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Kang went from Marvel’s weirdest villain to the MCU’s future

He rides a giant sphinx

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For nearly 60 years, the time-traveling malcontent Kang — who makes his big-screen debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania this week after a tease in Loki season 1 — has been a staple of Marvel Comics . Yet if you mention his name to a Marvel fan, don’t be surprised if a certain familiar look comes into their eye; that glazed, vacant, middle-distance stare of instant apathy that can only mean:

“Oh, God. Kang again? ”

In space, no one can hear you scream — but that doesn't stop an evil-doer from trying. This week, Polygon celebrates all forms of sci-fi villainy because someone has to (or else).

The trouble is that Kang, with his one-dimensional villainy and retro-Silver Age sneering, has become synonymous with impenetrable storylines that are about 10 steps too complicated for their own good: navel-gazing, self-referential comics that obsess over their own continuity for continuity’s sake. You would think, if you were a multidimensional warlord from the far-flung year of 3000 A.D., that life would at least be interesting. But boredom, ironically, is a sensation that Kang himself would be the first to sympathize with.

This, readers, is an unconscionable crime greater than any Kang himself could have devised. There is, or ought to be, nothing boring about a garishly costumed, flamboyantly over-the-top, multidimensional time-traveler who periodically dresses up like an Egyptian pharaoh for kicks. All of which is to say, Kang is great when Kang is recognized for what he is: the silliest damned villain in the Marvel multiverse.

Who is Kang?

Born Nathaniel Richards in a distant 31st century where war, conflict, and struggle are unknown, the man who would become the Conqueror found it all utterly, interminably dull. Resolving to emulate the deeds of great warlords from Alexander and Genghis Khan onward, he thus jetted backward through time for the cheap thrill of conquering everything and everybody in his path. (If you’re wondering, Kang is a distant descendant of Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, but that’s less a central building block of his character and more a piece of trivia.)

For comic writer Kurt Busiek, that simple premise is the key to unlocking what makes Kang interesting in the first place. As the writer of more than one major Kang storyline during his tenure on the Avengers title, Busiek would be the first to admit that he has, in his words, “some skin in the game” when it comes to this character. But as he tells Polygon via email, “I think he works best when he isn’t treated as some generic time-traveling villain… Any story where Kang uses time travel to sneak around and set things up for him to win easily in some coming conflict seems to me to miss the point of the character. He doesn’t want easy. If he did he could have stayed at home.”

Busiek has homed in on the powerful secret to good Kang stories throughout history, the basic fact about the character that so many writers seem to miss. Kang the Conqueror is ridiculous. He is chaotically over-the-top and flamboyantly evil, and he’s the first person in the world to admit it. He doesn’t even have superpowers: Just an endless array of deus ex machina future tech. He is gloriously, willfully, and unapologetically weird . And that’s just the way Marvel should keep him.

To understand that central weirdness, you need to go back and look at Kang’s very first comic appearance — a story in which he isn’t even Kang at all.

Born in Arizona (in the year 3000)

In 1963, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were still just at the cusp of their most fruitful years of creative partnership. Even so, they already had it in them to produce the periodic glimmer of mad genius in their work. In that year’s Fantastic Four #19 , the foursome travel back in time to ancient Egypt in search of lost medical technology, only to be immediately taken captive by soldiers of the mad Pharaoh Rama-Tut: in actual fact, a megalomaniacal, ray gun-wielding time-traveler.

Every part of Rama-Tut is unignorably, and seemingly deliberately, ridiculous, from a panel showing him drawing his inspiration from 1950s TV cowboy dramas to his getup that strongly resembles the costume from a 1978 Steve Martin routine. Most impressively of all, the time machine he takes back to the past turns out to be the actual, literal Sphinx: the panel showing him bringing the monument to a crashing thud after zipping through space-time remains a thing of beauty six decades later.

Even at the outset, then, there was nothing about Rama-Tut that readers would have been expected to take particularly seriously, even by the standards of Silver Age Marvel Comics. He was also a character that might have been just as easily forgotten, were it not for an odd and surprising decision just shy of one year later. In 1964’s Avengers #8 , the Kirby and Lee team introduce us to a brazenly self-confident warlord from the future, intent on picking a fight with the Earth’s greatest heroes.

This, for the first time, is Kang in the identity and purple-bedecked costume in which we’d come to know him. And right out of the gate, he exhibits all the preposterously extra personality you might expect, from his sexily arrogant insouciance to his obnoxious certainty in his own success. When we first catch sight of him, he’s lounging like a Playboy centerfold on what can only be described as an invisible flying beanbag chair, and lackadaisically declaring, “No need for such unseemly speed! Time means nothing to Kang, the Conqueror!!” (Thor’s deadpan reply, “I find his confidence disturbing,” is a model of perfect Stan Lee comic timing.)

But most important of all is a surprise reveal: Kang is none other than a future version of Rama-Tut, having been knocked off course on his way back from Egypt and shot forward to his own future before zipping back to our own present. This was unusual! A bit of unexpected, and totally unnecessary, linking of continuity that gave a simple character just enough head-spinning complication to be mind-trippy in an early-’60s sort of way. It was a brilliant, oddball move from Kirby and Lee, and it made Kang just bizarre enough to become a fixture in the Marvel firmament.

And it was about to get weirder, because two months later, Lee (this time alongside journeyman Kirby replacement Don Heck) introduced a third time-traveling ne’er-do-well , this one going by the name Immortus. Unlike the immediate Kang/Tut connection, it’s unlikely that Lee had any idea at this early stage that he was multiplying Kang’s identity yet again.

And yet, despite themselves, they were, which brings us to the next absurd thing we need to understand about Kang: No matter how much continuity-loathing readers might hate him, it’s not nearly as much as he hates himself.

Time can change me

Roughly a decade after Kang and Immortus were first introduced in Avengers , writer Steve Englehart opted to draw a connection between the two characters, establishing that Immortus was, in fact, the farthest-future iteration of Kang, mellowed out and now dedicated to stopping the more disastrous mistakes of his brash, boneheaded younger self.

Englehart explained his reasoning to Polygon via email: “When I wrote my first Kang story, people told me no one had ever written a coherent time travel story; there were always things that didn’t connect. I tried my best to solve that myself, and I think any Kang story that connects all the dots has the potential to be good, while any story that hasn’t been thought all the way through is never gonna get there.”

Englehart’s editor and predecessor as Avengers writer, Roy Thomas, concurs, explaining via email, “Any time travel story mostly just has to involve the reader in either solving an historical question or in bringing about (or avoiding!) a particular historical outcome. That was the basis [...] of the handful of Kang stories I wrote.”

No surprise, then, that writers have increasingly made halting his own alternate selves one of Kang’s central preoccupations from Englehart’s day to our own. Years later (or maybe earlier, this is Kang we’re talking about, after all), writer Allan Heinberg and artist Jim Cheung would introduce the character of Iron Lad in their 2005 Young Avengers : an ersatz junior Iron Man, revealed (to the surprise of both readers and teammates) to be a teen version of Kang desperate to avoid his future of villainy.

Kiddie Kang may not have been successful, timelines being cruel bastards in the end, but his desperate war against his adult self remains one of the most purely enjoyable Kang stories in recent years. And if all of this twisting and turning through the timeline is starting to sound like more trouble than it’s worth, don’t worry: Kang has a solution to that, too.

Kangdom come

From Kang’s earliest days, Marvel has had the wisdom to embrace the contradictions and time loops in his biography for what they are: gloriously stupid and perfectly bizarre. Consider the early instance (from Kirby and Lee’s Fantastic Four Annual #2 ) in which Rama-Tut has a chance encounter with fellow time-lost villain Doctor Doom while floating through space-time. After briefly considering killing one another, the two of them are halted in their tracks by a sudden freakout that they might actually be the same person from different points in the timestream. The ensuing standoff is the Kirby/Lee sci-fi version of your best stoned dorm room conversation. It might be the greatest Marvel Comics sequence ever published.

Indeed, so many Kangs ended up populating the various Marvel timelines and multiverses, and so many writers turned to the trope as an easy shorthand or story escape card, that the situation gradually became untenable for character and publisher alike. So it was with this in mind that writers Roger Stern and Walt Simonson, alongside artist John Buscema, introduced the Council of Cross-Time Kangs, a Kang Gang assembled from across all timelines, dedicated to keeping the unrulier Kangs and their universes in line. The gathering turns out to be big enough to fill a whole-ass arena, hootin’ and hollerin’ their way to world domination.

It’s the most bonkers concept in a career devoted to them, and it exemplifies the Kang ethos in a nutshell: Kang is everything, everywhere, and everybody he needs to be. It’s always, constantly, too much, and therefore doomed to failure, but that doesn’t matter. The fun is in the idiocy to begin with.

So when Kang stories fail, it’s because latter-day comic writers, working in the shadow of Watchmen and Dark Knight and the conviction that comics aren’t just for kids, can’t wrap their heads around the notion of stories becoming beautiful by grace of their unabashed stupidity. They trip over themselves by feeling the one thing Kang himself never feels: embarrassed by Kang.

They might do well to remember Busiek’s words of wisdom when it comes to the character. “He’s not Dr. Doom, he’s not the Red Skull, he’s not Magneto,” Busiek says. “He’s Alexander the Great in purple pinstriped hip boots at the head of a sci-fi army. And every battle is do or die, because otherwise you ain’t really alive.”

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The Marvel Multiverse: Everything You Need To Know About Kang, Incursions, And The Next Two Avengers Movies

Our deep dive into the MCU Multiverse.

The Multiverse And The Sacred Timeline

The tva, the time keepers, and he who remains, traveling through the multiverse, kang the conqueror and the quantum realm.

From the very beginning, the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been divided up into Phases. And in 2019, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige declared that the films of the first three Phases were going to be known as The Infinity Saga . What was next? 

Beginning with Phase Four, Marvel Studios started to roll out – both in the movies, and on the Disney+ television shows – the seeds of what is now known as The Multiverse Saga. But it has proven confusing, especially to audiences who don’t religiously follow every major Marvel storyline, and don’t quite get what the Multiverse is. With that in mind, we decided to compile everything that we know (and that you need to know) about the MCU Multiverse, so you can hop back into Marvel’s upcoming movies and prep yourself for the insanity that’s likely coming in movies like Deadpool and Wolverine , Avengers 5 , and the planned Avengers: Secret Wars .  

What Exactly is The Multiverse?

Essentially, the Multiverse refers to the existence of other universes that co-exist simultaneously to ours. In the season finale of Loki Season 1, the image presented shows co-existing universes “stacked” on top of each other, but operating independently. Usually, details in the multiverses are different from what we know about our primary universe. (On Earth-838, for example, cars go on red and stop on green. It’s crazy, I know.) But there can be similarities between the worlds. 

How was the MCU’s Multiverse discovered?

For this, we have to leap forward all the way to the 31st century. In that distant future, a respected scientist named Kang discovered the existence of other universes that were operating concurrently to his own. He wasn’t alone in his findings. Other Kangs in other universes also were discovering that alternate universes existed. In time, the Kangs figured out how to communicate. These top minds of their respective universes collaborated to advance each other’s universes, leading to a period of tremendous peace and prosperity.

And we all lived happily ever after?

Well… no. Not every Kang variant was so benevolent. Some saw these existing universes as realms to conquer, and so they waged a war. One in particular, known as Kang the Conqueror, likely launched this battle for supremacy. Dubbed the Multiversal War, the conflict threatened to pull apart the fabric of all reality, and almost was the end of existence as everyone would have known it.

How did the Multiversal War end?

The initial Kang variant from the 31st century, believed by many Marvel fans to be Nathaniel Richards, encountered a creature that was “created from all the tears in reality.” Its name was Alioth, and this incredibly powerful creature was capable of consuming both time and space itself. In his own words, the initial Kang variant “harnessed the beast’s power,” and used it to bring about an end to the Multiversal War. We learned, in Loki Season 2, that this version of Kang was assisted by Ravona Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) in this battle. In the end, he (and likely a handful of other Kang variants) defeated Kang the Conqueror, then exiled him to the Quantum Realm, where they believed he’d be trapped forever.

Once victorious, what did the initial Kang variant do?

In an effort to simplify things, Kang constructed a Citadel that exists in a Void that’s located at the end of time. Outside of the Citadel, the all-consuming Alioth continues to serve its master. And from his location in the Citadel, Kang organized all of the multiverses into one single timeline. It became known as The Sacred Timeline, and everything that is supposed to happen follows this timeline, for all time. Always.

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How does Kang make sure that The Sacred Timeline stays intact?

Well, he can’t do it all himself. And so Kang created The Time Variance Authority (TVA), a bureaucratic organization tasked with policing The Sacred Timeline. The TVA agents travel through time to prevent significant variations – known as Nexus Events – from happening along it. They capture Variants (the cause of the Nexus Event), delete the branch off of the Sacred Timeline, and report all happenings to the high and mighty Time Keepers. These three mysterious rulers of the TVA are the ones committed to maintaining The Sacred Timeline. With the help of their TVA agents, they protect and preserve the proper flow of time. Well, they used to. Not anymore . More on that in a few.

Did the Avengers mess with The Sacred Timeline when they time traveled in Avengers: Endgame?

According to TVA executive Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), no. The Avengers were supposed to travel through time, collect the Infinity Stones from past locations, and use them to prevent Thanos from completing his mission. But a Nexus Event did happen during The Avengers’ mission. Loki got his hands on the Tesseract and disappeared. That wasn’t supposed to happen. The moment he disappeared, though, he was detained by the TVA, they reset his deviated branch, and all was OK with the world.

So, Kang got rid of every other Multiverse?

No. Essentially, The Sacred Timeline is the main storyline that we have been following in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And our Earth has been dubbed Earth-616. There can be tiny deviations that run parallel to The Sacred Timeline, and the TVA leaves them be, so long as they don’t branch out far enough to lead to the creation of a new Kang. In an interview with ScreenCrush , Loki screenwriter Michael Caldron used the analogy of threads on a rope to explain how multiverses still exist alongside the Sacred Timeline. He said:

If you zoomed in on the timeline, it wouldn’t necessarily look like a straight line. It might look like almost the intertwined strands of a rope fluctuating and spiking here and there. When it becomes a problem for the TVA is when, according to their own rules, when could something branch off in a way that it could actually produce a new timeline that could produce a new version of He Who Remains? That is the practical thing that they’re guarding against.

It’s also possible (even probable) that there are countless multiverses happening at once away from the confines of The Sacred Timeline, and in those multiverses, other Kangs exist. Because as we saw in the finale of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania , hundreds of different Kangs had gathered together into the Council of Kangs, and that’s going to be a major issue in the MCU’s future.

Back to the Time Keepers. Are they real?

They are not. The Time Keepers are a conceit created by the initial Kang variant, who goes by the nickname He Who Remains. They are like animatronic figures that you would find at a Chuck E. Cheese. They are basically “The Wizard” behind the curtain in Oz. At one point, as we saw in Loki Season 2, it was the lone image of Kang that stood where The Time Keepers stand. Over time, that changed. 

But the TVA is real?

Yes, the TVA is real, and the work that they have been doing on behalf of He Who Remains to maintain the proper flow of time along The Sacred Timeline is real… and really important. We do learn over the course of Loki Seasons 1 and 2 that the TVA agents had actual lives, and were taken from various universes against their own will, then made to believe they served The Time Keepers. By the end of Loki Season 2, however, the TVA now works in service of Loki, who sits where the Time Loom once sat.  

How powerful is the TVA and, by extension, Kang?

Incredibly powerful. TVA office workers keep Infinity Stones as paperweights. So the MacGuffin that drove the first major Saga in the MCU, the Infinity Stones and the Infinity Gauntlet, are mere baubles in the eyes of the Time Keepers – aka, Kang. Loki, at one point, asks “Is this the greatest power in the universe?” And all indications suggest that yes, an organization that is able to move through time, space, and multiple universes sounds unbelievably powerful. Which probably makes Loki the most powerful being in the MCU . Or one of them, at least.  

So, The Sacred Timeline is a good thing, right?

That depends on who you ask. He Who Remains certainly believes so, because he has seen the alternative, and he thinks that his variants are horrible, dangerous threats. He’s actually terrified of their potential return. This Kang worked incredibly hard to defeat Kang the Conqueror and end The Multiversal War. He thinks unraveling it would be a massive mistake. In the Loki Season 1 finale, He Who Remains was confronted by Loki ( Tom Hiddleston ) and the Loki variant Sylvie Laufeydottir (Sophia Di Martino), who don’t believe in a predetermined timeline that eliminates free will. Choices should be allowed, even if they lead to Nexus Events that branch off of The Sacred Timeline. Loki EVENTUALLY prevented Sylvie from destroying the TVA, but it took an ultimate sacrifice on his part to bring that story to a conclusion. 

What did Loki and Sylvie do?

As Loki Season 2 came to a close, the Asgardian claimed his throne. He figured out how to time slip all the way back to the moment where Mobius ( Owen Wilson ) and his TVA team tried to save the Time Loom. Only, Loki destroyed the Time Loom... and replaced it. He took all of the timeline threads, weaved them into a proper cloak for himself, and established himself as the bridge at the center of all the Multiverses. And he created an image of the legendary Asgardian tree, Yggdrasil. It was beautiful.  

How do characters in the MCU access the Multiverse?

So far, we have seen a few different ways to access the Multiverse, as classic MCU characters like Doctor Strange ( Benedict Cumberbatch ) and Scott Lang ( Paul Rudd ) learn of its existence. In Sam Raimi ’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness , we were introduced to America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), a teenager with the power to travel through the Multiverse. Chavez isn’t sure how she does it. All she knows is that when she’s terrified, a star-shaped portal opens up behind her, and sucks her into another universe. 

Can America Chavez control that power?

Not initially. The first time that it happened to her, she was a child, and was frightened by a bee that landed on her hand while she picked flowers. The portal opened up, and swallowed America’s two mothers, separating them from their daughter. She assumes that they are dead, but has no proof, leaving the door open to a potential reunion in the future. By the end of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness , Chavez started figuring out how to better control her portal powers, and we last saw her at Kamar-Taj, training with Wong (Benedict Wong), the current Sorcerer Supreme.  

Is there an America Chavez in every universe, like there’s a Kang in almost every universe?

Actually, no. Chavez tells Doctor Strange that she has visited 73 parallel universes, and discovered that there are no other versions of her in any of them. 

So, anyone who wants to travel through the Multiverse needs America Chavez’s help?

Every Marvel Movie (So Far), Ranked

No, the MCU has shown us several other ways to travel through the Multiverse. 

One of them is called Dream Walking, a dark magical spell that is taken from the pages of the corrosive, extremely dangerous Darkhold book of spells. Someone who Dream Walks possesses the body of an alternate self in a parallel dimension, and basically uses them as a puppet. The possession does not create a permanent link between worlds, but the person who is possessed can do irreparable damage to their universe. In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness , we watch the Earth-616 version of Wanda Maximoff ( Elizabeth Olsen ) possess the Earth-838 version of herself, and use her as a tool to fight The Illuminati (more on them in a moment). We also see Doctor Strange Dream Walk into a corpse version of himself that has been left in Earth-616. Wong warns Strange that he’ll likely experience consequences as a result of Dream Walking into a corpse. Sure enough, as the movie concludes, Strange grows a third eye in the middle of his forehead.

Another way that we have seen involves the Quantum Bands of power that Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) uses. Though it's not explained very well in The Marvels , the villainous Kree leader Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) uses a band to tear holes in the universe, creating jump points. One of these tears opens up a portal to an alternate universe, in which Monica Rambeau (Teyona Parris) meets Beast (Kelsey Grammer) of the original X-Men.  

What’s the worst that could happen if you do something drastic in a parallel universe?

An incursion could happen. Basically, in an incursion, the boundary that exists between two universes erodes and they collide, resulting in the destruction of one or both of the universes. That’s really bad. 

Has an incursion ever occurred in the MCU?

Yes, at least twice, and both were Doctor Strange’s fault. 

While running away from Wanda, America Chavez transports our Doctor Strange through multiple multiverses, eventually landing the two of them in Earth-838. Here, Strange encounters several variants of people he knows, notably Christine Palmer ( Rachel McAdams ) and Karl Mordo ( Chiwetel Ejiofor ). He also comes face to face with The Illuminati, a team assembled by Earth-838 Strange to basically police the Multiverse and make tough decisions to maintain order. 

But, the members of The Illuminati also confess that Earth-838 Doctor Strange was a massive threat to the Multiverse.

What happened to Earth-838 Doctor Strange?

His universe, just like our Earth-616, also faced Thanos. While the existing heroes of Earth-838 banded together to fight the Mad Titan, Strange took it upon himself to find his own solution. He turned to the dark magic in the Darkhold, and began Dream Walking through multiverses in search of a means of stopping Thanos. Strange became obsessed, and couldn’t stop Dream Walking. As a result, he inadvertently triggered an incursion. An entire universe was decimated, and everyone died. It was all Strange’s fault. He eventually helped the heroes of his universe defeat Thanos, but then agreed to be sacrificed for his crimes. Black Bolt (Anson Mount) killed him by whispering, “I’m sorry” with his powerful voice. 

When was the other incursion?

We’re not exactly sure when it happened, but once again, Doctor Strange was to blame. Not Earth-616 Doctor Strange, and not Earth-838 Doctor Strange. This version (also played by Benedict Cumberbatch) lives in an unnamed universe, one decimated by an incursion. We are told that this Strange lost a battle to… something, and it trapped him in this decrepit universe. He caused the incursion by embracing the Darkhold and seeking an alternate reality where he and Christine were together, and happy. Only, that reality didn’t exist. Everywhere he looked, he found pain. It’s suggested that Strange killed off several other Stranges, to prevent them from experiencing the same levels of hurt and betrayal. 

So basically, Stephen Strange is the biggest threat to the Multiverse as we know it?

For the time being. Because it was Strange – with an “assist” from Peter Parker – who opened up a gateway to the multiverse in Spider-Man: No Way Home . Not intentionally. Strange was attempting The Runes of Kof-Kol, a spell meant to erase people’s collective memories so the world would forget Spider-Man’s secret identity. Only, Peter changed the parameters of the spell, and tampered with it by stating, mid-spell, that everyone who knew he was Spider-Man should still know. Thanks to the broken magic, Peter somehow opened gates between universes. 

So magic can open doors between parallel universes?

Yes, apparently. And close them, as well, which Strange figures out how to do at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home . 

OK, America Chavez opens portals between universes, and dark magic allows certain powerful people to Dream Work between worlds. Are there other ways to access the Multiverse?

Actually, yes. When John Krasinski’s Reed Richards appears on Earth-838 in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness , he arrives to the Illuminati council meeting through a glowing transporter device. We will later see hundreds of Kang variants use that same rectangular portal at the end of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania , so I believe that device is some tool for traveling the Multiverse. 

We learn a great deal about the MCU Multiverse when we catch up with Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) in Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania . Janet, as you may recall, was trapped in the Quantum Realm. While down there, she encountered a Kang variant who had been exiled there by his own people because of the threat he posed to all space and time. The other Kangs feared this variant, dubbed Kang the Conqueror. And in the Quantum Realm, he had a ship that allowed him to travel through the Multiverse. Only, while in the Quantum Realm, the ship’s power core had been damaged. 

So he was trapped there for good?

Yes… until Janet helped him to fix the power source. This was before she realized Kang the Conqueror’s true, evil nature. Once Janet figured out that Kang’s plan was to escape the Quantum Realm and resume his practice of decimating universes, she used Pym Particles to enlarge the power source of Kang’s ship, rendering it useless. 

And that worked?

For a long time. Until Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) opened up a portal to the Quantum Realm. This allowed Kang to kidnap Cassie and Scott, and force Ant-Man to repair the enlarged power source, making Kang’s Multiversal ship operational once more. 

Kang the Conqueror resembled He Who Remains in this key way. He also said that he knows what is coming at the end of time, because he claims to have seen it. And he thinks that he’s the best chance of stopping it… whatever IT is. (“Me,” he warns. “A lot of me.”) But Kang the Conqueror is definitely far more sinister than He Who Remains, who at least established The Sacred Timeline and did what he could to maintain it. The Conqueror just seems to want to destroy everything in his path. He used his time in the Quantum Realm to establish an army. Once released from the Realm, he planned to exact revenge against the Kangs who defeated them, and establish The Kang Dynasty, with himself at the helm. 

How was Kang the Conqueror stopped?

Scott and Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) fought him off and prevented him from stepping through a portal that would have transported him from the Quantum Realm to Earth-616. Then, Scott slammed a handful of Pym Particles into Kang’s ship core and… the device kind of exploded? Taking Kang along with it? I don’t know, the end of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is really vague and open to interpretation. To the point where the film included a Paul Rudd voiceover that asks, “We really did defeat Kang, didn’t we?” Well, yes. But also no.

What happens next?

According to the mid-credits scene in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania , an infinite amount of Kang variants will begin another Multiversal war. They’re annoyed that Kang the Conqueror has been vanquished. More important, they’re mad that superheroes keep getting dangerously close to interacting with – and possibly altering – the Multiverse. If he is to be believed, He Who Remains’s existence was the only thing staving off the recreation of divergent timelines, Nexus events, and multiverses. Now, it's Loki's existence that maintains balance and order.  

Not every upcoming Marvel movie and television show is expected to touch on the Multiverse. For example, The Marvels presented a standalone story that didn't involve Kang (but did have that one multiversal twist), and Captain America: Brave New World will be a political thriller, rather than a Multiverse-hopping adventure. But Loki Season 2 definitely expanded on Kang’s mission , with Jonathan Majors returning, and the next two Avengers movies should bring various heroes together, so the Multiverse will continue to be a massive topic in the MCU through Phases 5 and 6, and possibly beyond.   

Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.

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Everything you need to know about Kang, the MCU’s next Thanos

Kang the Conqueror has arrived to dominate the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania . Jonathan Majors’s villainous character is set to shake up the MCU as the big bad of the Multiverse Saga, making for an Avengers-level threat far greater than Thanos.

He has powers like Iron Man

His ancestry, he is a nexus being, he used to be iron lad, he was once a pharaoh, scarlet centurion, the birth of kang, he conquers earth.

Now that the stage is set for the Conqueror to wage war with the MCU, here’s everything audiences need to know about Kang and his long history in Marvel Comics.

Though Kang is a superpowerful being, he doesn’t technically have any superpowers. His strength comes from his intellect, which has allowed him to construct a advanced armor using a rare material from the 40th century.

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Like Iron Man, this suit gives him super strength, and it can shoot energy beams, create force fields, and produce antigravity fields and hover pads. The suit even allows Kang to travel through time and transfer his consciousness into another body.

Born in the 31st century as Nathaniel Richards, Kang is said to be descended from Reed Richards’ time-traveling father, also named Nathaniel, who brought peace to Kang’s war-torn reality. However, the comics have also suggested that he is a descendant of the Fantastic Four’s mortal enemy, Doctor Doom.

Whatever his lineage may be, Kang has proven himself to have an extraordinary intellect rivaling that of Mister Fantastic and Doctor Doom. His relationship with both geniuses may also factor into Marvel Studios’ upcoming Fantastic Four film.

According to Marvel lore, Nexus Beings are entities that can influence probability and alter the future and reality itself, making them important to the flow of the time stream. Each universe has a single Nexus Being, and they each serve as the focal point for the mystical energies of their own realities.

Kang shares such a title with a few known figures across the multiverse, with some of the notable examples being the Scarlet Witch, Odin, Vision, and Jean Grey. In the multiverse lore, some real-life figures are also Nexus Beings, including Queen Elizabeth I, Napoleon Bonaparte, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy.

In the comics, Kang travels back in time to save his younger self from a group of bullies and reveals the boy’s future as a supervillain. Horrified by his future self’s actions, the young Nathaniel steals Kang’s time travel tech and flees to the past, choosing to take a more righteous path and become a superhero.

He dons high-tech armor modeled after Iron Man’s, forms a new team of heroes called the Young Avengers, and even dates teammate Cassie Lang. Unfortunately, this heroic streak doesn’t last, as he eventually fulfills his destiny by becoming a villain like his older counterpart.

Kang was introduced to Marvel Comics when he was ruling over ancient Egypt under the guise of Pharaoh Rama-Tut. He had decided to travel to this era and become this false god-king after growing bored with his time of origin for being devoid of war.

However, his rule ends when the Fantastic Four travel back in time and lead a rebellion against him.

After his reign as Rama-Tut ends, Kang accidentally travels to the present day in Earth-616, where he encounters Doctor Doom. Since Doom is possibly Kang’s ancestor, the latter is inspired to create an identity similar to his, becoming the Scarlet Centurion.

He tries to take over the modern era by stripping the Avengers of their free will. Though he succeeds and creates another timeline where he is in control, the Scarlet Centurion is defeated by Earth-616’s Avengers, driving him to relinquish his new identity.

Though Kang was already a time-traveling tyrant when he debuted, he didn’t officially become known as Kang until after his loss as the Scarlet Centurion. Following his crushing defeat at the hands of the Avengers, he flees from the present day and accidentally ends up in the 40th century.

Since this future Earth has been ravaged by war, he assumes the identity of Kang the Conqueror and easily seizes control of the planet before taking over the entire galaxy.

The “Kang Dynasty” comic book storyline saw Kang and his army succeed in conquering the Earth in Marvel’s mainstream universe. His invasion involves him destroying the United Nations and annihilating Washington D.C. and its inhabitants, forcing the planet to surrender to him.

Though this may seem to pale in comparison to how Thanos wiped out half of the universe, the fact that he made the entire Earth submit to him of their own free will is especially terrifying. As a result, audiences might see this global invasion come to fruition in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty .

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A Complete Guide On Kang the Conqueror — Marvel’s Most Unpredictable Villain

In Loki , fans saw Jonathan Majors appear as He Who Remains. The man in control of the timestream.

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He dictated the timeline and allowed Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie to make it into the Citadel. He Who Remains offered them a choice. Take over his spot and control the timeline or destroy the timeline and allow his variants to take control.

Any Marvel fan remembers when Sylvie thought He Who Remains was bluffing and killed him, only to realize what she had done. Loki Season 2 will continue exploring what happens when the MCU has unleashed Kang the Conqueror back into the timeline, but that won’t be the next time we see the villain.

Kang will appear in several MCU movies, and his story is unique because he is a time-traveling menace who might not be the strongest villain but is a mastermind with one goal. He wants to rule the Multiverse and will try to do whatever he can to take it.

Who is Kang the Conqueror?

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Kang is unique in the Marvel universe because his original self is from the future. As a descendant of Nathaniel Richards, Kang managed to find his ancestor’s time machine and was able to crack time travel when his world was forced back into the dark ages.

Interestingly enough, Reed Richards is related to Kang the Conqueror, while other iterations have teased that the villain was a descendant of Doctor Doom. The villain has fought many super hero teams, such as the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, who always are there to stop him. Sometimes, the villain is stopped by his other variants because some variants don’t want a variant of themself ruling the Multiverse.

Here’s an excerpt from Marvel explains how Kang managed to leave his timeline and begin his conquest:

Nathaniel Richards was born in the alternate timeline Earth-6311, aka Other-Earth. In this reality, the Dark Ages never occurred and technology developed without interruption. Their timeline having diverged circa 300 AD, the people of Other-Earth made their first moon landing in 900 AD, which became the first year of their new calendar. After a peaceful era, during which a lunar colony was established, a Great War between the colony and Earth destroyed the moon and plunged Other-Earth back into a primitive state. Nathaniel Richards of Earth-616, attempting time travel, reached Other-Earth and settled there; he used his knowledge to help rebuild that world and married Cassandra, daughter of the Matriarch of the Eyriennes. He became known as both the Warlord (erroneously) and the Benefactor. Approximately 1900 years later, in the calendar year 3000, Nathaniel Richards’ descendant and namesake was born into an age of peace and enlightenment thanks to his ancestor’s efforts. At age 16, the young robotics student Nathaniel develops a working Growing Man stimuloid model. However, his throat is slit by a bully, Morgan, causing him to spend the next year hospitalized. While recovering, he studies cross-dimensional recordings of the heroic age of Earth-616, brought to his reality by the Benefactor. At age 25, Nathaniel discovers the Benefactor’s citadel, his former fortress, and a long-sealed chamber, which contains part of a time machine, and plans for its operation.

Why Is Kang So Dangerous?

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The scariest thing about Kang is that you are facing an enemy with infinite lives. Sure, some variants of Kang don’t want to rule the Multiverse, but most do. If the Avengers defeat one version of Kang, they will inevitably fight another.

If several variants of Kang work together and combine their forces, then that could be enough to take down the Avengers and any other super hero team in the MCU. Kang isn’t a villain you can easily defeat with the Multiverse existing because it will be a never-ending problem. The only way to truly be safe from Kang is to end the Multiverse.

In Loki , that’s what He Who Remains does. He won the Multiversal War by removing one timeline away from the others and had complete control. This allowed him to be safe from his other variants while preserving a timeline away from the destruction and tyranny of Kang.

As Loki and Sylvie find out their timeline had every moment orchestrated by He Who Remains, so in the end, Kang has always influenced the MCU and allowed certain moments to happen.

How Many Different Variants Of Kang Are There?

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Kang has been called many names in Marvel Comics. Kang the Conqueror, Scarlet Centurion, Rama-Tut, Immortus, Ironlad, Nathaniel Richards, and Doctor Doom. The MCU might throw in a few different versions of Kang, but the villain has a plethora of different identities.

Not all of Kang’s variants are bad, as Ironlad actually joined the Young Avengers to hunt down his evil variants and prevent himself from conquering the universe. While Kang has had a few different variants, the bigger MCU projects might choose not to adapt all of the versions of Kang for the MCU.

Moon Knight did confirm that Rama-Tut exists in the MCU. Still, Scarlet Centurion might not make it into the Marvel Cinematic Universe due to the villain being a minor nuisance to the Fantastic Four for a little bit. Iron Lad can appear as part of the Young Avengers in the MCU and help take down his evil variants.

The MCU can easily show fans several of Kang’s variants and explore this wackier side of the villain without going too weird as the comics did. This will for sure make Kang a lot different from Thanos as other universes will have different versions of the villain while Thanos mostly stays the same in the Multiverse.

Why Is Kang the Villain Of the Multiverse Saga?

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With the Multiverse finally playing a role in the MCU, Kang makes perfect sense to be the next major villain. One thing that the Infinity Saga did well was introduce Thanos as well as the infinity stones, so that way fans knew what to expect.

Phase Four has established that the Multiverse was unleashed after He Who Remains dies. This variant of Kang had successfully taken himself out of the timeline and prevented his universe from dealing with his more aggressive variants.

A Multiversal War has already happened in the MCU due to several variants of Kang wanting to control all of the Multiverse. This will most likely happen again as the problem for the Avengers isn’t dealing with one Kang but an infinite amount.

This means that fans will get to several versions of Kang, which will be very different from Josh Brolin’s Thanos, waiting until Avengers: Infinity War (2018) to have a major role. Now, Kang can appear in several MCU projects and build up the villain’s arc as super heroes learn from their first few encounters how dangerous Kang is, but that doesn’t mean that all of the super heroes will be able to defeat Kang alone.

What Are Kang’s Abilities?

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Kang is a genius who is a great inventor. One of the perks of being from the future is that Kang has access to much more advanced technology, which has led to the villain having superior weaponry and gadgets.

The Avengers won’t beat Kang if they try to use brute force or traditional tactics as the villain is an excellent strategist and tactician. The only times Kang doesn’t win in the comics is when he is tricked, or an unexpected tactic is used. Since Kang also has a lot of resources, the Avengers have to fight his henchmen as the villain always has an army ready to throw at the super heroes.

For the most part, Kang is the brilliant scientist who became the warlord meaning that the villain might be able to hold his own in a fight, but it won’t be his strength keeping him alive but his gadgets. One benefit of ruling several universes is that Kang has a large reserve of resources to throw at the Avengers or to be able to invade more universes.

What is Kang’s Weakness?

Kang’s biggest weakness is fighting someone without his technology. Without his suit or any weapon, the villain is just a human being from the future. He has no enhanced strength or anything else besides his genius.

This means that Kang might be bested in combat, but any super hero shouldn’t expect Kang to give up so easily. His determination and willpower have led him to invade and conquer entire universes so Kang won’t surrender even if the Avengers defeat him.

Does Kang Love Anyone?

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In the comics, Kang does end up loving a certain person. Ravonna Renslayer. Shockingly, she has already appeared in the MCU as one of the leaders of the TVA. In the comics, she doesn’t love Kang immediately, which makes him try to prove his love to her several times.

Ultimately, Ravonna is swayed and becomes his lover until she dies. This causes Kang to do everything he can to bring her back to life. For the MCU, Loki might likely introduce Renslayer to Kang and set up this arc.

Renslayer could play a pivotal role in Kang’s story as he might waver in his desire to conquer if it meant he could spend his life with Ravonna. Or, if Renslayer dies, that could be the catalyst event that makes Kang go invade Earth.

How Was Kang Introduced Into the MCU?

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Kang was introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Tom Hiddleston’s Loki as He Who Remains. Right away, fans learn that Jonathan Major’s character has gone by many names over the years. Some of his variants caused the Multiversal War, leading to the Multiverse almost being destroyed.

He Who Remains used Alioth — a creature capable of consuming reality and time — to vanquish the other variants and restore peace. He isolated the timeline from the Multiverse and kept the timeline away from the Multiverse until he was killed by Sylvie, who decided not to believe him.

Will Kang Be Different In the MCU?

It seems that Kang might end up changing his origins in the MCU. So far, Kang’s variant Immortus (He Who Remains) has appeared and changed much of his backstory as mentioned earlier. Kang’s origins in the comics could continue to be changed, and Marvel might ditch the fact that Kang is a descendant of Nathaniel Richards, but fans will have to wait and see.

Currently, Kang is slated to appear in four more MCU projects. In Phase Five, Kang will be the villain in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) and Loki Season 2. In Phase Six, Kang will appear in two Avengers movies, Avengers: Kang Dynasty (2025) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2025).

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This means that the time-traveling villain will be in more MCU projects than Josh Brolin’s Thanos, but the movies will likely show different variants of Kang. Avengers 5 might focus on introducing the Council of Kangs with several variants of the villain working together to take over the world.

Fans will have to wait and see what Marvel has in store for Kang, but he will be the leading villain for the Multiverse Saga and might end up being a bigger villain than Thanos in the MCU.

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The faces of Kang: What Marvel comics can tell us about the MCU's new supervillain

From Rama-Tut to Immortus, here is our guide to the many variants of Kang.

Christian Holub is a writer covering comics and other geeky pop culture. He's still mad about 'Firefly' getting canceled.

Kang is here, Kang is coming. Following the blockbuster opening weekend of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania , the Marvel Cinematic Universe has officially unveiled its next overarching supervillain threat. But while Thanos controlled different elements of the universe via his Infinity Gauntlet, Kang ( Jonathan Majors ) instead embodies various aspects of evil in a self that is split across the multiverse.

After all, Kang is a time traveler. And as certain sci-fi movies like Primer and Tenet have previously demonstrated, time travelers sometimes end up replicating themselves as they embark on simultaneous, divergent life paths. Well, Kang has been doing this for decades in the pages of Marvel comics, and the post-credits scenes of Quantumania make clear that his many variants will come into play on screen in the next few years.

Kang is an emblematic character for Marvel comics, in that he was originally created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby but, due to his multiplicity, has had important elements added by many other writers and artists over the years. What follows is our guide to the most important Kang identities, as well as which Marvel comics provide the best background for this supervillain as Phase 5 continues.

Kang, the Pharaoh

Kang wasn't even Kang at first. The original canonical appearance of this multi-faceted character came in the pages of Lee and Kirby's Fantastic Four . Issue #19 of the formative Marvel superhero comic saw Reed Richards take his family on a trip to ancient Egypt after discovering hieroglyphics that convinced him the pharaohs may have had a cure for blindness. They soon found themselves face-to-face with Egyptian ruler Rama-Tut, who astonished them all by revealing that he already knew of the Fantastic Four, and had access to futuristic technology beyond even Reed's imagination.

This was because Rama-Tut was a time traveler from the 40th century, and the great Egyptian sphinx was his time machine. The Fantastic Four eventually got the upper hand and made it back to their own time, but that wasn't the last they saw of Rama-Tut. He was officially retconned as a variant of Kang the Conqueror in later issues of Avengers and remains an integral part of the Kang identity to this day. After all, though Kang is usually described as "the Conqueror," Rama-Tut is a ruler . His status quo is one of peace and prosperity, and thus Kang has been known to slide back into ancient Egypt and reassume the Rama-Tut identity whenever he needs a break. The sphinx time machine is also an incredibly cool visual concept, and later artists like Carlos Pacheco (in Avengers Forever ) and Carlos Magno (in the recent five-issue Kang the Conqueror miniseries) have ably improved on Kirby's original design.

As a side note, Kang's origin as Rama-Tut demonstrates the complexity of integrating the Fantastic Four into the MCU. Marvel super-producer Kevin Feige just told EW that he wants the Fantastic Four to be "a big pillar of the MCU going forward, just the way they've been in the comics," but the whole reason the Fantastic Four are such an integral part of Marvel comics is that they were the pioneers of this new superhero age. Certain icons like Captain America and Namor the Sub-Mariner predate them, but the first 100 issues of Lee and Kirby's Fantastic Four introduced a plethora of characters and concepts that have gone on to fuel Marvel creativity and continuity for decades. Many of these (including but not limited to Black Panther, the Inhumans, and ol' Kang here) are already a part of the MCU, and thus it will be a difficult task to make the Fantastic Four as important on screen as they are in comics history.

Kang, the Conqueror

A year after Rama-Tut debuted in the pages of Fantastic Four, Kang's main identity was introduced by Kirby and Lee in Avengers #8. This is the iconic design — complete with green tunic, purple armor, and blue face mask — that endures to this day, and that Majors took to the screen in Quantumania . This is Kang the Conqueror, the character's most common identity.

Unlike Rama-Tut, who seeks to subjugate the ancient past to his future technology, or Immortus, who seeks to preserve the future (see below), Kang the Conqueror strives to dominate the multiverse through blood and strength. Wherever he lands (be it the ancient past, the far future, or the Quantum Realm), he seeks to conquer. In his first appearance, Kang threatened the United Nations with global takeover, and successfully impressed the Avengers with his transparent hover chair and nearly impenetrable force field. He was eventually thwarted by the Avengers — particularly Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, which adds extra resonance to his first MCU appearance coming in an Ant-Man and the Wasp movie.

Kang returned to menace the Earth with a gigantic sword-shaped spaceship in the 2001 Avengers storyline "Kang Dynasty" — which, though it shares a title with the next planned Avengers movie , probably won't have much in common with that project since it only features Kang the Conqueror and his son Marcus as the Scarlet Centurion, rather than the whole gamut of Kangs that are assembling in the MCU.

Even more than conquering Earth, Kang has sought to conquer himself. The 1986 Avengers issues #267-269 by writer Roger Stern and artist John Buscema introduced the Council of Kangs, which sought to narrow down the many Kang variants that had been created by the character's constant time travel. Taking a page from the film Highlander , released that same year, this storyline saw the Kangs kill each other until only one was left. Something like this has apparently already happened in the MCU, with He Who Remains as the one left standing. But after Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) killed He Who Remains in the season 1 finale of Loki , all those various Kangs have come back into existence along with the multiverse.

Kang, the Immortal

If there's one thing Kang despises more than anything, it's his own destiny. Introduced just two months after Kang in the pages of Avengers #10, Immortus is an all-knowing master of time who rules over Limbo, an abstract realm outside of normal reality, and strives to protect the future. Like Rama-Tut before him, Immortus was eventually retconned (in Giant-Size Avengers #3) to be another variant of Kang. Not just that, but subsequent stories have made clear that the old, wizened Immortus is Kang's endpoint future self — and Kang hates that. After all, what kind of bloodthirsty conqueror wants to become a static wizard?

One of the single best Kang comic stories is the 12-issue series Avengers Forever by writer Kurt Busiek and artist Carlos Pacheco, and it revolves around a cosmic struggle between Kang and Immortus. Immortus wants to protect the multiverse from dangerous realities where the Avengers become an interstellar empire, while Kang wants to prevent himself from becoming Immortus, and a team of time-displaced heroes (including the Wasp, two different versions of Hank Pym, and a disillusioned characterization of Captain America from the '70s) are stuck in the middle. Given its depiction of a war between different Kang variants and its use of the Time Keepers and the Time Variance Authority, Avengers Forever is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the source material of the MCU's take on Kang. It's also a hell of a good read on its own — when Pacheco died last year of ALS , many hailed Avengers Forever as his artistic masterpiece .

It's worth noting that Immortus shares several similarities with Majors' portrayal of He Who Remains in Loki , such as his flowing purple robes, throne at the end of time, and desire to preserve the integrity of the space-time continuum. But even though He Who Remains is dead, Immortus still seems likely to be a factor in the rest of the MCU's Kang saga, with Majors wearing something very similar to his comic outfit in the Quantumania credits scene . If there's one thing to learn from Kang's comic stories, it's to never underestimate Immortus.

Kang, the Hero

Could Kang have turned out differently and become a superhero, rather than a supervillain? After several failed attempts to change his future, Kang has pivoted in recent years to trying to change his past. But as always, there are unintended consequences. Traveling back in time to his own adolescence to get revenge on his childhood bullies, Kang instead inspired his younger self to embark upon his own time travel and become the superhero known as Iron Lad. This is the catalyst event that set Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung's original Young Avengers comic in motion; the titular team was originally assembled and led by Iron Lad, until he had to return to his own era and (like so many other Kangs before him) make peace with his role in the timeline.

It should be clear by now that the MCU is gearing up for a Young Avengers project at some point , though it's less clear when exactly that will happen. Canonical team members Kate Bishop/Hawkeye (Hailee Steinfeld), Cassie Lang/Stature (Kathryn Newton), and America Chavez ( Xochitl Gomez ) seem ready to go, but the Scarlet Witch's twin sons remain pre-adolescent/non-existent, and they're pretty important to the team. Marvel Studios still hasn't announced anything official… is that because the Kang saga will lead to the creation of a younger, more heroic Kang who will go on to assemble the team? It seems possible.

Kang's heroic younger self was also the focal point of the 2021 Kang the Conqueror miniseries by Colin Kelly, Jackson Lanzig, and Carlos Magno. Rather than founding the Young Avengers, this version of Iron Lad used his technology to try to save the timeline (and his true love, Ravonna) from the depredations of his older selves. Timed to the release of Loki season 1, Kang the Conqueror is a good starting point for anyone looking to refresh themselves on Kang's complicated history.

Other things to know

One other Kang variant who seems poised to make a big impact on the MCU is Victor Timely. That's the bespectacled, besuited man whom Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Mobius (Owen Wilson) glimpse in the final Quantumania post-credits scene . Introduced in Avengers Annual #21 by Mark Gruenwald and Herb Trimpe, Timely is a persona Kang took on when he traveled to the early 20th century and founded a town of the same name in Wisconsin, eventually becoming its mayor and using his advanced technology to further his own goals. Other than that, he doesn't have a big comics footprint, though he looks to play a major role in Loki season 2. As a fun bit of meta trivia, Timely's name refers not just to Kang's time travel, but to the original name of Marvel Comics. The publisher was known as Timely Comics in the '40s when Captain America, Namor, and the original Human Torch were created.

It also seems likely at this point that the MCU's Kang storyline will be tied into the incursions storyline . Though mentioned briefly in Quantumania and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, incursions have not yet been explained in depth in the MCU. Suffice it to say that they represent the gradual destruction of the multiverse, as parallel realities start violently crashing into each other at the point of Earth. For full details on what they entail, check out Jonathan Hickman's Avengers/New Avengers saga, available on Marvel Unlimited and in a new line of "Complete Collection" volumes, and its climax in Secret Wars , which has already been announced as the follow-up movie to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty . Will the Kangs take the place of the Ivory Kings as the cause of incursions, or will one or more of them instead be the "Rabum Alal" figure who tries to preserve reality from the incursions? That remains to be seen.

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MCU: 6 Ways The Franchise Has Opened Up Multiversal Travel

The Multiverse has opened up countless possibilities for the future of the MCU. Here are all the ways it has played a part in the franchise so far.

• The MCU has successfully built a shared cinematic universe over the past decade, primarily through the Infinity Saga and now the Multiverse Saga.
• Different methods of multiverse travel have been explored, including the Quantum Tunnel, the TVA, Doctor Strange's magic, America Chavez's abilities, and the shattering of jump points.
• While Kang was initially set up as the main villain of the Multiverse Saga, uncertainties regarding the actor's involvement may impact his role, leaving the exploration of other methods of traversing the multiverse uncertain.

The MCU has done a very good job of bringing movie fans a shared cinematic universe of superheroes since the release of Iron Man in 2008. This franchise of movies has slowly become one of the biggest series in movie history, and that is mostly due to the studios' ability to tie in an overarching narrative to all the films. The first overarching story that took place during the first ten years in the MCU was the Infinity Saga, and this journey of Thanos trying to gather and use the Infinity Stones culminated in 2019 with Avengers: Endgame . Many movies have premiered since then, as well as TV shows, and the head of Marvel has also decided to name this new collection of movies the Multiverse Saga .

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Rather than open the MCU up to the multiverse directly, though, the writers and producers have explored several different ways this new threat could emerge as of this current writing. While the multiverse is a simple concept in comics, some of these multiverse openings have left some viewers scratching their heads, as six different methods of multiverse travel have been established so far.

6 The Quantum Tunnel

Used to bring the infinity stones to the future.

• Avengers: Endgame

The main plot of the fourth Avengers movie, Avengers: Endgame , saw the original group of superheroes working to reverse Thanos' snap, which wiped out half of life in the universe. Their solution was to use a Quantum Tunnel to travel through time and gather the Infinity Stones from the past before Thanos could use them. This was a fun and logical way to finish the story surrounding the Infinity Stones, but it also left the door open to the multiverse.

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In a conversation with The Ancient One in the past, Bruce Banner receives a lesson on how their actions will affect the multiverse. The sorcerer supreme explains that by acting in the past, The Avengers aren't changing the future, but merely creating a new timeline that will run adjacent to their own. As a result, the superhero team creates several new timelines during their heist by removing the stones from their place in that universe. The end of the movie does attempt to fix this mistake by having Captain America return the stones, but these new timelines still exist in the multiverse.

A Group That Controls Time & Timelines

Loki is the first Disney+ show to address the notion of a multiverse in the main MCU timeline. After Loki steals the Tesseract/Space Stone In Avengers: Endgame, he is quickly abducted by a team of soldiers and arrested. These soldiers are part of an organization called the TVA, and it is their job to destroy any new timelines in the universe that occur by mistake and maintain one sacred timeline and continuity.

The first season of Loki explores who the TVA are and where they come from, and it seemed that this organization would be the main method that the series would use to travel the multiverse. This notion was furthered when Kang/He Who Remains was introduced in the final episode of season one.

Countless Versions Of Kang Exist Throughout The Multiverse

• Loki and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Much like Thanos in the Infinity Saga, Marvel seemed to be pushing Kang as the next big villain of the Multiverse Saga. This villain showed up at the end of season one of Loki as a man called He Who Remains. The episode dives into why he created the TVA and how he can travel the multiverse. Kang began as a scientist who wanted to prove the existence of multiversal travel, but his variants in other universes were intent on ruling these new realities and becoming conquerors. As a result, He Who Remains created one sacred timeline to keep these evil alterations at bay.

As with the TVA, it seemed that Kang would end up being the main antagonist in this multiversal war. However, the post-credit scene in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania revealed that there are millions of versions of Kang that all have their own methods of traversing the multiverse. Sadly, real-world complications with the actor who plays Kang have made his role in the saga uncertain, so it is unclear if these other methods of traversing the multiverse will be explored.

3 Doctor Strange's Magic

A poorly performed spell summoned several multiverse threats.

• Spider-Man: No Way Home

Since the end of season one of Loki concluded with his variant, Sylvie, opening up the multiverse by killing He Who Remains, many MCU fans assumed the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home would be a direct result of these actions. The trailers and marketing materials for the movie showed that other Spider-Man villains from other universes would be appearing in the film, and rumors were wild that both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield would be reprising their roles as Spider-Men. While all this came true, the way it happened wasn't how fans expected it.

10 Underrated Spider-Man Villains

Instead of these characters from other franchises appearing as the result of the events seen in Loki , they all break through the multiverse because of a spell cast by Doctor Strange . This spell was cast as a mistake and is rectified by the end of the movie. However, this method of breaking the multiverse seems to be something the MCU is only interested in using once.

2 America Chavez

Can travel to different realities using star-shaped portals.

• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

The second Doctor Strange movie in the MCU is another film in this saga that promises big things to come regarding the multiverse. The trailers showed some familiar characters from other Marvel franchises, and the title of the movie suggested that the titular hero would be going on an adventure through the multiverse. As such, fans expected the events of Loki and Spider-Man: No Way Home to have an impact on the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness .

However, the reason for the multiversal travel displayed in this movie is revealed to be because of the powerset of a new character, America Chavez . In the film, America is on the run from Wanda Maximoff, as she has magic abilities that allow her to travel between universes. The origin of these powers is left vague, and the character ends the movie practicing more magical abilities alongside other sorcerers in the MCU. As of writing, it is unclear when fans will see Chavez again or if her innate multiverse travel ability will have an effect on events in the future.

1 Breaking The Jump Points

Connecting the mcu to the x-men franchise.

• The Marvels

The hexagonal network shown in space was first debuted in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. They are established as a series of jump points to allow people to travel across space, and they have been a consistent method of space travel in the MCU ever since. The Marvels then decided to make these jump points a main part of its narrative.

The movie sees the titular team trying to stop a villainous Kree from using these jump points to transport vital elements from other planets, and the end of the movie shows a network of jump points shattering. Fortunately, Monica Rambeau is able to use her powers to repair the network, but it leaves her stranded on the other side. The post-credit scene reveals that Monica is now alive in a new reality, one where the mutants exist . Since one of the people who greets Monica in this reality is a variant of her mother, it seems that the MCU may explore this universe again. Also, the jump points in the main universe are now established as a boundary between timelines.

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The Marvel Multiverse's Most Powerful Kang Stole the Power of Galactus

One of the most dangerous versions of Kang the Conqueror ever introduced was powerful enough to kill Galactus and take his power for himself.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe recently offered its first look at Kang the Conqueror in Loki . But as one of the Avengers' most powerful and frequent villains, Kang has utilized plenty of dangerous plans and schemes over the years that have almost brought about the end of the world. However, one variant of the villain came close to wiping out the entire multiverse.

One variant of Kang -- introduced in  Exiles #2 by Saladin Ahmed and Javier Rodriguez -- was able to kill and weaponize Galactus to become Kang the Time-Eater.

RELATED:  Is Kang Related To The Fantastic Four's Reed Richards?

Earth-18854 was the home of Nathaniel Richards, aka Kang the Conqueror . Like most incarnations of that character, Kang was a dangerous and deadly time-traveling threat. However, this version of Kang became one of the most powerful in the multiverse after coming to the conclusion that the only way for him to truly transcend his place in the universe as just a man was to become a god. To that end, he found a way to kill the Galactus of his reality, taking his Power Cosmic and modifying his corpse into a weapon. With it, Kang became the Time-Eater and used his power to target the Galactuses of other worlds and claim their power for his own.

The Time-Eater soon began making its way across the multiverse, consuming entire realities and gaining more power with each universe it destroyed -- moving faster than the multiverse could regrow new realities to sustain itself. To counter this, the Unseen -- Nick Fury during a period when he was cursed to take the place of Uatu the Watcher -- broke his oath of non-interference and helped give guidance to Blink after she was reunited with the Tallus (a mysterious device that helps the user and her allies in the Exiles rescue broken realities). Reaching the base of the Time-Eater, Iron Lad -- another variant of Kang who was a heroic member of the Exiles -- learned the truth about his alternate reality self.

RELATED:  Marvel Just Gave Kang the Conqueror's Variant War a New Beginning

With the multiverse largely wiped out by the time the Exiles had the chance to face him in his own sanctum, the Time-Eater tried to prolong the battle out of a sadistic love for combat. The Exiles also gain an unexpected edge thanks to a variant of Nick Fury that's younger and fresh from a battle with Kang in 1972 in his reality. The Exiles come up with a desperate plan -- half of the team keeps him distracted while the others ventured across the multiverse's remaining worlds to reach a point where they can give the Unseen the Tallus and restore the lost worlds. Despite creating an armada of Kangs, the Time-Eater wasn't able to kill the Exiles due to the interference of the Tallus -- allowing Blink to rally an army of variants of herself and other Marvel heroes to overwhelm him.

The sheer force of the fight -- and the Unseen being able to interact with the Tallus -- proved too much, and Kang was forced to retreat without his Power Cosmic. The multiverse is saved in the process, and the Exiles remained a team to protect and repair broken worlds across creation. But the Time-Eater is a good reminder of just how dangerous Kang can be -- especially when he starts to be creative with his abilities and takes them from others. He was almost able to wipe out the multiverse and become the only thing in all of existence, and step one of that plan involved killed one of Marvel's most powerful forces, Galactus -- something he did on  his own . Any fight with Kang could easily take such a turn.

KEEP READING:  Kang The Conqueror Is On A Collision Course With Marvel’s Newest God

Could Kang The Conqueror Defeat The MCU's Thanos?

As Marvel Studios gears up for the final entries in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Phase Five will kick off with "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," and the film's official trailer finally gives us a glimpse of the new threat on the playing field:  Kang the Conqueror . First played by Jonathan Majors on the Disney+ series "Loki," Kang will be the new big bad of the MCU and the ultimate villain its heroes will have to defeat in the next "Avengers" films .

The entire gimmick the character is based around is that he's not just one person, but infinite people from infinite universes, all warring against each other to take control of all existence. In other words, we haven't yet seen the versions of Kang who are going to cause real trouble.

While Kang has drawn a lot of excitement from fans, is he really more of a threat to the MCU than Thanos (Josh Brolin)? After all, when Thanos came to town, he wiped out half of all life in the universe, including multiple Avengers. So who would win in a battle between Kang the Conqueror and Thanos, the Mad Titan?

Kang has no powers of his own

When it comes to unarmed combat with no tricks allowed, there's little reason to think Thanos would lose against Kang. His physiology evolved on the world of Titan, and he is already a widely feared conqueror of planets way before he ever gets the powers of the Infinity Stones. In "Avengers: Infinity War," we see him dispose of gods like Loki (Tom Hiddleston) without breaking a sweat, and even taking Thor's ax, Stormbreaker, to the chest only slows him down. Kang, by contrast, is a mere human. If the two of them were to do unarmed battle with nothing but their fists, Kang would undoubtedly be in for a bruising.

However, with Kang wielding his 31st-century technology and Thanos donning the Infinity Gauntlet, it would be a more even match. Kang's technology, as depicted in Marvel comics , is leagues ahead of anything available in the present day, meaning he'd stand a better chance against the Mad Titan than Earth's mightiest heroes. From his abilities to travel through both time and the Multiverse to the powers granted by his battle armor , he would be able to confront Thanos at the Titan's weakest moments.

When the MCU's Avengers take Thanos on at the height of his power, they nearly succeed in stopping him multiple times, first on Titan and later on Earth during the Battle of Wakanda. Only when Thanos uses the Time Stone to reverse his own defeat is he able to obtain the Mind Stone and finally execute half of all life in the universe. Even then, he cannot keep the Avengers from using time travel to goad him into one more confrontation, which he ultimately loses. Against Kang, a time-traveling villain, Thanos would be routed before he even knows a battle is coming.

Kang and Thanos are both tacticians, but Kang has the edge with time travel

Kang's main power in the comics is his ability to time travel. An accomplished scientist, Nathaniel Richards — Kang's real name, and yes, the father of Reed Richards — invents a time machine, which he uses to travel to ancient Egypt and rule over the land as Pharaoh Rama-Tut (via Marvel Database ). Consistently throughout the comics, he's proven himself to be a master strategist who's willing to play the long game to achieve his domination over all existence. Thanos, too, knows how to get what he wants, and his main asset in that arena is his sheer determination. There's nothing he won't do to win, even if it means sacrificing his own daughter.

Kang is first introduced in the MCU as He Who Remains, a variant who created the Time Variance Authority to stop his Multiversal selves from dominating the Multiverse. Using a TemPad, Kang is able to harness the power of time travel and the Multiverse and has even gained near omniscience, meaning he knows nearly everything that will happen throughout time. And as that version of Kang informs Loki, he's not even close to the worst version of himself.

Meanwhile, it takes time travel to finally vanquish Thanos in "Avengers: Endgame." And Kang wouldn't need to face Thanos at his most powerful since he could pick any point in time to attack from. In fact, he might not need to face Thanos at all. Why not simply destroy Titan before Thanos is even born? Or kill his father?

There are infinite Kangs, who could either aid or attack each other

As Kang, then going by the moniker He Who Remains, explains to Loki in the Season 1 finale of "Loki," there are infinite versions of himself scattered across the Multiverse, many of whom are hell-bent on conquering every universe in existence. However, they will temporarily team up to take out a shared threat before fighting among themselves once more. Thanos, on the other hand, doesn't concern himself with other universes or variants of himself, with his goal being to kill half of all life in his universe of origin.

If multiple Kangs ally against Thanos, they'd easily outnumber the purple-chinned tyrant. Not only would they be able to coordinate their attacks across time, space, and universes, but they'd also be sharing technology from all those places. Even if Thanos defeats a hundred versions of Kang, a hundred more would take their place, and he would lose the odds eventually. It would be game over for the Mad Titan.

On the other hand, if Kang gets unlucky and has to fight both Thanos and other versions of himself, he'd almost certainly lose — although to be fair, he'd mostly be losing to himself, not to Thanos. Ultimately, while a hypothetical conflict would be tough for both parties, Kang's advantages against Thanos would be more than enough to tip the scales in his favor.

Who Is Kang the Conqueror?

Time-traveling tyrant or a broken man in love learn kang’s comic history here..

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Hop into the Marvel Unlimited time machine to learn all about the time-misplaced menace known as Kang the Conqueror ! Who is he, what are his abilities, exactly how many Kangs are there, and, most importantly, when is he? Try to keep up, there’s no time to waste.

[ RELATED :  2023 Is the Year of Kang ]

WHO IS KANG?

Kang is the Master of Time! Muahaha!

No, really. Born on Earth-6311 in the 30th century, Nathaniel Richards, who would later become known as Kang the Conqueror , discovered part of a time machine left by his namesake and ancestor from Earth-616 —a man who brought peace to the young Nathaniel’s world as the Benefactor . Prior to this discovery, Nathaniel studied robotics and cross-dimensional recordings of Earth-616 (mainstream Earth), brought to his reality by said Benefactor. Learning all he could, the naturally astute Kang sought the means to become an overlord of the time-space continuum.

DOES KANG HAVE SUPER-POWERS?

No… but yes. Despite having no natural super-powers, Kang has an indomitable will and super-genius level intelligence. He learned how to use the Benefactor’s time device and became an expert in his future’s advanced technology, creating battle armor that endowed him with what seemed like superhuman abilities. His armor enabled him to project radioactivity against anyone who opposed him , including those with actual super-powers. Also, thanks to being immune to the radiation’s effects, (like others from his native era), he ages much slower. An expertise in strategy also helped him become a warlord as did his unarmed and armed combat skills.

WHEN IS KANG?

Often ahead of his time, Kang (and his many divergent duplicates that he inadvertently created through time-travel paradoxes) could actually be located anywhere across the Multiverse. Bored of his world’s peacetime, Kang originally used the time device to travel to Earth-616’s ancient Egypt where he became the pharaoh Rama-Tut . That was his first taste of power, but he was defeated by the time-traveling Fantastic Four , a young Apocalypse , the moon god Khonshu , and modern-era heroes Doctor Strange and the Avengers .

This conflict forced Rama-Tut to flee his time machine, but a “time storm” diverted him to the modern era, where he rescued a space-lost Doctor Doom . Inspired by Doom’s visage, he created the armored identity Scarlet Centurion but later abandoned it after losing to the Avengers in another timeline (Earth-689) in one of his various attempts to rule that world.

SO, WHAT ARE HIS MOTIVES?

World domination, of course. But when it comes to Kang Prime, love is a deep motivator too.

After abandoning the Scarlet Centurion identity, Nathaniel tried to return to his native time but ended up in Earth-6311’s 40th century when the world was decimated by war. While there, he assumed the moniker Kang the Conqueror, and became a warlord replete with an army. Although, he did spare the kingdom of Carelius for the King’s daughter’s hand in marriage, Princess Ravonna Renslayer .  But she was largely unimpressed with Kang’s victories, and despite his show of mercy, refused his proposal .

Down the line, Ravonna realized her love for Kang and saved his life from a disgruntled commander within his ranks. Putting her in a kind of stasis, Kang eventually found the means to save her prior to her death, but in doing so created a divergent reality where Kang perished instead. Peering into time, he also discovered that his exploration had caused additional divergent realities and more Kangs with which to contend! Exhibit A? The organized Council of Kangs in AVENGERS (1963) #267 - 269 !

WAIT, MORE KANGS?! HOW MANY KANGS WE TALKING?

Countless Kangs since Kang is a being of infinite impossibilities!

Let's count 'em out. There's the first Kang from Other-Earth—we'll call him Kang Prime. There's  his far-future self , the all-knowing  Immortus , who became obsessed with the Avengers after the Time-Keepers directed him  to destroy Earth's Mightiest .

The brilliant inventor and industrialist  Victor Timely was a convenient identity that Kang Prime used in 1901 to plot his conquest of Earth-616 from Timely, Wisconsin. While there, he built a technology manufacturing business that spanned generations, thanks to Kang posing as his "sons" Victor Timely, Jr. and Victor Timely III.

Then, after the  Council of Kangs destroyed each other , the  Council of Cross-Time Kangs  (pictured above) came along and invited Kang Prime to join. We also can't forget his younger self, who joined the  Young Avengers  as  Iron Lad  and attempted to  stop his older, embittered variant from becoming Kang the Conqueror —which wasn't the last time someone tried such a feat. The android  Vision kidnapped Kang's even younger self ,  Baby Kang , and placed the infant in another time to end the danger he posed, but of course, chronal backlash followed...

Only time will tell how many of the other thousands of Kangs will make their existence known.

Now that you have the basics, don’t forget to check out all of Kang’s pivotal comic appearances on Marvel Unlimited today!

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Is Kang The Conqueror More Powerful Than Other MCU Villains?

Thanos, Ego, Ultron, and Loki are incredibly strong MCU villains, but with the introduction of Kang, we discuss who will now be the most powerful.

The MCU is home to many powerful villains, with the likes of Thanos, Ego, Loki, and Wenwu, just to name a few. However, none of them compare to the Avengers next big bad, Kang The Conqueror. Kang made his debut in Phase 4 , as "he who remains" in the Loki finale, one of the many variants of Kang. But his appearance in the highly anticipated Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantummania will see Kang in his first official, and most likely extremely powerful appearance as the new main antagonist of the MCU. Played by Jonathon Majors , it is very likely we will see him appear in most MCU projects going forward, and with the characters' many variations, it will be interesting and exciting to see Majors in a variety of uniquely different variants.

Kang the Conqueror is an extremely powerful entity, who sets out for total multiversal domination, and his abilities, powers, intellect, and arsenal will allow him to do so with incredible ease. Thanos (the MCU's most powerful villain to date) wanted to rid 50 percent of the universe's population, and he succeeded. Kang, however, wants to conquer and pretty much destroy all the known and unknown universes, and if No Way Home , Multiverse of Madness or the Disney+ original series What If...? taught us anything, it's that there are countless other universes, so yeah, Kang is pretty powerful. Here is why Kang will be the most powerful MCU villain.

Related: Deadpool 3: How the Ani-Hero Might Defeat Kang the Conquerer

Multiversal Travel

As we have previously mentioned, Kang the Conqueror can travel between multiverses with relative ease, and whenever he so desires. With this, Kang can communicate with his other variants, as well as being able to form an army of them to battle the Avengers. Similarly, if the battle against the Avengers proves too difficult, he can escape or trap the other Avengers in a different universe, dwindling their numbers and being able to overcome them with ease.

Time Travel

On top of being able to travel to and from every universe, Kang can also time travel, going to any time in the past, as well as any time in the future. With this, Kang has a pretty good knowledge of the past and future, knowing his fate and being able to change it. Having the ability to time travel is just as dangerous as hopping to and from different universes. Being able to discover his fate and how the future and his plans will ultimately unfold, proves even more of a dangerous threat to the Avengers. It's highly likely that he knew Thanos would collect the infinity stones and snap his fingers, and Kang just sat there with a bucket of popcorn and just watched.

Infinite Variants

Kang has an infinite number of variants, with each variant possessing different abilities, and while the odd few are good, the majority are pure evil, seeking any and every way to take over the universe. We have already seen one variant in the MCU; "he who remains", who for the most part wasn't necessarily that evil, at least compared to his other variants. Now, in Quantummania , we have his main MCU appearance, who is already terrifying, and from the trailer is very powerful. In the comics, Kang has had variants, with a handful being Iron Lad, Rama-Tut, Scarlet Centurion, and Immortus; there is a likely chance that the MCU will dive into these variants , which is incredibly exciting, but if Kang attempts to build an army then the Avengers are doomed, lets hope they have at least one Kang on their side.

Related: Why The MCU May Be Heading For a Loki vs. Kang Showdown

Kang's Multiverse Destroying Arsenal

If Kang having infinite variants, having the ability to travel through different universes, and time travel wasn't enough, then behold his multiverse destroying arsenal. Kang is already incredibly powerful, with his vast intellect, super strength, incredible endurance, and weapon summoning. There is already enough to allow him to go toe-to-toe against even the most powerful Avengers. However, Kang yet again has something up his sleeve, that being the Ultra Diode Gun, the Cosmic Cube, and the Forever Crystal.

The Ultra Diode Gun was predominantly wielded by Rama-Tut, one of Kang's variants. However, this doesn't stop Kang from killing this variant and stealing his weapon. This weapon has the ability to drain from its targets, any and every superpower they may have, as well as draining them of their free will, making them an instant slave to Kang.

The Cosmic Cube has the ability to control matter and energy, being able to grant its user whatever they so desire, and if Kang gets a hold of it, we can expect him to alter time and the multiverse on an unimaginable scale. Although this device requires some practice, and only the most skillful are able to wield it properly, there is no doubt Kang already knows how to use it long before he gets his hands on this incredibly powerful item.

The Forever Crystal is the most likely weapon fans can expect Kang to use in the MCU, and it could possibly be what Kang is searching for in Quantummania . The crystal contains all the temporal power in Kang’s kingdom, Chronopolis, and harnesses this power into a single and multiversally-dangerous weapon. Meaning the weapon can alter reality and time on a cosmic scale, allowing Kang to create a new timeline entirely, which is safe to say proves very deadly for the Avengers.

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How does the MCU’s Kang have the power to rewrite existence and shatter timelines?

The trailer for  Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania   has Marvel fans very excited as the trailer suggests that this film will play a massive role in the overall MCU plot moving forward. One of the most tantalizing moments of the new trailer shows Janet Van Dyne describing Kang’s powers by saying that he can “rewrite existence and shatter timelines,” suggesting that this movie will shake up the entire Marvel timeline. 

But how does Kang have this power? And is it one he has in the comics? 

Can Kang rewrite timelines in the comics?

In the comics, Kang the Conqueror has an infamously messy personal continuity due to the character’s interactions with time travel and the multiverse. Meaning there are many variants of Kang walking around, most of whom have made several trips back and forward through time.

However, there are several examples of Kang (or one of his many alternate personas) altering the timeline, usually by trying to stop or change an event that had already happened via manipulation of other tangentially linked events. For example, in 1971’s  Incredible Hulk #135,  Kang sends the Hulk back to the First World War, hoping that Hulk’s actions would stop Bruce Banner’s birth and thus the formation of the Avengers. 

More recently, in 2005’s  Young Avengers  storyline, Kang fiddled with his personal timeline, going back to save a teenaged Nathaniel Richards from bullies. Kang hoped that he could convince Richards to become Kang earlier in the timeline, giving him more time to take over the world. However, this plan backfired and led to the formation of the Young Avengers.

Kang would attempt something similar in 2012’s  Uncanny Avengers.  He tried to change the future by kidnapping the Apocalypse Twins, a pair he believed would threaten his future reign. Kang raised the twins as his own children and went back to 1013 AD to alter the past, hoping he could guarantee his future empire. However, this scheme didn’t go as planned for Kang, denying him his position as ruler of time. However, while comics Kang has shattered timelines, this isn’t an innate power of his. Instead, Kang changes and destroys timelines by altering the events within them or by using the powers of another person or object. 

Does  Loki  hint towards this power?

He Who Remains, an alternative version of Kang, was previously seen at the end of the  Loki  series. This character was in charge of maintaining the Sacred Timeline, using the Time Variance Authority as his personal army. During his conversation with Loki and Sylvie, He Who Remains shows them a script that details their actions in the future. Showing that everything within the Sacred Timeline is controlled by He Who Remains. While viewers are not shown how He Who Remains creates this script, it heavily implies that He Who Remains, and thus Kang can “rewrite existence” in some manner. 

During  Loki’s  storyline, we see the TVA using Reset Charges to prune alternate timelines created by Nexus events. These bombs send the timeline to the Void at the end of time. These bombs, or technology like them, would fit the “shatter timelines” part of the statement, as they are used to remove a timeline from existence. If you watched someone use a Reset Charge and didn’t know what the explosive actually did, you would presume they are destroying, rather than teleporting, the timeline.

Plus, while talking about his personal history, He Who Remains says that one of the first variants of himself he met was a scientist who shared his technology with He Who Remains. So, it stands to reason that a scientist who could break the multiversal barrier could create technology equal to or superior to the tech used by the TVA or Ant-Man. So Kang’s powers may be more advanced variations on the gadgets seen during  Loki  and the previous  Avengers  movies. This could, in theory, include an advanced version of the time travel technology seen in  Avengers: Endgame.

One interesting thing to note is that the energy fired from Kang’s suit in the  Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania  trailer is the same color as the shattering timeline seen in  Loki.  Could Kang’s weapon be channeling the energy released by the timeline fracturing? Or could this weapon be destroying timelines to fuel itself? Marvel fans will have to wait for the film to release to find out. 

“It would set Logan up to be a main character in Secret Wars”: This MCU Theory Can Reveal the Diabolical Plot Involving Jonathan Majors’ Kang in Deadpool & Wolverine

T he Marvel Cinematic Universe is in desperate need of a breath of fresh air and it seems like Deadpool & Wolverine vows to be just that. Continuing the Multiverse Saga, the film will see Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine reunite with Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool, finally paving the way for the X-Men to get into the MCU. All in all, the fans have a ton of expectations from the film.

Fan Theory Explains How Wolverine Could be a Main Character in the MCU’s Future

The trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine was released on Marvel Entertainment and Ryan Reynolds ’ YouTube channels and the views have already skyrocketed. Well, why wouldn’t they? We are finally getting the Deadpool-Wolverine team-up we have been dying for! However, the Wolverine seen in the trailer seems to be a different variant than the one we have grown up watching.

This Wolverine is going through a depressive episode in his life and the trailer opens with him in a bar where the bartender tells him, “I told you, you’re not welcome here. You’re not welcome anywhere.” The trailer then goes on to reveal just why Hugh Jackman ’s character is depressed that he isn’t deterred by Deadpool’s threats of blowing his brains out. After meeting with the Time Variance Authority, it is disclosed that “This Wolverine let down his entire world.”

“I didn’t expect to come back after dying…”: Marvel Fans May Not See Hugh Jackman’s One True Love in MCU Make a Cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine

Clearly, something horrible has happened to this Wolverine’s universe and he somehow played a part in it. Now a fan theory by Austin Verse suggests that Kong saw the mutants as a huge obstacle in his quest to conquer the multiverse which is why the trailer showed “so many mutants in the void.” As per the theory, Wolverine acts as an “anchor of his universe” and when Kang removed him, it caused his world to “crumble over time.”

Verse adds that if this theory has some truth to it, it can nicely tie into the multiverse plotline of the MCU and “set Logan up to be a main character in Secret Wars.” He also added that this theory perfectly explains why Cassandra Nova was coming after Wolverine as she holds him responsible for destroying their world. Read the entire theory below:

Honestly, the theory seems to be incredible in how it strings everything together. Only time will tell if Verse’s thoughts were right on the mark or if the MCU is one step ahead of all of us.

Jonathan Majors and Kang’s Future in the MCU

Owing to a domestic incident with his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari last year, Jonathan Majors was found guilty of assault and harassment. He was later sentenced to one year of an in-person domestic violence intervention program and managed to avoid jail time.

“Eighth MCU Movie to ignore this”: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman’s Deadpool & Wolverine Facing Backlash for Ignoring a Massive MCU Plot Hole Even the Previous 7 Films are Guilty of

Things didn’t end there for Majors as he also ended up being dropped by the Marvel Studios despite playing the big bad villain of MCU’s Phases 4 through 6. Now, the question is, what’s next for Kang the Conqueror now that Majors is out of the picture?

Well, according to a report by The Hollywood Reporter , Marvel Studios are rewriting their films and Kang will either be given a minimized role or be cut out completely. Further, the film that was once known as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will now be renamed to exclude Kang’s name from the subtitle.

Needless to say, Kang’s future in the MCU is not clear yet. Fans will just have to wait and watch the events unfold.

Deadpool & Wolverine releases in theatres on July 26, 2024.

Screen Rant

Deadpool & wolverine fixes an mcu multiverse problem just in time for avengers 5.

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will no doubt delve deep into the multiverse, and Deadpool & Wolverine could fix a pressing issue ahead of its release.

• Deadpool & Wolverine brings multiverse issues and consequences to the MCU, setting up a pivotal storyline before Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
• The trailer hints at Deadpool's clash with TVA, showcasing his time-traveling antics and the repercussions of bringing back deceased characters.
• By addressing the challenge of reviving dead characters, the film ensures that death remains meaningful in the MCU, especially before Avengers 5.

Deadpool & Wolverine is set to shake up the MCU in a big way, which might include rectifying a Multiverse problem before Avengers: The Kang Dynasty . Details of Deadpool & Wolverine 's plot are being kept under wraps, but there is still plenty to glean from the information that has been drip-fed via the filmmakers and the record-breaking trailer that dropped in February. The movie is set to be the MCU's only cinematic release of 2024 and finally debuts the eponymous antihero with the franchise's first R-rated movie.

In the trailer, Deadpool can be seen engaging in a seemingly normal life alongside friends that include a few X-Force members including Peter and Shatterstar. This develops into a run-in with a TVA, setting Deadpool on a course that merges him with the MCU through multiversal shenanigans. Presumably, his being accosted by the TVA has something to do with the fact that the X-Force members present during his Birthday party were supposed to be dead before Deadpool " revived " them through time travel at the end of Deadpool 2 .

Deadpool 3 Trailer Confirms Wolverine Title... And Epic Multiverse Plot: "Your Cinematic Universe Is Going To Change Forever"

Deadpool & wolverine sets up limits & repercussions for the mcu's multiverse, deadpool & wolverine will release on july 26, 2024.

Whatever brings Deadpool into the TVA offices, the trailer shows that it was not without resistance on Deadpool's part. This hints at some level of antagonism from the entity that Loki established to be caretakers of the Sacred Timeline, which was also referenced in the exclusive footage unveiled at this year's CinemaCon. With that in mind, it looks as though Deadpool's characteristically frivolous jaunt through time may have landed him in hot water - especially as it involved him reviving X-Force members he cared about less than Peter.

The concept of the multiverse and its infinite variants opens the door for the MCU to retcon just about any death that isn't a nexus being like America Chavez or Scarlet Witch.

The concept of the multiverse and its infinite variants opens the door for the MCU to retcon just about any death that isn't a nexus being like America Chavez or Scarlet Witch. Should Deadpool be " punished " for his actions in bringing back variants from the past to replace the original, then Deadpool & Wolverine seems to be setting up the fact that anyone capable of time travel can't circumvent the TVA's rules surrounding time with reckless abandon. While resurrecting iconic characters like Iron Man may be a tempting prospect, this is actually a net benefit for the MCU.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness established extra consequences for interfering with other universes with the concept of Incursions, though this may matter less to more unscrupulous characters.

Why The MCU Needed Deadpool & Wolverine's Plot Before Avengers 5

The problem with reviving long-dead characters in the MCU is that it removes the stakes that typically come with the threat of death. Iron Man, specifically, is a prime example of how death should mean something within the MCU , as his ultimate sacrifice at the end of Avengers: Endgame was the perfect, if painful, ending to Iron Man's MCU arc. If Avengers: The Kang Dynasty hinges on the multiverse, then it also threatens to undermine this ending if multiversal travelers can simply retcon his death.

Instead, Deadpool & Wolverine may be setting a precedent that prevents this kind of thing from occurring before the multiverse is placed front and center in the next pivotal Avengers movie. There are other ways that Iron Man could be reintroduced to the MCU in the context of the Multiverse, but ensuring that it is not the same Tony Stark who died at the end of Avengers: Endgame is an important caveat. Otherwise, the MCU risks diminishing its most compelling stories and making He Who Remains' designs for the Sacred Timeline the truly preferable state of affairs regarding a satisfying narrative.

Deadpool & Wolverine

A sequel to the highly successful Deadpool and Deadpool 2 starring Ryan Reynolds as the Merc with a Mouth. The third film will be the first film in the franchise to be developed under the Marvel Studios banner following Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox. Ryan Reynolds is returning to play the character, alongside Hugh Jackman, reprising his Wolverine role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the first time. 

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is the fifth Avengers film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and will bring together heroes, new and old, to face off against the omnipotent Kang the Conquerer. The Kang Dynasty will also mark the beginning of phase 6 of the MCU.

Key Release Dates

Thunderbolts (2025), the fantastic four (2025), blade (2025), avengers: secret wars.