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Description
Nathaniel Richards has had various incarnations over the years and each identity has its own, ever-expanding history. For the sake of clarity, this article will only cover, essentially, the history of Nathaniel Richards during his time as Kang. For more information on the other identities of Nathaniel Richards, please refer to the entries on Iron Lad, Kid Immortus, the Scarlet Centurion, Rama-Tut and Immortus

In addition, there are many alternate version of Kang in existence. For the sake of clarity, it is commonly accepted that each alternate Kang that has interacted with Earth-616 is a direct divergence from the "Prime" Kang of Earth-6311. While differentiating between each of these divergent Kangs is difficult, all those that are tied in with the Kang-Prime are listed here for reasons that will become evident to the reader.

Origins
Nathaniel Richards was born in the 30th century of Earth-6311, a reality where humanity never went into the dark ages. After centuries of advancement and warfare, peace was brought to the land by a time-traveller from Earth-616 named Nathaniel Richards. Because Richards brought peace to this war-torn future, he was known as the legendary benefactor. The Nathaniel Richards born to this reality is said to be a descendant of the Benefactor through Reed Richards, although other records also indicate that he may also be a descendant of the Latverian monarch known as Dr. Doom. At the age of 16, intervention from his future self, as Kang the Conqueror, resulted in young Nathaniel to try and prevent his eventual transformation in Kang, briefly becoming the young hero known as Iron Lad. The youth also briefly had a stint as a super-villain known as Kid Immortus. However Nathaniel Richards eventually returned to his native time to finally follow his proper destined path, possibly with his memories as Iron Lad erased, however at this time there is no conclusive explanation and the events leading to this are as yet unrecorded. As an adult, Nathaniel discovered a time machine and having grown bored of his peaceful time, traveled back in time to ancient Egypt on Earth-616. There he set himself up as a Pharaoh Rama-Tut until he was ousted from this position by the Fantastic Four. Rama-Tut tried to flee back to his own era, but he was caught in a time storm and was forced to appear in the modern era of Earth-616. A chance encounter with his possible ancestor Dr. Doom, inspired Nathaniel to abandon his Rama-Tut guise and assume one similar to Doom. In his first attempt, Nathaniel created the identity of the Scarlet Centurion, but abandoned this identity after being defeated by the Avengers

Resuming his Rama-Tut guise, Richards attempted once again to return to his native 30th Century. The time-storm caused him to overshoot his own era and he ended up in the war torn 40th Century. There Rama-Tut found a war torn future where barbarians battled with technology from past eras of which they had no knowledge of how they worked. Seeing his own personal knowledge on how these weapons operated, Rama-Tut found it simple to reinvent himself and conquer this era. Creating the identity of Kang the Conqueror, Richards began to do just that. First Kang conquered the Earth, then began conquering the galaxy, taking over entire empires, including that of the Badoon. But even this was not enough and Nathaniel's mind continued to turn back to the modern age of heroes and sought to conquer it as well. One of his earliest observations of the past was when Kang briefly appeared over Times Square in New York City, circa 1939. This caused brief hysteria and some media coverage, but otherwise his appearance was dismissed as a hoax by the authorities of that time. It has been stated that part of Kang's motivations for wanting to conquer the modern age was due to incomplete historical records that spoke of a Celestial Madonna who would sire the most powerful man in history. Kang was determined to learn the identity of the Madonna and ensure that he was the father of that child.

To Conquer the Modern Age
When Kang appeared for the first time in the modern age of Earth-616, his ship landed outside of Washington D.C. Blasting a landing strip with his ship, Kang held off the United States Army with his advanced weapons and ordered that he would only speak with the leaders of the world. In response the United States government contacted the Avengers to deal with this unique crisis. When the Avengers arrived to face Kang, his first show of power showed him easily capable of fighting off Earth's Mightiest Heroes. After revealing his origins to them and another battle, Kang easily defeated his foes and took them prisoner. However while in the process of trying to imprison Captain America, the Star-Spangled Avenger broke free and battle Kang. Detecting that Rogers was from the 1940s, Kang arbitrarily decided that he did not belong and sent Cap hurtling back in time to the year 1945. The only members not captured we the Wasp and Captain America's sidekick Rick Jones. The two then began to plot how to free their comrades. With the help of Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, they managed to rescue Captain America from 1945 then rallied Rick's Teen Brigade. The group pretended to want to side with Kang, completely fooling the conqueror who allowed them aboard his ship. Rick, Teen Brigade and Captain America all worked together to free the captured Avengers. The Avengers then confronted Kang and battled him anew, severely damaging his armor. Kang then attempted to launch a Neutrino Missile, but this weapon was destroyed by Iron Man. Kang then attempted to expose the Avengers to lethal rays of radiation, but this was focused back on him by Thor, forcing Kang to flee back to his own era. Kang has also stated that during this encounter he placed a time probe to monitor for the appearance of the Celestial Madonna. Unforeseen by Kang at this time, each of his travels into the past created divergent versions of himself, all of which ruled their own divergent empires and continued their own schemes. One particular Kang referred to himself as the "Prime" Kang, although he has admitted that he cannot be certain for sure.

Following this humiliating defeat, a divergent version of Kang decided to set up a beachhead in the 20th Century in which he could begin planning his conquest of the modern age. He traveled back in time to January 1, 1901 where he established the town of Timely, Wisconsin under the guise of Victor Timely and became the town's mayor. He also established factories and a business, Timely Industries. Teaching his staff the basic principles of robotics. Kang also established the realm of Chronopolis which originally started as a fortress out of synch with time in the exact are of Timely, but it eventually grew and branched off to become a massive cross-roads between Earth's past, present and future. Kang used Chronopolis to monitor his conquests and when he was away from Timely, he had robotic stand-ins that would seemingly age and eventually "Victor Timely" died. He was replaced with "Victor Timely Jr."

In 1929, Kang while posing as Timely Jr, employed Phineas Horton, and through this employment Horton eventually developed the technology that brought the original Human Torch android to live in 1939. By the 1980s, and using the guise of Victor Timely III, Kang had made Timely Industries a successful technology manufacturer. Timely technology indirectly were responsible for much of the later advancements and some of this technology eventually went into the equipment used by Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, the cybernetic arm of detective Misty Knight and the design for Roxxon Oil's Deathlok cyborg among others.

During this time the "Prime" Kang continued to observe the Avengers, keeping track of their exploits and line-up changes. He also focused on his further conquest of the 40th century, waging war against the Shi'ar and the Skrulls. Through his monitoring of the Avengers he also learned of another time-traveler calling himself Immortus, who unknown to Kang, was his future self. When one divergent Kang returned his attentions to the Avengers again, he built an android based on the novice hero Spider-Man and used it to try and lure the Avengers into a trap. However this plot was foiled thanks to the intervention of the real Spider-Man who defeated his robotic doppelganger.

Another divergent version of Kang decided to try and conquer the modern age of heroes by taking over a past century in the hopes of erasing his foes from existence. He began monitoring the 6th century, and when the heroic Black Knight was away battling his foe Morgan le Fay he attacked the kingdom of Camelot. He quickly incapacitated the wizard Merlin and bested King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. He then took over the kingdom of Camelot and began using his advanced intelligence to help the knights construct sophisticated weapons for that era in the hopes of conquering the Earth. However Kang's attempt to take over the 6th century was witnessed by the Watcher who brought the Fantastic Four's Human Torch and the Thing into the past to stop Kang. While the Thing battled Kang's forces, the Torch freed Merlin. When the wizard disabled Kang's power source, the two heroes easily defeated him, forcing Kang to flee back to his own time. The true Kang still continued to monitor the Avengers, witnessing their first line-up change which included Captain America, Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. He was later possibly the Kang that was manipulated by his possible ancestor, Dr. Doom, who used his emotion-changer device to gather an army of super-villains to attack the wedding of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl. Kang was involved in a massive battle between the gathered super-villains and the heroes who were attending the wedding. The battle came to an abrupt end when the Watcher provided Reed Richards with a time displacer which he used to send the villains back to where they came from, with all memory of their attack erased, however through reviewing recordings of his exploits Kang eventually remembered this battle.

Description
Nathaniel Richards has had various incarnations over the years and each identity has its own, ever-expanding history. For the sake of clarity, this article will only cover, essentially, the history of Nathaniel Richards during his time as Kang. For more information on the other identities of Nathaniel Richards, please refer to the entries on Iron Lad, Kid Immortus, the Scarlet Centurion, Rama-Tut and Immortus

In addition, there are many alternate version of Kang in existence. For the sake of clarity, it is commonly accepted that each alternate Kang that has interacted with Earth-616 is a direct divergence from the "Prime" Kang of Earth-6311. While differentiating between each of these divergent Kangs is difficult, all those that are tied in with the Kang-Prime are listed here for reasons that will become evident to the reader.

Origins
Nathaniel Richards was born in the 30th century of Earth-6311, a reality where humanity never went into the dark ages. After centuries of advancement and warfare, peace was brought to the land by a time-traveller from Earth-616 named Nathaniel Richards. Because Richards brought peace to this war-torn future, he was known as the legendary benefactor. The Nathaniel Richards born to this reality is said to be a descendant of the Benefactor through Reed Richards, although other records also indicate that he may also be a descendant of the Latverian monarch known as Dr. Doom. At the age of 16, intervention from his future self, as Kang the Conqueror, resulted in young Nathaniel to try and prevent his eventual transformation in Kang, briefly becoming the young hero known as Iron Lad. The youth also briefly had a stint as a super-villain known as Kid Immortus. However Nathaniel Richards eventually returned to his native time to finally follow his proper destined path, possibly with his memories as Iron Lad erased, however at this time there is no conclusive explanation and the events leading to this are as yet unrecorded. As an adult, Nathaniel discovered a time machine and having grown bored of his peaceful time, traveled back in time to ancient Egypt on Earth-616. There he set himself up as a Pharaoh Rama-Tut until he was ousted from this position by the Fantastic Four. Rama-Tut tried to flee back to his own era, but he was caught in a time storm and was forced to appear in the modern era of Earth-616. A chance encounter with his possible ancestor Dr. Doom, inspired Nathaniel to abandon his Rama-Tut guise and assume one similar to Doom. In his first attempt, Nathaniel created the identity of the Scarlet Centurion, but abandoned this identity after being defeated by the Avengers

Resuming his Rama-Tut guise, Richards attempted once again to return to his native 30th Century. The time-storm caused him to overshoot his own era and he ended up in the war torn 40th Century. There Rama-Tut found a war torn future where barbarians battled with technology from past eras of which they had no knowledge of how they worked. Seeing his own personal knowledge on how these weapons operated, Rama-Tut found it simple to reinvent himself and conquer this era. Creating the identity of Kang the Conqueror, Richards began to do just that. First Kang conquered the Earth, then began conquering the galaxy, taking over entire empires, including that of the Badoon. But even this was not enough and Nathaniel's mind continued to turn back to the modern age of heroes and sought to conquer it as well. One of his earliest observations of the past was when Kang briefly appeared over Times Square in New York City, circa 1939. This caused brief hysteria and some media coverage, but otherwise his appearance was dismissed as a hoax by the authorities of that time. It has been stated that part of Kang's motivations for wanting to conquer the modern age was due to incomplete historical records that spoke of a Celestial Madonna who would sire the most powerful man in history. Kang was determined to learn the identity of the Madonna and ensure that he was the father of that child.

To Conquer the Modern Age
When Kang appeared for the first time in the modern age of Earth-616, his ship landed outside of Washington D.C. Blasting a landing strip with his ship, Kang held off the United States Army with his advanced weapons and ordered that he would only speak with the leaders of the world. In response the United States government contacted the Avengers to deal with this unique crisis. When the Avengers arrived to face Kang, his first show of power showed him easily capable of fighting off Earth's Mightiest Heroes. After revealing his origins to them and another battle, Kang easily defeated his foes and took them prisoner. However while in the process of trying to imprison Captain America, the Star-Spangled Avenger broke free and battle Kang. Detecting that Rogers was from the 1940s, Kang arbitrarily decided that he did not belong and sent Cap hurtling back in time to the year 1945. The only members not captured we the Wasp and Captain America's sidekick Rick Jones. The two then began to plot how to free their comrades. With the help of Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, they managed to rescue Captain America from 1945 then rallied Rick's Teen Brigade. The group pretended to want to side with Kang, completely fooling the conqueror who allowed them aboard his ship. Rick, Teen Brigade and Captain America all worked together to free the captured Avengers. The Avengers then confronted Kang and battled him anew, severely damaging his armor. Kang then attempted to launch a Neutrino Missile, but this weapon was destroyed by Iron Man. Kang then attempted to expose the Avengers to lethal rays of radiation, but this was focused back on him by Thor, forcing Kang to flee back to his own era. Kang has also stated that during this encounter he placed a time probe to monitor for the appearance of the Celestial Madonna. Unforeseen by Kang at this time, each of his travels into the past created divergent versions of himself, all of which ruled their own divergent empires and continued their own schemes. One particular Kang referred to himself as the "Prime" Kang, although he has admitted that he cannot be certain for sure.

Following this humiliating defeat, a divergent version of Kang decided to set up a beachhead in the 20th Century in which he could begin planning his conquest of the modern age. He traveled back in time to January 1, 1901 where he established the town of Timely, Wisconsin under the guise of Victor Timely and became the town's mayor. He also established factories and a business, Timely Industries. Teaching his staff the basic principles of robotics. Kang also established the realm of Chronopolis which originally started as a fortress out of synch with time in the exact are of Timely, but it eventually grew and branched off to become a massive cross-roads between Earth's past, present and future. Kang used Chronopolis to monitor his conquests and when he was away from Timely, he had robotic stand-ins that would seemingly age and eventually "Victor Timely" died. He was replaced with "Victor Timely Jr."

In 1929, Kang while posing as Timely Jr, employed Phineas Horton, and through this employment Horton eventually developed the technology that brought the original Human Torch android to live in 1939. By the 1980s, and using the guise of Victor Timely III, Kang had made Timely Industries a successful technology manufacturer. Timely technology indirectly were responsible for much of the later advancements and some of this technology eventually went into the equipment used by Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, the cybernetic arm of detective Misty Knight and the design for Roxxon Oil's Deathlok cyborg among others.

During this time the "Prime" Kang continued to observe the Avengers, keeping track of their exploits and line-up changes. He also focused on his further conquest of the 40th century, waging war against the Shi'ar and the Skrulls. Through his monitoring of the Avengers he also learned of another time-traveler calling himself Immortus, who unknown to Kang, was his future self. When one divergent Kang returned his attentions to the Avengers again, he built an android based on the novice hero Spider-Man and used it to try and lure the Avengers into a trap. However this plot was foiled thanks to the intervention of the real Spider-Man who defeated his robotic doppelganger.

Another divergent version of Kang decided to try and conquer the modern age of heroes by taking over a past century in the hopes of erasing his foes from existence. He began monitoring the 6th century, and when the heroic Black Knight was away battling his foe Morgan le Fay he attacked the kingdom of Camelot. He quickly incapacitated the wizard Merlin and bested King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. He then took over the kingdom of Camelot and began using his advanced intelligence to help the knights construct sophisticated weapons for that era in the hopes of conquering the Earth. However Kang's attempt to take over the 6th century was witnessed by the Watcher who brought the Fantastic Four's Human Torch and the Thing into the past to stop Kang. While the Thing battled Kang's forces, the Torch freed Merlin. When the wizard disabled Kang's power source, the two heroes easily defeated him, forcing Kang to flee back to his own time. The true Kang still continued to monitor the Avengers, witnessing their first line-up change which included Captain America, Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. He was later possibly the Kang that was manipulated by his possible ancestor, Dr. Doom, who used his emotion-changer device to gather an army of super-villains to attack the wedding of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl. Kang was involved in a massive battle between the gathered super-villains and the heroes who were attending the wedding. The battle came to an abrupt end when the Watcher provided Reed Richards with a time displacer which he used to send the villains back to where they came from, with all memory of their attack erased, however through reviewing recordings of his exploits Kang eventually remembered this battle.