BIOGRAPHY - Page 6
This page deals with the total collection of all known activities of Kangs other than Kang-Prime. However, all of these activities do not necessarily depict the life of one Kang. Rather, it is likely that they are comprised of multiple, divergent Kangs, each of which were created by choices Kang made during his travels and conquests.
Kang kept Ravonna's body entombed and preserved in a crystal shrine for his throne room, and often spent several hours a day in silent mourning over her loss. Sometime later, his reverie was interrupted by the Elder of the Universe known as the Grandmaster. The Elder had recently played a game of champions with Kang's counterpart, the Scarlet Centurion, and wished to recreate the thrill of that match. The Grandmaster challenged Kang to pit his chosen pawns against the Grandmaster's -- if Kang won, he would be granted power over life and death; if he lost, the Earth itself would be forfeited and cast into oblivion. Seeing the chance to restore Ravonna, Kang quickly agreed.
Recognizing his past foes the Avengers as the greatest champions possible, Kang sent a Growing Man stimuloid into the past to lure the Avengers into his service. The Avengers hesitantly agreed to serve as Kang's champions for the life of Ravonna and the safety of the Earth. As the Game of 
Galaxies began, Kang positioned Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and Goliath in single combats against the Grandmaster's Squadron Sinister, local evil versions of the champions he wielded in his match against the Scarlet Centurion. Each combat took place at various landmarks on the planet Earth and, while the Avengers proved victorious, the last fight between Goliath and the Whizzer was interrupted by the non-Avenger Black Knight. Misunderstanding the circumstances, the Knight helped defeat the Whizzer and therefore made the Avengers' win invalid in the eyes of the Grandmaster. Goliath and the other Avengers were whisked away into stasis as the game continued without them, inadvertently taking the Black Knight's Ebony Blade with them.
In the next round, Kang sent the Vision, Yellowjacket and Black Panther back to World War II, where the Grandmaster manipulated the contemporary heroes Captain America, Namor and the Human Torch as his pieces. While Avengers battled Invaders, the Black Knight managed to use his mystical connection to the Ebony Blade to transport himself to Kang's Citadel, freeing the Avengers held in stasis. The Avengers won in World War II, prompting Kang to declare ultimate victory over the Grandmaster. His opponent acknowledged the Conqueror's victory, but pointed out that the Black Knight's intervention meant that Kang had only won half the game, and therefore would be granted power over life OR death, not both.
Kang was prepared to accept the power over life in order to restore Ravonna, but at that moment the Black Knight and the freed Avengers burst into the room, asking to be sent home. Despite his love for Ravonna, Kang was unwilling to pass up the opportunity to kill his foes and asked the Grandmaster to grant him the power of death over the Avengers. Flush with the Power Primordial, 
Kang lashed out at the Avengers, toying with them briefly before unleashing his power to send them to the brink of death. Due to a loophole in the agreement, however, the Black Knight was unaffected by Kang's assault since he had not yet joined the team and Kang was only granted power over the Avengers. The Knight defeated Kang and the Conqueror was forced to flee, unable to claim victory over his foes and having wasted his chance to revive Ravonna. Ironically, the Avengers granted the Black Knight membership in the group afterwards thanks to his role in their victory. [Avengers (1st series) #69-71]
Incarnations of Kang continued to appear throughout the timeline. One version of Kang tried to retroactively prevent the Avengers from uniting by ensuring Bruce Banner was never born to become the Hulk. Instead of taking some sort of direct action, Kang decided to travel back in time to World War I and prevent the American flying ace Phantom Eagle from destroying a German weapon that, if unleashed, would lead to the death of Banner's ancestor, a French soldier. Unable to pierce a time storm barrier around 1917, Kang decided irony was the better part of valor and recruited the Hulk to brave the time storm for him and stop Phantom Eagle, unknowingly preventing his own birth. Hulk being Hulk, he stopped Phantom Eagle and then smashed the German cannon anyway. As Hulk boomeranged back to the future, Kang tried to prevent his return but ended up lost in the time stream himself. (One version of Kang later revealed this Kang survived endlessly plummeting through the time tunnel by triggering his body-jump mechanism and transmitting his consciousness to safety.) [Incredible Hulk (2nd series) #135, Avengers Forever #9]
Another attempt by Kang to conquer the 20th century came when he established a beachhead in the 23rd century, overpowering the near-pacifistic people of that time period. Unfortunately, he crossed paths with the local villain Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man, who had his own dreams of conquest. When Kang pulled Avengers Mansion and the team inside out of the timestream, Zarrko arranged for Iron Man and the visiting Spider-Man to remain free. The Tomorrow Man 
tricked the heroes into helping him "liberate" his timeline from Kang, only to seize control of Kang's equipment for himself. The Avengers were eventually freed and Spider-Man, along with Human Torch and the Inhumans, prevented the Tomorrow War from spilling over into the present. Kang was defeated, but it was revealed at the end that the entire scheme involved a robot mannequin of Kang, not the real conqueror. [Marvel Team-Up (1st series) #9-11]
Kang soon returned in search of the mystery woman known as the Celestial Madonna. Records from Kang's time indicated a woman from the Heroic Age would become the Madonna, mother to an awesomely powerful child known as The One. Kang intended to become father of that child, and rule the universe with the child as his proxy. With the true identity of the Madonna lost to time, Kang rigged a temporal alert to warn him when the time for the Madonna to achieve her destiny drew near. As his star appeared over Avengers Mansion, Kang arrived to lay claim to the Madonna. His redesigned Macrobots overpowered the Avengers by turning their own strength against them, and Kang easily captured all those present he deemed worthy of his time. Kang declared the Swordsman beneath his notice, and left the newest Avenger behind as he made off in his time ship.
Kang imprisoned the three women present at the mansion (Mantis, Scarlet Witch and Agatha Harkness), holding them until one revealed herself as the Celestial Madonna. Meanwhile, he 
incorporated Thor, Iron Man and Vision into his Macrobots to serve as living power sources, and planned an attack on America, Russia and China. Kang was mildly surprised and amused to see the Swordsman doggedly pursuing the Conqueror. When Kang left Swordsman battling the vampire Amenhotep in his hidden base from Rama-Tut's pyramid, however, he expected that to be the last of him. Kang was surprised then when Swordsman and Hawkeye were teleported by a disguised third party to the sites of his Macrobot attacks, and freed the imprisoned Avengers.
As the battle proceeded aboard Kang's time-ship, the Conqueror was shocked to learn the Avengers' secret ally was... himself! Unmasked, the Pharaoh Rama-Tut told Kang how he would 
one day grow tired of conquest and return to his Egyptian kingdom. Rama-Tut was released from suspended animation inside the pyramid by Swordsman's arrival, and he sought to undo the crimes he committed in his youth. Kang was beside himself with rage and wouldn't accept that future was his fate. Overcome by the Avengers, Kang tried to kill Mantis (now revealed as the Celestial Madonna) so that her destiny wouldn't benefit anyone other than him. Rama-Tut moved too slow to stop Kang, and Kang's killing blast struck the Swordsman dead as he tried to protect Mantis. As they struggled, Kang and Rama-Tut struck the controls of the time-ship and were cast into the timestream, locked in eternal combat.
Kang and Rama-Tut emerged from the timestream when their time-sphere was pulled into Limbo by Immortus, Master of Time. Immortus imprisoned Rama-Tut and told Kang he had been waiting for an ally like him to strike against the Avengers. Kang agreed to a partnership and acquainted 
himself with Immortus' Limbo technology to summon minions from throughout space-time. In order to add an element of the macabre to his plot, Kang decided to recruit minions who were all believed dead in the Avengers' time, creating the Legion of the Unliving. Once the Legion were assembled, Kang turned on Immortus and imprisoned him next to Rama-Tut, laughing at the idea that he would share his victory with another.
Next, Kang summoned the Avengers to Limbo and separated them in the endless catacombs beneath Immortus' castle. His campaign proved quite successful, for the Legion managed to kill Iron Man and horribly damage the Vision. However, Kang's fortunes changed when Hawkeye made it to the throne room and freed Immortus. The Lord of Limbo undid Kang's victory, resurrecting the fallen Avengers and banishing Kang's Legion from Limbo. Despite Iron Man's resurrection, Kang had caused the death of an Avenger, and this was not something Thor would allow to pass. Kang was forced to flee once more before the wrath of the Thunder God.
In a last ditch effort to stake his claim on the Celestial Madonna, Kang attacked the temple of the Priests of Pama in Vietnam on Mantis' wedding day to her intended mate, the elder Cotati. Through the manipulation of time travel, Kang assembled three temporally-displaced versions of himself to distract the Avengers before seizing Mantis himself. Unfortunately for Kang, he was outmaneuvered in the end by Immortus, who arranged for his servant the Space Phantom to pose as Mantis. Kang ended up fleeing into the timestream with the wrong Mantis, and his plans were undone when Immortus performed the wedding ceremony uniting Mantis and the Cotati. [Celestial Madonna saga]
Kang's next conquest began in the 19th century. He ambushed Hawkeye in the timestream, when the Avenger was using Doctor Doom's time machine to reach the Black Knight in the 12th century. Their battle launched the two foes out of the time vortex and into Tombstone, Arizona, 1873. Taking advantage of the situation, Kang decided to preeminently conquer the 20th century by laying claim to the 19th century first. Upon arriving in town, Kang claimed to be from back east, and passed his mask off as covering war wounds. With his money and technology, he established a hotel in Tombstone while slowly converting the townspeople to his cause. The people of Tombstone soon became Kang's slaves, helping with the construction of a mighty citadel beneath the outer shell of Kang's hotel. Unable to stop Kang's development on his own, Hawkeye teamed up with Tombstone's local vigilante, the Two-Gun Kid, before they were driven out of town.
Kang's opponents were joined by several other vigilante gunmen brought to Tombstone by telegram, and the Avengers Thor and Moondragon who arrived in the past looking for Hawkeye thanks to Immortus. When Two-Gun and the Avengers raided Kang's citadel, he toyed with his opponents while pitting them against his defenses. Kang underestimated his foes, however, due to Thor disguising his presence beneath his Don Blake identity. Blake got in close to the 
overconfident conqueror before changing to Thor and pummeling Kang. Thor still sought vengeance against Kang for the death of Iron Man weeks earlier, and would not be deterred. Kang's force field defended him from the Thunder God's initial blows, but it was clear his technology would not last indefinitely against the fighting mad god. Kang attempted to turn his dissolution ray on Thor, feeding more and more power into his weaponry. The fear of losing only fed Kang's madness, and he overloaded his armor while trying to beat Thor. Kang died screaming about his own invincibility, as his dissolution ray fed back and consumed him entirely. (Like other Kangs before him, this conqueror apparently survived his death by using body-jump technology to return to a cloned body in his own time.) [Avengers (1st series) #141-143, Avengers Forever #4-6, 9]
Kang was summoned by the One From Beyond to participate in his arranged conflict on Battleworld. Kang and an assortment of Earth's villains were pitted against a similar group of heroes, and told to slay their enemies in order to achieve their heart's desire. Despite Kang's 
preference, most of the villains gravitated towards Doctor Doom as their chosen leader. Doom, however, was uninterested in being a pawn for the Beyonder. He initially refused to fight and prepared to make peace with the heroes in a united front against their captor. Kang saw this as weakness and used weapons found at the villains' base camp to shoot down Doom's airship before he reached the heroes. Kang then rallied the villains in an attack on their adversaries. [Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1]
Kang's initial strike proved to be ill-advised, however, and he was captured with relative ease by the Avengers and other heroes. Kang and the other prisoners were held at the heroes' base until Doom led a counter-attack that ravaged the base and freed the villains. [Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #2-3] Unwilling to tolerate betrayal, and looking to make an example of his foe, Doctor Doom ordered his reprogrammed servant Ultron-11 to execute Kang. The Conqueror briefly attempted to plead for his life before Ultron's disintegration beam atomized him into nothingness. [Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #4] Surprisingly, this was not the end of Kang. Doom's pursuit of the Beyonder's power eventually proved successful, and he claimed the nigh-infinite cosmic majesty of the One From Beyond. In demonstrating how magnanimous godhood had made him, Doom reconstructed Kang from stray atoms, undoing the death of his foe. A dazed Kang momentarily reappeared on Battleworld before Doom dismissed him back to his own time period with a wave of his hand. [Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #11]
Many versions of Kang participated in the Doom the Annihilating Conqueror event throughout the multiverse. They were either absorbed into Doom and Annihilus as a single being or had their powers stolen by Doom to achieve the gestalt. The second-to-last cycle of the Annihilating Conqueror began on an alternate Earth when Kang, Doctor Doom and Annihilus conquered the 21st century over the period of a year. As they attempted to eliminate the Fantastic Four and the few remaining rebels, Kang got the drop on Doom before the Latverian could betray him. He determined how Doom intended to steal the power of the Negative Zone from Annihilus, then 
liberated Doom's apparatus and used it first, becoming Kang the Annihilating Conqueror. Unfortunately, Doom then used time travel to retroactively make his apparatus unstable, allowing him to absorb the power of Kang and Annihilus through it and into himself. This incarnation of Doom the Annihilating Conqueror was defeated by a combination of the local Fantastic Four and the dimension-hopping Fantastic Four of Earth-616, setting the stage for the final incarnation of the Annihilating Conqueror on that Earth. [Fantastic Four (4th series) #14-15]
As versions of Kang continued to diverge due to his various choices and travels through time, doppelgangers of Kang inevitably made poor decisions or miscalculations, and occasionally perished somewhere in the multiverse. One version of Kang believed his victory over the Avengers was assured after uncovering a time capsule containing a record of his own defeat of the Avengers with the assistance of Ultron and the Grim Reaper. However, Ultron had actually planted this record for Kang to find in order to manipulate the Conqueror into confidently joining his own scheme. So Kang was naturally surprised when he died in battle, blasted through the eye by the Wasp. [The Last Avengers Story #1-2] Another version of Kang was one of the villains who rose up and conquered the nation in the future of Old Man Logan, although he apparently did not remain in the 21st century to rule it afterwards. [Wolverine (3rd series) #69] Still other versions of Kang were killed by various forces as their plans went awry. [Captain America Corps #3, Wolverine: Weapon X #14] But somewhere in the multiverse, always, Kang survived.
One of the most successful incarnations of Kang still felt a sense of loss. Despite his victories on the battlefield and more than five decades ruling the 41st century, Kang never forgot his failure to save Ravonna and their love that might have been. He spent hours every day in silent contemplation before her stasis-preserved body. That is, until one day when he was invited by a divergent counterpart to join a certain Council... [Avengers (1st series) #267]
Click here to return and follow the path of the Kang who became "Kang-Prime," picking up shortly after Avengers (1st series) #24.