Warning! Spoilers ahead for Kang the Conqueror #1
In Marvel Comics’ new Kang the Conqueror series, the death of Loki’s Revonna Renslayer exists as a large weight on the time-traveling villain’s soul. Serving as Kang’s longtime love interest in the comics, the history of Revonna is as complex as Kang’s thanks to the effects and consequences of time travel. Despite the fact that she would appear later on with various iterations of herself afterward, the death of Revonna Renslayer right in front of the lovestruck Kang was one of the time-traveling despot’s darkest days, and readers are reminded of it with a flashback to that fateful day in Marvel Comics’ past.
In Kang the Conqueror #1 from Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, and Carlos Magno, Kang decides to recruit and mentor his own younger self who is still using the name Nathaniel Richards. Training him to become a better conqueror, Kang shows Nathaniel his past battles and conquests, as well as his failures and mistakes. However, one failure in particular results in a drunken Kang wordlessly crying after having taken Nathaniel to the darkest day of his past: the death of his love Revonna Renslayer.
The princess of the final kingdom Kang intended to conquer for his empire, Revonna and her kingdom were spared due to Kang’s growing attraction to her. While the feelings weren’t initially mutual, 1966’s Avengers #24 from Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Don Heck saw Revonna developing feelings for Kang in return. However, it was just before she sacrificed herself to save Kang and was murdered by Baltag, one of Kang’s generals who saw his lord’s love for Ravonna and the sparing of her kingdom as a major betrayal. While Kang’s later time-traveling would result in other versions of Ravonna appearing in the Marvel timeline, it seems as though her death still had a major impact on the life of the time-traveling despot all the same.
While a fairly different version of Ravonna Renslayer has been depicted for the MCU in Marvel’s Loki as a high-ranking judge in the TVA, it seems as though she’ll still be connected to Kang in the series’ second season. The first season finale revealed that a version of Kang/Nathaniel Richards known as He Who Remains is secretly the creator and leader of the organization, using the fake Time-Keepers as a means to keep his maintenance of the sacred timeline anonymous. However, with a more classic Kang on his way to the MCU, it seems likely that Kang and his love from the comics will soon be united, perhaps working together to bring his brand of order to the multiverse.
That being said, the love Kang carries for Ravonna seems to be one of his chief weaknesses, a trait that was witnessed by Nathaniel Richards in this first issue. While seeing Ravonna’s death again was seemingly what motivated Kang to try and convince his younger self to never love, Nathaniel desired love all the same in his quest to be better than his older self. Perhaps his determination could see him coming face to face with a living Ravonna Renslayer herself as the young Kang the Conqueror travels through his own complex timeline.
