Kang the Conqueror

A time-traveler, several alternate versions of Kang have appeared throughout Marvel Comics titles over the years, such as Rama-Tut, Immortus, Scarlet Centurion, Victor Timely, Iron Lad, and Mister Gryphon.

Kang made his live-action debut in the MCU film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), portrayed by Jonathan Majors, who previously appeared as different versions of the character in the Disney+ series Loki (2021–2023).

[9][10] He then travels back in time to ancient Egypt aboard a Sphinx-shaped timeship and reinvents himself as Pharaoh Rama-Tut, with plans to claim En Sabah Nur—the mutant destined to become Apocalypse—as his heir.

[15] Nathaniel then tries to return to the 31st century, but overshoots by a thousand years, discovering that humanity has ruined the Earth through endless conflict using advanced weapons they no longer understand.

[16][17] On Nathaniel's first foray into the 20th century under the Kang identity, he meets and battles the Avengers, capturing everyone but the Wasp and Rick Jones, and informs the world that they have 24 hours to surrender to him.

In an attempt to stop them, Kang releases radiation that only beings from his time are immune to, but Thor uses his hammer to absorb the rays and send them back at the warlord so even he cannot withstand it, and he is forced to escape.

[24] Some time later Kang reappears at Avengers Mansion seeking the "Celestial Madonna", who turns out to be Mantis, desiring to marry her as she is apparently destined to have a powerful child.

The heroes are aided by a future version of Kang, who, tired of conquest, had returned to ancient Egypt and his identity of Rama-Tut, ruling benevolently for ten years before placing himself in suspended animation to revive in the 20th century, desiring to counsel and change his younger self.

[36] In Avengers Forever, flashbacks reveal that many of Kang's recent actions were motivated by more of a desire to do something rather than a genuine desire for power, and that Rama-Tut is his past and future self; feeling listless and trapped by the burdens of the empire he has created, Kang at one point returned to life as Rama-Tut for a more simple life where he did not have a vast empire to administer.

[38] After some months, Kang embarks on an ambitious scheme to conquer the Earth, this time aided by his son Marcus, who uses the "Scarlet Centurion" alias.

Although imprisoned, Kang is freed by his son, revealed to be only one of a series of clones, and kills clone Marcus for betraying him by assisting Warbird during the invasion and keeping it secret despite multiple opportunities to admit the truth; while Kang could tolerate the treachery if it allowed Marcus to become his own man, he cannot tolerate a traitor who remains active in his ranks.

This team consists of teenagers with ties to the Avengers' history, such as Hulking- the Kree/Skrull hybrid son of Captain Mar-Vell and a Skrull princess- Wiccan and Speed- the children of the Scarlet Witch and the Vision reborn as teenagers- and Cassie Lang- daughter of the second Ant-Man-, with the young Kang adopting the alias of 'Iron Lad' using technology stolen from his future self to imitate a variation of Iron Man's armor.

[44] Before the Inhuman king Black Bolt destroys the city of Attilan to release Terrigen Mist throughout the world, he sends his son Ahura away for Kang to foster.

[45] While taunting the Inhumans' efforts to find Ahura,[46] another Kang emerges under the alias of "Mister Gryphon", claiming that he has become splintered into various alternate versions of himself as a result of recent temporal disruptions.

With this Kang confined to the present, he mounts a massive assault on the Avengers with the aid of Equinox and a reprogrammed Vision, intending to use Mjolnir's time-traveling ability to return to his era, but is defeated.

[52] During the "Venom War" storyline, it was revealed that Kang the Conqueror created the Ruckus Symbiote from a sample of Bedlam (a possible future version of Eddie Brock), which was used by Normie Osborn.

[53] Kang has no superhuman abilities but is an extraordinary genius, an expert historical scholar, and a master physicist (specializing in time travel), engineer, and technician.

[12] Later in life, he retires as Kang, returns to the Rama-Tut identity, and helps the Avengers defeat his past self when he attempts to capture the "Celestial Madonna".

After remaking the universe in his image, the Maker travels to the future to learn if his influence would last and meets Kang, who is implied to be Tony Stark.

Attempting to escape his destiny, the teen Nate Richards steals his future self's advanced armor and travels back to the past, forming the Young Avengers to help him stop Kang.

Posing as his son Victor Timely Jr., he develops an interest in visiting college graduate Phineas Horton and provides him with knowledge that leads to him creating the original Human Torch.

[volume & issue needed] In Avengers: Children's Crusade, Cassie is killed by Doctor Doom, and Iron Lad decides to take her body into the future to be revived.

Jonas protests, reasoning that such an action is more in line with Kang's manipulation of time than what Cassie would want, and Iron Lad murders him in a fit of jealous anger.

[30][67] On becoming bored with his success and dictatorship over a total of fifteen moons and planets, Victorex Prime elects to invade the past for further conquests, coming into conflict with the Squadron Supreme by sending "temporal hard light holograms" of his Scarlet Centurion form to the past to fight on his behalf, and bringing a number of the team to his time in order to compete in death games, serving as the champions of the Earth-616 Grandmaster against Victorex Prime's own Institute of Evil.

[68] While arranging for his fourth invasion into the past, sending a holographic envoy of his Scarlet Centurion form ahead of him as herald, Victorex Prime is left shaken when Hyperion, "not in the mood" for battle, while mourning a loss, informs him that while he has been allowed to live on his previous defeats, he will be executed if he attempts to invade the past when any members of the team are mourning as per the historical record, and that he would slowly kill Victorex Prime personally should he break these rules.

Daunted, Victorex Prime flees to the future, resorting to subtle ways to mess with the Squadron by interfering with Tom Thumb's attempts to develop a cure for cancer (and all other diseases, as well as ageing), before succumbing to depression, having conquered everything in the past, present, and future, after a temporal bubble emerges around the late 20th century and surrounding decades, preventing him from visiting the time.

Holographically accompanying Master Menace and the Squadron Supreme as they journey into space to confront the entity, Victorex Prime realises he enjoys the excitement of being a superhero instead of a supervillain, and holographically accompanies Master Menace and the Squadron Supreme as they journeyed out into space to confront the entity.

[69] However, on calculating the present is diverging from his own future, and seeking to preserve his former foes on the failure of Master Menace's device, Victorex Prime retrieves the all-powerful telepath known as the Overmind, believing his power could turn back the entity.

A renegade Chronomonitor from the organization, he is stripped of his power after interfering with history for personal gain as part of a mid-life crisis before escaping custody and killing and replacing a version of himself as Rama-Tut.

[85] Jonathan Majors portrayed Kang the Conqueror and his alternative variants in media set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe from 2021 to 2023: The X-Men/Spider-Man novel trilogy Time's Arrow by Tom DeFalco features a version of Kang as the villain, as he plants the titular "time arrows" at various points in the timestream with the goal of using the accumulated energies to trigger the destruction of all alternate timelines.