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Background
Kang is a descendant of Doctor Doom, born in the year 3000. Bored by the
peacefulness of his era, he uses his ancestor's time travel technology, to
journey back to ancient Egypt where he becomes the Pharaoh Rama-Tut. Defeated
there by the Fantastic Four, he travels to the 20th Century and meets Dr. Doom,
which inspires him to put together an armored and masked outfit. Then, he tries
to return home but overshoots his time period and ends up in AD 4000, a time of
constant war. There, he puts together an army and carves out an empire. He
combines his own scientific talents with 40th Century weapons to become Kang
the Conqueror. Then he travels back to the 20th Century, proclaims
himself "Kang the First" and is promptly defeated by the Avengers.
From there, Kang's history gets complicated. He falls in love with Ravonna, a
Princess from his era. When she is seriously wounded, Kang keeps her in
suspended animation hoping to someday return her to life. He conquers the
earth as the Scarlet Centurion in what becomes an alternate timeline. He seeks
the Celestial Madonna in an attempt to rule all life. With his son Marcus the
second Scarlet Centurion, he destroys much of Washington D.C. and forces the
Earth to surrender to him but is finally defeated after great losses of life.
All of the time traveling creates countless alternate versions of Kang. One of
those versions gives up his conqueror role at the age of seventy-five and rules
the realm of Limbo under the name Immortus.
Spider-Man twice becomes involved in Kang's schemes though never confronts the
Conqueror directly.
In the first instance, Kang creates a Spider-Man robot, sends him to twentieth
century Manhattan and has him apply for membership in the Avengers. When his
application is rejected, the robot tells the Avengers that he knows where to
find their missing colleague Iron Man. He sends them down to the Temple of
Tirod in Mexico, which Kang has set up with various death traps. There the
robot defeats Giant-Man, the Wasp, Thor and Captain America. But he is in turn
defeated by the real Spider-Man who has followed the robot there. (But don't
ask me how.) Spider-Man hits the robot's deactivation switch and puts an end
to Kang's scheme.
In the second instance, Spidey learns that a strange force field has surrounded
Avengers Mansion. He joins Iron Man in an investigation. The two heroes enter
a hole into time and are picked up by Zarrko The Tomorrow Man who tells them
that the Avengers have been kidnapped and are being held prisoner in his own
23rd century by an invader from the future. Iron Man and Spidey enter the well-
guarded citadel of the invader and come up against Kang, who blasts them with a
paralysis gun. With the guards all occupied, Zarrko sneaks in the back door
and gets the drop on Kang. Zarrko announces that he has sent three "time
bombs" to the Avengers' time. These bombs will regress the entire world to a
more primitive time; all except a weapons depot in western North America.
Zarrko plans to take this depot over and use the weapons to rule the regressed
world. While he blabs about this, Spidey sneaks off to a room marked "Time
Portal" and travels back to his own time. Seconds after he leaves, someone
breaks into the room to disrupt the stalemate between Kang and Zarrko.
Back in the present, Spidey teams up with the Human Torch to disable the
three "time bombs". The Torch notices that the time bomb radiation is similar
to the negative zone that surrounds the Great Refuge, home of the Inhumans.
So, Spidey takes one of the bombs with him to the Great Refuge and gets the
Inhumans to turn it into a time machine. He and the Inhumans use it to get
back to the 23rd century just at the moment that Zarrko is sneaking in the back
door. The web-slinger and Inhumans break in just as Zarrko finishes telling his
scheme to Kang. They are, of course, the mysterious intruders who enter
shortly after Spidey uses the time portal to disrupt the stalemate. (It all
works nicely except that Iron Man should still be lying on the floor as he was
when Spidey left but is somehow imprisoned with the other Avengers now
instead.) Spidey and the Inhumans defeat Zarrko and Kang only to discover
Kang's body armor is empty. The Conqueror was never really there at all. He
used a puppet and watched from a distance.
Technically, there is one other instance of Spidey and Kang appearing
together: The Secret War. But again, the two do not meet.
Note: The issues listed below spotlight Kang's first appearances and his
meetings with Spider-Man. I'm sure there's a good Avengers site somewhere that
will fill you in on all of Kang's appearances.
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