WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Kang the Conqueror #1, available now from Marvel.
Kang the Conqueror has long been one of the most powerful villains in the Marvel Universe, but his upcoming prominence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has put him under a whole new kind of spotlight. The multiversal war between the different variants of Kang has already reshaped the MCU's Multiverse, and Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Carlos Magno, Espen Grundetjern and VC's Joe Caramagna's Kang the Conqueror #1 just brought that conflict to comics.
Growing up in the post-scarcity world of the 31st century didn't provide Nathaniel Richards with many challenges. His life was fraught with ceaseless boredom and vicious bullies, driving him to seek out another place in another time where he could make something of his own. A journey to the ruins of Doctor Doom's stronghold provided the young Kang the means to do just that, when he was saved from an ancient Doombot by none other than his own future self. Kang offered to take Nathaniel under his wing and train him across the ages to forge him into the best version of himself possible.
Naturally, the boy who would be Kang followed his elder into the past where they settled in the prehistoric age for a long while. In the jungles, Nathaniel found his strength, his courage, and his first love. Things didn't last, however, as Kang became violently enraged at his younger self for daring to find comfort in another person. As punishment, Kang unleashed upon the natives of that time an assault the likes of which no one could hope to survive, all while Nathaniel watched on helplessly.
The elder Kang's cruelty was motivated by the apparent death of his first love, Princess Ravonna Renslayer, in 1966's Avengers #24, which left him loathsome of the concept of romantic interests entirely. Kang considers to relationships be the only reason he had ever suffered any of his many defeats, a painful distraction at best and the downfall of his empire at worst. Of course, there is no reason good enough to excuse Kang's actions, and nothing he could do or say would ever change the way that the young Nathaniel Richards now feels about this Variant of his future self.
Whatever the titular villain was hoping to accomplish in Kang the Conqueror #1, he instead met abject failure. In fact, Kang only managed to turn Nathaniel against him, and although the boy did don Kang's iconic armor, it wasn't because he had earned it. Instead, he stole the suit and used it to abscond into the timestream, leaving his older self to die in the prehistoric world.
It's hard to say what will await either of these two in the future, especially considering that time itself is such a malleable concept to Kang in all of his forms. However, it seems certain that the young Kang has only put himself on a collision course with at least one of his adult forms, if not several. And depending on how his various variants interact with one another, Marvel history could change yet again.