Featuring: Avengers
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: September 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee (our answer to Victor Hugo!)
Illustrated by: Jack Kirby (our answer to Rembrandt!)
Inked by: Dick Ayers (our answer to Automation!)
Lettered by: Sam Rosen (our answer to Artie Simek!)
21 pages
This is more like it.
If you look to Amazing Spider-Man, you’ll see that Lee and Ditko introduced 6 super-villains in 7 issues (Chameleon, Vulture, Tinkerer, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Lizard), and the pace hasn’t slowed down by issue 16. By contrast, over 7 issues Avengers introduced the Space Phantom and Zemo.
So it’s good that we’re getting a new villain at all. More than that, it’s good that this villain is plausibly a threat to the Avengers. That’s what they should be about, after all. Threats so great no single hero can stand against them. It’s also great this is an independent menace. Too much of the series was focused on internal squabbles or villains whose sole goal was to defeat the Avengers.
Kang is actually here to conquer the world. He’s tough enough that it’s going to take a team of superheroes to stop him.
Technically speaking, Kang’s perhaps not a new villain. But close enough. While we’re being technical, Zemo was perhaps introduced in Sgt. Fury.
Of more personal significance, this is the oldest Avengers comic I actually own. I have a complete run of Avengers comics starting with issue 31 and going until I stopped collecting them in 2007. And then I have a handful of older issues, starting with this one.
Kang has come from the future to claim dominion over Earth in the present era. Some Avengers talk about how dangerous he is. Wasp talks about how handsome he is.
This is Kang’s story. It’s confusing already and will only get moreso as it’s added to over the years. He was born in the year 3000. He used a time machine invented by an ancestor, likely Dr. Doom, to travel back to ancient Egypt, where he called himself Rama-Tut and ruled Egypt. After a battle with the Fantastic Four, he left Egypt and came to our time, where he happened upon Dr. Doom in outer space. They speculated that Dr. Doom may not be his ancestor, but rather a past or future version of himself. He continued on to the year 4000. Humanity had descended into barbarism, using weapons it no longer had the expertise to build to wage perpetual war. There, Kang again established his own empire. Bored of ruling over a dying world, he traveled back to the 20th century to rule in our time using the weaponry of the year 4000.
His technology seems to be too much for even the Avengers. An anti-grav field subdues most of the team, and he is able to transport Thor’s hammer to subspace. Had he left it there more than 60 seconds, that would have been the end of Thor. But Kang decided to return his hammer promptly, confident he had proved his superiority.
The Avengers mostly find themselves captured and held by electromagnetic fields. The fields turn Thor back into Dr. Blake and disrupt the technology Tony Stark needs to keep his heart beating. Captain America notes Kang hasn’t captured Wasp or Rick Jones.
There’s also a whole squadron of soldiers outside, but sure, your best hope is Rick Jones.
Wasp returns to New York to pick up some weapon Tony and Hank had been working on, while Rick assembles the Teen Brigade. The Avengers remain prisoners and Iron Man is dying, while we wait for some teenagers to fly to Virginia and save the day.
As with Hawkeye, Kang is one of those names prominent enough in pop culture that, out of context, it might not be obvious who you’re referring to. At present, there are no other famous pop culture Kangs I am aware of, but within a few years, Star Trek will introduce a Klingon adversary named Kang. A couple decades later, Simpsons will name one of their aliens Kang. I’m fairly confident the Simpsons character’s name is an intentional homage to Star Trek. When I google “Kang”, the Marvel character is the dominant result. It’s hard to be sure, but it’s possible Simpsons is where my mind first goes when I hear “Kang”, though the Marvel character is the first one I met. Don’t blame me; I voted for Kodos. (Besides Hawkeye and Kang, my other favorite pop culture question is who the first person named “Q” to come to mind is. Star Trek? 007?)
Final personal note. Prior to reading my first comic, I met the Marvel superheroes two ways: old animated television shows we rented on VHS, and toys, specifically the Mattel line of action figures that tied in with Marvel’s Secret Wars series. Thus, my introduction to the character of Kang was an action figure I had at a very young age. I’m not sure whatever became of those toys.
Rating: ★★★½, 63/100
Significance: ★★★★☆
The scans are taken from my own copy. You can find this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers vol. 1 or Avengers Epic Collection vol.1: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Wasp
- Iron Man
- Giant-Man
- Thor/Dr. Don Blake
- Captain America
- Rick Jones
- Kang/Rama-Tut
- Under Secretary of Defense
Story notes:
- Top-priority red alert meeting of the Avengers called by Pentagon.
- Avengers rotate the chairman. Giant-Man chaired last time. Now it is Captain America’s turn.
- Avengers communicate with Pentagon via direct closed-circuit TV channel with scramble control.
- UFO appears over Virginia at 1400, fires a ray which turns woods to glass to make a landing strip. US Military arrives on scene. A vibration ray from the ship destroys all the tanks.
- Avengers take DC-8 to Virginia.
- Kang claims dominion of Earth in the 20th century; proclaims himself Kang, the First.
- Kang has anti-grav ray; sends Thor’s hammer to subspace; anti-matter screen disintegrates anything it touches, but merely repels Thor’s hammer; Kang has a neutrino missile.
- Kang from Year 3000; journeyed to Ancient Egypt, calling himself Rama-Tut, then traveled to 20th century and met Dr. Doom, then accidentally to the year 4000, then back to 20th century.
- Giant-Man makes Wasp grow.
- Kang pulls each Avenger through a powerful electromagnetic field into a small compartment. Electro-chemical reaction changes Thor to Don Blake.
- UN resolves to join forces against Kang.
- Teen Brigade pretends to join with Kang.
- Power ray designed by Stark; modified by Pym; transported by Wasp and flying ants; rots and decays any fabric or wiring.
- Kang retreats into time.
#244 story in reading order
Next: Sgt. Fury #10
Previous: X-Men #7
