Kang the Conqueror, a time-traveling warlord, is known as one of the most powerful supervillains in the Marvel universe. As a result, fans highly anticipate his rise to power in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). He will be portrayed by Jonathan Majors in the MCU, and already made his official debut in Loki as the Kang variant known as He Who Remains. However, a much darker Kang the Conqueror variant is set to appear as the lead villain in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
It seems all of Phase 5 and Phase 6 will be building up to the rise of Kang, as one of the final films of Phase 6 will be Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. It is believed this film will be an adaption of the Kang Dynasty comic book series. The series sees the warlord Kang from the future arrive on Earth and become the very first villain to actually succeed in conquering the entire planet. However, he does meet considerable opposition from the Avengers, who seek to topple his dynasty.
With Kang being one of the most powerful villains in the Marvel Comics universe and preparing to become the same for the MCU, many might be wondering who, or what, he is. After all, historically, the major villains of the MCU have nearly always been non-humans. Some of them have been gods, such as Loki (Tom Hiddleston), while others are sentient A.I.’s, like Ultron (James Spader), while still more are alien warlords like Thanos (Josh Brolin). Given that Kang is gearing up to be on par, or perhaps even more powerful, than some of the MCU’s past major villains, some may be surprised by Kang’s actual physiology.
Kang the Conqueror’s human identity, explained
Despite his enormous power, Kang the Conqueror is actually wholly human. He is not a mutant, inhuman, or of an alien species. He does not have any innate superhuman powers or abilities and he is very much a mortal. While his character has spurned numerous variants, he initially started out as Nathaniel Richards. Nathaniel was a human from the 31st century and is believed to be a descendant of Reed Richards. Similar to Reed, he boasts an astounding genius-level intellect, which is how he succeeds in time traveling in the first place.
He starts traveling to Ancient Egypt and assuming the identity of Pharaoh Rama-Tut until his reign is disrupted by the time-traveling Fantastic Four. While traveling through time and assuming multiple new identities, he meets Doctor Doom and is inspired to create his own suit of armor. He also ends up in a futuristic dying world that he can conquer easily. This first taste of conquer leads him on his journey to world domination and he renames himself Kang the Conqueror as he sets out to find new worlds to overtake.
What made him so powerful was his genius-level intellect and access to futuristic technology. He has the ability to pull technology, armor, and weaponry from any century. As a result, he is usually encased in a 41st-century high-tech suit that allows him to mimic superpowers like superhuman strength and energy manipulation/projection. He also has a high-powered time ship which he boasted had enough power within itself to destroy the entire moon. Kang is also skilled in combat and is tech-savvy, politically adept, and a master of manipulation and willpower.
Ultimately, though he is very much human, he managed to attain an incredible amount of power through his intelligence and collection of weaponry and technology from the future.
(featured image: Disney)
