Kang The Conqueror

**Nathaniel Richards** has had various incarnations over the years and each identity has its own, ever-expanding history. For the sake of clarity, this article will only cover,

essentially, the history of Nathaniel Richards during his time as Kang.

## History

Nathaniel Richards was born in the 30th century of Earth-6311, a reality where humanity never went into the dark ages. After centuries of advancement and warfare, peace was brought to the land by a time-traveler from Earth-616 named Nathaniel Richards. Because Richards brought peace to this war-torn future, he was known as the legendary benefactor. The Nathaniel Richards born to this reality is said to be a descendant of the Benefactor through Reed Richards, although other records also indicate that he may also be a descendant of the Latverian monarch known as Dr. Doom. At the age of 16, intervention from his future self, as Kang the Conqueror, resulted in young Nathaniel trying to prevent his eventual transformation into Kang, briefly becoming the young hero known as Iron Lad. The youth also briefly had a stint as a super-villain known as Kid Immortus. However Nathaniel Richards eventually returned to his native time to finally follow his proper destined path, possibly with his memories as Iron Lad erased, however at this time there is no conclusive explanation and the events leading to this are as yet unrecorded. As an adult, Nathaniel discovered a time machine and having grown bored of his peaceful time, traveled back in time to ancient Egypt on Earth-616. There he set himself up as a Pharaoh Rama-Tut until he was ousted from this position by the Fantastic Four. Rama-Tut tried to flee back to his own era, but he was caught in a time storm and was forced to appear in the modern era of Earth-616. A chance encounter with his possible ancestor Dr. Doom, inspired Nathaniel to abandon his Rama-Tut guise and assume one similar to Doom. In his first attempt, Nathaniel created the identity of the Scarlet Centurion, but abandoned this identity after being defeated by the Avengers.

Resuming his Rama-Tut guise, Richards attempted once again to return to his native 30th Century. The time-storm caused him to overshoot his own era and he ended up in the war torn 40th Century. There Rama-Tut found a war-torn future where barbarians battled with technology from past eras of which they had no knowledge of how they worked. Seeing his own personal knowledge on how these weapons operated, Rama-Tut found it simple to reinvent himself and conquer this era. Creating the identity of Kang the Conqueror, Richards began to do just that. First Kang conquered the Earth, then began conquering the galaxy, taking over entire empires, including that of the Badoon. But even this was not enough, and Nathaniel's mind continued to turn back to the modern age of heroes and sought to conquer it as well. One of his earliest observations of the past was when Kang briefly appeared over Times Square in New York City, circa 1939. This caused brief hysteria and some media coverage, but otherwise his appearance was dismissed as a hoax by the authorities of that time. It has been stated that part of Kang's motivations for wanting to conquer the modern age was due to incomplete historical records that spoke of a Celestial Madonna who would sire the most powerful man in history. Kang was determined to learn the identity of the Madonna and ensure that he was the father of that child.

The Avengers then confronted Kang and battled him anew, severely damaging his armor. Kang then attempted to launch a Neutrino Missile, but this weapon was destroyed by Iron Man. Kang then attempted to expose the Avengers to lethal rays of radiation, but this was focused back on him by Thor, forcing Kang to flee back to his own era.

## Personality

Kang is a ruthless and cunning conqueror, prone to losing his temper when he did not get what he wanted. Kang is also extremely ambitious and power-hungry. Kang sees himself as superior and that others' lives do not matter as they cannot see beyond their universes. He viewed timelines as simply as new lands to conquer. Kang is also deceptive. Kang also exerted an extremely condescending manner to both his subjects and his enemies.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Superior-level Intellect**
* **Skilled Combatant**
* **Battle Armor:** Kang's battle armor is produced from a rare synthetic alloy from the 40th century. It is neuro-kinetic, meaning it responds to his subconscious thoughts. Though Kang has no powers, his armor endows him with rough equivalents of super-human abilities.
* **Enhanced Strength:** Gives Kang the ability to lift 5 tons.
* **Durability:** The armor has a built in force-field that extends from 2 feet away from his body, outward to 20 feet in all directions. It can withstand even a nuclear strike at point blank range.
* **Anti-Gravity Device:** Kang has a device in the gauntlets of his armor that allows him to render objects weighing up to 2.2 tons weightless.
* **Video Communicator:** Built into the right wrist is a video communicator, which he can use to stay in contact with his bases from any point in the time-stream.
* **Time Travel:** Kang's armor can create temporal divergences, giving him the ability to travel through and manipulate time.
* **Chronocloning:** Kang can intentionally multiply himself through these divergences. Kang considers these diverged selves to be expendable and their deaths simply mean more timelines to conquer.
* **Concussive Bolts:** Kang can fire concussive blasts from the fingertips of his gauntlets; these blasts have the force of several tons of dynamite.
* **Weaponry:** By cracking his fingers, Kang can summon any number of weapons which are transported to him through time-stream instantly.
* **Electric Shock:** By flexing his muscles, Kang can activate a powerful electric shock.
* **Hover Pad:** Kang has often made use of a hover-pad in his battles.
* **Survival Kit:** Kang's armor has a self-contained atmosphere, 30 day supply of food, and waste disposal system.

## Appearances

* Avengers: The Next Generation (Mentioned)