A few months ago Marvel started a new story highlighting one of the company’s most complex characters: Kang the Conquerer. The villain is one of the most popular villains from Marvel, and thanks to Jonathan Majors’ portrayal of the character in Loki, he’s been generating a lot more buzz and popularity of late. Majors will reprise his roll as the time traveling villain in 2023’s Ant-Man & The Wasp Quantumania, but until then, myself and other fans want more of him! He has one of the more interesting, and at times confusing, origins in all of comics. There have been multiple origins briefly seen and mentioned since he first appeared in 1963, but his new comic series does a great job at blending them into one conjoined backstory for the the time traveler.
The new series serves as the perfect entry point for fans who are eager to learn the fascinating lore behind one of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s most iconic creations. Kang the Conqueror has been a pharaoh, a villain, a warlord of space, and even on rare occasions, a hero. Across all timelines, one fact has seemed absolute: Time means nothing to Kang. But the truth is more complex. Kang is caught in an endless cycle of creation and destruction dictated by time and previously unseen by any but the Conqueror himself. A cycle that could finally explain the enigma that is Kang. And a cycle that begins and ends with an old and broken Kang sending his younger self down a dark path.
Image via: GamesRadar
"Time may mean nothing to Kang, but Kang means everything to us. This is the book we've been wanting to write for years,” co-writer Jackson Lanzing said. “It's a total dream come true for Collin [Kelly] and I to be making our Marvel debut. We're best friends who first met through a mutual love of Young Avengers, Runaways, and Ultimate Spider-Man. But to make our first mark with a character as storied as Kang the Conqueror, on a very personal pitch we never in a million years thought would be green-lit, is a genuine honor. Carlos Magno [the illustrator] is delivering jaw-dropping work that recalls the exacting detail and operatic emotion of Kang's co-creator Jack Kirby. We're genuinely stunned by every new page. Add the brilliant colors by Espen Grundetjern, letters by the Marvel master Joe Caramanga, and the insightful leadership of our editor Alanna Smith, and you've got a team worthy of one of Marvel's greatest unsung characters."
Co-writer Collin Kelly had this to say regarding the actual story itself, "Kang has been a nefarious force in the Marvel Universe nearly as long as it's existed, but the true crime here is that he's never had a solo series. The fact that we're the ones who get to bring Kang's complete story to life for the first time is an incredible honor. KANG THE CONQUEROR isn't just an origin story; this is a life story. When young and jaded Nathaniel Richards discovers the ancient lair of his Latvarian ancestor Victor Von Doom, his life is changed forever by a man he should never have met; Kang. From the last days of the Cretaceous to the war-torn world of Jack Kirby's year 4,000, from ancient Egypt to the stars themselves, KANG THE CONQUEROR is a story that unpacks the told, and untold, moments of Kang's life through a human lens. Powered by his love of the enigmatic Ravonna Renslayer, and fueled by the hatred of who he will become, this is a cross-time epic for everyone who has ever rejected who they were supposed to be."
Image via: Screen Rant
So far three issues have dropped in this new series, and to this point the miniseries has focused on a young Nathaniel Richards who is plucked from time by a version of his future self with the promise of becoming the ultimate Kang the Conqueror. This drunken with power and embittered Kang takes Nathaniel back in time to the Cretaceous period to train him, telling him in no uncertain terms that he must never fall in love if he is ever going to be victorious. Disgusted by the brutality of this version of himself, Nathaniel abandons him and flees to ancient Egypt, where he meets a young Knight of Khonshu called Ravonna. The pair fall in love but are captured by another version of Kang. Believing his love dead, Nathaniel is caught in the web of time and defeated by the Fantastic Four, escaping into time when he realizes that he’s repeating the deeds of his older self, and that no matter what he does, destiny is inevitable.
In the preview of the fourth issue, the story picks up immediately after Nathaniel arrives in the year 4086 C.E and encounters another version of Ravonna battling against a tyrannical being called Arbalest. The preview shows the pair uniting to fight Arbalest but after they defeat him, Ravonna rejects Nathaniel’s affections, stating that there is no point in celebrating because this just means a new tyrant will rise to take Arbalest’s place. Nathaniel responds by telling Ravonna that everyone else alive is mere “footnotes” and that they have the possibility to leave this future and its pain behind and instead live together “gloriously.”
Image via: Comic Book Resources
Kang the Conqueror features a version of Kang desperate to escape his transformation into a cosmic tyrant, inevitably edging closer and closer to the version fans know and love. This preview seems to suggest that Kang believes Ravonna is the key to preventing his rise to power. Kang believes that if he and Ravonna can find happiness together then he can avoid becoming the bitter and lovelorn monster that first took him to the Cretaceous period. Well if you’re a fan of the comics, than you know that relations between Kang and Ravonna have never been simple.
While some timelines have shown versions of Ravonna and Kang married and happy, others have depicted them as bitterest enemies leading warring factions. It is also worrying that the solicitation information for Kang The Conqueror #4 states the issue will reveal “the tragic fate of Kang’s great love, Ravonna Renslayer,” so it seems unlikely that Kang will find salvation with this version of Ravonna. Whether or not Kang will be able to convince Ravonna that they should deviate from their prior paths will be fully revealed when the fourth issue comes out on November 17.
When we last saw Ravonna Renslayer in the MCU, it was in the season 1 finale of Loki where she set out to find the creator of the TVA (Time Variance Authority.) It’s safe to assume that she will probably appear in Ant-Man & The Wasp Quantumania, probably in an end credits scene where we maybe see her save a dying Kang, or she just meets up with him after he either pulled the strings of the film, or was believed to be defeated by Ant-Man and the Wasp who were actually swindled in the end by his cunning arrogance that masks his true intentions.
We’re getting a more complete origin and concrete details on Kang’s past, so the timing of this series is definitely noteworthy, especially if it runs close to the summer when a trailer might be revealed by then for the third Ant-Man film.