When Jonathan Majors made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Loki, he was merely “He Who Stays,” an enigmatic being who claimed to be policing the timeline to stop different incarnations of himself from wreaking havoc. As soon as he was murdered (by Loki variant Sylvie’s hand), nevertheless, these different incarnations had been allowed to wreak havoc, altering the timeline to take management of the Time Variance Authority—and sure far more, as we’ll see in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. However who’s Kang the Conqueror?

It’s a wonderful query that has no straightforward reply. Kang will not be solely a personality who’s been retconned in lots of, some ways since he made his debut preventing the Incredible 4 in 1963, but in addition, as a time-traveling warlord with entry to the multiverse, there are 1000’s upon 1000’s of Kangs, all keen and in a position to alter timelines and their very own previous. Right here’s a spoiler-free information to those it is best to presumably know earlier than embarking on this latest section of the MCU.

Nathaniel Richards

Beneath his numerous masks, armors, and noms de guerre, Kang is the truth is a human named Nathaniel Richards, a descendant of the Incredible 4’s Reed Richards, born within the Thirty first century. He discovered a time-traveling gadget created by Physician Doom, and that’s when all the difficulty started.

Rama-Tut

Within the character’s very first look, the Incredible 4 encountered him solely as a Thirty first-century felony who had traveled again to historical Egypt (in a spaceship formed like a sphinx, no much less) and took management of the traditional kingdom, styling himself because the pharaoh Rama-Tut. The Incredible 4 occurred upon him up to now whereas trying to find a particular herb that would doubtlessly clear up the Factor’s girlfriend’s blindness and despatched him packing, forcing Rama-Tut to flee again into the longer term.

Kang the Conqueror

Sadly for Nathaniel/Rama-Tut, he missed his residence time interval by a full millennium, arriving in a war-torn world that had basically fallen into a brand new Darkish Age. Along with his superior information and expertise, Nathaniel was quite simply in a position to take over the ruined world, and restyled himself as Kang the Conqueror consequently. Sadly for just about everyone, the world he dominated was so desiccated he determined to overcome the twentieth century as a substitute, solely to be thwarted by the Avengers, who grew to become his prime antagonists. Actually, since then he’s spent at the least as a lot of his time attempting to destroy the superhero workforce as he has attempting to overcome the world, together with heading additional again up to now to stop the Avengers from ever forming within the first place.

Immortus

If this appears clear-cut to date, effectively, right here’s the place that stops. In a branching timeline (or, to place it one other manner, one other part of the multiverse), Nathaniel-as-Rama Tut continued fleeing by time as a substitute of conquering his future world and turning into Kang. As he received outdated, he started trying to find immortality, discovering the realm of Limbo—which, just like the Quantum Realm within the MCU, is a spot outdoors the multiverse which has entry to everything of time. This Rama-Tut was employed/commanded by the Time Variance Authority with sustaining the timeline, which meant he fought his alternate self as Kang on a number of events. Immortus is definitely much less evil than Kang, and has helped the Avengers or enlisted their assistance on a number of events, however he’s additionally fought and deceived the heroes many instances as effectively. That mentioned, he apparently officiated the Imaginative and prescient and Scarlet Witch’s wedding ceremony…?

Scarlet Centurion

But one other timeline’s Rama-Tut met the modern-day Physician Doom throughout his travels by time. Impressed by Doom’s rad armor, this Kang made a very foolish outfit for himself and took the identify Scarlet Centurion. He traveled to a different universe’s Earth and satisfied its Avengers he was a hero with a dire warning concerning the future: all superheroes and villains wanted to be locked as much as save the world. The outcome was a gaggle of more and more fascist Avengers, who the Centurion ultimately pitted towards the common Marvel universe’s Avengers. (Additionally, in a single timeline, Kang has a son named Marcus who additionally took the moniker Scarlet Centurion, however let’s not even fear about that.)

Iron Lad

Pissed off together with his numerous defeats, Kang—the Kang, a Kang, it hardly issues—went to go to his 16-year-old self in hopes of inspiring him to get began on his conquering profession early. He even gifted himself a model of his techno-armor to assist. However the plan backfired when younger Nathaniel grew horrified of the villain he was going to turn out to be, and as a substitute used the armor to journey to the twenty first century and turn out to be the hero Iron Lad. He helped kind the Younger Avengers and fell in love with Cassie Lang—yep, the daughter of Scott Lang—however ultimately was pressured to return to the longer term and observe his future to guard the timeline.

Mr. Gryphon

When a model of Kang received caught within the twenty first century, he grew to become a high-powered CEO of a serious company, amassing wealth to trouble the Avengers. Finally he was found and knocked into the timestream. Additionally he was Asian American for… causes?

Victor Well timed

This Kang appeared within the nineteenth century in an try and get an excellent earlier begin on conquering the world. He based the city of Well timed, Wisconsin, and the Well timed Basis, an organization that superior expertise so forward of schedule all the world was relying on it by the point the Incredible 4 was fashioned. As a result of Kang spends a lot trip of the timestream, he ages extremely slowly, however he skirted round that challenge by creating robotic variations of himself who aged, which allowed him to proceed operating issues behind-the-scenes for generations

Chronomonitor #616

This Kang, from yet one more a part of the multiverse, labored for the Time Variance Authority, abused his energy, and likewise masqueraded as Rama-Tut. Alas, he received busted by his bosses and the Incredible 4 and was caught in a timeloop for his transgressions.

The Council of Kangs

Because of the numerous timelines (a lot of which he created by messing with the previous and/or himself) of the multiverse, there are equally numerous Kangs operating round. Disgusted with sure “lesser” variations of himself, the “prime” Kang enlisted two of his most crafty variants to assist him wipe out the others. Because it seems, this was all secretly engineered by Immortus, who was attempting to destroy all variations of Kang that didn’t find yourself as his future, marginally extra benign self.

He Who Stays

Weirdly, He Who Stays is not a Kang, at the least within the Marvel comics, however I’ve included him right here as a result of he’s clearly some form of Kang outshoot within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (since he was performed by Jonathan Majors). Like his counterpart within the Loki TV sequence, the comics model of He Who Stays is the founder and chief of the Time Variance Authority, and thus Immortus’ boss. In addition to holding the timeline clear and neat (or trying to, at the least), He Who Stays is the ultimate being alive on the finish of the universe, and decided to make use of his Time-Keepers to inform the subsequent multiverse concerning the errors of its predecessor’s methods. Since we all know Loki’s He Who Stays was additionally attempting to maintain variants of himself from hijacking the multiverse, like Immortus, he appears to be a mix of each characters smushed collectively.

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