How Many Variants Of Kang Exist In Marvel's History?

Kang the Conqueror may be one of the most interesting comic book characters ever conceived. Because of his fixation with time travel, the Marvel staple has seen numerous additions to his biography since an initial introduction in 1963's "Fantastic Four" #19, altering his past, present, and future.

In fact, in his first appearances, readers wouldn't even learn that he was Kang at all. But when he re-emerged in the pages of "Avengers" he had a new look, a new name, and he revealed to the heroes his complicated past and origins across time. Complicated doesn't begin to describe Kang the Conqueror's adventures, because with his ceaseless time traveling and divergent timelines, there are an infinite number of Kangs out there. Many of them pop up from time to time and it can be hard to untangle which is which, and if they are even from the same reality. As a result, Kang has a staggering amount of variants, spanning across comics, movies, and TV shows.

Though Jonathan Majors was revealed as "He Who Remains" in the Disney+ series Loki, MCU fans are finally going to see Kang the Conqueror in his true form in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania." In honor of this official introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, here's a look at some of his variants throughout Marvel history, from the 1960s to today.

After abandoning his Rama-Tut persona, Nathaniel Richards adopted the moniker of the Scarlet Centurion. He first appears in "Avengers" Annual #2 in 1968, though when he first shows up, the Avengers have no idea who he is despite his familiarity with them. In this story, he offers the Avengers the opportunity to turn Earth into a utopia. In a bizarre plan, the Scarlet Centurions helps the Avengers capture every major superhero and defeat every villain in the world, because according to him it's their very existence that is preventing the planet from becoming a paradise. In doing so, the Avengers inadvertently become dictators themselves.

In another adventure, The Scarlet Centurion forces two different eras of Avengers teams to battle one another, and in a later storyline fight the Squadron Supreme. While he'd take the name Kang the Conqueror shortly thereafter, this wouldn't be the only version of the Scarlet Centurion: Like Kang, even he has variants from many divergent timelines. 

But there's also a second, entirely different Scarlet Centurion who is actually Marcus Kang of Earth-6311, the son of Kang the Conqueror. The two once teamed up in the storyline titled "Kang Dynasty" (from which the next "Avengers" film takes its name) that saw them attempt to take over the Earth in an effort to save it from destruction. 

Another variant of Kang once traveled back to the beginning of the 20th century and took on the name Victor Timely (a nod to Marvel's own origins, as during the 1940s they were known as Timely Comics). Arriving at the turn of the century, this Kang established himself as a prominent mid-Western American. He founded the town of Timely, Wisconsin, served as its mayor, and eventually founded Timely Industries, which encompassed a number of factories and smaller subsidiaries. 

Timely also served as a kind of genius inventor, patenting his future technology to help advance his agenda in this time period. From time to time, he also used robot duplicates of his Victor Timely persona to allow him to adventure as Kang proper with nobody being the wiser. As Timely, this version of Kang lived well into the 1980s, eventually posing as the grandson of the "original" Victor Timely; by this time, his company was one of the world's leading technology firms. 

In fact, Timely tech was used by his foes the Fantastic Four, the cyborg hero Deathlok, and more. He was also responsible for introducing Phineas Horton to the technology that would lead to the android Human Torch, which ultimately led to the creation of the Vision.

Though his appearances were few, unconfirmed rumors that Victor Timely could show up in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" suggest that this is one Kang persona to keep an eye on.

The Kang timeline gets even more complicated with Immortus. An older version of Kang grew tired of ruling his empire, which had grown so large that he didn't participate in any battles. Instead, in "Avengers Forever" #9, Nathaniel decides to return to a simpler life in Egypt as the Pharaoh Rama-Tut, leaving his empire to his lover. Eventually, Rama-Tut returns to the present day to help the Avengers stop Kang, introducing himself to his younger self as Immortus. Although both Kang and Immortus were different versions of the same character, after the events of "Destiny War," the two are split.

Immortus then began studying Limbo and joined the Time-Keepers to further explore the alternate dimension and time itself. They tasked him with watching over past versions of himself and altering the course of history so that the Time-Keepers remained at the end of time. This version of Kang the Conqueror served as the inspiration behind He Who Remains in "Loki." 

Immortus has the richest history among all the Kang variants. He featured in many different comic arcs, serving as an enemy to the Avengers in some and an ally in others. He manipulated Iron Man resulting in "The Crossing" storyline, served as the primary antagonist during "Destiny War," and turned ally in "Uncanny Avengers" #5, which led to the "Avenge the Earth" storyline.

Not every Kang variant uses the nickname "The Conqueror"; one more recent addition to the pantheon of Kangs from Earth-34295 departs from this convention. Like Timely before him, he too is a businessman, but his aims are quite different.

While he's not technically from the Marvel 2099 universe (which would be Earth-928), Kang the Conglomerator is from the year 2099, and a reality that somewhat resembles the one depicted in the likes of "Spider-Man 2099," first published in the early 1990s. Unlike most versions of the character, Kang the Conglomerator seemingly has no desire to conquer much of anything beyond the business world; his predominant interest is simple profit, earned through his licensing and marketing corporation.

Debuting in the pages of "Edge of Spider-Geddon" #1, this variant of Kang owns a company called Kangco Inc. Ltd, and makes his fortune by merchandising the superheroes of his era. But he does have time travel powers, and comes to "present" day in order to bring Spider-Punk (yes that's a character, though he isn't always fond of the name "Spider-Punk") into his own time, to make even more profit off his entertainment rights. Eventually, with the help of the Hulk and a little punk rock, Kang the Conglomerator ultimately fails in his plan to bring Spider-Punk into the future. Admittedly, weirdness was kind of the point of the series.

One of the stranger versions of Kang debuted in Marvel's "Infinity Wars" mini-series in 2018. In that title, Gamora (of the Guardians of the Galaxy) assembles the Infinity Stones and uses them to bring every soul in the cosmos within the confines of the Soul World that resides in the Soul Stone. But one unforeseen side effect of her scheme was to reshape all of reality with a new history, eventually creating what became known as Warp World. Much like the 1990s Marvel/DC crossover event "Amalgam," the story sees a number of new characters who come into being as two existing heroes or villains, blended together.  

In addition to the likes of Soldier Supreme (a mix of Captain America and Dr. Strange) and Iron Hammer (Tony Stark and Thor), one new character that emerged from this story was Kamala Kang, a combination of Kamala Khan — Ms. Marvel — and Kang the Conqueror. In Warp World, Kamala Kang is a time traveling hero who is exposed to the Chronogen Mist, which increases her cosmic awareness and activates her Inhuman genes, giving her embiggening powers. Though she only existed for a short time in the comics, she managed to have brief run-ins with Emma Frost, Rawhide Kid, and Loki — who eventually helped separate her back into Ms. Marvel and Kang.

In 1998, Marvel Comics published a crossover between the X-Men and the crew of the starship Enterprise from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" titled "Second Contact." When it was announced that the two groups would join forces to take on Kang, some diehard "Trek" fans may have suspected the villain would be the Klingon warrior played by Michael Ansara in the classic episode "Day of the Dove." Instead, it was Marvel's master of time, Kang the Conqueror, and while he appears identical to his Marvel 616 counterpart, it's suggested that he may actually be an entirely different version of the character. 

In the story, Captain Picard and his crew are hurtled back in time and into an alternate reality, where they meet Professor X and the X-Men. They also encounter the time-traveling villain Kang, and are tricked into repairing a pair of spatial anomalies that he claimed were breaking down the barriers between realities. In the end, Wesley Crusher and The Traveler are able to see through his scheme and help stop him. 

While it was a decent romp, the real shame is that readers never got a mashed-up version of both universe's Kangs, as it would have been much more fun to see Kang the Conqueror as a Klingon.

After the heroes of the MCU joined forces and defeated Thanos in "Avengers: Endgame," many fans wondered who the next big bad would be. They seemingly got their answer at the conclusion of the first season of the Disney+ series "Loki," when a sinister figure known as "He Who Remains" was living at the end of time, and watching over the entire Marvel Multiverse. 

A Kang variant played by Jonathan Majors in his first appearance in the MCU, He Who Remains explained that there had once been a war between parallel worlds. After coming out on top, he eliminated countless divergent alternate realities, and created the Time Variance Authority to ensure the safety and purity of what he called The Sacred Timeline. Though some have viewed him as a megalomaniacal villain, He Who Remains explained that he was fighting to prevent a war that could annihilate all of existence. He also warned that if he were killed, there would be no stopping the expansion of alternate timelines, and with it, the emergence of an even more terrifying version of himself.

While he offered Loki the chance to take his place and watch over the Sacred Timeline, Sylvie — whose existence was a divergence — took it upon herself to kill He Who Remains, unleashing the multiverse. Despite only having a small role in "Loki," he may turn out to be one of the most important characters in the Multiverse Saga, whose death set it all in motion.