Kang the Conqueror was almost Marvel’s next big thing. The villain was being built up as the next big bad of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the real world got in the way and Kang disappeared. This is a shame for MCU fans, as the Conqueror is one of Marvel Comics‘ most storied villains. Hailing from a far future where humanity has defeated all the challenges of the universe and can exist in bliss, Nathaniel Richards was enamored with the glories of the past and decided to use the technology of his time to become a conqueror on the level of Alexander the Great. Since then, we’ve seen numerous versions of him from across his personal history – Rama-Tut, Iron Lad, Immortus, the Scarlet Centurion, Victor Timely – each of them a formidable threat to anyone standing in his way.
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Kang is obsessed with defeating the Avengers and has mostly set his sights on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. To him, they are the ideal he wants to conquer, and he’s had many battles against them. However, they aren’t the only heroes who found themselves trying to stop the Conqueror. Over the years, numerous other heroes have faced him and some of them have even been able to beat him. No one remembers that these five Marvel heroes have beaten Kang the Conqueror, each of them powerful enough to take down one of time’s greatest warriors.
5) Deadpool
Deadpool is a more complicated character than most think and this has helped him reach the top of the Marvel Universe. Wade Wilson is an amazing fighter, made all the better by the fact that he can’t die thanks to his extremely powerful healing factor. ‘Pool has long been able to punch way above his weight class because of this and he’s ratcheted up some pretty impressive wins against some surprising villains, including Kang. This battle took place in Deadpool’s Secret Wars, which revealed that Wade had been pulled to Battleworld with the rest of them by the One From Beyond, but was erased before the end so he was never there. His battle against Kang was honestly something of a joke, Wade taking the villain down with a kick to the stomach, and it technically never happened, since all of this was erased from the timeline, but you’ll always know it happened.
4) Moon Knight
Moon Knight has had quite an awesome few years. Writer Jed MacKay has brought him back to prominence and his MCU debut was well-loved enough. Once upon a time, Marc Specter was Marvel’s answer to Batman, with some Egyptian mythology and DID mixed in to keep it fresh. Most of his enemies are just street level dudes like Bushman, but he has battled many more powerful foes thanks to the power of Khonshu. The moon god used him to defend the world many times and one of those battles led him into conflict with Kang. The Conqueror completely outclasses Marc in power, thanks to having access to the best weapon technology ever, and he ended up getting a pretty hardcore beating until Khonshu allowed him to pull multiple other Moon Knights from across time to battle the timestream’s greatest menace. Technically speaking, this win should go to the “Moon Knights”, but Marc was the one who made it possible and got the winning shot in.
3) Spider-Man
Spider-Man is Marvel’s greatest solo hero. He’s been the publisher’s most popular character for almost his entire existence and while he’s only been a full-time Avenger since the mid ’00s (before that he was just a reserve member who usually showed up for the big fights), he’s fought most of their major villains, including Kang the Conqueror. Kang once made a plan to use an evil Spider-Man robot for some future-changing shenanigans – namely the destruction of the Avengers, but Spidey was able to figure it out and stop the man from the future from sullying his good name. They’ve had several more fights over the years, ones that haven’t gone as well for the Wall-Crawler. Kang is a tough customer even for J. Jonah Jameson’s favorite vigilante, but the fact that he has a victory over Kang under his belt remains one of his most impressive – if rather unknown – victories.
2) Cable
So, before the Iron Lad version of Kang was brought into existence in volume one of Young Avengers, the first version of Kang to try to become the conqueror that he always wanted to be was Rama-Tut. Kang went back to Ancient Egypt and used his far-future weapons to become pharaoh, starting a reign of terror that would last years. He ended up meeting Apocalypse back then, killing his tribe and targeting him, but was beaten by the Fantastic Four and chased from the past. In the late ’90s, Cable (Vol. 1) was all about Nathan Summers trying to stop Apocalypse from taking over the future and he and his mentor from the future Blaquesmith found themselves battling Rama-Tut, who had come to the present to try to extend his empire. Cable was able to defeat the villain, forcing him to retreat back to the past, where his confrontations with Apocalypse and the Fantastic Four awaited him. Technically, this is a fight against Rama-Tut, but with Kang, you usually just ignore those kinds of things.
1) The Inhumans
Marvel’s ’10s Inhumans push was a huge mistake, but it did give readers a battle between them and Kang the Conqueror. Black Bolt and Thanos ended up destroying Attilan in a fight, scattering the Inhumans and Kang was able to get his hands on the son of Black Bolt and Medusa Ahura. Bolt allowed the villain to keep his son, as long as he took him somewhere he’d be safe from the Incursions. Kang obliged, but also spent his time training the boy and making him loyal. Bolt eventually decided to get his son back after the multiverse had been restored, with him and a team of Inhumans going back in time to retrieve him, before his Terrigenesis. The boy didn’t want to leave, loyal to the Conqueror, and underwent the process anyway, but once the villain showed up with an army, things changed. Thanks to Ahura’s power to create powerful psionic duplicates, the Inhumans were able to defeat Kang, reuniting the Royal Family with their heir.
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