Marvel Comics and Timeless #1 Spoilers Fallout! Demythifying Kang, Immortus, Scarlet Centurion, Iron Lad, Rama-Tut and Nathanial Richards! Kang Personas Who’s Who!
2021 Timeless #1 (full spoilers here) and 2022 Timeless #1 (full spoilers here) featured Kang.
He’s a character with a complicated past and personas, as 2023 looks to see the debut of the Kang Avengers on the search of the Missing Moment (more here).
Well, I’ll try to demythify the primary personas of Kang as 2023 begins.
1) Rama-Tut
Kang first debuted as Rama-Tut in 1963 in the pages of Fantastic Four #19.
2) Kang
Kang debuted as Kang in 1964, a year after his Rama-Tut persona’s debut, in the pages of Avengers #8.
3) Immortus
Kang’s future persona Immortus debuted a few issues later in 1964 in Avengers #10.
4) Scarlet Centurion
1968 and its Avengers Annual #2 saw Kang’s Scarlet Centurion persona debut.
Later, the man under the mask of the Scarlet Centurion would change.
In 2001’s Avengers #38 (Avengers volume 3) saw Kang’s son Marcus Kang debut as the Scarlet Centurion.
5) Iron Lad
A young Kang, even younger than Rama-Tut, was a founding member of the Young Avengers in 2005.
6) Nathanial Richards
Well, Nathanial Richards is the Fantastic Four Reed Richards’ dad and he’s also Kang’s primary personality, but with time travel, alternate timelines, dimensions, what-have-you, that does not make them the same character.
So, how does that all work together?
2015’s DK Marvel encyclopedia summarizes how Kang’s primary personalities interact or work with one another.
The explanation is as follows:
Nathaniel Richards discovered time travel and journeyed back from his own timeline in 3000 CE to Ancient Egypt. There he ruled as Rama-Tut for several years, later traveling to the 40th Century where he created an empire as Kang the Conqueror. Kang is usually an enemy of the Avengers, but once joined forces with them to prevent his future self, Immortus, from wiping out a number of parallel worlds.
It’s not wholly clear or definitive, but helpful in understanding how Kang’s primary personas work so-to-speak.
