History ComicBook / KangTheConqueror

followed by a one-shot ''Timeless'', by Creator/JedMacKay

* FieldTripToThePast: Kang takes Anatoly to a number of different times and locations, inclusing the Ice Age, and the future.

!!Tropes:

* VillainProtagonist: Centers around a younger version of Kang.

[[redirect:Characters/MarvelComicsKangTheConqueror]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nathaniel_richards_kang_earth_6311.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Story is not written, scholar-- and neither is destiny! History is made! Made by the deeds of the strong! The brave! And destiny is forged! The historians, the students, the gray-beards-- they come in the wake of the strong and write down what the brave have done! But it is the conquerors who change the world."'']]

Kang the Conqueror is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is most frequently depicted as an opponent of the Avengers, as well as sometimes the Fantastic Four. A time-traveling entity, several alternate versions of Kang have appeared throughout Marvel's titles over the years, including his respective future and past heroic selves, Immortus and Iron Lad.

Kang first appeared in The Avengers #8 (Sep. 1964), and was created by writer Creator/StanLee and artist Creator/JackKirby. Rama-Tut first appeared in Fantastic Four #19 (Oct. 1963). Iron Lad first appeared in ''Young Avengers'' #1 (April 2005).

A time-traveling conqueror with vast powers and technological supremacy, Kang has taken every opportunity to torment the Marvel Universe, and is one of the Avengers' greatest foes. Kang has amassed an empire with a citizenry of millions, and cut a swath of terror through the ages.

Kang will make his cinematic debut, portrayed by Jonathan Majors, in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse film ''Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania''.

Not to be confused with the [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Simpsons]] character of the same name.
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!!Kang the Conqueror provides examples of:
[[folder:In General]]
* AbhorrentAdmirer: To Ravonna, at least at first.
* AbusiveParents:
** To Marcus, eventually culminating in killing him. [[spoiler:At which point it's revealed he was just the latest in a long line of Marcii, all of whom fell short of Kang's vision.]]
** and the Apocalypse Twins (Uriel and Eimin), all of whom end up various degrees of screwed up as a results. He dumped the Twins in the concentration camps of ''ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePast'', dangled hope under their noses repeatedly and snatched it away, then ended up making Uriel [[EyeScream cut out his sister's eyes]] when he wasn't even ''ten''.
* AllianceOfAlternates: Kang was part of the Council of Cross-Time Kangs, made from his alternate versions from other timelines. They tried several times to control reality and clashed with the Avengers while doing so. Their LegionOfDoom-like alliance lasted until the "original" Kang [[ExpendableClone killed them all off]]. He still occasionally used alternate versions later, without reforming the Council.
* AnachronicOrder: The ''simplest'' way of describing Kang and his younger and older counterparts. They are all the same guy, but on account of each having their own ever-expanding history before inevitably adopting their next alias, they are functionally separate characters. Then there is the large number of times they have met and/or fought one another, disguised as eachother... keeping track of Nathaniel Richards story is complicated.
* ArchEnemy:
** If ComicBook/{{Ultron}} is the Avenger's #1 greatest enemy, then Kang is safely #2. He's faced the Avengers quite a few times over the years, and, unlike Ultron, (until recently...) actually ''took over the world.'' Of course, the Avengers managed to take it back, but it was still quite an accomplishment.
** Kang has a habit of getting into ongoing rivalries with other villains. There's Zarrko, his main competitor in the "time-traveling conqueror" game; Apocalypse (it's complicated- they knew each other back in Ancient Egypt); and of course, Immortus... who is his future self (it's ''even more'' complicated).
* ArmyOfTheAges: The Anachronauts, his elite fighting force.
* AttackAttackAttack: The opening arc of ''Avengers vol 4'' has the team having to deal with (a) Kang picking a fight with an Ultron in a BadFuture which he can't win, using time-travel to try and undo this, causing a TimeCrash of epic proportions.
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: He's the ruler of a number of empires across space and time, and is easily capable of going toe-to-toe with the entire Avengers at once.
* BadassNormal: He has no powers of his own. All of his abilities come from his technology, but he's more than capable of putting up a fight against a whole team of Avengers even without his more advanced tech.
* BeardOfEvil: Sometimes sports one as Kang. ''Always'' sports one as Immortus. The chairman of the Council of Cross-Time Kangs also has one.
* BigBad: Kang is this in ''ComicBook/TheCelestialMadonnaSaga'', ''ComicBook/TheLastAvengersStory'', ''ComicBook/TheCrossing'', and ''ComicBook/TheKangWar''.
* BloodKnight: He became a MultiversalConqueror because he was ''bored'' with living in a utopia.
* BodyBackupDrive: Kang has a device built into his armor that allows him to automatically transfer his mind into a clone upon death. Eventually, he got rid of it, thinking it was clouding his judgement, and [[NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction robbing him of the thrill of potential death]].
* BoxedCrook: Immortus was originally presented as being one, but ''ComicBook/AvengersForever'' retconned it so he was retired before he was recruited by the Time Keepers.
* ConquerorFromTheFuture: The TropeCodifier. He wants to use his superior technology to create [[VillainWorld techno-dictatorships]] in ''all'' time periods.
* ContinuitySnarl: Kang himself is very much this trope personified. The strangest point being that in so many years and so many offered explanations and events it's become insanely hard to tell if any given action is something that is helping him achieve his destiny or is evidence he is defying his destiny. It is also possible because so much of his life has involved him dealing with himself at alternate points, all the snarls and paradoxes are supposed to be confusing to the reader all for the sake one day the whole thing could eventually make sense if put chronologically from his perspective.
* CoolChair: A floating cushion made of invisible force fields.
* DeathIsCheap: In the latter days of Steve Englehart's run, Kang used an excessive amount of an energy from a "time device" of his (let's just call it that for convenience's sake) and in doing so, wiped himself out. And in doing ''that'', also wiped out Rama Tut and Immortus, both of which were future versions of himself. None of this quite stuck...
* DefectorFromParadise: As seen in the Blood Knight entry, Kang was born in an alternative 31st century Earth timeline where mankind was living in a utopia, but resented the complacency of the society and its people and left to become a conqueror because he sought adventure and power.
* EmperorScientist: His genius is nothing short of super-human by modern standards. He commands technology beyond the most sophisticated designs of Stark Industries and ComicBook/DoctorDoom, and has made breakthroughs in time travel and robotics.
* EnemyMine: Immortus and Rama Tut team up with the Avengers to stop Kang in ''The Celestial Madonna Saga''...and then Kang teams up with the Avengers to defeat Immortus in ''Avengers Forever''.
-->'''Kang:''' [[NotMeThisTime I'm trying to save the universe!]]
-->'''Spider-Man:''' And why would '''''[[EvilOverlord you]]''''' be trying to save the universe?
-->'''Kang:''' [[PragmaticVillainy Because I live within it, you idiot!]]
* EvilSoundsDeep: Creator/SteveBlum gives him a commanding baritone in ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'' and ''Anime/MarvelFutureAvengers''.
* EvilVersusEvil: He doesn't just fight the Avengers. In his years, Kang has also picked fights with Ultron, the Universal Church of Truth, the Badoon and, uh, himself.
* ExpressiveMask: His mask moves along with his face. Somewhat justified in that it's advanced technology, presumably designed to do so.
* FutureMeScaresMe: Rama-Tut hates Kang. Kang ''despises'' Immortus. His younger self, Iron Lad, feels the same way about him, although for different reasons. Although it is possible, his experiencing this trope that is what actually allows him to live the full life that the reader gets to experience way out of order.
* GalacticConqueror: One coming from the future.
* GreaterScopeVillain: While he is far from the only thing that made Comicbook/{{Apocalypse}} become what he is, it would be accurate to say that he ''is'' the primary direct and indirect cause of Apocalypse's slide into villainy. Between causing the deaths of his entire adoptive family, trying to get him to join him, and giving him a CurbStompBattle after Apocalypse understandably attacked him, he did an awful lot to push him off the edge - by all accounts, Apocalypse was [[UsedToBeASweetKid a genuinely nice and kind child]] before the weight of Kang's actions crushed every last shred of decency in him.
* HeroicLineage: He is a distant descendant of ComicBook/MisterFantastic's time-traveling father, [[NamesTheSame Nathaniel Richards]]. And also inverted, as he's implied to be a descendent (or maybe ancestor) of Dr. Doom, as well.
* HesBack: During ''Avengers: Forever'', he starts to get into a funk over his old age, and it looks like he's on the path to becoming Immortus pretty soon. At the end of that story, he gets his mojo back.
* HonorBeforeReason: ''The Kang War'' confirms that Kang ''could'' use his time travel abilities to win every battle (for example, by hopping away, regrouping and rearming, and then returning at the exact second he left), but he doesn't because it wouldn't be sporting.
* IHaveManyNames: Rama-Tut, Kang, Scarlet Centurion, Immortus, and Iron Lad.
* ItsAllAboutMe: The Kang who saves the 2008 Guardians of the Galaxy from a BadFuture does so only because the Magus' actions are threatening him.
* LargeHam: Just look at the quote at the top of the ''ComicBook/AvengersForever'' page.
* TheLostLenore: Princess Ravonna.
* TheMagnificent: That's Kang ''the Conqueror'' to you.
* ManipulativeBastard: He kidnapped the Apocalypse Twins shortly after their birth, and put them through horrific scenarios as they grew (such as sending them to the mutant internment camps of an alternate timeline). He did all that to make them think all humans were mutant-hating monsters, so the Twins would ultimately remove all the mutants (whom he heavily disliked) from Earth. Unfortunately for Kang, the Twins decided to destroy the Earth afterwards, [[TheDogBitesBack as revenge for what he put them through]]. Unfortunately for the Twins, Kang was several steps ahead of them, and both undergo a total VillainousBreakdown when they realise that even when Earth is gone and they have their own mutant planet in a personal nebula, complete with a massive Tachyon Dam to prevent Kang intervening, he ''still'' [[OutGambitted out-gambits them]], using their plans to fulfil his own scheme to [[spoiler: claim the power of a Celestial]]. As everything falls apart, he mocks them, saying that yes, they took Earth away from him... and then, he took it back.
* MultiversalConqueror: He's conquered several realities already.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: His name is both TheDreaded and he's feared amongst history.
-->'''Kang:''' Greater men than you have trembled at my name -- Lesser men have fainted at its mention!
* OlderThanHeLooks: Kang is over 70 years old chronologically, but has managed to stop his aging completely using his far-flung futuristic technology. Thus he appears to be a man in his mid-40s.
* OtherMeAnnoysMe: Kang hates the Council of Kangs, regarding them as a bunch of idiots.
* OneManArmy: In several appearances, Kang has attempted to take over the world all by himself. He's never succeeded, but he makes a good showing.
* OrderVersusChaos: The ForeverWar between Immortus and Kang is presented as being this in ''Avengers Forever''.
* OutGambitted: The Apocalypse Twins think that they have everything neatly sewn up; Earth destroyed, Kang trapped in a dying future by a massive Tachyon Dam, and their own 'Planet X' of mutants. A neat vengeance on their abusive foster father. Then, Kang neatly undoes everything they've done, erasing Planet X, restoring Earth, and revealing that he was actually disappointed in how little challenge they'd proven, on the way to using their plans to [[spoiler: consume the life-force of a Celestial]].
* PaperThinDisguise: One of his plots had him hanging around in the Old West, in his usual purple and green outfit. If anyone asked about it, he just claimed it was covering up old war injuries. This ''worked''.
* PlaceBeyondTime: His former headquarters, Chronopolis. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in ''Avengers Forever''.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: For a guy from a utopian future, he really is a sexist bastard.
* PoweredArmor: Kang wears highly advanced battle armor produced from a rare synthetic alloy from the 40th century. It is neuro-kinetic, meaning it responds to his subconscious thoughts. Though Kang has no powers, his armor endows him with rough equivalents of super-human abilities.
** BarrierWarrior: The armor generates a force field that can stop a direct hit from [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Mjolnir]].
** HandBlast: Kang can fire concussive blasts from the fingertips of his gauntlets; these blasts have the force of several tons of dynamite.
** ShockAndAwe: By flexing his muscles, Kang can activate a powerful electric shock.
** SummonToHand: By cracking his fingers, Kang can summon any number of weapons that are transported to him through the time-stream instantly.
** SuperStrength: He can lift about five tons [[PowerCreepPowerSeep (though this has increased significantly over time)]].
** TimeTravel: Kang's armor can create temporal divergences, giving him the ability to travel through and manipulate time.
** VillainTeleportation: He teleports to either around the battlefield, to his base or into the timestream.
* PurpleIsPowerful: Purple is one of his primary colors, and he is a good candidate for the Avengers' most powerful opponent.
* RoguesGalleryTransplant: He was a ComicBook/FantasticFour villain in his guise as Rama Tut before he showed up as Kang.
* ScrewDestiny: In ''Avengers Forever,'' Kang expresses frustration at the inevitability that he will grow old and become Immortus. He currently believes he got his way around it (or [[ContinuitySnarl perhaps that is just what the timekeepers want him to think]]).
* ScrewYourself: A gender-bent alternate Kang once propositioned him.
* SecondaryColorNemesis: Wears purple and green to battle the Avengers, most of whom wore primary colors when he was first created.
* SlouchOfVillainy: One of Kang's iconic images is of him doing this on an invisible force field cushion.
* SpontaneousWeaponCreation: With a touch of a button, he can summon any ImpossiblyCoolWeapon he likes from his "trans-temporal armory."
* TheSpook: For most of his existence, the details of his past (including his real name) were kept deliberately obscure, and hints were frequently dropped that he was either a descendant or a future self of Reed Richards, Tony Stark, or Doctor Doom.
* TheStrategist: Kang is a brilliant military tactician and a peerless general. Using his considerable charisma, Kang was able to raise an army and conqueror his first world within weeks of building his armor.
* StrawMisogynist: Kang carries a considerably dim view of females, stating they are only good for little more than serving as soldiers or mothers and should not be given too great a status since they are a distraction and a weakness. He also spawned his children from princesses, scientists, and athletes to be selected as breeding stock for his children before being sent to his private chambers and locked in until Kang managed to forcibly conceive a child with the mate.
* UnholyMatrimony: Supposedly, with Comicbook/{{Mantis|Marvel Comics}}, during ''The Crossing''... though this was later retconned to be a Space Phantom posing as her.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Iron Lad is Kang's juvenile self, who knows his destiny but doesn't want to grow up to be a supervillain.
-->'''Iron Lad:''' [[ComicBook/KateBishop Kate]], if you found out you were going to become... UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, wouldn't you do everything in your power to make sure it never happens?
* VictoryIsBoring: Why he keeps coming back to [[ComicBookTime modern day]] Earth-616, despite having already established several empires in different timelines.
-->'''Kang''': Though my own century fears me as the most ruthless conqueror of all time, my triumph is a hollow one so long as the twentieth century escapes my tyranny!
* VillainousRescue: During ''Comicbook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', he saves a time-lost Comicbook/StarLord, Jack Flag, Bug, Mantis and Cosmo, mainly so they can stop the BadFuture.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Every protege he undertakes asks him the obvious question - if he has access to time travel why bother risking a loss confronting his opponents when they're experienced? Why not kill them in the past when they're incapable of defending themselves? His answer is always [[WheresTheFunInThat there being no sport]] or [[HonorBeforeReason honor]] in killing children.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Rama-Tut]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rama_tut.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Defy me, and you and all that you cherish will be destroyed."'']]
The first supervillain identity that Nathan Richards ever assumed. After studying the history of the Heroic Age of Modern Day Earth-616, Richards discovered a fully functional replica of a time platform believed to have been invented by Doctor Doom, and fashioned it into a [[Characters/DoctorWhoTheTARDIS TARDIS]]-like timeship resembling a sphinx. Traveling back to Egypt in the year 2960 [[GrandUnifiedTimeline BCE]], Richards easily took over the land thanks to his superior technology, calling himself Rama-Tut and crowning himself Pharaoh. After learning of the existence of a powerful young mutant named [[ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}} En Sabah Nur]], Rama-Tut seeks to claim him as his heir. Encountering the Fantastic Four and ComicBook/DoctorStrange on their own time traveling adventures, Rama-Tut is eventually forced to flee back to the future and adopt the Kang persona, but some future incarnations have him resuming the Rama-Tut identity as a form of retirement.
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* AGodAmI: Used his advanced technology to convince the natives he was a god.
* TheCaligula: Downplayed, but he is a despotic ruler who encourages his subjects to revere him as a god, and has several monuments built to reflect this. He is at his worst in his early reign, where this is all new to him and he's DrunkWithPower. The older, "retired" versions of him have mellowed with age.
* EvilMentor: To Apocalypse. It [[GoneHorriblyRight went horribly right.]]
* HandicappedBadass: He was blinded when his timeship crashed in Egypt. He eventually got his sight back... ''after'' he conquered Egypt.
* LukeIMightBeYourFather: He was reluctant to kill Doctor Doom when they met in a team-up because he wasn't genuinely sure whether Doom is his ancestor or not.
* MightyWhitey: Nathaniel Richards set himself up as a pharaoh in Ancient Egypt.
* SandalPunk: A NephariousPharaoh who wields a RayGun and commands a robot army.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom:
** Rama-Tut convinced his subjects to abandon their old gods in favor of him. [[ComicBook/MoonKnight Khonshu]] resented humanity for turning their back on him, and millennia later, he's still got a chip on his shoulder.
** Though he's not the only one to blame for Apocalypse's StartOfDarkness, Rama-Tut definitely did make it a lot worse.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: Usually, Rama-Tut tends to go shirtless.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Scarlet Centurion]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nathaniel_richards_scarlet_centurion.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"My time is not your time, and your standards hold no meaning for one such as I."'']]
After Rama-Tut was ousted from his position as Pharaoh by the Fantastic Four, he attempted to return to his own time, but was caught in a temporal storm and crash landed in the modern era of Earth-616. A chance encounter with Doctor Doom prompted him to abandon the Rama-Tut identity and create a new supervillain persona similar to Doom's. He travels back in time to visit the founding Avengers lineup of Iron Man, Ant-Man, Thor, Wasp, and the Hulk, right before Hulk leaves the team, offering to share his knowledge of the future to help them bring about a golden era of peace. This creates a divergent reality: Earth-689. The Scarlet Centurion then pits the Earth-689 founders against the current Earth-616 Avengers. After his defeat, the Centurion again attempts to return to his own time, but ends up in the 40th Century, where he reinvents himself again, taking on the Kang identity.
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* DivideAndConquer: His primary strategy against the Avengers.
* ForWantOfANail: His life diverges from Kang's, and then he decided to go bother the Squadron Supreme of Earth-712.
* LegacyCharacter: Kang's son Marcus took up the title.
* LetsYouAndHimFight: Pits the founding Avengers against their successors.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Immortus]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/immortus_8.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"As ever, heroes, you underestimate me."'']]
The supposed final incarnation of Nathaniel Richards. After several adventures as an EvilOverlord, Kang eventually becomes [[BeingEvilSucks humbled and disillusioned by his failures as a conqueror]]. Retiring from supervillainy, he initially resumes the identity of Rama-Tut and attempts to rule Egypt as a wiser, more benevolent ruler, but ultimately decides to spend his twilight years in Limbo, a pocket dimension that exists outside of the normal space/time continuum. However, the [[TimePolice Time Keepers]] had other ideas. They tracked Richards down and [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse made him a proposition]]: Immortality in exchange for serving as the guardian for an 80 millennia span of the space-time continuum. Now calling himself '''Immortus''', he seeks to repair the damage his earlier selves have done to the time stream. Valuing order over chaos, Immortus alternately helps and hinders the Avengers as he maneuvers through the timestream, intent on preventing temporal paradoxes before they begin.
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* TheAgeless: Benefits of being a time-traveler working for the Time Keepers, he is ''much'' older than he looks, and he wasn't a spring chicken before he was given the job.
* AlmightyJanitor: He's often called ''Custodian'' of the Timestream. And in [[WesternAnimation/XMen the 90s X-Men animated series]], he even disguises himself as a janitor named Bender ([[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} no, not that one]]).
-->'''Kang:''' He calls himself the Master of Time! "Gardener of Time" is more truthful! He prunes away the chronal branches deemed by '''''others''''' to be dangerous, reducing reality to a bloodless meadow!
* ArmyOfTheAges: He's a step up from Kang in that he can summon one without tech [[TimeMaster thanks to his powers]], but he ''still'' loves using these.
* TheChessmaster: Hoo... ''Avengers: Forever'' elevates him to this, revealing how a lot of his actions over the years tied into one great big fiendish and insanely over-complicated plan to, among other things, stop mankind becoming a galaxy-spanning empire.
* DeathIsCheap: Supposedly killed by the Time Keepers in ''Avengers: Forever'', and fried by the Next Avengers in Brian Bendis' ''Avengers''. Of course, since he's a time-traveler...
* DidntSeeThatComing: He manipulated the course of Comicbook/TheVision and Comicbook/ScarletWitch's romance, because he figured as a synthezoid they'd never be able to have children. Then Wanda used her magic to create children anyway.
* GreaterScopeVillain: ''Avengers: Forever'' reveals he's behind a ''lot'' of stuff over the previous thirty-odd years, all as part of a plan to keep mankind from going into space.
** He was the one who first aimed the Badoon at Earth, where they ran into the Comicbook/SilverSurfer, knowing their drubbing would cause the Badoon to return in a thousand years time and nearly wipe out mankind in response, causing the formation of the original Guardians of the Galaxy.
** He manipulated Iron Man during the events of ''Operation: Galactic Storm'', leading to the Avengers executing the Kree Supreme Intelligence. Unfortunately, said manipulating also caused Iron Man's behavior in ''The Crossing'', which wasn't part of the plan.
** Sending a Space Phantom to persuade the Grim Reaper to try and get the Vision to upload his brain into Captain America's body was a plan to make sure the Vis would start a relationship with the Scarlet Witch.
** Wanda's TraumaCongaLine at the end of ''Comicbook/WestCoastAvengers'' was partly his doing.
* GuardianOfTheMultiverse: A far cry from [[MultiversalConqueror his past self.]]
* IHatePastMe: Immortus wants to preserve the timeline, and many of the problems with the timeline were caused by his younger self.
* NiceHat: Immortus wears an impressively large hat.
* NotMeThisTime: At one point, he claimed to be responsible for Hank Pym's mental breakdown. Much later, it turned out he wasn't. Ah, retcons...
* {{Retgone}}: Thanks to the Forever Crystal, he was able to erase entire timelines from existence, having started doing so during the days of ''West Coast Avengers''.
* TimeMaster: He has extensive knowledge of travel through and manipulation of time. He uses a wide variety of instrumentation for manipulation of and travel through time, most of which he designed. It is known that he was tutored by the Time-Keepers.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Iron Lad]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/iron_lad_9887.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I'm here to protect you. The future depends on it."'']]
A 16-year-old Nathaniel Richards whose path diverges when his future self saves him from an assassination attempt. Hoping to spare him painful moments and accelerate his transformation to Kang (under more favorable circumstances), Kang shows the boy his (future) history and provides him with a suit of neurokinetic armour that responds to his subconscious thoughts. However, Young Nate is horrified by what he sees and becomes determined to prevent his destiny as a supervillain by any means necessary. Discovering that his armour had time travel capabilities, Nate travels back to modern day Earth-616 and attempts to contact the Avengers. However, by the time he arrives, [[ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled the team had been disbanded]]. Altering his armor into a likeness of Iron Man's armor, Nate adopted the heroic persona of '''Iron Lad''' and used an Avengers Fail-Safe Program to create [[ComicBook/YoungAvengers a new version of the team]]. Unfortunately, Iron Lad's conflict with Kang eventually created a temporal paradox that threatened to unravel the space-time continuum, forcing him to return to the future and embrace his supervillainous destiny.
----
See Characters/YoungAvengers for more info.
[[/folder]]
----

%%[[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]

The supposed final incarnation of Nathaniel Richards. After several adventures as an EvilOverlord, Kang eventually becomes [[BeingEvilSucks humbled and disillusioned by his failures as a conqueror]]. Retiring from supervillainy, he initially resumes the identity of Rama-Tut and attempts to rule Egypt as a wiser, more benevolent ruler, but ultimately decides to spend his twilight years in Limbo, a pocket dimension that existed outside of the normal space/time continuum. However, the [[TimePolice Time Keepers]] had other ideas. They tracked Richards down and [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse made him a proposition]]: Immortality in exchange for serving as the guardian for an 80 millennia span of the space-time continuum. Now calling himself Immortus, he seeks to repair the damage his earlier selves have done to the time stream. Valuing order over chaos, Immortus alternately helps and hinders the Avengers as he maneuvers through the timestream, intent on preventing temporal paradoxes before they begin.

-->'''Kang:''' He calls himself the Master of Time! "Gardener of Time" is more truthful! He prunes away the chronal branches deemed by others to be dangerous, reducing reality to a bloodless meadow!

** Rama-Tut convinced his subjects to abandon their old gods in favor of him. [[ComicBook/MoonKnight Khonshu]] resented humanity for abandoning him, and millennia later, he's still got a chip on his shoulder.

After Rama-Tut was ousted from his position as Pharaoh by the Fantastic Four, he attempted to return to his own time, but was caught in a temporal storm and crash landed in the modern era of Earth-616. A chance encounter with Doctor Doom prompted him to abandon the Rama-Tut identity and create a new supervillain persona similar to Doom's. He travels back in time to visit the founding Avengers lineup of Iron Man, Ant-Man, Thor, Wasp, and the Hulk, right before Hulk leaves the team, offering to share his knowledge of the future to help them bring about a golden era of peace. This creates a divergent reality: Earth-689. The Scarlet Centurion then pits the Earth-689 founders against the current Earth-616 members. After his defeat, the Centurion again attempts to return to his own time, but ends up in the 40th Century, where he reinvents himself again, taking on the Kang identity.

* AGodAmI: Used his advance technology to convince the natives he was a god.

** Rama-Tut his subjects to abandon their old gods in favor of him. [[ComicBook/MoonKnight Khonshu]] resented humanity for abandoning him, and millennia later, he's still got a chip on his shoulder.

* MightyWhitey: Nathaniel Richards set himself up as a pharoah in Ancient Egypt.

** SuperStrength: He can lift about five tons [[PowerSeepPowerCreep (though this has increased significantly over time)]].

* DidntSeeThatComing: He manipulated the course of Vision and Scarlet Witch's romance, because he figured as a synthezoid they'd never be able to have children. Then Wanda used her magic to create children anyway.

** He was the one who first aimed the Badoon at Earth, where they ran into the Silver Surfer, knowing their drubbing would cause the Badoon to return in a thousand years time and nearly wipe out mankind in response, causing the formation of the original Guardians of the Galaxy.

** Wanda's TraumaCongaLine at the end of ''West Coast Avengers'' was partly his doing.

* UnholyMatrimony: Supposedly, with Mantis, during ''The Crossing''... unless that was actually a Space Phantom pretending to be Mantis.

* VillainousRescue: During ''Guardians of the Galaxy'', he saves a time-lost Star-Lord, Jack Flag, Bug, Mantis and Cosmo, mainly so they can stop the BadFuture.

* GreaterScopeVillain: While he is far from the only thing that made Apocalypse become what he is, it would be accurate to say that he ''is'' the primary direct and indirect cause of Apocalypse's slide into villainy. Between causing the deaths of his entire adoptive family, trying to get him to join him, and giving him a CurbStompBattle after Apocalypse understandably attacked him, he did an awful lot to push him off the edge - by all accounts, Apocalypse was [[UsedToBeASweetKid a genuinely nice and kind child]] before the weight of Kang's actions crushed every last shred of decency in him.

[[caption-width-right:350:Story is not written, scholar-- and neither is destiny! History is made! Made by the deeds of the strong! The brave! And destiny is forged! The historians, the students, the gray-beards-- they come in the wake of the strong and write down what the brave have done! But it is the conquerors who change the world]]

%%[[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]

Kang the Conqueror is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is most frequently depicted as an opponent of the Avengers, as well as sometimes the Fantastic Four. A time-traveling entity, several alternate versions of Kang have appeared throughout Marvel's titles over the years, including his respective future and past heroic selves, Immortus and Iron Lad. In 2009, Kang was ranked as IGN's 65th-greatest comic book villain of all time.

Kang first appeared in The Avengers #8 (Sep. 1964), and was created by writer Creator/StanLee and artist Creator/JackKirby. Rama-Tut first appeared in Fantastic Four #19 (Oct. 1963).

* AbusiveParents: To Marcus and the Apocalypse Twins (Uriel and Eimin), all of whom end up various degrees of screwed up as a results. He dumped the Twins in the concentration camps of ''ComicBook/DaysOfFuturePast'', dangled hope under their noses repeatedly and snatched it away, then ended up making Uriel [[EyeScream cut out his sister's eyes]] when he wasn't even ''ten''.

* BodyBackupDrive: Kang has a device built into his armor that allows him to automatically transfer his mind into a clone upon death.

* FutureMeScaresMe: Kang ''despises'' Immortus. His younger self, Iron Lad, feels the same way about him, although for different reasons. Although it is possible, his experiencing this trope that is what actually allows him to live the full life that the reader gets to experience way out of order.

Kang will make his cinematic debut, portrayed by Jonathon Majors, in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse film ''Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania''.

* ManipulativeBastard: He kidnapped the Apocalypse Twins shortly after their birth, and put them through horrific scenarios as they grew (such as sending them to the mutant internment camps of an alternate timeline). He did all that to make them think all humans were mutant-hating monsters, so the Twins would ultimately remove all the mutants (whom he heavily disliked) from Earth. Unfortunately for Kang, the Twins decided to destroy the Earth afterwards, [[TheDogBitesBack as revenge for what he put them through]].

** SuperStrength: He can lift about five tons.

* GuardianOfTheMultiverse: As Immortus.

* IHatePastMe: Immortus wants to preserve the timeline, and many of the problems with the timeline were caused by his younger self.

* TimeMaster: As Immortus. He has extensive knowledge of travel through and manipulation of time. He uses a wide variety of instrumentation for manipulation of and travel through time, most of which he designed. It is known that he was tutored by the Time-Keepers.