Kang is the Thanos Successor That We Deserve

before we begin let's take a brief moment to remember marvel's greatest fallen villain thanos my mad titan you truly were inevitable rest in peace or ashes i guess as sad as it is to see thanos go it's also exciting to know that a new villain is on the way one who is worthy of filling in as the mcu's new big bad marvel announced not too long ago that kang the conqueror would make his mcu arrival in the newest ant-man film lovecraft country star jonathan magers will take a break from lovecraftian weirdness to give us time travel weirdness you see this news has pretty much blown up the internet because not only is he one of marvel's greatest villains but he's also one of the craziest as well kang is a time-traveling megalomaniac who is actually several characters in the marvel universe because of time-hopping shenanigans all you really need to know for these purposes is that he is a blue-faced bad guy who considers himself to be a napoleon or alexander the great style conqueror he is from the far future and he uses his knowledge of history and his advanced tech to frequently attack the past so as far as powers go let's break it down really quickly for starters we need to acknowledge that kang isn't the most consistent of comic book villains in terms of power level when you see the green goblin you pretty much know what you're gonna get he's got pumpkin bombs a glider super strength and is super crazy with kang things aren't so simple it doesn't help that kang has changed his fighting style his favorite weapons and very identity several times during his life the iconic aspects about kang that they will no doubt focus on in the mcu are his time chair and his battle armor the time chair is a device that you guessed it allows him to travel through space and time knowing how the mcu likes everything to be connected it will likely work using pym particles to shrink into the quantum realm in a similar fashion to end game's time travel then there's kang's battle armor which gives him his iconic blue flace and purple green color scheme this armor is also responsible for most of kang's powers like enhanced strength force fields holograms and technological manipulation he also has access to technologies from across all of human history whatever sort of futuristic weapon you can imagine kang likely has access to it he also has conquered multiple timelines in the future including the city of chronopolis which actually exists outside of time so like thanos he has access to huge armies that he can deploy very quickly as far as the mcu goes there's really nothing stopping him from using any weapon or army in mcu history he could even potentially use the avengers plan and end game to get his own infinity gauntlet none of that is kang's greatest asset though that would be his brilliant tactical mind as a scholar of history kang knows more about his enemies than they do about themselves he frequently picks what he considers to be the most opportune times to go after the avengers this has even led to him actually taking over the world albeit briefly while his brilliant intellect is his greatest strength it's his ambition that is his greatest weakness you see like napoleon or alexander before him kang's reach exceeds his grasp his desire to destroy the avengers and conquer all of time is just insanity it is a goal that he has absolutely no hope of achieving still he presses on all too eager to try his hand at time conquering no matter how many times he loses seriously man you could pick any time to conquer why spend so much energy on the timeline that has the freaking avengers in it to his credit he does eventually retire to return to his nice quiet life of ruling ancient egypt with an iron fist i mean that's essentially the time traveling warlord equivalent of a 401k so with so much unbelievable power and such a believable weakness kang is obviously the perfect follow-up after thanos right well let's take a look back on the big purple super villain and see how the new guy stacks up thanos was the mcu's most hyped villain and when he arrived he didn't disappoint he was the single most iconic movie villain since voldemort who also turned into ashes at the end of the harry potter series as much as we love thanos now that his run is over was he actually as great of a villain as we remember we know that thanos was a person from the planet titan who believed that in order for the survival of life half of it would have to be eradicated to save precious resources for this belief titan banished him only to prove him right years later after the destruction of his homeworld thanos spent an undisclosed number of years amassing a vast cosmic power so that he could see his work completed at some point along the way he discovered the infinity stones and decided to use them to complete his goal with a snap of his fingers while we see a few glimpses of thanos leading armies in the days before infinity war most of his time in the mcu is spent to delegating other villains like loki and ronin to little success there are many theories that suggest the nova corps the ancient one or king odin were standing in thanos way but he didn't take a personal role in his quest until infinity war once he did he pretty much got the job done within like a week seriously if you're bad enough to drop the hulk without even using the power stone why even bother with the henchman now as far as his powers go thanos is a brutal warrior we see him fight twice without using the stones and he is an absolute powerhouse he is much stronger than the hulk has a double-bladed sword made of uru that makes darth maul's double lightsaber look puny and he is so skilled that he took on thor cap and tony without much effort that being said despite clearly having access to some highly advanced technology he still fights like he is the biggest boss and ghost of tsushima instead of a high-tech warlord giant swords are cool and all we all love final fantasy too thanos but they just aren't the most efficient weapons out there once he had the gauntlet though he was on a whole other level thanos was able to amass all the stones by running through most of the mcu with ease while mantis scarlet witch and inevitably thor held him back he ended up succeeding in exactly what he set out to accomplish really this is the prime difference between thanos and kang while kang sets out to conquer a wide empire across time and space thanos has a more achievable goal well achievable by sci-fi megalomaniac supervillain standards anyway once thanos succeeds in infinity war he gives up his power and lives the short remainder of his life in exile even when he loses an endgame he merely sits down and accepts defeat instead of fighting a battle he cannot win that being said thanos's plan was not a great plan kang is a tactical genius who will often pull a reverse doctor strange by deeply analyzing the past to find every angle of attack he can he frequently arrives with the exact strategy needed to defeat the avengers you know until they come back and beat him up because it is their comic after all thanos however never seemed to even consider that he could go about his plan in a different manner with infinite power comes infinite variation thanos easily could have granted the universe unending resources or erased the need for hunger in the first place even gamora tried in vain to get him to see a different path but he could not unfortunately this fatal flaw kept him from becoming the galaxy's savior as he intended but instead made him the galaxy's greatest monster so was he as great a villain as we remember yes yes he most certainly was i'm sorry kang but you got your work cut out for you now is the time to stack these two comic book behemoths against each other to fully determine if kang really has a shot at following thanos as the next iconic mcu baddie so first off let's compare how much of a physical threat these two are at first glance you'd probably be tempted to make this an easy win for thanos and it isn't hard to see why even without the infinity stones thanos is one of the most formidable characters in the entire universe no single character has been able to take on so many mcu heroes with such great success that being said once he meets a force greater than his own that's pretty much it for him at the end of endgame thanos was nearly undone by both scarlet witch and captain marvel both managed to overpower him easily and if it weren't for the gauntlet or his impressive army he would have lost before iron man even had a chance to get the stones for kang however this isn't such an easy assessment while kang is certainly a formidable hand-to-hand combatant it's clear that he's no thanos it's entirely possible that the mcu will have no one who can throw hands quite like the mad titan ever again though the throwing of said hands isn't exactly the smartest way of fighting kang isn't one for just matching brute force with brute force he often uses a variety of gadgets and futuristic weapons to discover the weaknesses of his foes it's even likely that he could take on a more powerful enemy and figure out a way to defeat them through means other than punching so while the comic book thanos would take this by a mile i think kang could outdo the mcu thanos in any physical confrontation point kang now as far as machiavellian schemes go let's start with kang by all accounts kang is one of the most successful villains in the marvel universe he has frequently conquered vast empires and has bested the avengers on multiple occasions using his vast knowledge of time kang is able to anticipate what his enemies will do and plan for endless contingencies using tech you or i couldn't even dream of thanos on the other hand doesn't seem to be the best planner out there he frequently relies on untrustworthy allies like loki or ronan to do his dirty work who both fail him through personal flaws that should have been obvious now sure you could argue that thanos was using them as pawns to test the water but that seems unlikely if anything he just gave away what his plans were by having them prematurely attempt to gather the stones however once thanos said about the task himself he was successful in a way perhaps no other movie villain ever has been thanos was able to wipe out half of the universe achieving the exact goal he set out to years earlier darth vader never took over the empire or the galaxy the joker never destroyed gotham city agent smith never succeeded in being relevant again after the first matrix thanos won this kind of thinking shows that thanos is actually the better evil genius while his individual plans may not be as sound and his thesis about wiping out half of all life is crazy he did find a way to succeed at achieving exactly what he meant to spoiler alert but kang is never going to conquer all of time in the mcu especially not that decade with all the superheroes in it so this is a point for thanos as far as icon status goes well time will have to tell thanos certainly proved to be a memorable villain his performance by josh brolin and the wonderful special effects that brought him to life will likely make him endure in pop culture for decades to come kang however has a rough road ahead of him not only does he have to follow the most iconic mcu villain but he also has to contend with a particularly confusing backstory though i gotta say jonathan magers is a brilliant actor who could very well give us a performance that makes us say thanos who while it won't be easy by any measure i think kang has what it takes to stand alongside thanos as one of the all-time greats if not let's just hope that he's at least better than malekith the world doesn't need another malekith well there you have it why kang is the successor mcu fans deserve what do you guys think about the new villain do you think he has what it takes or do you think galactus or dr doom would be better let us know in the comments and don't forget to like and subscribe to cbr

Channel: CBR

Views: 703,395

Rating: 4.8865566 out of 5

Keywords: Thanos, Kang, Lovecraft Country, Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Avengers, Ant-Man 3, Darth Maul, Voldemort, MCU, Disney, Loki, Ronan, Gamora

Id: gbLZPR3LXcw

Length: 12min 1sec (721 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 13 2020