Kang Lures the Young Avengers to ‘Marvel Avengers Academy’

With Ultron recruited and The Destroyer caged, the students of “Marvel Avengers Academy” may have thought they would get a moment to breathe. True to form, however, a new threat appears to take advantage of the Academy’s perceived weakness.

This time, the time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror uses the timefog itself against the super-powered school. But another group of heroes have been battling Kang across time and were captured trying to stop him from attacking the Academy. Freeing them will grant powerful and knowledgeable new allies in the effort against the tyrant of the timestream.

We grabbed Allen Warner, Lead Narrative Designer at TinyCo, to get the full rundown on this new mini-event.

Marvel.com: How do the Young Avengers find themselves embroiled in Kang’s plot?

Allen Warner: During Ultron’s robot revolution, he shut down the Academy’s defenses, including systems that monitor and secure the surrounding timefog. Director Fury usually controls who goes in and out, and who remains trapped inside, but the temporary shutdown gives Kang an opportunity to attack the school, and tamper with the timefog itself. Various Young Avengers have been battling Kang throughout the timestream for their own reasons, and they try to stop him from entering this timeline, but are eventually captured.

Marvel.com: Which members of the team make the call to join the school?

Allen Warner: Hulking, Wiccan, and Stinger. They’re all great fits for the school with awesome, unique powers. Hulking has these great shapeshifting abilities that allow him to do everything from grow wings and fly around the campus, to changing his appearance to mimic people at the school. Wiccan has his incredible Chaos Magic abilities that resulted in some of the best animations of any hero so far; and Stinger aka Stature aka Cassie Lang has Pym Particle powers like her father Ant-Man that allow her to shrink down to nothing and grow into a giant. The fact that her powers can be triggered by her emotions made for some really fun stories and animations, along with coming face-to-face with her dad from another timeline who’s her same age. America Chavez and Kate Bishop were amazing additions to the game, and these three heroes turned out awesome, so it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the Young Avengers join Avengers Academy.

Marvel.com: Does Kang bring with him any new hints to the timefog’s nature? Black Widow is sure to be interested in getting one over on Headmaster Fury…

Allen Warner: Definitely. I’ve gotten away from the timefog mystery in recent events, but with Kang being the king of time travel, it only makes sense that it comes back to the forefront. We see almost immediately that Kang has history with Fury, Odin, and Pym. He doesn’t know exactly how the timefog came to be, but he knows more about the faculty and their role in the timefog’s origins than any villain to date. There will be a lot of clues about what happened in this place before the timefog, how it came into existence, and the entities and energies inside that no one expected. The faculty did everything in their power to hide the Academy’s location from Kang, but now that he’s found it he won’t be leaving without a fight; and even if he loses that fight, he’ll set events in motion that will still be felt long after he’s gone.

Marvel.com: How will our heroes battle Kang and put a stop to his sinister machinations?

Allen Warner: Iron Man builds new time portals that allow the heroes to travel throughout time in search of ways to overcome Kang’s far-future technology. They’ll travel everywhere from Ancient Egypt to outer space for meetings with the Council of Cross-Time Kangs, resulting in some really fun and unique stories, decorations, pets, and vehicles. Our heroes will eventually battle Kang and his futuristic arsenal, sending him back into the timestream, and rescuing the Young Avengers to fight by their side.

Marvel.com: Once our heroes are able to conquer Kang, what new threats will come for the Academy?

Allen Warner: Kang may lose the battle, but the war has just begun. He uses his tech to turn the timefog against the school, unleashing monsters on Avengers Academy. They’ll need help from some powerhouse heroes, eclectic monster hunters, a gigantic robot, and everybody’s favorite red Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Stay tuned to Marvel.com for all the latest news on “Marvel Avengers Academy!”