New Comic Book Series Travels Across to Discover the Origin of Kang

[Lucas 35]

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'Kang the Conqueror' #1 from writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing and artist Carlos Magno launches this August!


This August, it’s time to tell the definitive origin story of one of Marvel’s greatest villains: KANG THE CONQUEROR! Announced earlier today on the This Week in Marvel podcast, the Avengers and Fantastic Four foe will star in his first ever solo series that will tackle the complex saga behind the universe’s most fearsome time-travelling menace.

KANG THE CONQUEROR will be written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, the popular writing duo known for their work on books like Joyride, Green Arrow, and Star Trek: Year Five, with art by Carlos Magno (Avengers Mech Strike). Together, this all-star creative team will unravel Kang’s enormous legacy from his expansive backstory to his various alternate selves, tying everything together and catapulting him into his biggest era yet.



The new series will be a love letter to True Believers who treasure the complicated tapestry behind the saga of Kang, while also serving as a perfect entry point for fans eager to learn the fascinating lore behind one of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s most iconic creations.

The man called Kang the Conqueror has been a pharaoh, a villain, a warlord of the space ways, and even—on rare occasions—a hero. Across all timelines, one fact seemed absolute: Time means nothing to Kang the Conqueror. But the truth is more complex. Kang is caught in an endless cycle of creation and destruction dictated by time and previously unseen by any but the Conqueror himself. A cycle that could finally explain the enigma that is Kang. And a cycle that begins and ends with an old and broken Kang sending his younger self down a dark path…



"Time may mean nothing to Kang, but Kang means everything to us. This is the book we've been wanting to write for years,” Lanzing said. “It's a total dream come true for Collin and I to be making our Marvel debut - we're best friends who first met through a mutual love of Young Avengers, Runaways, and Ultimate Spider-Man. But to make our first mark with a character as storied as Kang the Conqueror, on a very personal pitch we never in a million years thought would be greenlit, is a genuine honor. Carlos Magno is delivering jaw-dropping work that recalls the exacting detail and operatic emotion of Kang's co-creator Jack Kirby. We're genuinely stunned by every new page. Add the brilliant colors by Espen Grundetjern, letters by the Marvel master Joe Caramanga, and the insightful leadership of our editor Alanna Smith, and you've got a team worthy of one of Marvel's greatest unsung characters."



"Kang has been a nefarious force in the Marvel Universe nearly as long as it's existed, but the true crime here is that he's never had a solo series. The fact that we're the ones who get to bring Kang's complete story to life for the first time is an incredible honor,” Kelly added. “KANG THE CONQUEROR isn't just an origin story; this is a life story. When young and jaded Nathaniel Richards discovers the ancient lair of his Latvarian ancestor Victor Von Doom, his life is changed forever by a man he should never have met - KANG HIMSELF! From the last days of the Cretaceous to the war-torn world of Jack Kirby's year 4,000 - from ancient Egypt to the stars themselves - KANG THE CONQUEROR is a story that unpacks the told - and untold - moments of Kang's life through a human lens. Powered by his love of the enigmatic Ravonna Renslayer, and fueled by the hatred of who he will become, this is a cross-time epic for everyone who has ever rejected who they were supposed to be."

Time’s up for the Marvel Universe when KANG THE CONQUEROR hits stands on August 18!

KANG THE CONQUEROR #1 (OF 5)
Written by COLLIN KELLY & JACKSON LANZING
Art by CARLOS MAGNO & ESPEN GRUNDETJERN
Cover by MIKE DEL MUNDO
On Sale 8/18

[PhoenixThanos]

This looks really good, I'm really looking forward to it.

[Raz]

I am hoping this is a precursor to Kang being the Big Boss for the next phase of Marvel movies...with the way they've had movies set in different time periods it'd be wild if he has an appearance in them all without it being necessarily a linear progression!

As far as the comic goes, I hope they don't definitively say he's descended from Doom or Richards, I kinda like it being open to interpretation

[CosmiComic]

Why's he even descended from either? Isn't he much more of an Avengers villain?

[Raz]

Why's he even descended from either? Isn't he much more of an Avengers villain?

From memory I think it was Rama-Tut who was teased as being a descendant of either Reed or Doom, and then Rama-Tut ended up being an incarnation of Kang...but you're right, even though Kang has fought the FF before he is more of an Avengers villain.

Rama-Tut, Kang, Scarlet Centurion, Immortus, Iron Lad...dude has more identities than Hank Pym lol

[DigiCom]

They have a high bar to clear... his origin as told in Avengers Forever was excellent.

[CosmiComic]

From memory I think it was Rama-Tut who was teased as being a descendant of either Reed or Doom, and then Rama-Tut ended up being an incarnation of Kang...but you're right, even though Kang has fought the FF before he is more of an Avengers villain.

Rama-Tut, Kang, Scarlet Centurion, Immortus, Iron Lad...dude has more identities than Hank Pym lol

Ok. Most of what I've read about him connects him to the Avengers

[Iron Maiden]

Why's he even descended from either? Isn't he much more of an Avengers villain?

The relationship between Kang and Doom has been hinted at Kang's beginnings in the Silver Age. And you can throw in Nathaniel Richards too.








And if you haven't already, I would read Avengers Forever if I were you.




....and this was part of a Fantastic Four annual IIRC.

[Sataniel]

You can see the family connection.

[DigiCom]

The relationship between Kang and Doom has been hinted at Kang's beginnings in the Silver Age. And you can throw in Nathaniel Richards too.

I had a wild theory some years back that Kang was actually descended from Kristoff Vernard (who has been hinted to be Reed's half-brother), making him sort of a member of the Doom dynasty.

[CaptCleghorn]

The relationship between Kang and Doom has been hinted at Kang's beginnings in the Silver Age. And you can throw in Nathaniel Richards too.








And if you haven't already, I would read Avengers Forever if I were you.




....and this was part of a Fantastic Four annual IIRC.

Ugggg. All sorts of convolutions in order to position characters as being either the same, or related by bloodline. It's messy. If character A and character B meet and they are the same person from different times in their lives, one would have memories of the other. And why can't 21st and 25th century scientists do simple DNA analyses? "So, Rama, can you give me the name of your plastic surgeon so I can save a lot of ... time.

[Hypestyle]

Kang is a villain through and through. I hope this doesn't try to remake him as sympathetic and heroic like what happened with Venom over time.

Kang is nothing without his technology. He's not as clever as he presents himself. He has passable intelligence but is not on a par with Reed Richards, T'Challa, or Tony Stark.

Oh, what does the name "Kang" mean anyway?

[Thundershot]

Two things.

One... No mention of Immortus, which worries me, because two, I hope the writer has read the excellent Avengers Forever series, which straightens out a lot of Kangisms.

[strathcona]

I would have preferred other writers, Ewing, Cates, Thompson, Stern, Slott, Bunn, Busiek ...

Of these, I have read their past work on Green Arrow and honestly it seemed to me like a complete disaster.

I'm not familiar with the writers at all, but my first thought on reading about this mini was that I wish it had a better writer... any one of those you listed would be able to do great work with Kang (Ewing or Busiek would be my to choices).

I actually don't really think we need to have a definitive origin for Kang. I absolutely love how convoluted his history is, and to straighten it out too much would take away some of the fun of the character. I don't want to find out who his ancestors are for sure... the speculation has so much more potential.

[JudicatorPrime]

Time travelling villains always perplex me. When you have the ability to appear seconds after the ink has dried on a Picasso, or obtain the Infinity Stones long before Thanos ever affixed them to a gauntlet, why don't you? I'm sure there's an explanation for it in Kang's profile, but I always found that odd.