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When you’re a time-traveling warrior armed with knowledge and cutting-edge tech like Marvel Comics’ Kang the Conqueror, you’re rarely caught off guard. However, it can happen. In December, the time-traveling Avengers foe, recently portrayed by Jonathan Majors in Disney +’s Loki series, will find himself in that unlucky situation and pitted against a surprise threat. This enemy not only threatens to disrupt the present day but the Marvel Universe’s far future.
Kang’s time-traveling quest is written by Jed MacKay and drawn by artists Kev Walker, Greg Land, and Mark Bagley in a one-shot comic titled Timeless. The story gives readers a glimpse into what 2022 and beyond will be like for several heroes in the Marvel Universe. CBR spoke with MacKay about the scale of those reveals and his take on Kang and the Conqueror’s complex history. Also included with this interview are exclusive Timeless preview pages from Walker, Land, and Bagley, and with colors by Marte Gracia. The first two images are from Walker, the third image is from Land, and the final two images are by Bagley.
CBR: You’re known for using past continuity to fuel present-day stories, but Timeless is a story where hints of the future are weaved into a present-day tale. How big are the reveals that you’re previewing in this story?
Jed MacKay: Some are very big! Others are more aimed towards fans of specific characters, and some are things that won’t happen at all! During the course of events in Timeless, the timeline undergoes significant trauma and Kang is put in the fascinating position of not knowing what happens next. Things that should play out differently, others happen as expected, while yet others are completely new fabrications of a shaken timeline. There will certainly be plenty to speculate upon and some very exciting hints for what is to come over the next couple of years.
Thanks to the Loki series and the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania film Kang is now very much in the public eye. How does the Kang you’re writing compare to Jonathan Major’s MCU portrayal?
I think there’s a fair amount of variance [laughs] between Majors as Kang as we’ve seen him so far and Kang as he appears in this comic- to my mind. Majors’ Kang in Loki was the One Who Remains and not the Conqueror, while the Kang we have in Timeless is wholly the Conqueror — the arrogant warlord who throws himself through human history in his thirst for experience and challenge. Our Kang is the one that readers will most likely be familiar with, and we’re trying to provide a bit of a character study of the Conqueror.
Kang’s got a rather complicated history, one that can confuse even die-hard Marvel readers. How accessible will Timeless be to new readers?
I think it should be pretty accessible — the viewpoint character for this story is a companion that Kang has plucked from the timeline to accompany him on his adventures, so we’re with them as Kang goes through the trials and tribulations of oncoming chronal collapse. We’re looking at the Conqueror with fresh eyes, so new readers should have everything they need to jump in.
What’s Kang’s perspective and agenda in this story?
Kang is after what he’s always after — excellence. Kang is an interesting character to me because he presents two often conflicting viewpoints: he values humanity and all of its accomplishments, being, in effect, an extreme historian, but also has little to no regard for any individuals other than himself. He loves his species, but only because they’ve produced Kang, who regards himself as the pinnacle of the human race, the end product of humanity. Kang pursues excellence in all things, extreme self-actualization, and has at his disposal everything in history to test himself against. When this new threat crops up, Kang pits himself against it not from altruism but from selfishness — a new experience to add to the sum of experiences that is Kang.
Who or what is Kang up against in Timeless?
Kang finds himself challenged by a rogue, severed timeline that has fought off the entropic decay that would normally have dissolved it and seeks to reattach itself to the main timeline. The chronal gravity of this rogue timeline is playing hell with the main timeline. It’s up to Kang to sort it out. Of course, it’s never that easy- and who, or what is keeping this pirate timeline whole?
Your Timeless art team of Kev Walker, Greg Land, and Mark Bagley all have fascinating and very distinctive styles. What can you tell us about the sections of the book they’ll handle? How was the story divided up?
It divided itself up quite tidily — Kev was working in one of his many fortes, a sequence of prehistoric brutality, while Greg took on the opposite end of the spectrum, a section of far-flung futuristic technologies, while Mark takes us to the end of the world — or a world, at least. Each artist really brought their respective styles to the sections they worked on, and each has come out looking great in an appropriately different way.
Finally, Timeless is teeing up a number of Marvel’s 2022 titles, but is it also setting up future events as well?
It’s setting up all kinds of stuff, and honestly, I’m not even sure what some of it will be. [laughs] The word went out to all the offices about things they’d like previewed and images we could put in the book, and in they went! I will say that we’ll be seeing these ideas play out for years to come.
There’s the expectation that there are some tantalizing hints and scoops as to what will happen in this story, but our main concern with this one-shot was to tell a great Kang story, and I hope people enjoy it!
Timeless #1 hits comic stands on Dec. 22.
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