The Origin of Kang the Conqueror Arrives on August 18

The man called Kang the Conqueror has been a pharaoh, a villain, a warlord of the spaceways, and even, on rare occasions, a hero.

Across all timelines, one fact seemed absolute: Time means nothing to Kang the Conqueror. 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. A cycle that begins and ends with an old and broken Kang sending his younger self down a dark path… And on August 18, you are invited to enter that cycle with KANG THE CONQUEROR #1.

Written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly with art by Carlos Magno, colors by Espen Grundetjern, and letters by VC's Joe Caramagna, KANG THE CONQUEROR presents the origin of Kang.

In an exclusive interview with Nerdist, the writers mapped out the series and the central motivations of its star player.

"Issue one is Kang’s proper origin," explained Kelly, "and issues two through five are Kang’s life story. We are hoping to, by the end of issue five, take you through the entirety of King’s life. So that any Kang story that you have read over the course of the last several decades, you can look at it and see where it fits inside the secret history of Kang the Conqueror, and the personal story he’s been through."

"We became really surprised heading into this," continued Lanzing. "Because we kind of thought it was going to be a book about fathers and sons. A book about how our elders train us. And then trying to fight that training, discovering that it’s harder to escape than we thought. We’re really going to look at what it’s like when this kid is just stuck as becoming Kang.

"And then certainly once we got to issue three and four, we started digging deeper and deeper into [Kang’s love interest] Ravonna Renslayer. Ravonna became our entire backbone. She’s the key to the book in looking at what she means to Kang, and what he needs out of her. You start to see the personal and rather tragic story of a guy who cannot let go of love, and who cannot let go of loss. And who thinks that it’s the only thing that’s going to save him, when in fact it is in many ways, it’s the thing that dooms him."

Look inside the opening pages of issue #1 below, then pre-order the book with your local comic shop before reading it in full on August 18!