Kang the Conquerer a.k.a Nathaniel Richards is one of the most dangerous Super-villains in the Marvel Universe and he is considered to be the supreme force when it comes to time travel. He is a time traveller from 30th Century Earth-6311 who set on a mission to conquer the whole world, thus the name ‘Kang the Conquerer’. He made his first appearance in The Avengers #8 (1964). Some say that Nathaniel Richards is a descendant of Reed Richards a.k.a Mister Fantastic. However, some alternate theories also suggest that he might be actually a descendant of Victor Von Doom (Dr Doom).Â
In this article, we shall be solely focusing on the Comic book version of Kang the Conquerer. However, in the last bit, we will also talk discuss briefly the potential future of Kang’s character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Kang the Conquerer: Origin Story and History
Nathaniel Richards was born in the 30th Century on Earth-6311. It was a far more technologically advanced world than Earth-616 that we usually see in MCU and Marvel comics and Nathaniel Richards himself was a scientist and one of the brightest minds of his time. It is said that he was much smarter than even Tony Stark and Reed Richards.
The problem with the 30th Century was that the planets and nations were constantly at war with each other and Kang was fed up with this. He thus invented a method to travel through time without creating any divergence and he travelled back to Ancient Egypt in 2960 BC (Earth-616).
The people of ancient Egypt were completely confused by seeing Nathaniel’s time machine as it resembled a Sphinx. Seeing how technically backwards they were, Nathaniel Richards saw the opportunity and started ruling over them as a king. He took up the name Pharaoh Rama-tut. After ruling over them for many years, he became bored and travelled in the future to fight with the Avengers.
However, there were some mistakes in his calculation and ended up in the 40th Century when a huge war was going on. He noticed that although the Barbarians used hight tech gadgets, they did not know how to use them properly and using his knowledge, he started ruling over them as well. He then started a mission to conquer everything (from planets to Universes) and took up the name ‘Kang the Conquerer’.
He then travelled back in time to fight the Avengers and after a big battle, he was finally defeated by the Avengers partially.
To spice up Kang’s storyline, Marvel added a twist. They said that every time Kang travelled through time, he created an alternate reality and a variant of himself. This way, many variants of Kang were created and together they formed the Council of Kangs.
One version of Kang among them assumed the name of Prime Kang and started a conspiracy along with two other Kang variants. They killed all other Kang variants and when Prime Kang tried to kill those 2 variants as well, he was stopped by Immortus.
Immortus is the ultimate future version of Kang. Thousands of years of war and fights turned him into a peace-loving being. The time-keepers gave him the responsibility to bring all the alternate realities into a single reality and make sure that there are no more breaches in that. This is probably what we saw in the Season Finale of Loki.
Kang the Conquerer: Powers and Abilities
Increased Lifespan – The world that Kang the Conquerer lived in, i.e, 30th Century Earth-6311 was very scientifically advanced and they had discovered a biological means to slow ageing. Kang used the same process and thus despite being 70 years old, he looks like someone in his mid-40s.
Combat skills – Kang was very highly skilled in both hand to hand and weapon combat and he also once defeated Captain America in a fight.
Intelligence – As mentioned earlier, Nathaniel Richards was one of the sharpest minds in all of Marvel Universe. From Reed Richards and Tony Stark, we know that Super-intelligence can be a superpower and so it is in the case of Nathaniel Richards.
High Tech Armour – Kang wears a Neuro-kinetic armour which enables him to perform tasks just by thinking about it.
Time Travel – Kang the Conquerer is the ultimate force in Marvel when it comes to Time travel and he has totally aced it.
Concussive Blasts – Kang could create concussive blasts from his fingertips.
Electric Shocks – He could give electric shocks by flexing his muscles.
Mind Transfering – Kang’s armour allowed him to transfer his mind to a new body in case he ever died.
Kang the Conquerer: Future in MCU
A variant of Kang called ‘He who remains’ that resembled Immortus was seen in the Season Finale of Loki. We also saw a statue of Kang the Conquerer in the post-credit scene and it confirmed that the Supervillain is soon arriving in MCU.
It is being said that Kang the Conquerer would make his MCU debut with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Another variant of Kang called Iron-Lad is also rumoured to join MCU’s upcoming big project, Young Avengers.Â
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