Avengers #269
Once and Future Kang!
The Avengers are prisoners of Kang the Conqueror in Limbo. The master of time had manipulated the team into helping him the last of his divergent counterparts. Now with the final alternate Kang and the Avengers trapped in stasis, Kang intends on eliminating them all and then conquering all time and space. This is all very confusing to the Avengers, prompting Kang to explain every detail to them.
He explains that there are multiple timelines in the multiverse and that divergences occur during at pivotal moments. For example, his own timeline diverged from the Avengers centuries ago. While the mainstream timeline was going through the Dark Ages, the people of Kang’s timeline were establishing colonies on the Moon. After centuries of warfare and strife, a stranger from another timeline came to his world. Kang claims that this man is his ancestor and that he ushered a new golden age of peace and scientific advancement to his Earth.[1]
The man who would be come Kang the Conqueror lived in the year 3000 a time of peace and prosperity and he hated every minute of it. Seeking adventure and excitement he visited the citadel constructed by his ancestor and found the plans for a time machine. He used it to travel to the distant past where he set himself up as Pharaoh Rama-Tut where he ruled unopposed until he was forced to flee that era by the Fantastic Four during a trip through time.[2] Caught in a time storm, he was forced to rematerialize in Earth’s solar system in the present day where he saved the life of Doctor Doom. Rama-Tut manipulated Doom into thinking they were allies and returned him to Earth before getting continuing his journey back to the future.[3] Hearing how Kang had once set Doctor Doom free, Namor vows to defeat Kang for all Doom had done since.[4] Meanwhile, Hercules refuses to allow himself to be held prisoner and begins straining to get free. Ravonna notices that the Olympian’s attempts to get free are causing a strain on the stasis beam’s power supply but decides not to say anything to Kang.
Kang, meanwhile, continues telling his story. On his way back to his own time he was caught in a time storm that caused him to overshoot his destination by 1000 years. He discovered that this future world had plunged into warfare. Since society had degraded to barbarism with no knowledge on how to repair or make new weapons, Rama-Tut reinvented himself as Kang the Conqueror — taking inspiration from Doctor Doom — and used his scientific knowledge to make himself a powerful warlord. He quickly conquered this future timeline and soon grew bored again. That’s when Kang decided to go back in time to conquer the present day, leading to his first clash with the Avengers.[5] When Captain America reminds Kang that the Avengers defeated him back then, both the Prime Kang and his imprisoned counterpart claim that the Avengers won by sheer luck.
Kang continues his story, recalling that he would have killed the Avengers during their next encounter had it not been for his beloved Ravonna. She and her father were the last hold outs of his rule in the 40th Century and he kidnapped Captain America’s then novice team of Avengers to try and destroy them. Instead, Kang found himself forced to work with the Avengers to stop a mutiny from Boltag, his second-in-command. After the rebellion was crushed, Ravonna finally professed her love for Kang, seeing his nobility in battle. Unfortunately, tragedy struck when Boltag managed to get a gun and tried to shoot Kang. Instead, Ravonna pushed Kang out of the way. Ravonna was left clinging to life, forcing Kang to put her in stasis until he could find a cure.[6] Failing to find a cure for his beloved, Kang returned his focus to try to conquer the present day. This led to a battle with Thor in which he attempted to flee into the time stream upon his defeat. However, Thor used his hammer to create an infinity vortex to stop him, obliterating his time-sphere.[7]
Rather than being destroyed, Kang found himself in Limbo and after wandering around found the citadel of Immortus. Inside, he found Immortus’ skeleton and, not caring how the rival time master died, began mastering his equipment.[8] It was here that he observed the moment when Ravonna sacrificed herself to save his life. Using Immortus’ machine, Kang plucked Ravonna out of time and brought her to him. However, this came with horrifying consequences as he created a divergent reality in which he was killed rather than Ravonna.[9] This is how Kang became aware that his forays into time created divergent versions of himself. Finding them to all be failures unworthy of the name Kang, the Prime Kang then set about eliminating all of his divergent counterparts in order to make him the only Kang in all the multiverse.
By this time, the strain on the immobilizer caused by Hercules has weakened the stasis beams enough for the Avengers and the alternate Kang to break free. While the battle spills into the another room, Ravonna pulls a gun on the alternate Kang to keep him from interfering with the battle. While the Avengers are busy, Ravonna tries to convince the alternate Kang to spare his other, but he refuses to do so as he wants to get revenge. Ravonna gives up and tells Kang to do whatever he needs but she won’t give him his weapon. This is just as well, as this Kang literally has a weapon up his sleeve. As he departs, Ravonna begins to cry but a mysterious observer comes out of the shadows to comfort her, telling her that the Kangs will not learn the errors of their ways.
When the alternate Kang joins the battle and tries to shoot his counterpart, his weapon blows up in his hand. The Prime Kang gloats over his final victory, as he sabotaged his divergent’s gun while they were being held prisoner. However, that’s when Immortus appears and reveals to Kang that there is still one divergent left — himself — a much older incarnation of Kang. Although this revelation is already known by the Avengers, this comes as a shock to the Prime Kang. Immortus then reveals that all of the memories of the dead Kangs live on in a Psyche-Globe of his own creation, saying that it will give him supreme power as master of Limbo. Mad for power of his own, Kang snatches the Psyche-Globe and his mind is suddenly flooded with all the memories of his divergent counterparts. This drives Kang insane and he flees into the eternal mists of Limbo.[10]
When the Avengers try to go after him, Immortus stops them saying that there is nothing more they can do. He explains that he intended to give Kang the opportunity to either redeem or condemn himself but ultimately Kang chose the latter. This was all apparently part of a grand manipulation on the part of Immortus to ensure that Kang will eventually become Immortus. When the Avengers protest this grand scheme, Immortus sends them back to their own era with the wave of his hand. Alone with Ravonna, Immortus tells her that in the grand scheme of things heroes of the Avengers must be weary of people with power such as his and it is best that the team think of him as a villain so that they always maintain their effectiveness.[11]
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Wasp, Black Knight, Hercules, Captain Marvel, Sub-Mariner), Kang, Ravonna, Immortus,
Continuity Notes
The background of Kang’s timeline is quite complex. Let’s dive into the details.
The revelation that Kang’s timeline was divergent from the Prime Marvel Universe was detailed in Fantastic Four #272-273. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005 classifies Kang’s timeline as Reality-6311.
In those same issues, the “savior” that Kang speaks of is revealed to be Nathaniel Richards, the father of Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four.
Kang’s claims that he is a descendent of Nathaniel Richards has been questioned. What If (vol. 2) #39 also suggests he might be related to Doctor Doom. It’s probably a little of both somehow through the convoluted nature of time and dimensional travel, however the truth has always remained intentionally vague.
Rama-Tut’s classic battle with the Fantastic Four was chronicled in Fantastic Four #19 and expanded upon in Doctor Strange (vol. 2) #53, West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #22, and Rise of Apocalypse #1-4.
Rama-Tut’s encounter with Doctor Doom happened in Fantastic Four Annual #2. The “misinformation” that Kang is talking about was suggesting the idea that he and Doom were the same person from different points on the timeline. This, obviously, is not true.
Kang points out that the Sub-Mariner has worked with Doctor Doom many times in the past. The earliest instance of this happened in Fantastic Four #6. The pair have had many uneasy alliances over the years during periods in which Namor wanted to wage war with the surface world and would ultimately be betrayed by Doom. See also Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #1-2 and Super-Villain Team-Up #1-6, among others.
Kang’s first battle with the Avengers took place in Avengers #8. That story has been expanded upon in Captain America Annual #11, Avengers Forever #9, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #4 and Captain America: Man Out of Time #3-5.
The Boltag mutiny and Ravonna’s near death happened in Avengers #23-24. What Kang doesn’t know is that, later, the Grandmaster replaced Ravonna with a bio-duplicate after Kang gave up the chance to save her to kill the Avengers in Avengers #69-71. The real Ravonna went into hiding to plan revenge against Kang. This will be revealed in Avengers Annual #21.
Kang’s battle with Thor happened in Thor #140. It should be noted that the Kang telling this story had diverged from the Kang’s that fought the Avengers during the Game of Galaxies in Avengers #69-71 and the quest for the Celestial Madonna in Avengers #129-135 and Giant-Size Avengers #2-4, as well as the Kang they fought in the American Frontier in Avengers #141-143. This is all explained in greater detail in Avengers Forever #8. This is why the Prime Kang is unaware that Immortus is his future self.
According to the Immortus profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #5, Immortus — allegedly a singular entity in the multiverse — used his own dead body here to trick Kang into doing his bidding. Immortus’ death was apparently seen in Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #3. The skeleton of Immortus would later go on to be seen again in Uncanny Avengers #4 as a means to warn the Avengers Unity Division of the coming threat posed by the Red Onslaught.
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3 classifies this timeline as Reality-8657.
This is not the end of Kang by any means. In order to escape the insanity, Kang used time circuitry in his helmet to create a new divergent Kang and divide the madness between the two of them, as explained in Avengers Forever #8. One of these divergences would be dubbed Kang 123488.23497 and be seen in Avengers #293.
This motivation is not entirely true. As we’ll learn in Avengers Forever #1-12, Immortus has been manipulating the Avengers throughout their entire career in order to maintain the timeline on behalf of the Time-Keepers.
Topical References
This story refers to the present day as occurring in the 20th Century. This should be considered a topical reference as the Sliding Timescale has bumped the Modern Age forward in time so that it does not begin until after the start of the 21st Century.
