Thanos was the first big bad of the MCU, the ultimate villain versus all the superheroes of Marvel. He was on a warpath across the universe for the Infinity Stones for decades before he gathered them all and used their infinite power to kill half of all life in the universe. When Thanos realized no one would submit to his vision, he wanted to destroy and recreate the universe. Now,Kang is the successor of Thanos, and Kang intends to conquer the Multiverse and reshape all reality in his own image. This is how the current MCU baddie seems to be shaping out, but there may be more to Kang than conquest.
Thanos didn’t want infinite power; he wanted to change the universe for the better in his own twisted way so that no one would go hungry or know suffering. Kang may also have a more complex motive in controlling the Multiverse than simply conquest. The MCU is known for its many one-note villains with little dimension,with few exceptions, but Kang probably isn’t one of them. He has a goal, and the MCU has already laid it out for us. Here’s how we know what Kang’s goal is with the Multiverse.
How Does the MCU Multiverse Work?
The concept of the Multiverse is extremely complicated, especially in the MCU, sohereis a quick rundown.
Reality has infinite parts. Where we live, Earth, exists in the universe (the MCU’s is called Earth-616), and our universe has time, space, and dimensions related to it. Our Earth passes through time, travels along space, and exists in a plane of reality called a dimension. Infinite dimensions exist in our universe but not in the same space. Say you wanted to travel from our dimension to a different dimension, from our Earth to a different Earth. Using whatever technology or magic or what-have-you with which you accomplish this, you’re able to travel to parallel dimensions that closely resemble home or alternate dimensions that are completely unrecognizable. If you happened to meet another version of yourself, they would be you but are not you, avariant. Yet both dimensions are subject to time, so you head back home and find that time has still moved forward, even if by just one moment, and this is how dimensions relate to each other.
Hence, the MCU has introduced the concept of timelines inLoki,which other imaginative franchises would simply term dimensions. You can’t go back to your own past because it no longer exists (the same with the future). Instead, you merely travel to another dimensional part of reality similar to yours. Timelines and dimensions are almost synonymous, but the concept of timelines is more accurate and realistic in relation to space and time. There’s a lot more that hasn’t been included here, but this is the foundation ofAvengers: Endgame, one of the most celebrated movies in the most successful franchise in history, and will be the foundation of the MCU moving forward.
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What (or Who) Does Kang Want?
In the comics, Kang is more than just a conqueror. He’s also a lover. Much like how Wanda Maximoff inDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnesswants to control the Multiverse to save those she loves, so does Kang, and that is his wife, Ravonna. In the original comics, Ravonna Renslayer was the princess of a 40th Century kingdom that fell to Kang’s conquest, and he wanted her as his queen. Rovanna refused, and Kang even brought the Avengers of Earth-616 to him to battle for her hand, but she wasn’t impressed and joined the Avengers against Kang. It wasn’t until he spared her father’s life that she started to change her opinion of him. But Kang’s guard commander Baltag saw this move as a weakness and turned Kang’s army against him. Ravonna and the Avengers allied with Kang, but Baltag was about to kill Kang until Ravonna jumped in the way of Baltag’s attack, sacrificing herself to save Kang. Kang tried to go back in time to rescue Ravonna but could only cryogenically preserve her instead until he found a way to save her.
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Who Is Ravonna in the MCU?
We have already met Ravonna in the MCU inLoki. However, we don’t know much about her except that she is a variant of Ravonna kidnapped from her timeline, where she was a teacher and not a princess, and is now a high-ranking Judge of the Time Variance Authority, Kang’s bureaucratic organization outside of time that allows Kang to control all the timelines and his variants. He may be intentionally keeping her there for some unspecified reason. Unlike Wanda, who traveled the Multiverse until she found variants of her children, Kang couldn’t find another Ravonna because it always created a divergent reality in which he died instead. In the MCU, Kang may already be losing his Ravonna and was keeping this variant of her as a guinea pig or a control group while finding a cure for his Ravonna. While nothing is certain yet, Kang definitely had plans for her before she escaped. This variant may even be Kang’s Ravonna, and he will conquer the Multiverse to find her.
Ravonna is Kang’s greatest love and greatest nemesis. While we don’t know much, it’s clear that Marvel is setting upKang and Ravonna’s comic storyline, and we have to wait and see if Kang can save his love.
