I mean, you don’t remember Kang the Conqueror conquering Earth because it happened in Avengers comics and not reality. But I had some time to kill this week and haven’t done a Marvel explainer in awhile, so since the Ant Man movie will feature Kang, here we are.
Kang the Conqueror is a longtime nemesis of the Avengers, first appearing in Avengers #8 in 1964. He’s a regular human with no powers but does have access to a time machine and advanced technology. Kang has taken on several different identities over the years.
Kang is an apparent descendant of Reed Richards’s father, Nathaniel, presumably through Reed’s half-sibling. Kang was born in the 31st century and to liven up the tedium in his life, sought out Dr. Doom’s time machine and traveled back to ancient Egypt in a ship shaped like the Sphinx. There he took on the identity of Pharaoh Rama-Tut and was defeated by the Fantastic Four, who were unstuck in time themselves. (This was about a year before Kang’s debut so his first appearance in publishing history was as Rama-Tut in Fantastic Four #19.)
Kang’s other aspect is Immortus, basically an elderly Kang. The young Kang resents who he becomes as an old man, subservient to the Time Keepers. Immortus first appeared in Avengers #10, two issues after Kang, and they retconned that they were the same being (perhaps because it seemed too coincidental to have two time travelers appear so close together).
Kang and Immortus have a very long history of battling the Avengers and manipulating them behind the scenes to consolidate their own power, and they’re split into different versions of themselves due to time travel, so if you look them up on Wikipedia, be prepared to scrooooolllll down. Today I’m here to talk about the time when Kang the Conqueror loved up to his title and actually conquered Earth for a short time—and when the Avengers overthrew him, nobody ever spoke of it again.
Kang appeared in the present day and destroyed the United Nations building, warning the Avengers about the possible terrible futures they faced (everyone irradiated and dying, the Avengers being replaced by Ultron versions of themselves, etc.) and announced he would take control of the planet to keep it safe from those possible futures. He fought a vicious war against the Avengers with the help of the villainous tribes of the world, like the Atlanteans and the Deviant Inhumans.
This story started in Avengers comics in 2001 and ran for about 18 issues, with many subplots and long-running stories getting resolved in the larger story. Usually, comics have a blurb on the cover saying “Part 1 of 6” or whatever. But the Kang story just went on and on and on, which was kind of cool since it mimicked a real war in that nobody knew when it would end.
The Avengers basically called out all their active and reserve members for this and they split up around the globe to battle the various factions. One group fought Kang’s troops in Europe. One group went into space to confront Kang’s spaceship. One group fought the old Alpha Flight villain the Master of the World, who was fighting Kang for his own ends. Carol Danvers, who was then known as Warbird, ended up killing the Master, and in the process, had to confront a nasty little bit of her own history.
In the current story, Kang had the aid of his son Marcus, going by the Scarlet Centurion (one of Kang’s old aliases). Carol came to believe Marcus was Marcus Immortus (he wasn’t), the man who seduced and impregnated her in an old Avengers comic, when she was known as Ms. Marvel. Buckle up for this one.
In 1980, Carol went missing briefly and the Scarlet Witch found her in the hospital six months pregnant. This was news to Carol since she hadn’t been pregnant at all the day before. The pregnancy progressed rapidly and she was ready to give birth in the notorious Avengers #200. Her teammates had varying reactions to this. Some thought it was weird that she’d be instantly pregnant, but the Wasp and the Beast in particular gushed over Carol and was saying, like, “Do you have a color picked out for the nursery? Aren’t you excited?” To which Carol basically said, “Not really because I got raped and now I’m terrified of this weird superhuman fetus inside me.”
So the baby was born, grew rapidly to adulthood and fought the Avengers. The now-adult explains that his name was Marcus. He had abducted Carol when she was in mid-flight, took her to a timeless limbo and after seducing her “with a subtle boost from machines,” impregnated her with himself. So he had sex with his mother and the resulting baby was him.
Yeah, even for the Avengers, it was messed up.
Carol immediately had a 180-degree change of heart after the baby was born and agreed to go with Immortus to live back in the timeless limbo to which he kidnapped her. Thor, Hawkeye and Iron Man just … let her go with him without questioning if Carol was being mind-controlled. It turns out Carol was very much being mind-controlled. Immortus ended up using her and dying from accelerated old age. She ended up back on Earth trying to rebuild her life until Rogue attacked her and permanently absorbed Carol’s powers and memories, leaving Carol a shell of herself. (Rogue was a young kid back then with out-of-control powers who later redeemed herself with the X-Men. Carol had a lot of therapy with Professor X, got her memories back, and got even greater powers. It was years before she rejoined the Avengers.)
Avengers #200 annoyed a lot of people since that “subtle boost from machines” line implied that Marcus manipulated and raped Carol, and the Avengers gave her no support, and let him go. This isn’t a case of “Oh, standards were different in 1980.” From what I gather, a lot of people thought the story was tasteless back then, and today it’s a black mark on Marvel. Chris Claremont was one of the people who was pissed. He had created Ms. Marvel and I assume was unhappy with how disposable Carol was to the Avengers creative team. A few months later, Claremont wrote Avengers Annual #10, where in the aftermath of Rogue’s attack, Carol confronted her former teammates and read them the riot act for basically not caring that she got raped and not stopping her rapist from abducting her. (The Avengers are great heroes but can really be jerks sometimes.) Avengers #200 was stupid and insulting but to Marvel’s credit, they did publish this counterargument against it.
Anyway, Kang’s war went on and on. After multiple battles that spanned the world and outer space, Kang nuked Washington, DC (which made Thor snap and leave the team since he couldn’t take the grief of surviving the attack when so many civilians died) and forced a surrender. The president of the United States went to sign the articles of surrender but Kang instead made then–Avengers chair the Wasp sign, just to rub it in the Avengers’ faces. Earth rebelled against their conqueror and it ended with Captain America punching out Kang in outer space, saying the memorable line, “Now, you miserable, jacked-up little tin Hitler—let's end this.” The Earth was free.
The weird thing was, no other concurrent Marvel comic referenced the fact that Earth had been conquered, and nobody ever referenced this story again. I know Marvel’s populace is jaded with so many villainous attacks but you think that would stick out in your memories.
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