WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Fantastic Four #35, available from Marvel Comics.

Today, we look at Marvel finally confirming what the connection is between Reed Richards and Kang the Conqueror.

This is "Provide Some Answers," which is a feature where long unresolved plot points are eventually resolved.

As I have detailed in a number of articles, the question of Kang the Conqueror's background has been an extremely confusing one, as writers have taken different approaches to the character, frequently retconning each other in the process. However, in the latest issue of Fantastic Four (by Dan Slott, John Romita Jr., J.P. Mayer, Scott Hanna, Cam Smith, Rafael Fonteriz, Mark Morales, & Marte Gracia), we have a definitive answer on the connection. First, let's revisit the two arguments.

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Before I get into Reed's connection, let me first establish that in Fantastic Four Annual #2 (by Kirby, Lee and Chic Stone), we see Doctor Doom being rescued by the time-traveling villain, Rama-Tut, who the Fantastic Four had fought in Fantastic Four #19. The two men have a trippy talk about how they're related to each other, or are they THE SAME PERSON!?!?

Doctor Doom and Rama-Tut talk about the possibility that they are the same person

In the end, Rama-Tut sends Doom back to Earth and is inspired himself to go into the future and get into some Doom-style trouble, which leads to the Avengers #8 later that same month, where Rama-Tut returns to the 20th Century as Kang the Conqueror.

So that was just the established deal for many years. Kang and Doom are maybe sort of related (OR THE SAME PERSON?!?), until this was changed in a seemingly completely unrelated Fantastic Four storyline in 1984. In Fantastic Four #272 (by John Byrne), the Fantastic Four head to an alternate reality's Earth, where Reed Richards is looking for his long-lost father, after Reed discovered a version of Doom's time machine in his father's old laboratory. They discovered that this Earth was different because science developed during the period that was the "Dark Ages" in our reality, so things got much more advanced. This, though, just meant that this world was able to go to a nuclear holocaust a lot sooner than our world. It was then rebuilt by a mysterious visitor from another reality, known as the Warlord. He was the leader of their new society and Reed Richards logically assumed that his father was this "Warlord."

In the following issue, we learn that the Warlord wasn't Nathaniel at all, but his wife, using his technology to dominate the world. The Fantastic Four figure that Nathaniel will want to come back to their Earth, but he decides to remain and take care of his son and fix this world. And then, out of nowhere, we fast forward and see that Nathaniel succeeded in making his world a paradise, but far into the future, one of his descendants got bored of it all and decided to travel back in time to become Rama-Tut. Yep, Kang is from Nathaniel Richards' alternate Earth!

A page detailing Nathaniel Richards' origin story shows him making a time machine

As the page notes, this was Byrne doing a solid for his friend and colleague, Roger Stern, who was about to do an excellent Avengers story involving Kang and so in Avengers #269 the following year (by Stern, John Buscema and Tom Palmer), Kang repeats the story of how he came from Nathaniel Richards' reality...

Kang recounts how he became a time traveler, discontent with life in the far future

Stern goes further and even retcons Kang's meeting with Doom, now saying he obviously recognized Doom and he was just giving him fake info to make Doom trust him as an ally, so the whole "We might be the same person!" was just nonsense.

Kang recounts being defeated by the Fantastic Four and meeting Doctor Doom

There was one last piece of the puzzle, as in What If...? #39 by Randy and Jean-Marc Lofficier, Roy Thomas, Gavin Curtis and Ian Akin, we learn that Kang's name actually literally IS Nathaniel Richards, named after his ancestor!

Nathaniel Richards travels from a futuristic city to his ancestor's citadel

In that same issue, Kang has a DNA analysis done on himself and Reed Richards from an alternate reality and he confirms that they are related...

During What If #39, the Invisible Woman causes Nathaniel Richards to lose consciousness

Seems airtight, right? But this is comics, nothing is ever airtight!

In 1992, the annuals for Avengers, Captain America, Thor and Fantastic Four all had a crossover involved Kang that was coordinated by Mark Gruenwald and Roy Thomas and picked up on a lot of the same themes that we saw in the above mentioned comics.

In Avengers Annual #21, which was the finale of the crossover, it had a number of back-up stories. In the final story in the annual, Peter Sanderson, Rich Yanizeski and Fred Fredericks have Ravonna investigate Kang's life and discover that the What If...? #39 story was a lie. I assume that this was to cover up the presumed mistake where the Kang of What If...? #39 should have already known who the Fantastic Four were when he met the alternate reality version of the Fantastic Four. In any event, this now reveals that Kang faked the DNA test and that we DON'T know whether Kang and Reed are actually related...

A robot explains how the Fantastic Four from another reality tricked Nathaniel Richards

This brings us to Avengers Forever, by Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, Carlos Pacheco and Jesus Merino, which involved a very detailed look at the history of all sorts of characters and in Avengers Forever #9, the issue specifically devoted to the history of Kang, we now have Kang say that he truly does not know whether he is related to the Richards clan or to Doctor Doom...

Nathaniel Richards' boredom soon dissipates when he finds his ancestor's time machine

Basically, it looks like this is a case of going back to the original Jack Kirby and Stan Lee idea and establishing that their idea for Kang could still be a possibility (okay, maybe not the "Are we the same person?" bit, but the other stuff could definitely work).

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What's the True Connection Between Kang and Reed Richards?

In Fantastic Four #35, Kang and his main variants (Rama-Tut, Immortus and Scarlet Centurion) get together with a new variant, Scion, to learn definitively that Nathaniel Richards WAS their ancestor...

A group of Kang variants express their desire to find their ancestor's last invention

Later in the issue, though, we learn that Scion is actually Reed in disguise, using the fact that he shares DNA with the others to sneak into their base, thus also confirming that Reed is, in fact, related to Kang...

Mr Fantastic blows his cover as a Kang variant while accompanied by his teammates

So that confirms that, right? Well, it DOES...for now, at least.

Thanks to my pal, Tom A., for suggesting this one. If anyone else has a suggestion for a comic book plot that got resolved after a few years (I tend to use two years as the minimum, as otherwise, you're probably just in the middle of the actual initial reveal of the storyline, ya know? But I'll allow exceptions where a new writer takes over a storyline and has to resolve the previous writer's unresolved plots), drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!

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