The new major villain for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Kang the Conquerer, is also the next major villain for the Marvel Comics universe as well. Marvel recently announced the 2022 “Timeless” crossover event which will prominently feature the time-traveling evildoer. In a recent interview with Comicbookresources.com, writer Jed MacKay explains exactly how the Timeless event will work – and why Kang is so dangerous this time around.
Kang is a Stan Lee-Jack Kirby creation, first appearing in The Avengers #8 in 1964. His true identity is Nathanial Richards, a descendant of Reed Richards from the 31st century. Kang has had many names across the centuries; he first traveled back to ancient Egypt and became known as the Pharaoh Rama-Tut, but upon his defeat at the hands of the Fantastic Four, he escaped to take on other names such as the Scarlet Centurion, Immortus, and eventually Kang the Conquerer (he was also known as the Scion, but that was later revealed to be a ruse by Reed Richards to infiltrate his stronghold in Fantastic Four #35).
In Timeless, the issue of variants arises – a term not often seen in the Marvel Comics universe. But ever since 2021’s Loki used the word liberally (and He Who Remains, the last Kang variant, even warned Loki about his variants from other universes), the comics have capitalized on the success of the Disney+ show. Writer Jed Mackay says that Kang faces a new enemy that could threaten the timeline. “Kang finds himself challenged by a rogue, severed timeline that has fought off the entropic decay that would normally have dissolved it and seeks to reattach itself to the main timeline” explains MacKay. “The chronal gravity of this rogue timeline is playing hell with the main timeline. It’s up to Kang to sort it out. Of course, it’s never that easy- and who, or what is keeping this pirate timeline whole?”
From this quote, it appears the rules of time travel do not work exactly the same as those in the MCU. In the Marvel Universe, parallel timelines can exist independent of each other. But according to MacKay, a severed timeline (a “pruned” timeline as seen in Loki) has the capability to reattach itself to the main 616 universe and wreak havoc from there. Of course, is the timeline itself the threat, or is someone from within that timeline manipulating it in such a a way as to use it to attack the main Marvel Universe?
Timeless releases in 2022, but Kang has appeared quite frequently this year. He’s been the villain of Avengers: Mech Strike, the villain in the anniversary issue of Fantastic Four, and is the star of his own self-titled series and the story Only Myself Left To Conquer. Kang the Conquerer is set to appear in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, but as for Timeless, only time will tell what threat Kang will eventually face from the rogue timeline.
