Kang the Conqueror (born Nathaniel Richards and known variously as Iron Lad, Pharaoh Rama-Tut, and the Scarlet Centurion) is a supervillain in Marvel Comics. He is a time traveller from the 30th Century who has frequently travelled to the present day and fought the Avengers. He first appeared in Avengers #8 and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Origin

Nathaniel Richards - the man who would become Kang - was born in an alternate timeline. The Earth there had been transformed into a paradise thanks to Mister Fantastic's father, the Nathaniel Richards after whom he was named. However, this younger Nathaniel, a scholar, was restless in this peaceful world, and studied the history of war in his longing for a more savage and driven age. His long-term hospitalization after being severely injured by bullies (and the near-financial ruin of his family as a result) quite probably caused or increased this drive. He discovered time travel technology that one of his ancestors (who may have been Nathaniel Richards[1] or Doctor Doom) had invented.

Kang travelled back in time to ancient Egypt and became the Pharaoh Rama-Tut. He had traveled to the past hoping to find En Sabah Nur, the mutant that would be known as Apocalypse, and control him, yet his actions would only succeed in making En Sabah Nur become Apocalypse. Kang ruled until he was driven off by the time-displaced heroes of the 20th century, including the Fantastic Four and the West Coast Avengers. Following that conflict, he left the past and travelled to a post-apocalyptic 40th century and reinvented himself briefly as the Scarlet Centurion before settling on the identity of Kang the Conqueror. From there he created his interstellar, interdimensional and inter-temporal empire that would not only include Earth, but future versions of the Brotherhood of the Badoon, the Shi'ar Empire, and the dimension of Kosmos.

On his first foray into the twentieth century, he was thwarted by the Avengers, and they have remained his enemies ever since, having fought him on dozens of occasions. However, due to the diverging of timelines that was caused by his time travelling technology, multiple and sometimes divergent versions of himself were created. Most of them were eventually eliminated by the Council of Kangs, which were set up by one of the multiple Kangs to rid himself of his counterparts.