A Marvel Hero and a Disgraced MCU Villain Are Working Together Against The Avengers

The Avengers find themselves having to contend not only with a villain from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also a fellow hero that’s working alongside them. 2024 featured Earth’s Mightiest Heroes scrambling to stop the threat of Tribulation Events and warnings about a Missing Moment in time. Kang the Conqueror clued the Avengers in on both the Tribulation Events and the Missing Moment, but only for his own evil purposes. The Avengers have been distracted by other threats such as the Blood Hunt and the Fall of X, but now they’re refocusing on the Missing Moment. The only problem is Kang is as well, and he’s got an unlikely ally helping him. WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Avengers #22. Continue reading at your own risk!

Avengers #22 comes from the creative team of Jed MacKay, Farid Karami, Federico Blee, and VC’s Cory Petit. The Avengers have a lead on the Missing Moment from Scarlet Witch. A data archive previously owned by Kang the Conqueror is going up for auction at the Grandmaster’s cosmic casino. They can’t buy the data, so the Avengers decide to steal it instead. Just as the Avengers are close to achieving their goal, they discover someone else beat them to the score. It’s Kang the Conqueror, and Marvel’s resident cat burglar, Black Cat.

Black Cat and Kang make a formidable team

The Avengers nearly pull off the perfect heist. Storm and Scarlet Witch create a diversion by playing up an old mutant rivalry, while Captain Marvel, Iron Man, and Captain America (Sam Wilson) attempt to steal the Missing Moment data. They’re able to crack the Grandmaster’s vault, but they find it empty. Iron Man deduces that someone stole the archive before they could get to it, and when Vision does a scan of the crowd, facial recognition lands on Nathaniel Richards, aka Kang the Conqueror.

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However, Kang’s not working alone. He also has Walter Hardy with him, which shouldn’t be possible since the notorious burglar is currently deceased. Kang must be using his command of the timestream to pluck a time-displaced version of Walter Hardy to round out his gang. If you’re going on a heist, you might as well get the best of the best for your team. This does beg the question of whether this is the present-day Black Cat or her time-displaced doppelganger.

Iron Man has a history with Black Cat after she performed a heist on his Stark Unlimited headquarters. Black Cat wound up creating herself an Iron Cat armor. After seeing Black Cat with Kang, Iron Man is convinced Black Cat is out to ruin his life again.

Kang the Conqueror’s fall from grace in the MCU

When Marvel set Kang the Conqueror on a hunt for the Missing Moment in 2022’s Timeless #1, it was to coincide with the villain’s debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Played by Jonathan Majors, Kang was being positioned as the next big villain of the MCU for the Multiverse Saga. It would all culminate in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars. However, Majors’ legal troubles derailed those plans.

Jonathan Majors was found guilty of assault and harassment in December 2023, with Marvel Studios quickly severing ties with the Kang actor. These moves essentially ended Kang’s short tenure in the MCU, with Marvel Studios pivoting to Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom for the retitled Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Marvel could always decide to recast Kang down the line with someone like Colman Domingo, but for now, the MCU future isn’t looking bright for Kang.

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The cover of Avengers #22 alludes to Black Cat joining Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but that appears to be in doubt at the moment. There’s also the issue of Grandmaster being very aware of what the Avengers, Kang, and Black Cat are up to. This is in large part due to Myrddin, who is playing a cosmic game with Grandmaster with the Avengers, Kang, and Black Cat as pawns. Myrddin and his Twilight Court debuted in Timeless #1 as opposition to Kang and has stayed one step ahead in the search for the Missing Moment.

We wouldn’t be surprised if Myrddin is revealed to be an alternate version of Kang, or one of his many rivals like Doctor Doom. If so, it would be another instance of Doctor Doom replacing Kang the Conqueror.