Who Are the Council of Kangs in ‘Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania’?
Editor’s Note: The following contains Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania spoilers.Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania introduces a new threat in the form of Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). The time traveling warlord has been trapped in the Quantum Realm for years, thanks to the efforts of Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfieffer). When Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) is pulled into the Quantum Realm Kang coerces him into repairing the engine of his time ship. But Lang ends up leading an uprising against Kang, who is supposedly killed when he’s pulled into the gravitational field of his damaged multiversal engine. But the mid-credits scene teases that the Kang Dynasty has only just begun.
Who Are the Council of Kangs?
The mid-credits sequence features three different variants of Kang discussing their ‘rogue’ counterpart, as well as the fact that Ant-Man knows about their dominion over the Multiverse. These three variants look wildly different from each other: one is clad in a shimmering silver suit of armor, another is dressed like an Egyptian pharaoh, and the third is elderly with flowing purple and green robes. But the biggest wham shot comes at the end: there are thousands of Kang variants, and they’re ready to do whatever it takes to cement their reign.
The Devils We Know (and the Ones We Don’t)
The Council of Kangs was previously teased in the Season 1 finale of Loki, where Tom Hiddleston‘s God of Mischief and his alternate universe counterpart Sylvie (Sophia DiMartino) encountered a variant of Kang called “He Who Remains.” He Who Remains was responsible for the creation of the “Sacred Timeline” – keeping history flowing in a straight line and pruning any aberrations. Like the rest of his variants, he was part of a war that spanned realities, and he fears his other counterparts. “If you think I’m evil, just wait until you meet some of my variants,” he tells the Lokis. And he wasn’t lying, as Kang seems to be the worst of them all. How worse? The others set aside their differences to exile him to the Quantum Realm.
The Council of Kangs also has ties to one of the most famous Marvel teams. In comics canon, Kang’s alter ego Nathaniel Richards is a direct descendant of Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four. During Jonathan Hickman‘s tenure on the Fantastic Four comic, a “Council of Reeds” was introduced – comprised of alternate universe versions of Richards. It seems as though Kang has taken a page from his ancestor’s book, and it’s not the only influence Hickman’s work has on Quantumania. Kang once again brings up the concept of “incursions”, or two realities colliding with one another. The concept of incursions was introduced in Hickman’s run on New Avengers and led up to his version of Secret Wars in 2015.
This leads us to one of the three Kang variants, namely the one in silver armor. This may be the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s take on the Beyonder, and would feed perfectly into the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars film. In comics canon, the Beyonder is an immensely powerful being who wished to learn more about the concept of good and evil. Therefore, he took a dozen heroes and a dozen villains and bade them to fight to the death on Battleworld – an artificial world he made solely for the purpose of his experiment. This battle was chronicled in the original Secret Wars storyline by Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck; if this Kang variant is truly the Beyonder, it means that Avengers: Secret Wars will more than likely pull from the Shooter/Zeck version as well as the Hickman/Esad Ribic version.
Thanks to That Post-Credits Scene, Immortus Is Inevitable
The elderly Kang variant is Immortus, a future version of Kang. Immortus allied himself with the mysterious beings known as the Time Keepers, intending to preserve timelines in order to have immortality. His quest has seen him battling all manner of foes, but none is more persistent than Kang himself. Kang despises Immortus and will do anything to end his existence – which may have inspired the “multiversal war” between the Kang variants. Kang and Immortus had their greatest battle in Avengers Forever from Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco, which saw them dueling across time with a team of Avengers plucked from different eras. That storyline would end up inspiring Avengers: Endgame, particularly the “Time Heist” segment of the film.
The Rise of Rama-Tut
Finally, there’s the Egyptian Kang. This is technically the first incarnation of Kang, who traveled back to ancient Egypt to rule it. He was thwarted by the Fantastic Four. After attempting to return to his own time, he lands in a war-torn future and decides that he will rule all of time. Thus Kang was born. But what may interest fans is Rama-Tut’s connection to another Marvel team – or at least one of their villains. He had actually traveled back to recruit the mutant En Sabah Nur as his heir, but the two would wind up bitter enemies. En Sabah Nur would also become known as Apocalypse, and threaten the X-Men time and time again.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has said that the X-Men are slated to appear down the line, and Rama-Tut may provide yet another way for mutants to enter the MCU. After all, we have Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejia); it’s not a stretch to imagine that other mutants may be living among us. And it further cements Kang as an integral figure within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
With a second season of Loki slated to drop this year, it’s clear that Kang will continue to be a thorn in the side of several heroes as the Multiverse Saga continues.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is now playing in theaters.