Kang, The Conqueror!

The Avengers have been summoned to Avengers Mansion for a special teleconference with the Pentagon on a serious threat to national security. The General in charge shows the Avengers footage of a strange unidentified flying object that had appeared in the wilderness of Virginia. After creating a landing strip by fusing the ground into glass, the ship landed. When a military force was deployed to confront the invading ship, its onboard weapons made short work of the their tanks and guns. That’s when the owner of the ship, a man clad in futuristic armor, emerges and introduces himself as Kang the Conqueror. He has come to conquer the Earth and asks for the rulers of the world to be brought to him. Concluding this report, the General explains that government officials have decided to send the Avengers instead.

The Avengers are quickly flown to Virginia and brought where Kang is still waiting. Kang is unimpressed with their arrival and when they try attacking him, Kang’s weapons are able to deflect them all. That’s when a government official arrives to see what Kang wants. Kang explains that he is from the distant future.[1] He tells them he previously ruled in ancient Egypt as the Pharaoh Rama-Tut but left that era.[2] On his way back a stop in the present day led to a chance encounter with Doctor Doom.[3] Inspired to follow in Doom’s footsteps, Rama-Tut tried to return to his home in the year 3000. However, a temporal storm resulted in him in overshooting his destination by 1000 years. The year 4000 was a world of barbarians that were in constant war using advanced scientific weapons they no longer understood how to recreate.[4] Using his intelligence to his advantage, Rama-Tut reinvented himself as Kang and quickly took over this era. However, this era was a wasteland and no longer a challenge, so Kang decided to go back in time to the present and conquer a more lively era.

Unwilling to surrender to Kang, the Avengers attack but the time traveler’s futuristic weapons are more than up to the task of fending off these attacks. Kang grows weary of these attacks and uses a tractor beam to pull all of the male Avengers into stasis chambers aboard his time-ship. The rays used to keep the Avengers in stasis has a stronger effect on some than it does others. For Thor, the energies trigger a transformation back to his mortal guise of Donald Blake, while the beams also shut off the chest plate that keeps shrapnel from Iron Man’s heart. The only people allowed to remain free are the Wasp and Rick Jones, as Kang does not consider them a threat. While the United Nations votes to unite against Kang, the Wasp and Rick Jones begin a plan to free their allies.

As the military forms a perimeter around Kang’s ship, Rick and the members of Teen Brigade approach Kang and pretend to pledge allegiance to him. Impressed, Kang allows the youths aboard his ship so they can familiarize themselves with its technology. While they are working on freeing the Avengers, the Wasp and an army of flying ants carry a new experimental weapon created by Giant-Man to the scene of the battle. When the Avengers are freed, they attack Kang again. Moments later, the Wasp arrives with the weapon and she passes it on to Giant-Man. Giant-Man then blasts Kang with the weapon, causing his armor and built-in weapons to instantly start corroding. Still, he is able to signal his ship to fire a neutrino bomb, but Iron Man uses his repulsor ray to deflect the missile into the air where it harmlessly explodes. Kang’s final gambit is to begin projecting radiation from his mask, but Thor absorbs and redirects the radiation through Mjolnir. Unable to withstand such a heavy concentration of radiation, Kang flees back to his own era. When Rick wonders if this is the last they’ll see of Kang, Captain America assures him that if Kang ever returns the Avengers will be ready for him.[4][5][6]

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man, Wasp), Teen Brigade (Rick Jones), Kang the Conqueror, Rama-Tut (flashback)

Continuity Notes

1. Kang is actually from the future of a parallel universe dubbed “Other-Earth”, as explained in Fantastic Four #272-273. This reality has been designated as Earth-6311 in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005.

2. Rama-Tut’s time in ancient Egypt was chronicled in Fantastic Four #19, Doctor Strange (vol. 2) #53, West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #20-21, Captain America Annual #11, Avengers Forever #9, What If? (vol. 2) #39, Rise of Apocalypse #1-2, Killpower: The Early Years #12.

3. Rama-Tut’s encounter with Doctor Doom happened in Fantastic Four Annual #2. What isn’t revealed here is that prior to becoming Kang, Rama-Tut became the Scarlet Centurion, whom the Avengers will encounter in Avengers Annual #2. It is also revealed in Avengers #269 that the time storm that caused Rama-Tut to overshoot his future was caused by Immortus to ensure that events that would lead Kang to become Immortus came to pass.

4. The battle with Kang is expanded upon in Avengers #269, Captain America Annual #11, Avengers Forever #9, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heros #4 and Captain America: Man Out of Time #4-5. The latter tale features untold events where Captain America uses Kang’s technology to return to 1945 only to discover that he doesn’t belong in that era anymore.

5. It is later revealed in Avengers #129, that Kang also sent out a probe to search for the Celestial Madonna in the modern age.

6. Unknown to Kang at this time, each foray into the past created divergent versions of himself. See Avengers #267.

Topical References

• This story states that the Avengers are flown to Virginia in a DC-8 aircraft. Most of these aircraft have since been retired. The few that are still in operation are strictly used for transporting freight.

• All references to the Modern Age being part of the 20th Century should be considered topical. The Sliding Timescale has pushed the Modern Age forward enough that it now begins in the 21st Century.