The MCU has big plans for the future, but it's taking its sweet time in building up its big bad guy. Truth be told, it's hard to top Thanos as a villain. However, the Marvel franchise has already laid out its candidates and they're nasty. Apart from an angry Celestial, there's Kang the Conqueror – a sleeping giant tucked in the Loki series.
While he doesn't have the same presence and arrogance as Thanos or even Ultron's malevolence, he's done some of the worst crimes in Marvel comic book history. To make matters worse, Kang zips in and out of the past and future as if he was merely opening doors in his house. Thus, the damage he's done in the comic books was quite extensive. These deeds are some of his worst.
Updated March 19, 2023 by Blaise Santi: Following the release of Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, fans are extremely excited to see more of Kang the Conqueror in the MCU. The Thanos-level villain played by Jonathan Majors was first introduced in the season 1 finale of Loki. Now, Kang and his infinite variants are being set up to take over the multiverse, with only the Avengers who can stop him.
As one of the biggest and baddest super-villains in Marvel history, there are a lot of terrible deeds that Kang has done in the past, present, and future. Still, fans probably have a lot of time before they get to see the time-traveling ruler show his face in the MCU again. Across the comics and current film and TV appearances, these are Kang's most villainous moments.
17 Assisting Doctor Doom's Conquest
One of Kang's more recent comic appearances includes Doctor Doom's ongoing solo series, which ran for ten issues between 2019 and 2021. In the series, Kang and Doom are tied together via quantum entanglement, as Kang periodically assist Doom is taking over the Earth. However, Doom is accidentally playing into a trap at the hands of Kang.
By helping Doctor Doom control Earth, Kang believes he's making it an easier target to conquer at some point in the future. The two baddies end up facing off in the comic series, though Doom eventually comes out on top and leaves Kang behind to continue his conquest. Clearly, betraying Doctor Doom wasn't the conqueror's smartest idea.
16 Brainwashing Variants For The TVA
Kang's debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes in Loki, where the god of mischief discovers that the interdimensional police known as the Time Variance Authority, run by the mysterious Time-Keepers, has been kidnapping variants from the Sacred Timeline and wiping their memories, forcing them to work for the TVA as detectives and officers.
Loki's discovery of this leads him and Sylvie, his female variant, to He Who Remains, a Kang variant living at the Citadel at the End of Time. He Who Remains asks Loki and Sylvie to take over running the TVA for him, but despite his warnings about multiversal conquest, Sylvie kills him for removing her from the Timeline as a child and ruining her life.
15 Betraying Ant-Man In The Quantum Realm
During his most recent appearance in Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, Kang the Conqueror appears as the ruler of the Quantum Realm. When Scott Lang and his daughter Cassie are kidnapped by the former ally of Janet van Dyne, Scott agrees to pull of a heist to retrieve the power core to fuel Kang's Time Chair that can free him from exile.
When Scott pulls it off, Kang inevitably betrays him, stealing the power core and readying his Time Chair to take his Quantum Realm army with him. However, Scott fights back alongside Hope van Dyne, seemingly killing Kang. Nevertheless, Scott can't help but shake off the feeling that the worst is yet to come from the Kang he may not be finished with.
14 Kidnapping The Avengers For Love
One Kang, like his obsession with Ravonna Renslayer, became obsessed with the Celestial Madonna, deducing she must be one of three Avengers: Scarlet Witch, Mantis, or Agatha Harkness. He ended up kidnapping all three female Avengers, as well as Thor, Iron Man, and Vision, and bringing them back to Ancient Egypt with him.
By the time Kang discovered that the Celestial Madonna was in fact Mantis, he decided if he couldn't have her then no one could. However, the Swordsman sacrificed his life to save Mantis, as Kang was later apprehended by his future self, who had once again become Rama-Tut. Both variants of Kang ended up suspended in Limbo by Immortus, another Kang.
13 Attempting To Rule Ancient Egypt
Before he was Kang the Conqueror, Nathaniel Richards was a scientist living in the 31st century. As an adult, Richards discovered time-travel, deciding to use it to escape his mundane existence and travel back to Ancient Egypt. There, he decided to rule over the ancient Egyptians as Rama-Tut.
As part of Rama-Tut's influence over Egypt, he left behind key information regarding En Sabah Nur, a.k.a. Apocalypse, the world's first mutant. Rama-Tut eventually became a ruthless ruler over the Egyptian people. However, he was ultimately stopped by The Fantastic Four, but not before enslaving them and almost forcing Sue Storm to marry him.
12 Destroying Washington D.C.
Granted, leveling a whole city and murdering or injuring its inhabitants seems standard fare for a villain in the comic books, but the way Kang did it was more brutal. He had planned it extensively and didn't hold back when the time came to show off his powers and military might.
What's even more impressive about this feat is that it was Kang's retaliatory strike after his demand for a peaceful surrender was met with resistance. So, Kang relished instead in destroying the US capital and killing millions of its citizens after taking care of the Avengers roadblock.
11 The Kang Dynasty Invades Earth
Given that the next Avengers movie will be titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, it's likely that fans will see an adaptation of the comic book arc of the same name. This will likely serve as the climax of Kang's dominion over the MCU, if the comics are followed closely. The comic arc follows Kang, with his son Marcus as Scarlet Centurion, attempting to conquer Earth.
What is significant about Kang's journey in The Kang Dynasty is that he's successful in his conquest of Earth, making him the first supervillain to win in Marvel Comics without using mind control. As part of his initial attack on the planet, Kang destroyed the U.N. building, and though he spared the life of everyone inside, it alluded to the bloodshed that he'd promise.
10 When One Kang Goes Good
At one point in Kang the Conqueror's journeys through the multiverse, he returns to his teenage years to show his younger self the man he'd become. To Kang's surprise, the young Nathaniel Richards is horrified by what he sees and dedicates his life to fighting for good. He adopts the persona "Iron Lad" and forms the first iteration of the Young Avengers.
However, Kang wouldn't let his past self change ways that easy, luring the Young Avengers into a fight, so he could turn Iron Lad against them. Inevitably the Young Avengers, including Cassie Lang, Kate Bishop, and Billy Kaplan, defeated Kang with Iron Lad's help, though Iron Lad resolved to return to his own timeline and fulfill his destiny of becoming Kang.
9 Conquering Thousands Of Worlds
Funny enough, Earth was only one trophy in Kang's collection, as the most successful and effective versions of him had managed what can only be described as "a thousand thousand" worlds. This came from a span of 100 light-years of conquests across several different timelines and galaxies.
His name does indicate his achievements, after all. Of course, most of these conquered worlds lost a worrying number of sentient inhabitants before they succumbed to Kang's weapons and abilities. That means the number of casualties attributed to Kang's name is too difficult to quantify.
8 Destroying His Own Kingdom
With the kind of accolades he has as an omnipotent conqueror, one has to imagine what was the point of all of it? The truth is, there wasn't much left for Kang to do after becoming the supreme dominator in his timeline or others. So Kang got bored being on top of the multiverse and decided to blow up his main city or kingdom, called Chronopolis.
Kang destroyed Chronopolis all with his subjects inside. Chronopolis also served as a hub city which allowed Kang a portal to every other timeline. It's worth noting that this Kang is the one from the far future, named Immortus. Even the evil, younger versions of himself feared this Kang.
7 Killing His Own Lover
It wasn't just Chronopolis and its hapless citizens that Immortus killed out of boredom but also the woman he loved. That would be Ravonna Renslayer. Unfortunately for Ravonna, she happened to be inside the Chronopolis when Kang went insane with boredom.
So she was caught in the destruction. This only goes to show just how meaningless everything is to Kang, especially since he can do anything he wants. Surprisingly enough, he had a lot of trouble trying to woo and attract Ravonna in the past; he even had to trick her and invade her kingdom to get her, only to vaporize her along with Chronopolis.
6 Killing His Own Son
Long before Kang even became Immortus and got bored and killed his own city and lover, he was already unappreciative of the people close to him. He actually had a son during one of his biggest achievements: the aforementioned Washington D.C. assault. His son's name was Marcus a.k.a. Scarlet Centurion. He helped his father conquer Earth.
However, Marcus got a little too infatuated with Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) and this became an opening for the Avengers to defeat Kang. Hence, Kang's dominion over Earth after reducing Washington D.C. to ashes was short-lived. Marcus, in the meantime, got more than a spanking and was killed by his father for being instrumental in their defeat.
5 Trying To Assassinate Avengers During Their Infancy
It quickly became clear to Kang that in order to become victorious, especially on Earth, he would have to deal with the Avengers. And what better way to hit them hard than hitting them as babies? That's probably one of the most diabolical assassinations he's ever come up with as most of his other victims are just casualties of war.
This was all caused by Visions intervention, which led to several paradoxes and multiple versions of Kang. These Kangs then banded together and used their time travel capabilities to hunt down the Avengers while they were still harmless infants. Thankfully, an older version of Kang intervened and thwarted their plan.
4 Raising Black Bolt's Son To Fight His Original Family
When not plotting to kill infants, Kang is planning to use them as tools against his most persistent enemies. In a plotline in the Marvel comic books, Kang took Black Bolt's son, Ahura, while he's still a baby and planned to raise him as a weapon against the Inhumans.
Black Bolt eventually tracked down Kang and fought him with the intent of taking back Ahura. Tragically, who they fought wasn't Kang, but an aged Ahura who was raised to hate his original father and the Inhumans. Hence, Black Bolt was forced to kill his own son in one of Kang's most clever yet heartless moments.
3 Apocalypse Twin Genocide
It wasn't just Ahura who had the misfortune of being raised to be Kang's weapon, but also the Apocalypse twins. These two are mutant offspring of Archangel, a successor of Apocalypse. Kang took them again with the intent of unleashing the Apocalypse twins against humanity and the mutants.
Initially, Kang wanted to raise them as his conquerors but they proved too difficult to control and managed to return to the present timeline. There, they unleashed as much destruction as they could, much to Kang's advantage. This twin rebellion resulted in nearly wiping out all of the mutants in Marvel.
2 Messing Up Timelines
In general, the mere act of traveling to the past and future to gain strategic advantages is one of Kang's most damaging acts. He frequently jumps several timelines to kill someone, change something, or completely erase a series of events that would make it easier for him to eventually become Immortus.
In one of his time jumping escapades, he even managed to break a timeline, specifically while fighting Ultron. He even tried to defeat Ultron more than 20 times again and again after losing, only to ruin the timelines due to his repeated attempts, causing the timelines to bleed into one another.
1 Killing Other Versions Of Himself
Cartoons like Rick and Morty likely took inspiration from this kind of Kang deathmatch. A Council of Kangs also exists, just as there is a Council of Reeds and the derivative Council of Ricks in Rick and Morty. As expected, the Council of Kangs wanted the original Kang dead.
That's because they were looking for something important to their conquests and the original Kang was the key. Too bad they didn't succeed against their own as the original Kang managed to outgun them using Alioth's power. Thus, he reigned supreme out of all the Kangs.