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Timeless #1 (2021) Review
Written by: Jed Mackay
Art by: Kev Walker
Timeless continues the journey of the Kang we met in the 2021 Kang the Conqueror mini-series. There is a short mention of Kang’s time in the Cretaceous period from Kang The Conqueror #1 issue, but mainly this is fairly standalone.
Kang visits a historian who idolizes Doctor Doom and brings him along for seven days across many years. A highlight is their first meeting when Kang quotes a line from a book that the historian wrote, and the historian said he had just written it and it had yet to be even published!
Kang is then alerted about an anomaly in the timeline. A pirate timeline that had been clipped by Immortus is trying to bring itself back into the main timeline. Kang says this has Doom written all over it. Kang takes Petrov, the historian, to this rogue timeline and they do see Doom!
The twist here is that it’s not Doctor Doom, it’s actually Reed Richards who has taken the mantle. Another twist here is that Reed has put the mind stone and the time stone in his eyes. Kang and Reed fight and when it seems that Reed is about to kill Kang, Petrov stabs Reed.
Kang is upset that Petrov would interfere but Petrov tells him it wouldn’t matter, if Kang were to tie then Reed would crash into the main timeline and all would be lost anyway. Kang appreciates this and lets him move but tells him to stop writing about Doom.
Overall, I enjoyed the dynamic between the two companions of Kang and Petrov. Seeing a twisted Reed Richards was also an enjoyable experience in this issue. The story of the book was fun and it was just a thrill to see more Kang! 4/5 stars.
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Kang The Conqueror (2021) #5
Written by: Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing
Art by: Carlos Magno
I dreamed of a conquest. I failed and fell back into time…
Wow! This is a masterpiece. The prose is so beautiful and elegant, the art is magnificent and the story is hauntingly special. This issue brings everything full circle. We get to see the other side of issue number one, which I felt was always going to be the endgame but I was surprised by how well it turned out.
In this issue, Kang, after creating Chronopolis, uses Ravonna DNA to make a bunch of Ravonna’s and sends them throughout time, becoming the Ravonna’s that Kang and us the reader have interacted with throughout the first four issues. This was a neat tidy way of wrapping up this story and sheds more light on Ravonna saying in issue number four, that she had no recollection of parents, just a crater she landed in. Kang discovers throughout this task that he can never win her over, that Ravonna will only love Nathaniel.
This brings us back to the beginning. Kang arrives at a young Nathaniel. We then start to see everything again but this time from our older Kang’s point of view. He thought he had been in control of what he could do, he thought he could change things but he became resigned to the fact that everything played out the same way. He begins to drink, which was a common habit of the older Kang from the first issue as well. He still kills the villagers like he does in the first issue but this time we see that one of them was Ravonna, he had ruined his last chance to save her. He drinks some more.
That night is the night when Nathaniel leaves, thinking he left Kang without his armor, but Kang was ready. He had a spare and he does leave just in time before the asteroid hits and wipes out the dinosaurs and he restates his new mantra, never love.
This has become one of my favorite Marvel mini-series ever, and they need more of these for sure. If there is one thing DC has a leg up on its self contained stories like these. But this one just hit all the right notes for me and left me wanting more, and thankfully Timeless #1 exists. I have read it before this but if it truly is a continuation of this Kang I will be giving it a quick re-read!
Overall, 5/5 stars for the concluding chapter of Kang The Conqueror (2021).
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Kang The Conqueror (2021) #4
Written by: Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing
Art by: Carlos Magno
I loved you at the Dawn of civilization. I love you at the end…
It all leads back to Kang. Wow, did I love this issue the most so far! This is a great character driven issue that really studies the relationship between Ravonna and Kang. Yes Nathaniel finally becomes Kang in this issue and naively ends up making the same mistakes his older variant had. Let’s dive in!
This issue begins where the last left off, Kang landing in the fortieth century where he meets Ravonna. She has no recollection of him though she does remember a crater.
The fortieth century is a war torn century, Nathaniel steals clothes from a soldier they kill, but when he continues to try to make advances on Ravonna he is rebuffed. He finds the flying saucer we’ve seen in the past issues and fixes it, and travels through time. He forges the Kang suit and takes his name. He conquers.
When he comes back around to the fortieth century it’s 99 years after he had left. Another Ravonna is a leader of his opposition. She has no interest in Kang. So he decides against his generals’ opinions to cede her land back to her. This causes a traitor to strike and attack Ravonna, which Kang knew would happen. But he was able to swiftly avoid it- or so he thought. He fights along the Avengers as a hero, he has the traitor dead to rights but instead shows mercy. Just long enough for the traitor to strike Ravonna down, just as he had been shown by his older self when he was a child.
It is here that he vows that he will take a different path and find a way to bring Ravonna back, but differently from how his older self had done. The issue ends on this cliffhanger.
Overall, big fan of this issue and really excited to go into the final issue of this run. There was a great two page splash of Kang conquering and the various comic suits he has had over time. It was a great page that I instantly had to screenshot.
I’ve been reading this on Marvel Unlimited but I’ve enjoyed this run so much I’m looking to grab the Trade Paperback as well. I rate this issue 5/5 stars.
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Kang The Conqueror (2021) #3 Review
Kang the Conqueror (2021) #3 Comic Cover Written by: Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing
Art by: Carlos Magno
Kang means nothing to Doom…
Wow, this issue was so much fun. As I mention almost every time I do a review with Kang, I love time travel. This issue brings the time travel to the forefront and we get to see scenes from the second issue over again.
We start this issue with Apocalypse sending Nathaniel to the future and he lands in around the 60’s. We get great radio snippets catching us up on the history of the Avengers, including the formation of the team, finding Captain America in ice and the Fantastic Four. Then a flying saucer arrives and the Avengers face off against Kang.
Nathaniel uses this to sneak aboard the saucer and comes face to face with his future self, Kang the Conqueror. Kang is confused and states that Nathaniel seemed too young to already be at this point, mentioning he had been 24 when he started his journey. Then Doctor Doom arrives seeking revenge on Kang for things that Kang had yet to do.
Kang and Nathaniel team up and defeat Doom for the time being but then Nathaniel betrays Kang and kills him. He puts his plan in motion, goes back in time, replaces Rama-Tut and saves Ravonna. It works. He doesn’t use the anti-will gun on her but still sends his path self to fight the war. He sends Ravonna away but he had forgotten about the Fantastic Four, who defeat him as Rama-Tut.
He escapes and goes to the future and lands even further forward than he comes from and runs into Ravonna!
Overall, I loved this issue so much. Seeing those scenes from the last issue in a new light was so much fun, as was the appearance by Doom! I’m looking forward to these last two issues to see how this all plays out. A few questions I have, will we see a definitive ending for this Kang that we are seeing come to his own in front of our eyes? Or will it end on a more open note? Is this possibly the same Ravonna or another variant of her? Only time will tell.
I rate this 5/5 stars.
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Kang the Conqueror (2021) #2 Review
Written by: Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing
Art by: Carlos Magno
I would be his apocalypse…
This was another fantastic issue in this Kang mini-series!
We left off the last issue with Nathaniel landing in Egypt during his variant (or future self) Rama-Tut’s reign. One thing that really worked for me was when we are introduced to another hero in ancient Egypt, the Moon Knight. During this time though, it seems the Moon Knight was Ravonna! I really loved this little twist.
During this, Nathaniel starts to fall in love with Ravonna and she believes he is the one to destroy the Pretender’s reign (meaning Rama-Tut). Nathaniel then creates a suit of armor, similar to Iron Man armor. I assume this is a neat reference to Iron Lad, another Nathaniel Richards persona.
Nathaniel and Ravonna are captured and Rama-Tut uses a gun to remove the will of Ravonna and she is moved to his Pleasure Gardens. He then uses this same gun to mold Nathaniel as a soldier on his front line. One thing that I found really interesting about this is when Nathaniel yells at Rama-Tut and calls him Nathaniel. This leads to Rama-Tut being very curious and even mentions that this is not something he remembers. He speculates if this is a new loop or an alternate version of himself but decides he cannot risk killing Nathaniel.
Then Apocalypse appears to try and destroy Rama-Tut. He isn’t enough to win, but four years into Rama-Tut’s reign the Fantastic Four fall out of the sky to defeat Kang. This is an obvious reference to Fantastic Four #19 the first canon appearance of Rama-Tut. He even uses this same ray gun!
Once the Fantastic Four defeat Rama-Tut, Apocalypse destroys his empire leaving not much behind and leaving Nathaniel only one choice. Team up with Apocalypse to get revenge on Kang. This is where the second issue ends.
Overall, again I really enjoyed this issue and I feel that this is a great entry point for anyone who is ready to read Kang centric stories and is excited for Quantumania next month. I’ll rate this issue 4.5/5 stars.
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Kang the Conqueror (2021) #1 Review
Written by: Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing
Art by: Carlos Magno
In the end I am Kang. And at the beginning I was you.
This line stayed with me after reading this issue and while I was reading it I kept coming back to it. Not only is it just a very good line, it sets up the trajectory of the character Nathaniel Richards that we meet in these opening pages.
Kang is one of my favorite villains and I am very happy that he had his own mini-series in 2021 for me to dive deeper into. I’ve mentioned this in other reviews with Kang previously but I love time travel, so having a big bad Marvel villain that uses time to conquer is so interesting to me.
This first issue opens with Nathaniel Richards in the 31st century wanting more from his life. He stumbles onto the library of Dr. Doom against a robot Doom that was programmed to protect the library and when it all seems to be over for Nathaniel, a man clad in purple and green with a blue tinted helmet saves his life. He tells Nathaniel, “In the end I am Kang. And at the beginning I was you.”
Kang takes Nathaniel to the late cretaceous period, one year to the date of the impending asteroid that would end all dinosaur life on the planet. He tells Nathaniel he would have one year to become Kang. He takes Nathaniel and shows him highlights (or lowlights) of his defeats at the hands of the Avengers, losing his love Ravonna, urging Nathaniel to learn from his mistakes. Does this work? It doesn’t seem so.
Nathaniel falls in love with a villager nearby, much to Kang’s chagrin. He had warned Nathaniel of loving anything since his love for Ravonna was a weakness, but Nathaniel doesn’t care. He wants to warn the villagers. If time means nothing to Kang then they can save everyone. But Kang grows impatient and upset and instead slaughters the villagers.
Nathaniel decides the night before the last day, he will steal Kang’s suit and become Kang and leave the original Kang behind, finally fulfilling his prophecy. But once he disappears he lands in ancient Egypt under the leadership of a version of Kang, Rama-Tut.
Overall I really loved this first issue of this mini-series. The prose is written so eloquently by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, with so many fun lines that I can’t get over. The art is also a strong suit of this issue. We have now seen the origin of Kang and now we are about to see how it goes from here. Can this Kang break the cycle of heartbreak and defeat or is he destined to live in this loop forever?
5/5 Stars.
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Avengers: War Across Time #1
Wow what a first issue to this run! There are so many things to dig into and appreciate. First the art in this book is incredible, Davis and Rosenberg do a great job of recreating the early Avengers 1960’s vibes and looks. The way the characters interact and are written is pretty good for the first comic at Marvel by Paul Levitz.
The plot in this issue takes place after the original Avengers #11, where they faced a Spider-Man bot controlled by Kang the Conqueror. The weakest part of this issue is that they pretty much use that same plot over again but this time it’s a Kang controlled Hulk, which also mirrors the original Avengers #1 when they fought Hulk before teaming up against Loki.
What I think we all expected though is that Kang is going to continue to get more and more focus in Marvel Comics as we get closer to Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, and the rest of the Multiverse Saga. Near the end of last month we got Timeless which focused on Kang and kicked off the next year of Marvel Comics and now we get War Across Time. I’m not complaining though, I really dig Kang. If anyone is unfamiliar with me, my favorite movie is Back to the Future. My favorite shows include Lost, Dark and 12 Monkeys. If you are sensing a common theme it’s time travel. I love time travel. My favorite MCU movie is Endgame.
We are definitely set up to have more Kang in the rest of the series, or at least I hope so. He had very little to do and it felt more like a Hulk vs Avengers Story which had been done a lot.
Overall, I really liked this issue and would have to rate it probably a 4/5 stars as we await to see what issue two is like. If this book ultimately goes nowhere at least we have this very good art.
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To the Infinity Saga and Beyond 