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Nathaniel Richards’ hunt for his older self has just sent him hurtling through time and into the middle of his very first Avengers battle.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Kang the Conqueror #3, available now from Marvel.
Kang the Conqueror has long been the Marvel Universe’s most prominent and powerful time traveler, having established empires that spanned the ages. In all that time, Kang has fought most of Marvel’s heroes, and now he’s fighting a younger version of himself. The young Nathaniel Richards who has set out to defeat his older self hasn’t had an easy go of things, though he has managed to finally catch up to Kang in the not-so-distant past. In Kang the Conqueror #3 by Jackson Lanzing, Colin Kelly, Carlos Magno, Espen Grundetjern and VC’s Joe Caramagna, he just found himself in the midst of fighting Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in his first appearance ever.
When Nathaniel Richards agreed to study under the mentorship of his elder self, he never imagined it would be the beginning of a lifetime of tragedy. Nathaniel was able to steal away into the future with Kang’s armor, leaving the tyrant for dead in the process, but this only landed him in the middle of Rama-Tut’s empire. It was there that the budding young hero would find love again in the form of yet another Ravonna, aka the ancient Moon Knight, and once more that love would be violently torn away from him by another version of himself. While Nathaniel and Ravonna were helpless to stop Rama-Tut, the former of the two would find hope of striking back with En Sabah Nur aka Apocalypse. The mutant ruler may have been the only one to hate Rama-Tut as much as his younger self, making the decision to help him defeat Kang easy enough to make. With Apocalypse’s aid, Nathaniel was able to catch up to their shared enemy in the then-future that of the 1960s, where he was given a chance to relive his very first adventure all over again.
Kang the Conqueror #3 by Jackson Lanzing, Colin Kelly, Carlos Magno, Espen Grundetjern and VC’s Joe Caramagna sees Nathaniel Richards finally walk out of is tomb in the midst of Marvel’s most iconic age. While the young time traveler prepares himself for the days ahead, the voice of J. Jonah Jameson covers the hot stories of the day on his radio news show. Events such as the Fantastic Four and X-Men coming into conflict and even Captain America finally being recovered from the ice play out in the background while Nathaniel waits for the opportunity he has already been so patient about. Finally he hears the news that a flying saucer has appeared in the skies over Virginia, signaling Kang’s first encounter with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Their battle from Kang’s very first appearance in 1964’s Avengers #8 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby has finally come to pass once more in Nathaniel Richards’ own timeline, and it is precisely the moment he has been waiting for to catch up with and snuff out his elder self. Of course, that isn’t going to be easy considering the explosive battle that soon enough breaks out between Kang and the heroes, although there is no doubt that Nathaniel has planned for everything that is to come. Already aware of how this fight was going to play out, Nathaniel had no problem sneaking through the battlefield and onto Kang’s ship before the villain would make his historically hasty retreat, putting him in prime position to once again murder Kang in cold blood.
Defeating Kang in this moment, assuming Nathaniel is capable of doing so, still won’t be the end of his journey. That said, it will be an incredibly important one, especially if it means changing the trajectory of Marvel history by removing Kang from the timeline past his first appearance. Then again, things have never been that simple in the Marvel Universe, let alone when time travel is involved. If nothing else, getting to relive one of the most classic battles of all time from a new vantage point serves as a reminder of just how much history there is for Nathaniel Richards to cover in his quest to crush Kang.
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