Monday, January 24, 2022

Only Myself Left To Conquer

 

With no shortage in the PPC of posts which have highlighted the schemes of Kang the Conqueror, a character who continues to hold my interest to this day, it's probably no surprise that I felt drawn to a limited series launched in the fall of 2021 featuring this man whose mindset and history have been explored so many times but who still manages to reveal facets that bring something new to his story and would be worthy of publication. Yet for the self-titled Kang The Conqueror, co-writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly have taken several elements that have had their day in prior stories (e.g., Ravonna, Rama-Tut, Dr. Doom, Immortus, et al.), and have chosen to re-present them from the perspective of the young man who had just taken on the mantle of Kang and set out on his road of conquest (as opposed to Steve Englehart's "reflections of the pharaoh" approach where Rama-Tut, at 60, had come to regret the path he'd chosen as Kang). That being the case, I had to bear in mind in reading this first issue that, while the Marvel of today continued to rely on its past characters' motivations and ambitions up to a point, it had long since cut the cord to being bound by how their past writers had laboriously shaped and molded the character of Kang.

Nevertheless, Lanzing and Kelly's first page does a fair job by analogy of presenting Kang's legacy as we have come to know it, setting the mood for what is to come--and in so doing, aptly summarizes the often frustrating and, at times, self-defeating schemes that Kang has embarked on to no apparent avail.



Upon turning the page, our writers waste no time in putting aside (a tactful way of saying "discarding") certain alterations to Kang's beginnings made by John Byrne and Roger Stern and instead returning the character to his roots by bringing more focus to the objective of Nathaniel Richards--finally revealed with no uncertainty to be the castle of Doom, a treasure trove of the past where Nathaniel hopes to find answers to questions that, in his words, he "could never even think to ask."




The arrival of Kang is probably as much a surprise to us as it is to Nathaniel, as unexpected as it is intriguing. It's safe to predict that whatever Nathaniel hoped to discover in these ruins will pale next to the mystery which stands in front of him--and the offer that this intruder knows full well will appeal to what burns in this young man's heart.




The fact that Kang's recital of his conquests stands in contrast to the dejected mood we see him in on page one is a reminder that this man is indigenous to Earth, a world which has repeatedly confounded him in terms of being added to that list. In Nathaniel, Kang means to ensure that his younger self will not repeat his mistakes--but as this story progresses, Nathaniel will begin to see Kang as a hindrance to his growth rather than helping to forge his path forward as his namesake. And as detrimental as that may sound, it will serve to broaden the scope of this series and allow it to become an engaging mix of plot developments which will at times appear to be spinning madly out of control of even its two writers.

For now, however, Nathaniel's goal is to learn his lessons well in the time allotted, even as he begins to see figurative cracks in his teacher's armor--one of which festers and finally prompts a harsh response.



After practically excoriating Kang's past writers in an earlier profile of the character for seldom if ever having him take advantage of his status as a time traveller by using his foreknowledge of his foes' vulnerabilities and expected actions and plan his method of attack accordingly, how disappointing to see Lanzing and/or Kelly have their character voice sentiments to the effect that such preparations "invite disaster." What military commander doesn't strategize before engaging his forces in battle--and which of them would consider it a sign of weakness?

The montage of events which artist Carlos Magno has depicted here produce quibbles of no import compared to what he brings to the table for this series--for example, Sue's use of force field powers that didn't yet exist during the FF's time in ancient Egypt, or Captain America's dramatic flinging of his shield which seems to accomplish no purpose, unless he's taking out a sniper in the building in the background. Regardless, it's frankly a treat to see how Magno weaves these images into the main story, which thanks to its overall plot remains riveting.

The drama of that story is raised a notch when Nathaniel discovers and becomes sympathetic to a tribe of people that captivates him with their way of life even in the face of the death that the oncoming asteroid represents--and in particular, a girl, named Ravonna, whom he develops feelings for despite Kang's warning.



What happens next is a lesson that Kang imparts without mercy--slaying the entire tribe to a man, and forcing Nathaniel to helplessly witness the devastation. But the lesson that Nathaniel takes away from that act is well-learned in regard to the one he holds in disdain from that point on--and as he simmers, he hatches a plan which brings us near to the end of this story, and the beginning of his own.



Intending to shunt himself as far forward in time as possible, given the near-burned-out condition of Kang's armor, Nathaniel discovers that he's been flung instead to ancient Egypt, in the heyday of Rama-Tut's reign--bringing to an end this story that admittedly had hooked me so adeptly. (Which I'm still shocked to say carried a whopping price tag of $5.00, so I'm hoping kids either prevailed on their parents or found a copy at their public library. How does one afford comic books these days?) Reading ahead, Lanzing, Kelly and Magno had plenty of twists and turns in this series to offer (one of them being Ravonna's "reincarnation," if that's what you want to call it); in fact, I'll be curious to see if they integrate scenes from a previous post which offered a glimpse of a Kang around Nathaniel's age gunning for his elder.

As of this post's writing (late November), issue 5 had yet to be published, so if you have opinions of the series as a whole and/or spoilers to offer it's probably safe to let 'em fly. Just think of how it will frustrate Kang.


10 comments:

  1. I've got the Marvel Comics app which shows all the new releases so I was well aware of this Kang series but I was surprised to see it featured on the PPoC as I didn't think you cared for the new stuff, CF. Nice to see that some things still interest you!

    By the way, here in the UK imported US Marvel comics are even more expensive. In early December I bought Conan The Barbarian #25 (which is the final issue supposedly) from my local comics shop and it cost £4.85 (the comic not the shop) which is about 7 US dollars or thereabouts I think.

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  2. Well, Colin, Kang for me qualifies as one of those "guilty pleasures" mentioned in my profile. ;) I'm usually curious about what a writer's take on the character is going to be, and I couldn't help but perk up at the premise of this series.

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  3. I did not expect to be reading a mini about Kang at the end of 2021, but when I saw the house ad in Marvel's FCBD issues last August, I couldn't resist. It gets a bit repetitive with how many times Nat Richards is willing to be his own worst enemy, but the various continuity nods to the character, recontextualizing of his convoluted history (shout-out to random JJJ-sponsored radio program in #2 rattling off other MU events coinciding with Kang's first appearance; I love seeing how in-universe media reacts to super-stuff we readers find commonplace, and if I'm interpreting this right, this would be a local embedded African transmission of an NPR-esque Bugle-based news summary? Just how pervasive is the DB across the world?), and some surprising revelations about Ravonna, certainly make the rest of the mini (or the collected version coming in about a month) worth looking into. BTW, there's a subsequent oversized one-shot called "Timeless" which serves as a sort of issue #6, but it's a bit of a let-down for me and a weak send-off for this slightly goody-two-shoes incarnation of Kang.

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  4. Benjamin, both Jameson and his paper have been covering the news beat for over sixty years (!) (I'd certainly like to know Jameson's secret to longevity--maybe it's his kind and generous disposition), so it stands to reason the Daily Bugle has established a solid reputation by now among its peers, and not just from coast to coast. (In fact you might enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at how seriously the man takes his occupation.)

    Thanks for weighing in--I haven't had the opportunity to continue with the series, but your comments have sparked my interest in re-engaging with it at some point. :)

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  5. Yup, Kang is the gift that keeps on giving, in terms of storylines.
    Th writer doesn't even hafta worry about continuity, because there's probably still a lotta temporal versions of that guy running around.
    This does look like an interesting miniseries, C.F.
    I don't know much about Nathaniel Richards, but to be honest, I don't think I wanna know. All this time travel business and monkeying around with the time stream makes my head hurt a little. Thanos once called it, in a pointed criticism of Kang himself, "ill-advised." He was not a fan.
    So I'm not gonna google Nathaniel, but it would sense to me that he would ultimately be a villain of some kind. Maybe these events led to that.
    That would go a long way to explaining why his son has always had such a giant stick up his ass. A control freak because his father was an agent of chaos.

    M.P.

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  6. My understanding of time travel in the Marvel Universe - at least back when I cared about such things (up to a point) - is that it basically involved shifting into different realities. For example, back in the 70s Killraven's world was only one of Spidey's possible futures, and when Ben Grimm went back into the past and cured the Thing he created an alternate universe.
    So maybe it makes sense that Kang generally didn't use time travel much to change outcomes, Comicsfan?
    Of course, that begs more questions, and let's face it trying to make sense of this time paradox stuff is a bit pointless.

    In one of my attempts to catch up with Marvel comics again in my more mature years, I recall reading Avengers Forever (twenty years ago now I think - yikes!) in which Kurt Busiek's Destiny War supposedly sorted out the whole Kang/Immortus/Rama-Tut thing. That was quite enough Kang nonsense to last me the rest of a lifetime thanks.

    I appreciate younger readers might enjoy a new variation on that stuff, and I believe Kang is the new big post-Thanos villain in the films, so I get why Marvel are revisiting it all again.
    But if they want $5.00 from me for a single comic - at current &#@^π√ exchange rates and transatlantic import costs! - they can come up with some new stuff.

    -sean

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  7. I have to say I definitely have a foot in Sean's camp: I've read one too many "endings" involving Kang. Where time loops are closed off and chronological crumbs have been swept up nice and tidy...until the next writer comes along.

    Kang has always been a supreme contradiction of a character.

    When we see him alone (as in this mini-series) or otherwise not the main antagonist, Kang is indeed the CONQUEROR. A trophy hall filled with tokens of fallen heroes. A galactic empire that envelops the Shi'ar, Kree, and etc. AND YET, story after story has a half-dozen "primitive" heroes kicking Kang's butt so hard it ends up around his ears. It's an inconsistency that makes it hard for me to take the character at all seriously.

    In the spirit of this discussion of recent comics, I did enjoy Kang (and Co.) appearing in Fantastic Four #35 (the 60th Anniversary commemorative issue). Essentially, don't mess with the FF, even if you fancy yourself a "Conqueror".

    On a completely trivial note, I do rather admire how Marvel has kept Kang in that garish purple and green "armour". Has any other character escaped their costume being "upgraded" over all those years? I think Kang even avoided having to wear a leather jacket over his armour in the 1990's.

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  8. I'm forced to disagree with you, sean, in that the alternate reality approach to time travel didn't have much success in becoming the balm to past and future time travel stories that Marvel likely hoped it would. We've seen Kang alone spend considerable (pardon the word) time and effort to change the outcome of history, mostly for his own self-benefit--to say nothing of becoming near-manic when those plans were being interfered with. Pick any example available to us: travelling back to the old west in order to guarantee his conquest of the 20th century by first conquering the 19th; his pursuit of the Celestial Madonna; planning the assassination of the Phantom Eagle in order to prevent the formation of the Avengers and assure his success in conquering the 20th century; the Scarlet Centurion's deception of the original Avengers and manipulation of the team's second group in order to eliminate all opposition in his conquest of Earth. Whatever Reed Richards had thought of time travel being immutable, he muddied those waters when he altered the history of a different time continuum specifically to prevent that timeline from becoming his own. I would have been satisfied if he'd just responded to Ben by saying something along the lines of "I'm sorry, Ben--I just don't know. What we don't know about time travel amounts to far more than what we do."

    Murray, though it was no great alteration, John Buscema had once given Kang a cape (and, fear not, a purple one) in mid-1986--and I only remembered that because I disposed of it when creating an image of him for a separate post. ;)

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  9. I don't doubt that the alternate reality approach to time travel in the Marvel Universe has been shown to be incorrect many many times Comicsfan, even just in the 70s, let alone the years since (and anyway, Victor von Doom is smarter than Reed).

    Possibly I could have been clearer, as I bought up mainly to show that there isn't any consistency in the time travel stories - I agree with Murray's implication that often we're just left with whatever is convenient for the writer of any given story.
    Which is ok with me if the story is good, as consistent continuity is an over-rated quality imo. Unfortunately, with Kang/Immortus continuity often seems to be integral to the story.
    Although to be fair to Marvel, I accept Avengers Forever may have been an extreme example.

    -sean

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  10. All good points, sean--and we're definitely of one mind that Murray's comment on time travel vis-à-vis Marvel stories is the one constant we can all depend on!

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