Who is Kang the Conqueror? Know his History

With the LOKI series airing its finale episode, many fans have already come up with theories about the MCU’s future and the episode’s possible implications on it. The episode saw Loki and Sylvie finally come face to face with He Who Remains, the man responsible for the creation of the TVA and everything that happened to them both thus far in the series. The episode ends with the sacred timeline branching out repeatedly and Sylvie fulfilling her lifelong goal of putting away whoever was responsible for her life going wrong; that is, she kills He Who Remains.

So far so good, but what actually got the fans talking was the reveal of the man behind the TVA, He Who Remains. When confronted by the two Lokis, he says that the TVA was created to end the Multiversal War that broke out when variants of him from multiple universes declared war on each other. Now, to the comic book readers, it is clear who He Who Remains actually. One of the Marvel comics main villains, Kang the conqueror. However, LOKIs He Who Remains isn’t exactly the Kang that we think he is.

KANG THE CONQUEROR

Kang’s MCU debut was actually supposed to be in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania set to release sometime in 2023. But here we have him appearing in LOKI as He Who Remains. To clear up the confusion, let's have a look at who Kang really is. 

Nathaniel Richards, a 31st-century scholar discovers the time travel technology created by Victor von Doom, another possible descendant of his, which Nathaniel uses to travel back in time to ancient Egypt aboard a Sphinx-shaped timeship and becomes the Pharaoh Rama-Tut, with plans to claim En Sabah Nur—the mutant who later becomes Apocalypse—as his heir. However, Rama-Tut's rule is cut short when he is defeated by the time-displaced Fantastic Four. Nathaniel Richards then travels forward to the 20th century, where he meets Doctor Doom, who he believes might be his ancestor. He later designs an armor based on Doom's and pits the Avengers team against alternate-reality counterparts, this time assuming the name of Scarlet Centurion. He plans to dispose of all of them, but the Avengers manage to force him from the timeline. Nathaniel then tries to return to the 31st century, but overshoots by a thousand years, discovering a war-torn Earth that uses advanced weapons they no longer understand. He finds it simpler to just conquer the planet, expanding his dominion throughout the galaxy, and reinvents himself as Kang the Conqueror. This isn't the same Kang that we see in LOKI, but another variant of his.

HE WHO REMAINS

Upon being questioned by Sylvie as to his origins, He Who Remains tells them that the TVA was the result of a 31st-Century scientist discovering the multiverse, which led to him meeting versions of himself from other universes. There was peace initially, but all that came to a halt when his versions decided that they wanted to conquer each other’s universes. This led to an all out multiversal war, until one of the variants, the very first one, encounters Alioth and weaponized him to end the multiversal war. He isolated the timeline(the sacred timeline to which they belonged), managed the flow of time to prevent further branches. Thus, coming up with the creation of the TVA.

It turns out He Who Remains was indeed the 31’st century variant being discussed about. This, is the Nathaniel Richards that we discussed earlier. But, he is not the version that turns out to be Kang The Conqueror. In the comics, there's a Kang variant who goes by the name Immortus, where the Time Keepers say they'll make him immortal if he helps them regulate the timelines. Maybe the variant shown in LOKI could be this one. Towards the end of the episode, He Who Remains tells Sylvie that killing him could possibly end up in the multiverse getting unleashed once again. And this time, possibly giving us the actual Kang The Conqueror.

This article is written by Pranav