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Today, we look at the first time that Kang came face to face with one of his “variants” in the Marvel Comics Universe (as we now know that Kang and his variants are set to become a major part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe…er…Multiverse, as shown in Disney+’s Loki).
In “When We First Met”, we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, “Avengers Assemble!” or the first appearance of Batman’s giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man’s face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.
This time around, we’re going to try to make some sense of Marvel’s time-traveling villains and the shocking revelation that they are all basically the same dude! Including the moment we LEARNED that fact!
Jack Kirby and Stan Lee were ALL in on time travel in the early days of the Marvel Universe. Just five issues into the existence of the Marvel Age, they introduced Doctor Doom, who bedeviled the Fantastic Four with a time machine (the same time machine that, like, every comic book character for the rest of eternity would find a way to steal/borrow for their own time travel adventures). In the following year, Thor fought a time-travelling villain known as Zarrko. And then, in 1963’s Fantastic Four #19 (by Kirby, Lee and Dick Ayers), the Fantastic Four traveled to the past on a wild goose chase for a cure for blindness and then met Rama-Tut, a pharaoh who was actually from the distant future!
A year later, the Avengers ran afoul of a new time-traveling villain, Kang the Conquerer, in Avengers #8 (by Kirby, Lee and Ayers). I adore how casual Kang is about fighting the Avengers. “Whatever, dudes, I’ll conquer you but I’m a-gonna conquer you from my chaise lounge.”
That same issue has Kirby and Lee make the incredibly unusual decision of having Kang be a future version of Rama-Tut. I really could not even begin to explain why they made a decision like that…
There was nothing about Kang that suggested that he be tied in with Rama-Tut. After all, we already met a DIFERENT time travelling villain in Zarrko, so it wasn’t like every time traveler had to be connected, ya know?
But then an even weirder decision. Two issues later (TWO ISSUES LATER!), Don Heck and Stan Lee (with Ayers) then introduced ANOTHER time-traveling villain, Immortus, the Master of Time…
Obviously, Stan Lee and Don Heck were not thinking about how all of these characters tied in together and that’s totally fine, but at the same time, how do you introduce a new time-traveling villain just TWO ISSUES after introducing a whole other time-traveling villain? So weird.
Kang became a regular villain for the Avengers, although it is interesting how relatively infrequently Kang showed up (my friend Sam made an excellent point recently that in the early days of the Avengers, the only true recurring villains were the Enchantress, Power Man and Swordsman and Swordsman ended up joining the team!). Anyhow, a decade after his debut, Kang the Conqueror returned to attack the Avengers, as he had determined that one of the Avengers was the Celestial Madonna and was going to give birth to a powerful child and Kang wanted in on that (hilariously, along with Scarlet Witch and Mantis, he also included Agatha Harkness as an option. Don’t think that really old lady is about to pop out a baby, guy). Kang captures the Avengers easily and things look bleak. However, at the end of Avengers #129 (by Steve Englehart, Sal Buscema and Joe Staton), the Sworsdman was directed by the captures Harkness to go find….Rama-Tut?!?
In the next issue, Giant-Sized Avengers #2 (by Englehart and Dave Cockrum), Rama-Tut teamed up with Swordsman and Hawkeye (who was not on the Avengers at the time) to help defeat Kang and in the process, Rama-Tut and Kang came face to face and their fight literally BROKE TIME LOOSE FROM ITS HINGES!!
How great of a panel is that? And how funny is it that in 1974, there were already gags built around the idea of Hank Pym changing his superhero identity a lot?
Kang and Rama-Tut continued their fight through time for the next couple of issues before they were rescued by none other than Immortus in Avengers #131 (by Englehart, Buscema and Staton)…
While Immortus appears to be working with Kang (hence him capturing Rama-Tut), even helping him pluck from time a whole Legion of the Unliving (by picking out some people before they died), it soon becomes clear that, just like Rama-Tut, Immortus wants to stop Kang’s whole Celestial Madonna deal. Kang turns on him and imprisons him along with Rama-Tut. Hawkeye frees them in Giant-Size Avengers #3 (by Englehart, Roy Thomas, Cockrum and Joe Giella) and they work with the Avengers to defeat Kang…
And then the big reveal, Immortus lets the Avengers know that he, Kang and Rama-Tut are all different versions of the same guy!
Can you even imagine how mind-blowing this must have been at the time? Englehart was a true master of continuity at the time. Along with Roy Thomas, they were brilliant at reconciling various older stories to make them all make sense together. In a way, they sort of CREATED the Marvel Universe, in the sense that there were just a bunch of stories that guys like Thomas and Englehart went out of their way to mold into a cohesive universe in a way that Lee and Kirby really were not interested in doing. Obviously, later writers would take things to a whole other level of complexity, but this was still pretty heady stuff.
Thanks to my pal, Alan, who basically inspired this piece. Check out his Loki reviews at Rolling Stone!
If anyone else has a suggestion for/question about a notable comic book first, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!
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