. His reign, though, was undone by the Avengers as well as with the unwitting aid of his son, the Scarlet Centurion.

Young Avengers

Recently in the pages of the comic Young Avengers, it has been revealed that the super-hero known as Iron Lad is actually a younger version of the villain, who discovered that he would become an evil tyrant and went back in time to prevent himself from conquering the world.

Trivia

• Kang might be compared to Vosk, from Star Trek, a conqueror from the 29th century who believed that time travel technology should be used for personal gain through exploitation of others.

External Links

• Brief History of Kang (Does not cover Avengers Forever or later)