#and don't get me started on the iron lad/kang stuff

[emisirrelevant]

When you find a way to read the Young Avengers comics online and you're just like:

I DIDN'T COME HERE TO GET EMOTIONAL OVER A SERIES OF COMICS WHAT THE ACTUAL F-

And I'm reading the 2005 series rn- if the 2013 series is like this, I will need lots of therapy.

[synthezcid]

Hey, I don't really know anything about comic Kang. Can you tell me a bit about him from the comics and give comparisons on how well they did bringing him to the screen? I mean, his acting was great and all but I have nothing to compare it to characterization wise. Paint me a picture, if you will. :D

So, to start, I must admit to not having cyclopedic knowledge of the character. I know enough to give a rough overview but he really is a product of 70′s, 80′s comic shenanigans so there is A LOT if you go looking for it. With that having been said,

Kang, and I mean this in the best way possible, is an absolute clusterfuck of a character. He is, essentially, the designated Time Travel Villain of the Marvel Comics. There are at the very least five very distinct incarnations of Kang who are their own characters, but they are all also Kang. 

Yeah this is about to get weird

So, Kang is actually born Nathaniel Richards in the 30th Century (Yes, he is a distant descendant of one Reed Richards), where there are no wars and its peacetime all the time. Nathaniel, however, is bored of this, and after finding a time machine, decides to go back to the Ancient Times to become a Pharaoh named Rama-Tut. Comics being comics, Rama-Tut and Avengers clash, Rama-Tut goes back in time but he overshoots it and lands in 40th century, and he’s like ‘Hm, I can’t be a ruler with a name like Rama-Tut in the future, I must re-style myself. I shall become Kang the Conqueror’. (I believe there are timelines / instances where Kang goes back to being Rama-Tut, but I digress). And if the name wasn’t a giveaway, he’s all about wanting to conquer, which leads to plenty of conflict with the Avengers. 

(He’s notable in that he’s not an antagonist for one specific hero but for the Avengers as an overall group. He’s one of the Big Villains in the comics, overall)

There is, however, a different version of Kang named Immortus. Immortus is an older version of Kang who is less interested in conquest and moreso about immortality and mastery of time and he is actually recruited by Time Keepers (who are actual beings in the comics) to untangle the messes created by his younger self. (and a LOT of other stuff but, again, I’m just giving a very brief overview)

BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE

There is a YOUNGER version of Kang, who discovers his future fate and wanting to avoid it, goes to the Avengers to help stop his future self, but does not find them (this was during a time where the core roster was..having some issues, shall we say). He does, however, stumble upon a failsafe program that gives him possible candidates for a New Team, so he goes on to found...the Young Avengers (you know, the one MCU has been steadily setting up with these D+ shows). He also styles his own armor to look like Iron Man’s, thus becoming Iron Lad. 

There are a lot of times where Kang meets his past and future selves, tries to stop and or help them, timelines that diverge, timelines that never happen, timelines that go all wibbly wobbly. (Fun fact Iron Lad learns about his future fate because Kang literally travels back in time to help him avoid an injury by a bully and that’s how they meet. Comics are weird.)

So, to bring it back to the show, the show is....Seemingly surprisingly faithful to the clusterfuck that is the Kang Gang. He is an Unnamed Scientist who figures out multiversal / time travel, which tracks with the comics, whose alternate selves have a penchant for Conquering, which also tracks, and He Who Remains is a version that is trying to untangle all the messes, which also also tracks. 

(Fun fact, He Who Remains is a separate character in the comics universe. MCU version is, for all intents and purposes, a composite of him and Immortus Kang, especially in his purple robes and the gold disc pattern in his chest.)