Kang the Conqueror, the next MCU supervillain, explained.
After debuting as Kang Variation He Who Remains in season 1 of Loki Disney Plus, Jonathan Majors plays Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Spoiler alert for Quantumania: Kang the Conqueror will return and likely rule over a dynasty the Avengers must defeat in 2025’s Avengers: Kang Dynasty, which leads directly into 2026’s Avengers: Secret Wars.
Time travel in genre fiction is generally confusing and paradoxical, and Kang’s past is no exception. His six-decade past is convoluted and confounding, especially considering his constant creation of new personas like he Who Remains.
Kang is one of the Avengers’ greatest villains with depth and nuance, despite his complicated continuity. With his ties to the Young Avengers, Iron Man, and especially the Fantastic Four, the character seems set to lead the MCU’s next era.
With Kang’s MCU introduction in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and the idea of his variants set to play a major role in the MCU’s future, Newsarama is firing up the TemPad (or Time Platform, in comic book parlance) and taking you on a deep dive through his history, or histories, and how his many lives could fit into the MCU.
KANG—WHO IS HE?
Kang was Nathaniel Richards, a 31st-century scientist and descendant of Reed Richards and Doctor Doom, but it’s not that simple.
Kang has played many villains, some of whom have fought against other. This has created a vast web of Kang appearances, some of which are contradictory and many of which occur at similar moments in the Marvel Universe’s timeline yet at very different times in Kang’s existence.
While it would be hard to rapidly run down every time Kang has appeared or build a precise timeline of his appearances, there are several important facts to know about him that may influence his MCU position.
Kang was born Nathaniel Richards, a descendant of both Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic, and his archenemy Victor Von Doom.
Kang (then Nathaniel Richards) first discovered time travel using his ancestor Doom’s time platform to travel to ancient Egypt and become the ruler Rama-Tut, who was vanquished by a time-displaced Fantastic Four, who set the timeline right and sent him far into the future.
Here’s Kang’s identity.
Coming hundreds of years into the future of his own timeline, Nathaniel uses his knowledge of time travel and the technologies of various eras to conquer this future world, taking the name Kang and promising to conquer other periods and dominate all of history.
Kang has often challenged the Avengers, using many identities, to defeat them and conquer Earth.
Kang has had so many identities that the Council of Cross-Time Kangs, many of whom don’t get along, exists (Loki episode 6 even mentions the Council).
HOW POWERFUL IS KANG?
Kang doesn’t have any talents, but he’s a skilled military strategist and soldier with access to weapons from all eras, including the future, and unmatched time-travel technology.
His Damocles Base, a sword-shaped time-traveling spacecraft, has a huge arsenal.
In Avengers Forever(opens in new tab), Immortus gathers a band of Avengers from many ages to battle his younger self, Kang launches attacks throughout multiple time periods.
Kang often fights his adversaries with an army of trillions of soldiers from throughout time and space.
Loki episode 6’s variation Kang, He Who Remains, appears to have no powers but advanced knowledge of his whole timeline up to a certain point and the technology to control time around him in response to and preparation for his opponents.
Yet, Kang’s strong and unusual code of honour has often brought him down. Kang’s code forbids him from treachery, such as killing his foes as children.
Kang only counts conquest if it’s won through hard combat and your foes know you’ve won.
Kang doesn’t have any talents, but he’s a skilled military strategist and soldier with access to weapons from all eras, including the future, and unmatched time-travel technology.
His Damocles Base, a sword-shaped time-traveling spacecraft, has a huge arsenal.
KANG’S MCU IMPACT?
Kang is more than simply a villain—a he’s gateway to a whole new side of the Marvel Universe, including the Fantastic Four, the Young Avengers, Doctor Doom, and more, practically all of whom have been confirmed or discussed as prospective MCU expansions.
Kang’s involvement as Ant-villain Man’s is intriguing because he has little comic book connections to Ant-reality Man’s other than his Avengers teammate Wasp. Kang might be an Ant-Man adversary in the MCU.
For one thing, Ant-knowledge Man’s of and access to the Quantum Realm made Avengers: Endgame’s time-travel feasible, so Kang may deploy comparable technology, which would place him in direct conflict with Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Now that Sylvie has killed He Who Remains, the Multiverse appears to be spreading uncontrollably, potentially leading to Doctor Strange’s situation in the Multiverse of Madness.
Kang’s presence may also effect the Fantastic Four and X-MCU Men’s debuts.
For one, this version of Kang/Nathaniel Richards may be Reed Richards’s father, which would open up a whole new bag of worms about the MCU’s future and how the Fantastic Four may join the film franchise, especially if MCU Reed Richards is born in the 31st century.
Kang’s Multiversal mayhem might lead the X-Men to the MCU, especially since Deadpool is joining the MCU in November 2024’s Untitled Deadpool Movie, taking Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine with him.
Whatever the case, the MCU’s first appearance of one of Kang’s varieties has opened the floodgates, making anything and anybody fair target, especially with Secret Wars on the horizon.
We now know more about Kang and the MCU before that. For one, his statue (with Jonathan Majors’ likeness and Kang’s comic book suit) is displayed in the Multiversal TVA’s offices.
For instance, Loki episode 6 states that a fight of Kangs from many worlds started the Multiversal war in Loki episode 1, when multiple Kang versions developed Multiverse travelling tech at the same time.
After banding together in an uneasy alliance, similar to the Council of Cross-Time Kangs from comic books, the variants eventually went to war to become the true master of the Multiverse, with He Who Remains (apparently based on Immortus) winning by creating the TVA and pruning every timeline that threatens him.
KANG’S ROLE IN MARVEL
Kang has close ties to numerous Marvel heroes. Nathaniel Richards is Reed Richards’ father. Reed’s father, Nathaniel Richards, is also a time-traveler and has been Kang in some universes.
He developed his own electronics and weapons using Doctor Doom’s time-travel technology. He’s challenged Marvel’s heroes with Doom.
Kang’s Iron Man link comes from his time as Iron Lad and one of the most legendary (and hated) Avengers storylines. In ‘The Crossing(opens in new tab),’ Kang manipulates Tony Stark into becoming a villain, at which point he dies and is replaced by a teen version of Tony Stark from earlier in the timeline, which was reversed by further comic book science.
Kang also worked with the Apocalypse Twins, mutants corrupted by the X-Men villain to be his successors. Curiously, the narrative expands Kang’s connection to the Wasp, who is trapped in a dystopian future by Kang and marries Havok of the X-Men and has a kid, though the relationship and child were wiped when Wasp and Havok came home (though not all the memories of that time went away).
Weirdly, Kang fought Ant-Man and the Wasp alone in a corporate tie-in comic for Synchrony Bank, where Ant-Man learns to open a savings account (yes, really).
In Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, Kang conquered the Avengers entire history and imprisoned practically everyone who could resist him, including Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
He was defeated, but not before he and Captain America battled as giant holograms in space above Earth.
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