Who is Kang?

That which is written, is written… and an eternity of raging will not alter one instant of that which will be. Only one maddening enigma remains! Who knows that which is written? Who knows what will be — in the end?

This post was requested by a reader, Bill. Actually, what Bill requested was a brief history of Kang. But brevity is not my strong suit. So I’ll do what I can, which is a comprehensive history of Kang from 1962-2007, the year I stopped reading Marvel regularly.

Who is Kang? In short, he is Kang the Conquerer. He’d conquered the world of the future, and while Alexander wept for there were no new worlds to conquer, Kang found new worlds by setting his sights on conquering history. His story only gets confusing because he’s also gone by other names, like Rama-Tut, Immortus, Scarlet Centurion, Nathaniel Richards, Victor Timely, Whisperer, Iron Lad, and maybe Dr. Doom. And because there is a whole multiverse of Kang variants out there.

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we met Kang in Loki, portrayed by Jonathan Majors, and he plays a significant role in Ant-Man and Wasp: Quantumania.

This post is broken into 3 pages.

  1. 1962-1969 Meet Rama-Tut, Kang, Immortus, Ravonna, and the Scarlet Centurion.
  2. 1974-1990 Learn the truth about Immortus; witness the death of Immortus; meet He Who Remains, the Time-Keepers, Marcus, Nathanial Richards, and Nebula; witness the death of Immortus again; then learn the real truth about Immortus. (Still not the real truth)
  3. 1990-2005 Meet Mr. Mobius of the Time Variance Authority, learn the actual truth about everything, and meet Iron Lad of the Young Avengers.
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Avengers #24

From the Ashes of Defeat!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: November 11, 1965
Cover: January 1966
12 cents
Writer: Stan Lee
Penciller: Don Heck
Inker: Dick Ayers
Letterer: Artie Simek
20 pages

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Avengers #23Reading orderSgt. Fury #25
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Let us each meet our fate with valor– and heaven bless you all!

When we left off, Ravonna had rejected Kang’s offer of marriage, so he’s now sending his armies to invade her kingdom.

This treatment of Kang makes more sense to me than his previous appearances, and it better conveys his title of “…the Conqueror”. That he commands a legion of troops ready to invade kingdoms. His last attempt to conquer the 20th century involved sending a robot Spider-Man against the Avengers. Invading with an army just makes more sense to me.

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Avengers #23

Once an Avenger…

Featuring: Avengers
Release: August 10, 1965
Cover: December 1965
12 cents
Stan Lee, Rollickin’ writer!
Don Heck, prancin’ penciller!
John Romita, dazzlin’ delineator!
Sherigail, liltin’ letterer!
20 pages

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Modeling with Millie #44INTERLUDE
Sgt. Fury #24Reading orderAvengers #24
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The crown is still yours by my leave only! ‘Tis Kang who is the power here! Though countless worlds have fallen before my banner, yours have I spared… but only because of love for you!

Serendipitous timing. We get to see a major battle between Kang and the Avengers just in time for Kang to make his big screen debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania this Friday, portrayed by Jonathan Majors. We had met Jonathan Majors as Kang before in the Loki series.

This story is particularly notable for introducing Kang’s great love, the Princess Ravonna. She was portrayed by Gugu Mbatha-Raw in the Loki series.

John Romita is a new name in the modern Marvel reading, but we’d seen him before in our looks back, as he was the Captain America artist in the 1950s. We’ll be seeing more of him, and have more to say soon.

Sherigail we recall is an alias for for Morrie Kuramoto. We haven’t seen him in a while, with Rosen and Simek dividing up most lettering between them. He married Gail Masuoka in 1955, and they had a daughter Sheri– hence the pen name. As a young adult, Morrie had seen his possessions confiscated and his family sent into prison camps by the US government for having Japanese ancestry. He was able to enlist in the military to escape imprisonment. He worked as a letterer after the war, and continued to do irregular lettering work until his death in 1985.

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