Following the harrowing events of Avengers: Endgame, Thanos' villainous saga came to a climactic end that was a decade in the making. This led to a very important discussion among MCU fans concerning the identity of the next major villain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Fans have been hoping to see Kang the Conqueror in the MCU for years. The time-traveling villain is a long-time foe of both the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. Even though he's one of Marvel's most formidable forces, a handful of other heroes have managed to defeat him in the pages of Marvel Comics.
Updated on March 10, 2023 by Matthew Z. Wood: In the wake of Quantumania, it's obvious that Kang has a larger role to play in the MCU. The time-traveling villain will play an integral role in the next phases of the MCU as the villain in the recently announced Phase 6 film, The Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Kang the Conqueror is one of the Avengers' greatest villains, though a variety of heroes have defeated the time-traveling conqueror and his various identities.
15 Deadpool
Marvel's Secret Wars event saw the Beyonder transport a select group of heroes and villains to an artificial planet called Battleworld to see who would win in a confrontation between good and evil. Kang joined the group of villains, but he didn't work well with the team, chafing under Doctor Doom's leadership.
Much later, in Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars, the Merc-With-A-Mouth was retconned onto Battleworld, despite the fact he was created in 1991, six years too late for the original event. Deadpool ambushed the Conquerer when the villain was fighting Captain America, easily taking him out with a shot to the groin.
14 The Black Knight
The Black Knight's a reserve Avenger and has never been a popular hero. However, Dane Whitman delivered one of Kang's more interesting defeats. Dane was the nephew of the villainous Black Knight, but he took up the mantle for himself, fighting to redeem the original Black Knight's heroic legacy.
After teaming up with the Avengers to battle Surtur and other foes, Black Knight came across Kang and the Grandmaster in an epic conflict. Using his magical sword, the Ebony Blade, Black Knight defeated Kang in a solo match and earned his place as an Avenger.
13 The Hulk
The Hulk's one of Marvel's most popular characters, so it's surprising that his battles against Kang aren't better known. Believing his goals would be easier to achieve if the Avengers weren't around to stop him, Kang dedicated himself to finding ways to stop the team from ever forming. To this end, he went back in time and tried to change history.
Kang tried to remove the Hulk from the equation in a Back To The Future gambit by erasing Bruce Banner's ancestor in the Second World War. However, the Hulk was able to interfere, stopping Kang and helping the Allies win the war. This kind of conflict avoidance felt out of character for the warlike and paradox-averse Kang anyway, so it's probably best that he abandoned his plans to alter the Avengers' history.
12 The Swordsman
In the sprawling and complicated Celestial Madonna Saga, Kang the Conquerer tried to hunt down the titular figure before she could give birth to a prophesied cosmic Messiah. However, no one was sure who the Celestial Madonna was, so the Conquerer did his homework and narrowed the candidates down to Agatha Harkness, Mantis, and the Scarlet Witch.
Kang captured the three heroes and several Avengers but didn't bother to eliminate The Swordsman, dismissing Hawkeye's mentor as a potential threat. However, he underestimated the "mere mortal," who sought out powerful allies for his rescue attempt. In the final conflict, Swordsman sacrificed his life for Mantis', banishing Kang into the timestream.
11 Agatha Harkness & Scarlet Witch
Fans of both the MCU and comic versions of Scarlet Witch have seen her reality-altering powers at work. She's incredibly powerful on her own and has trained in the dark arts to become one of Marvel's most skilled magic users. Harkness is best known for her antagonistic role in WandaVision but here the witch was happy to work with Wanda to put things right.
During Scarlet Witch's time with the West Coast Avengers, Immortus manipulated her status as a Nexus of Reality for his own purposes. However, Harkness was able to free the Scarlet Witch from the Kang variant's control, leading to Immortus' defeat and eventual entrapment by the Time-Keepers.
10 Doctor Strange
The Fantastic Four and Avengers proved to be Kang the Conqueror's greatest foes. However, the first time the teams faced off against Kang in ancient Egypt, Doctor Strange. was secretly working in the background.
Strange fought alongside both teams in his astral form to stop Kang while the villain in his ancient Egyptian identity, Rama-Tut. He was called into the conflict by Moon Knight's patron, the moon god Khonshu. The Sorcerer Supreme was able to free the Fantastic Four so they could overthrow the Kang variant.
9 Spider-Man
Kang the Conqueror has used quite a few different strategies to defeat the Avengers. While he's attacked them directly with his advanced weapons and armies, he's also tried to use other heroes against them. One of his more eccentric attempts involved creating a powerful robotic duplicate of Spider-Man.
The Spider-Man robot infiltrated the Avengers and defeated them in an epic battle. Thankfully, the real Spider-Man tracked down the robot and deactivated it before it could eliminate them. They've clashed since and this is one of the few encounters between Kang and Spider-Man that ended in the Conqueror's defeat.
8 Rick Jones
Avengers Forever attempted to clean up the confusing history concerning Kang, Immortus, and the Time-Keepers. Years of time travel stories had muddied the various events into a confusing slurry. During the plot, long-time Avengers ally Rick Jones gained a power called the Destiny Force. Immortus and his followers attacked Jones, but Kang intervened to protect him.
Using his Destiny Force, Rick Jones assembled a team of Avengers from different timelines to battle Immortus. Kang ultimately turned on Rick Jones and the Avengers but Jones merged with Genis-Vell/Captain Marvel to end the fight. Kang and Immortus finally freed each other from their entwined destinies before escaping back into the timeline.
7 Cable
After being defeated by the Avengers, The Fantastic Four, and the moon god Khonshu, Kang had no choice but to flee from ancient Egypt. While traveling through time, a "time storm" hit the villain. Kang found himself in the modern era where he faced his possible ancestor, Dr. Doom.
Damaged by the storm, Kang's time module flung him several years into the future where he met Cable, who was working alongside his mutant mentor from the future, Blaquesmith. With Blaquesmith's help, the mutant time traveler beat Kang in his Rama-Tut form and sent him back into the timestream.
6 The X-Men and The Crew Of The Enterprise-D
Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men: Second Contact was a comic crossover that followed the X-Men's previous interaction with the crew of the original Enterprise. As it turned out, the X-Men's journey across time and the stars was actually part of Kang the Conqueror's scheme to create a temporal rift.
Kang brought the crew of the Enterprise-D from Star Trek: The Next Generation into the X-Men's timeline following the events of the First Contact film. The X-Men and the bridge crew of the Enterprise-D teamed up to stop Kang with advanced technology and devastating mutant abilities.
5 Iron Lad
Eventually, the team known as the Young Avengers became Kang's new focus. Here, his attempt to kickstart his own development early by reaching out to his younger self backfired. Nathaniel Richards chose instead to steal Kang's tech and travel into the past, where he created a powerful suit of armor and a new origin story as Iron Lad.
Iron Lad formed the Young Avengers around him as protection before Kang inevitably found him in the timestream. Iron Lad killed Kang during their battle but created a time paradox in the process. Ultimately, the dispirited Iron Lad returned to the future and allowed himself to become Kang, committing to his paradoxical fate..
4 Ahura Boltagon
Black Bolt hoped to save his son Ahura from the Incursions that threatened the Marvel Multiverse prior to the modern Secret Wars event. He entrusted his young son to Kang the Conqueror's care so he could escape these enormous dangers in the past. However, Kang refused to return Ahura afterward and raised him under his wing.
The Inhumans traveled back in time and showed Ahura his possible dark future as a new Kang, where he eliminated the Inhumans. Ahura used his ability to create a psionic duplicate of himself and possessed Kang. With his power, Ahura forced Kang to undo the damage to the Inhumans' timeline. He then made Kang swear to leave them alone forever or face death by his own hand.
3 Squirrel Girl
Squirrel Girl is one of Marvel's true underrated powerhouses, facing down villains like Doom and Galactus with relative ease. To celebrate Unbeatable Squirrel Girl's 50th issue, three different Squirrel Girls from different eras joined forces and added Kang the Conqueror to their tally.
After witnessing his defeat at the hands of Old Lady Doreen in the future, Kang decided to wipe Squirrel Girl out of existence in the past. However, Future Doreen showed up to protect her younger self. Another Squirrel Girl from the past intervened further when he Kang tried to retreat deeper into Squirrel Girl's history. Time travel can feel ridiculous at the best of times, but leave it to Squirrel Girl to really drive the point home.
2 Havok & Sunfire
Alex Summers/Havok was the leader of the first Avengers Unity Division. On his watch, the Kang-raised Apocalypse Twins killed a Celestial, dooming the Earth to the space gods' judgment in the process. Havok led the surviving Uncanny Avengers who'd relocated to Planet X in his alternate timeline. Under his leadership, they waged war on the Apocalypse Twins and Kang the Conqueror.
Havok had lost his daughter to Kang's timeline manipulations, so he was ready to face off against the Conquerer. However, Kang had stolen cosmic power from the dead Celestial, which almost handed him an untimely victory. However, Sunfire intervened with his own enhanced cosmic energy. Havok overpowered Kang, and the two sent the Conquerer fleeing back into the timestream.
1 Moon Knight
The moon god Khonshu had a long-standing grudge against Kang, left over from the villain's time in ancient Egypt as Rama-Tut. When Marc Spector became Moon Knight, aka the Fist of Khonshu, he inherited this struggle along with a collection of time-traveling totems.
Kang attempted to gather these totems for himself, but Khonshu sent them through time to his previous avatars. Moon Knight then teamed up with his predecessors after a journey through time to collect the totems, and they defeated Kang by banishing him outside of the timeline. Moon Knight deserves credit here. This was one of Kang's most definitive defeats, and not many fans could imagine the underrated hero destroying an Avengers villain this thoroughly.