Warning: Full spoilers comply with for Loki Season 1.
The Loki Season 1 finale did what its predecessors WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier prevented, serving up the large reveal that comics followers had mainly been anticipating — and that the present had been hinting at all through its six episodes: Jonathan Majors made his MCU debut as traditional Marvel time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror, or a minimum of a Variant of the character generally known as He Who Stays.
The collection additionally ended this primary season by shattering the “Sacred Timeline,” which units up the upcoming occasions of Spider-Man: No Means House, Physician Unusual within the Multiverse of Insanity, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and possibly a bunch of different Marvel tasks as nicely.
Kang from the comics, and a really Kang-ish model of He Who Stays from Loki.
So the query is, now that Thanos is gone, how a lot of a task will Majors’ character play within the MCU shifting ahead? We all know Jonathan Majors will play Kang in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and Loki has been dropping Easter eggs indicating that Kang could be exhibiting up even before anticipated.
If you happen to’re not aware of Kang or why he has the potential to be the following Thanos-level risk to the MCU, we’re right here to make clear this highly effective villain and in addition clarify the Season 1 Loki ending. These are the subjects we’ll be protecting right here:
- Loki Ending Defined
- Who Is He Who Stays/Kang the Conqueror?
- Kang’s Origin
- Kang the Conqueror Powers and Talents
- Kang’s Many Identities
- Kang and the Younger Avengers
- Kang the Conqueror Actor Jonathan Majors and Marvel Universe Connections
- Kang in TV and Video games
Loki Ending Defined
Within the Season 1 finale of Loki, Loki and Sylvie lastly make it to the tip of time (ought to that be capitalized?) to confront the mysterious determine behind the TVA, a.okay.a. the Time Variance Authority. No, not the Time Keepers, who we realized a few episodes again have been fakes, however the precise determine who has been overseeing the pruning of the Sacred Timeline: He Who Stays.
On this Loki episode, Majors performs the character as a enjoyable determine, one who maybe has gone a bit of bonkers dwelling without end on the finish of all time, understanding every thing that’s going to occur.
Effectively, to some extent. Because the episode proceeds, He Who Stays explains his backstory, but in addition that they’re now reaching a second within the timeline the place he’ll not know the way issues are going to play out — a juncture that may lastly free him of the self-imposed jail he has been dwelling in as grasp of the timeline. And it is as much as Sylvie and Loki to determine what comes subsequent. On the similar time, the one Sacred Timeline the Time Variance Authority has been sustaining beneath his watch will begin to splinter into an untold variety of timeline branches…
However first, about that backstory: He Who Stays explains that all of it started with a Variant of himself, a scientist from the 31st century, who found that different timelines/realities exist. At first issues have been pleasant as different variations, or Variants of this scientist, started to fulfill up throughout completely different timelines. However then some Variants turned to conquering, and the Multiverse Warfare we realized about in Episode 1 started. In the long run, He Who Stays… nicely, remained. Because the winner of the battle, he created the TVA to maintain different timelines from branching into existence with the intention to keep away from one other multiversal battle.
The final phrases of He Who Stays: I am going to see you quickly.
And so now He Who Stays desires out, and Loki and Sylvie have a alternative: Develop into the brand new masters of the Sacred Timeline, or kill He Who Stays, which can carry in regards to the multiverse as soon as once more and, inevitably, the return of an untold variety of He Who Stays/Kangs who will wind up re-starting the battle. Loki desires to take over, if solely to keep away from the inevitable battle that may end result from killing He Who Stays. However Sylvie desires to kill He Who Stays, selecting the chaos of a multiverse — and free will — over all else. After combating Loki, she kisses him — after which pushes him again via time to the TVA earlier than stabbing He Who Stays, who would not even combat again. We final see Sylvie on the finish of time, considering her determination because the timeline branches and splinters into an infinite quantity of variations — a multiverse.
The Loki finale ends with our title character touchdown again on the Time Variance Authority, however he quickly realizes that it is a TVA seemingly from a unique timeline, as a result of Mobius and Hunter B-15 don’t know who he’s. (Or is it that the Timeline Previously Often known as Sacred has been rewritten?) After which he sees it — a statue of He Who Stays, who now seems to be rather a lot like Kang from the comics. Is Kang the Conqueror now the grasp of time (and the TVA)? We’ll certainly discover out in Season 2, which was revealed in post-credits tease that merely exhibits TVA paperwork being stamped with the phrases “Loki will return for Season 2.”
Who Is He Who Stays/Kang the Conqueror?
It is not straightforward recapping the convoluted historical past of Kang the Conqueror. He is a villain who’s passed by many names and many various motivations in his numerous clashes with the Avengers and Incredible 4. However via it all of the fundamentals have stayed the identical. Kang is a person who sees himself because the rightful grasp of the world. Utilizing the ability of time journey and probably the most refined weaponry his future world has to supply, Kang has repeatedly sought to rewrite historical past to his personal whims and guarantee his personal rise to energy.
Kang’s love of time journey is precisely what makes him such a harmful and seemingly endless thorn in humanity’s aspect. Regardless of how typically he is defeated, banished and even destroyed completely, some model of him is all the time on the market, ready and plotting. Within the Season 1 Loki ending, He Who Stays is clearly a Kang Variant, however apparently a extra benevolent one than the Kang (or Kangs) we’ll probably get shifting ahead within the MCU.
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Kang’s Origin
Whereas the primary look of Kang the Conqueror is featured in 1964’s The Avengers #8, the character technically debuted a 12 months earlier in Incredible 4 #19. We’ll attempt to summarize Kang’s complicated origin story as merely as doable.
Kang’s actual identify is Nathaniel Richards. Initially a historic scholar from the 31st century (and probably a distant descendant of both Reed Richards or Victor von Doom), Nathaniel discovers Physician Doom’s historic time journey tech and makes use of it to journey again to the period of historic Egypt. Crowning himself “Rama-Tut,” he lords over his new topics and makes use of his futuristic tech to make himself look like a god. That’s, till the Incredible 4 present as much as finish his reign.
After escaping to the 20th century, Rama-Tut meets Physician Doom and makes use of Doom’s distinctive armor as inspiration for his subsequent supervillain identification, the Scarlet Centurion. Nevertheless, he is once more defeated by Earth’s heroes and makes an attempt to return to his personal timeline.
That is the place Kang the Conqueror is born. Richards by chance travels ahead too far in time, arriving in an period when human civilization has collapsed. As the one particular person left who understands the superior however forgotten expertise of the 40th century, the newly minted Kang is ready to rapidly conquer his new timeline and even lengthen his new empire past Earth’s borders. Not content material to be ruler of a futuristic empire, Kang begins a recurring recreation of toying with time and making an attempt to rewrite historical past to swimsuit his personal whims.
Kang Cheat Sheet
First Look:Incredible 4 Vol. 1 #19 (as Rama-Tut), The Avengers Vol. 1 #8 (as Kang)
Creators:Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
Aliases:Immortus, Rama-Tut, The Scarlet Centurion, Iron Lad, Mr. Gryphon, Victor Well timed
Beneficial Studying:The Avengers: Kang – Time and Time Once more, The Avengers: The Full Celestial Madonna Saga, Avengers Without end, Uncanny Avengers by Rick Remender
Kang the Conqueror Powers and Talents
As an abnormal human from the 31st century, Kang has no innate superhuman powers. Nevertheless, he is a gifted physicist and historian, utilizing his information of science and historical past to govern the timeline and accumulate energy. His distinctive inexperienced and purple swimsuit of armor (impressed by Doom’s personal armor) each enhances Kang’s energy and permits him to outlive in no matter inhospitable environments he could discover. Kang has a time-ship that permits him to freely journey via the time-stream, and he is additionally assembled an enormous military comprised of the very best warriors from all through historical past.
Kang additionally typically wields a ray gun that may sap an individual’s energy and willpower, together with varied doomsday weapons solely a 40th century tyrant might dream of.
Kang additionally appears to be functionally immortal. As a result of he is so keen on abusing the timeline for his personal egocentric ends, there are numerous variations of Nathaniel Richards in existence. Regardless of what number of occasions Kang is defeated, there’s all the time one other incarnation of the Conqueror able to proceed his campaign.
Kang’s Many Identities
Kang is every bit as convoluted a character as one would expect from a man whose favorite hobby is manipulating time. But part of what makes Kang such a confusing character is that he’s had so many different names and identities over the years. It doesn’t help that these various characters weren’t all originally conceived as being the same person, so a lot of these connections have been forged after the fact. If you’re familiar with the comic book storytelling term “retcon,” Kang is basically its living embodiment.
As we’ve already covered, Nathaniel Richards uses names like Rama-Tut and the Scarlet Centurion early on in his career as a time-travelling tyrant. But taking up the mantle of Kang isn’t his last identity shake-up.
At some point in his long life, Kang gives up his name and his empire to instead forge an alliance with an advanced alien race known as the Time-Keepers. In exchange for true immortality, Kang agrees to preserve the timeline and ensure the Time-Keepers’ rise to power. At that point he becomes Immortus. Ironically, his younger selves are responsible for much of the damage Immortus is tasked with undoing.
Kang has held other cover identities while masquerading as a 21st century human, including a small-town mayor named Victor Timely and a business tycoon named Mr. Gryphon.
If all this isn’t complicated enough, thanks to time travel these various incarnations of Kang basically coexist alongside each other and sometimes collude or wage war against one another. There’s even an entire team of Kangs known as the Council of Cross-Time Kangs. Picture the Citadel of Ricks in Rick and Morty, but with less alcohol and self-loathing.
The many versions of Kang the Conqueror.
Kang and the Young Avengers
There’s another notable incarnation of Kang who may well factor into the MCU at some point. The 2005 series Young Avengers introduces a team of teen heroes modeled after classic Avengers but with very different backgrounds and origin stories. The team’s founder, Iron Lad, isn’t a descendant of Tony Stark, but is actually a teen version of Nathaniel Richards from a splinter timeline. Kang attempted to travel back in time and rescue his younger self from a group of bullies who had left him hospitalized for months. Kang saves himself and gives the young Nathaniel an advanced suit of armor in the hope of hurrying along his transformation from ordinary man to Kang. But instead, young Nathaniel is horrified by his older self and travels back in time to form a new team of Avengers.
Ultimately, this version of Kang is killed and Iron Lad is forced to wipe his own memories and return to the future, restoring the proper timeline. But he leaves behind a copy of his consciousness inside his armor, which fuses with the broken remnants of Vision to form a new version of that iconic Avenger.
Iron Lad is an important Kang offshoot to know, given that Marvel is showing every sign of introducing the Young Avengers in the MCU.
Kang the Conqueror Actor Jonathan Majors and Marvel Universe Connections
After appearing in this Loki episode, we know Jonathan Majors will be back as Kang in Ant-Man 3 — but Kang’s love of time travel and perpetual habit of returning to threaten the Avengers all over again make him perfectly suited to become a recurring antagonist across the MCU. It doesn’t hurt that he has deep connections to so many different Marvel characters and teams. Will he also play some kind of a role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or the reportedly multiverse-focused Spider-Man: No Way Home now that after the Loki ending there’s a multiverse of timeline branches? Nothing is confirmed yet, but it would seem likely.
As mentioned before, Kang may well be a descendant of Mister Fantastic or Doctor Doom. Both characters have certainly played a key role in his development as a villain. He also has connections to major characters on the cosmic side of the MCU. In the comics, Kang once competed with the Grandmaster for a chance at godlike power, and he attempted to claim the so-called “Celestial Madonna” (better known as Mantis) as his bride.
Decades after it was originally published, Marvel added more layers to the events of Fantastic Four #19 by revealing Nathaniel’s true motivations for travelling back in time and becoming Rama-Tut. He was actually seeking out a young En Sabah Nur, the mutant destined to become Apocalypse, to crown him as his heir. He never succeeded, though Apocalypse turned out to be a chip off the old block in terms of harnessing futuristic technology and seeking to dominate the world.
With Kang now firmly linked to the Fantastic Four, Avengers and X-Men, Marvel forged yet another connection in the 2015 series Uncanny Inhumans. There, Black Bolt gives his son Ahura to be fostered by Kang, seeing the time travelling tyrant as the only safe haven in a world growing steadily more hostile toward the Inhumans.
Kang in TV and Games
- TV: Given his status as one of the greatest Avengers and Fantastic Four villains, it should come as no surprise Kang has enjoyed a healthy career outside of Marvel’s comics. His first animated TV appearance came way back in 1967’s Fantastic Four animated series, with the episode “Rama-Tut” adapting the events of Fantastic Four #19. Whether as Kang or Rama-Tut, the villain has appeared in numerous other Marvel cartoons like X-Men Evolution and Avengers: United They Stand. He even had a brief cameo as Immortus in an episode of X-Men: The Animated Series. But Kang’s most significant animated appearances have come more recently. He played a recurring role in both Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (voiced by Jonathan Adams) and Avengers Assemble (voiced by Steve Blum). He made his live-action debut in the Season 1 Loki finale.
- Games: Kang has appeared in F2P games like Marvel: Avengers Alliance and Marvel: Contest of Champions, but his most notable video game appearance so far has been in 2017’s LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2. Kang (voiced by MCU veteran Peter Serafinowicz) serves as the main villain of the game and is also available as a playable character.
July 14, 2021: This story has been updated with the latest information about Loki.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
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