Drastic Times, Drastic Measures
Following encounters with alternate reality Fantastic Four teams seeking to thwart his future self, which faded from his mind, Nathaniel remained a man of adventure in a time of complacency. In the chamber, Nathaniel saw the machine as a way to escape his life of boredom and misery. Nathaniel spent years rebuilding and redesigning the time machine for his needs. He planned to loot various time periods for weaponry and technology while making his base in ancient Egypt. To play upon the ancient Egyptians’ religious beliefs, he created a sphinx-like idol to house the time machine and traveled back to Earth-616’s Egypt circa 2950 BC. The ship malfunctioned and crashed, blinding and stranding him there, but his technology allowed him to subjugate the natives. As Pharaoh Rama-Tut, his vision restored, he ruled as a god for a decade, during which he encountered Samira, Mistress of the Nile, who became his enemy; Pharaoh Amenhotep, whom he imprisoned within a pyramid where Amenhotep consumed blood to survive, eventually becoming a vampire-creature; and time-travelers such as Killpower and the Genetix team. Circa 2945, Rama-Tut sired an illegitimate son, Ramades, with a slave woman. Eventually, a struggle with the Fantastic Four, which also involved the young En Sabah Nur, AKA Apocalypse, the moon god Khonshu, and modern-era heroes Dr. Steven Strange, AKA Doctor Strange, and the Avengers, forced Rama to flee that time period in his now operative time machine.
En route to the future, a “time storm” diverted Rama to the modern era, where he rescued a space-lost Victor von Doom, AKA Doctor Doom, and passed himself off as Doom’s possible future self (though speculation regards Doom as Kang’s possible ancestor; possibly because Nathaniel Richards allegedly sired Kristoff Vernard, who was believed to be Dr. Doom for a time). Damaged by the time storm, Rama-Tut’s control module skipped several years into the future and crashed in Egypt, where he tried to force fellow time-traveler Blaquesmith to aid him but was defeated by the mutant Cable, though Rama managed to launch back into the timestream. Inspired by Doom, he took the armored identity of the Scarlet Centurion, traveled to another timeline (Earth-689) and duped its Avengers into neutralizing all their fellow heroes so he could rule; but he was defeated by the visiting Avengers of Earth-616 and cast outside time. He would later learn of alternate realities diverged from this event in which the Scarlet Centurion conquered Earth (Earth-8110) or used the X-Men as his pawns (Earth-98702). Diverging subsequent to the Earth-689 adventure, another Scarlet Centurion conquered 40th century Earth-712 or “Earth-S,” home of the Squadron Supreme.
Richards sought to return to his native time, but temporal disruptions hurled him into Earth-6311’s 40th century, a bleak world decimated by global wars. Unable to escape to a more hospitable era, he assumed the name Kang the Conqueror, set himself up as a warlord, bent the barbaric people to his will and transformed them into an army. Kang conquered the planet, sparing only the tiny kingdom of Carelius due to his interest in the king’s daughter, Ravonna Renslayer (later Terminatrix). Kang’s life became progressively non-linear, as each foray in time produced at least one divergent-time-stream counterpart; it is extremely difficult to identify which Kang counterpart was involved with each encounter. Further, Kang’s past incarnations each spawned numerous divergent realities and selves throughout their adventures (see Rama-Tut, Scarlet Centurion, Iron Lad).
Conquering everything within 100 light years of Earth, Kang next attacked his ancestor’s native world in the modern age of marvels, but the Avengers forced him to flee. Seeking a new power base, Kang established himself in 1901 AD as Victor Timely, a brilliant inventor and industrialist who founded the city of Timely, Wisconsin, became its first mayor, and transformed it into a technological marvel over the next century. Over time, “Victor” appeared to age and be replaced by his son and his grandson in turn (Kang in new guises); in 1929, as Victor Timely Jr. he recruited Phineas Horton into Timely Industries, and in 1980, “Victor Timely III” developed a prominent computer company. The city also housed a portal to Kang’s base Chronopolis (created by one of the counterparts whose memories he now possessed) where he gathered warriors from various eras to serve as his strike force, the Anachronauts. Still seething over his defeat at the Avengers’ hands, Kang sent Timespinner, a Spider-Man robot, to battle them, though it was destroyed by the real Spider-Man (Peter Parker). Kang also traveled to 6th century Camelot and defeated a Merlin imposter (later Merlin Demonspawn), intent on creating an alternate reality in which his Britain would conquer the globe, preventing the formation of the Avengers; but he was defeated by the time-traveling Thing and Human Torch, apparently sent by Uatu the Watcher. Kang next joined a mass of villains attacking the wedding of Reed Richards, AKA Mister Fantastic, and Susan Storm Richards, AKA Invisible Woman, unknowingly drawn there by Doctor Doom’s Emotion-Charger device.
Returning to the 40th century, Kang completed his conquest of the Milky Way galaxy, crushing empires like the Universal Church of Truth. He even invaded and conquered other dimensions, such as Kosmos, where he gained technology to create his powerful Growing Men. Kang then brought the Avengers forward in time to Carelius’ kingdom, intending to subjugate them or defeat them in front of Ravonna. When both the Avengers and Ravonna defied him, the furious Kang easily conquered the small kingdom; however, when he attempted to force Ravonna to marry him, he caused unrest in his troops for failing to follow his own edict of slaying all conquered rulers. Kang’s troops, led by General Baltag, turned on him, but he allied with the Avengers to defeat them. Impressed by Kang’s risking his life for her, Ravonna leapt in the path of a blast from the defeated Baltag, saving Kang, but apparently dying in his place.
The devastated Kang placed Ravonna in stasis while he sought to restore her; for the 18 months, he spent half of each day mourning his greatest failure. The cosmic Grandmaster challenged Kang to a contest of champions, offering him the power of life or death, with which he could revive Ravonna. Using the Avengers as pawns, Kang was victorious — but at the last second, he instead chose the power of death, intending to slay the Avengers. Foiled by Dane Whitman, AKA Black Knight, Kang had to live with the knowledge that he had squandered his chance to save Ravonna. Perturbed at having lost and feeling sympathy for Ravonna, the Grandmaster removed Ravonna from stasis, replaced her with a pseudo- organic doppelganger, revived her, and told her of Kang’s betrayal. Kang later tried to use the Hulk to destroy Bruce Banner’s ancestor to prevent the Avengers from ever forming, but the Hulk foiled this plot. Kang then sent a robot double of himself to capture the Avengers during a war with rival time lord Zarrko the Tomorrow Man. Still aching from his lost love, Kang gathered Ravonnas from other timelines, but even the most compliant of them could not satisfy him, as they were not the Ravonna from his past; he slowly ceased to care about Ravonna.
One of Kang’s most relentless campaigns was his quest for the Celestial Madonna, a woman fated to give birth to the most powerful being in the universe. Wanting to be that being’s father, Kang narrowed the Madonna’s identity to aged sorceress Agatha Harkness, enigmatic martial artist Mantis, and Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch, abducting all three. Rama-Tut, actually Kang’s own future self, arrived to help the Avengers thwart his plot. Mantis was finally revealed as the Madonna, and when Kang could not claim her, he tried to kill her; but his fatal blast was intercepted by Jacques DuQuesne, AKA Swordsman, who died instead. Kang and Rama-Tut were then pulled into Limbo by Immortus, a potential future self of both men, but Kang imprisoned Immortus and used his technology to create the Legion of the Unliving, a team of reportedly deceased pawns drawn from past eras. The Avengers defeated the Legion, and Kang fled.
Kang soon returned, and he made four jumps to the past around roughly the same moment in time, creating three other divergent selves to occupy the Avengers while he tried to abduct Mantis at her wedding, but the divergents were defeated, and Immortus foiled Kang by substituting a Space Phantom as his captive.
Kang next made a base in Tombstone, Arizona, circa 1873 AD, intending to use it as a stepping stone to conquer the modern age. Opposed by cowboy heroes Blaine Colt, AKA Kid Colt, Lincoln Slade, AKA the Phantom Rider, Johnny Clay, AKA Rawhide Kid, Ringo Kid, and Matt Liebowitz, AKA Two-Gun Kid, as well as time-traveling Avengers, Kang disintegrated when his force field shorted out in battle with Thor Odinson, AKA Thor; however, a fail-safe device transported Kang’s consciousness to an alternate body, as it had during many other near-death experiences.
Though taking place in rapid succession in the modern era, the planning involved with the Celestial Madonna and Old West agendas accounted for ten years of Kang’s life. From a base near the end of time, Kang sought the power of a reality-altering Cosmic Cube, but he was instead trapped within the Cube by Cable. Kang later conquered the alternate 40th century Earth-791014, in which Earth served as an amusement park for the solar system’s other planets’ colonies. From this base, Kang facilitated an attempt by the Inuit (Eskimo) Aningan Kenojuak to reclaim Captain America as the “God in the Ice” worshipped by his people years before while he was in suspended animation. At some point Kang encountered the First Line, a team of heroes preceding the Avengers. The virtually omnipotent Beyonder brought Kang and other Super Villains to his “Battleworld,” pitting them against a similarly gathered group of heroes. Suspecting Doctor Doom might betray them, Kang blasted him, but Doom survived and had the robot Ultron incinerate Kang. Shortly thereafter, having briefly usurped the Beyonder’s power, Doom restored Kang to life. Kang was subsequently recruited into Mephisto’s Legion Accursed in a failed effort to slay the Beyonder.
Returning to his 40th century base, Kang found it ravaged by rebels loyal to Baltag. He continued his empire’s expansion off-planet, conquering the Shi’ar Imperium; but to recover his base on Earth, he sought out a Growing Man stored in the modern era and battled Thor, who banished him to Limbo. There Kang chanced across Tenebrae, the stronghold of Limbo’s master Immortus, containing Immortus’ apparent corpse. There, Kang observed a view screen showing the struggle in which Ravonna was blasted by Baltag. Distraught by the scene Kang groped at the controls, causing a divergence (Reality-8657) in which he teleported Ravonna to his side, saving her from death, though in that reality, his counterpart met death from Baltag’s assault. Kang soon discovered that there was an abundance of divergent versions of himself and he initiated a plot to eliminate them all, despite Ravonna’s efforts to turn him from violence. Unwittingly manipulated by Immortus, Kang soon formed the Council of Kangs, choosing a few of his most capable counterparts as allies, and began eliminating redundant Kangs from each alternate reality. One of these divergents had sought to destroy all realities save Reality-9892 where he hoped to wed that Earth’s Ravonna; but after inadvertently slaying that Ravonna, he was swiftly eliminated by the Council. One Kang prepared robot duplicates to replace the slain counterparts so that he could control them and thus rule the empires of every Kang in existence. At the same time, Kang also re-took his 40th century base via his Growing Man. After the Council had finished wiping out the rest of their counterparts, the “prime” Kang slew the rest of the Council, involving the Avengers in the final struggle.
Immortus then appeared, explained that he was Kang’s future self (though many of the Avengers already knew this), and showed Kang a psyche-globe containing the memories of all of the slain divergent Kangs, claiming that its power made him supreme ruler of Limbo. Kang tore the globe from Immortus’ hands, only to go mad as the minds of all of the other Kangs merged with his. The last Kang—now every Kang, since he possessed all of his counterparts’ memories—fled into Limbo. To save himself, Kang used his helmet’s temporal circuitry to create an additional divergence/counterpart, dividing his madness between two Kangs. One made his way to Chronopolis (created by one of the counterparts whose memories he now possessed) to recuperate, while the other, still addled, was recruited by the Cross-Time Kangs, a group of beings who had defeated or slain alternate Kangs and usurped the Kang identity. The Cross-Time Kangs led Kang to believe that they represented a higher order, composed of various Kangs who had each survived a local “Kang war” within their own Council of Kangs, but this has since been disproved. This divergent Kang (identified as Kang- 123488.23497 by the Cross-Time Kangs, though he took the name Kang Fred), along with the Cross-Time Kangs’ leader (Chairman Kang) and another Kang (from Earth-Mesozoic-24), learned of a plot by “Kang-Nebula” (actually a power-hungry Ravonna) to obtain the “ultimate weapon” contained within the Time Bubble, a period of time in Earth-8810 surrounded by an impassable temporal barrier. This trio of Kangs followed Kang-Nebula and her mind-controlled Avengers pawns into the Time Bubble, where they were cast into the temporal vortex surrounding it. Clinging to existence, the divergent Kang sent his Growing Man to help foil the demonic invasion Inferno, which threatened to destroy life on Earth. When Kang-Nebula later manipulated the Fantastic Four into penetrating the Time Bubble, the trio of Cross-Time Kangs attempted to stop her from obtaining the weapon, but were either destroyed or incapacitated. The divergent Kang was incinerated by the Human Torch under the control of Kang-Nebula.
Taking control of Chronopolis, the “prime” Kang sought revenge on Mantis in the modern era, joining forces with the alien Cotati race, who sought to keep Mantis’ child, the Celestial Messiah, for themselves. Mantis was assisted by the Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer, but the Cotati escaped with the child, and Mantis sent her spirit after them.
Kang later joined Doctor Doom during the “Infinity War” in seeking to wrest a set of reality-altering Cosmic Containment Units from the Magus, the dark side of Adam Warlock. Kang then took over the Cross-Time Kangs, learned an assassin was stalking him, and exposed his would-be killer as Ravonna, now calling herself the Terminatrix. Intrigued by her warrior nature, Kang battled her, but in a reversal of past events, sacrificed himself to save her from an assault by the Avengers. Overcoming her hatred for Kang, Ravonna impersonated him and took over the Cross-Time Kangs, during which time she was manipulated by Revelation, her alleged own future self, who sought to guide Ravonna into following her life path. When Chronopolis was attacked by the immensely powerful temporal entity Alioth, Ravonna revived Kang, and with the aid of the Avengers they sacrificed the Cross-Time Kangs, using their energy to imprison Alioth once again.
Ravonna and Kang were at last reunited, and she posed as Victor Timely’s fiancée, Rebecca Tourmenet, for a time before they returned to Chronopolis to rule side by side. After encountering Sue Storm Richards, AKA Invisible Woman, regarding the fate of her then-missing husband, Kang was temporarily snatched out of time by the powerful being Akhenaten of Earth-4321, who sought to eliminate any threat time-travelers who might pose to his past. However, Kang, now almost sixty, grew weary of administrative matters. Missing the days when he was worshipped in a small land, Kang returned to ancient Egypt circa 2930 BC as Rama-Tut, and smashed his chrono-sphere. As Rama-Tut, he was also briefly imprisoned by Akhenaten, but otherwise spent ten years benevolently enjoying his people’s adulation. In 2920 BC, he encountered the Avengers, who had been trapped in the past by a time machine that could only travel backwards in time. He was unable to help them as he had destroyed all of his technology, so they went further into the past and faced his earlier, more hostile self in 2940 BC, where Rama’s enemy Khonshu helped the Avengers back to their own time.
Determined not to become Immortus (whose subtle manipulations he despised), the elder Rama-Tut tried to break the cycle by placing himself in suspended animation with the aid of his wizard Shamaz, reviving in the modern era (assisted, as planned, by an unwitting Jacques “Jack” Duquesne, AKA Swordsman) to battle his past Kang self during the Celestial Madonna struggle. Failing to change the course of events, Rama used devices granted by Immortus to re-enter the timestream; feeling like a powerless failure, he revisited his accomplishments through the centuries, but all seemed meaningless to him now.
Resigned to his fate, the now 75-year-old Rama headed for Limbo; however, upon glimpsing a chrono-flash of Immortus bowing to the powerful Time-Keepers, he was infuriated by the idea of becoming anyone’s lap-dog, and vowed to overcome his destiny (though a divergent elder Rama-Tut did settle in Limbo and eventually became the initial incarnation of Immortus). Rama-Tut returned to Chronopolis, resumed his Kang identity and ignored Ravonna as he turned his rivals against each other, using Alioth to devastate the Time Variance Authority and setting the Delubric Consortium against Revelation. He then destroyed the mind-transfer fail-safe device he had so often used to cheat death, feeling that it took the risk—and thus the enjoyment—out of conflict. After a brief battle with the X-Men and an enterprising starship crew, Kang formed an alliance with Gustav Brandt, AKA Libra, the Kree Supreme Intelligence and the Avengers against Immortus and the Time-Keepers. Ravonna, the Anachronauts and even Immortus were apparently slain and Chronopolis was destroyed; but when the Time-Keepers tried to eliminate Kang’s threat by forcing him to evolve into the more passive Immortus, Kang resisted so forcefully that he diverged a new Immortus while remaining Kang himself. Kang then destroyed the Time-Keepers (who had been weakened by the divergent chronal energy backlash).
Renewed by this victory, which left his future uncharted, Kang engineered a series of successors, choosing multiple ideal mates to create exceptional warriors, each of whom he named Marcus. These children were sent back in time and trained from birth to be warriors worthy of inheriting Kang’s empire. Following a failed effort to conquer the realm Otherworld, Kang, alongside Marcus XXIII (outfitted as the Scarlet Centurion), used Damocles Base, his massive armada, and alliances with various criminal forces (including rogue Atlanteans and Deviants) to conquer Earth-616; but the Avengers led a rebellion that ultimately defeated and imprisoned Kang. Marcus freed Kang in hopes of restoring their dominion, but Kang knew that Marcus had held back during the war more than once because of his attraction to Avengers member Warbird. Unable to forgive this betrayal, Kang slew Marcus. Disheartened, Kang told his computer to postpone development of Marcus XXIV.
Apparently unnerved and not heeding his knowledge of creating divergent selves, Kang attempted to manipulate his own past, saving his 16-year-old self from the attack by Morgan. Kang granted young Nathaniel a suit of neuro-kinetic armor and provided a glimpse into his future as Kang. Horrified by his ruthless, destructive future self, Nathaniel rejected Kang and used his armor to escape to modern day Earth, seeking the Avengers so they could help him defeat Kang. Finding the Avengers disbanded, Nathaniel, now going by Iron Lad, gathered together a replacement group who called themselves the Young Avengers. Kang confronted this group and convinced Avengers founders Captain America and Iron Man to hand Iron Lad over to him to avoid further temporal divergence. In the ensuing struggle, Iron Lad apparently slew Kang but then returned to his native era to fulfill his destiny as Kang to restore the damaged timeline. As Kang, Iron Lad continued to monitor the Young Avengers from an undisclosed future location. Iron Lad’s armor, which retained replicated impressions of Nathaniel’s brain patterns, emotions and memories, subsequently joined the Young Avengers as the new Vision. It remains to be seen whether this young Kang will somehow follow Kang’s early history and go on to become Kang or whether sufficient changes have occurred to diverge a new reality.
Seeing the mutant Apocalypse Twins Uriel and Eimin as a threat to his future, Kang kidnapped them moments after their birth and raised them in year 4145, imparting upon them that mutants and humans could never live in harmony. Uriel and Eimin grew up to oppose him, but Kang was cruel and placed them in a concentration camp on Earth-13044 operated by Red Skull. There, they learned the cruelty of humans. Once Kang returned them to 4145, the twins stole Jarnbjorn from his trophy room and used it to slay a Celestial Arishem the Judge on Earth-616. The twins attempted to move the mutant population off world before the Celestials destroyed it, a plan that the Avengers Unity Division opposed. The mutants were able to establish a new world, Planet X.
Kang responded by gathering other super-beings from other worlds being destroyed and formed the Chronos Corps. Kang sent the minds of the Avengers Unity Division into their past selves to prevent Earth’s destruction. Havok and the Wasp joined him but had a daughter and expressed concern about her erasure. Kang teleported her into the timestream to convince them to do what needed to be done. Success was near and the Avengers averted the Earth’s destruction and destroyed the tachyon dam that the twins created to keep Kang from changing the past. Kang returned to this time and began absorbing energy from the wounded Celestial, hoping to conquer the universe. Havok overpowered him and Kang retreated into the timestream with the Chronos Corps. The twins were defeated and Earth’s destruction was averted, so reality continued on its course, though Planet X survived in a divergent reality (Eart-13133).
Kang then worked with Immortus and Iron Lad who waited for the last Avenger. It was Captain America who had ended up in their time with a damaged Time Infinity Gem. They contained the gem and indicated that the current crisis that threatened the multiverse could be averted if they allowed him to continue on his present course. But Cap couldn’t stand that there were people in danger and stole the time gem, returning to his era in Earth-616.
When the Inhuman King Black Bolt destroyed Attilan in a battle against Thanos, the Inhumans were scattered. Kang teleported Black Bolt’s son Ahura to his fortress and raised him. Black Bolt found him and put him through Terrigenesis, and then struck a deal with Kang, that he could take Ahura through the timestream so that he would survive the coming Incursions which were going to destroy the multiverse. Kang agreed on the condition that should the multiverse be restored, he could keep Ahura forever. When the multiverse was restored, Black Bolt wanted his son back and despite Ahura’s initial resistance, once he learned the truth about Kang’s manipulations, he turned against him using his powers of psychic projections to control Kang’s actions to never again harm the Inhumans.
When there was a problem with the timestream, Kang started to split into variants of himself. One of them, Mr. Gryphon became stuck in modern-day Earth-616.
Sometime later, Kang travelled to the year 4657 and witnessed how the stygian darkness consumed worlds. In studying it, he came upon an omnipotent future Thanos who captured him and placed him in stasis. It wasn’t until Adam Warlock liberated Kang, Kang caused a distraction using Starfox and Pip the Troll and it enabled present Thanos to reset the timeline.
When Gamora used the Infinity Gems to create another universe, several amalgams were created, which left Kang combined with the young embiggening hero Kamala Kang, AKA Ms. Marvel, creating an alternate persona, Kamala Kang. Though the powerful mutant telepath Emma Frost and trickster god Loki Laufeyson, AKA Loki, helped restore them to their original bodies and minds.
