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Kang’s role in Savage Avengers is a good showcase of how ruthless and casually cruel the new MCU villain really can be when he needs to.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Savage Avengers #25, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is currently in Phase Four of its movie universe, with new heroes and villains filling the holes left by departed figures like Iron Man and Thanos. One of the most exciting prospects is Kang the Conqueror, teased in Loki and confirmed to appear in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. While he made a quick impression thanks to Jonothan Major’s role as effectively Immortus in the Disney+ series, Kang himself hasn’t formally appeared. But his mere presence should be cause for alarm, given the ruthlessness he’s always displayed in the comics.
Such is the case in Savage Avengers #25, by Gerry Duggan, Patch Zircher, Java Tartaglia and VC’s Travis Lanham, which sees Kang the Conqueror arrive to assist Conan the Barbarian in his desperate last fight against Kulan Gath. Along the way, Kang reminds Conan why he’s such a feared villain.
In Savage Avengers, the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe ultimately proved incapable of contending with a fully empowered Kulan Gath. Decades after slaughtering the majority of the super-powered beings left on this Earth, he finds himself contending with the last apparent threat to his rule: Conan the Barbarian, having survived for years fighting alongside Doctor Doom until even he fell. Conan finds himself with a new ally in his crusade: Kang the Conqueror. Confronting Kang when he arrives via time-travel, Conan calls on him to assist him — and even insults his pride to seemingly gain his assistance in the fight against Kulan Gath.
It turns out that Kang is already aware of the fight against Gath, however, and has actually already been engaging him with some ruthless tactics of his own. Traveling across the planet, Kang is able to recruit an army of humanity’s last men and women free from Gath’s influence. But to earn their loyalty, Kang uses mind-control technology from across the centuries to effectively mindwipe them all into his service. Kang quickly proves himself a ruthless conqueror of the mind, effectively forcing them into conflict and, as it appears, to die for Kang without any will of their own in the situation. It’s a brutal way to command an army, reminding readers just how ruthless he can be on a grand scale.
Even on a personal level, Kang can be casually cruel and dismissive in a way befitting one of Marvel’s most dangerous villains. While arming themselves for battle against Gath, Conan realizes he’s been here before. He asks Kang how many times they’ve confronted the dark sorcerer only to perish at his hands — and Kang reveals he’s lost count. This implies that again and again, Kang has thrown Conan into fruitless and hopeless battles against a powerful mystic strong enough to wipe out the Marvel heroes, and after each failure just tries again. When Conan realizes this, he suggests sending him on a one-way mission to distract Gath while Kang rallies a force to confront him — something Kang happily accepts by throwing his last ally to his death on the minor chance to win the day.
Historically, Kang is one of Marvel’s most dangerous figures, not just because of his wealth of technology and countless years of experience. His most dangerous attribute is his ultimately overwhelming drive to conquer and become the ultimate victor of space and time. He’s abandoned lovers and condemned children, slaughtered untold numbers of people across multiple timelines and realities. Even when he’s on the side of the heroes, Kang has proven again and again to be utterly remorseless in his tactics. He’s even joked that he’s killed Conan for insulting him, only to reverse things to try again. With Kang set to become a major threat in the future of the MCU, it’s good to remember what kind of villain he is — and what kind of things he’s willing to do to win.
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