The righteous power of the Infinity Gauntlet vs a human with some fancy
gadgets? This battle would be over before it even started.
As Marvel Studios gears up for the final entries in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe,
fans are looking ahead to Phase Five, which kicks off with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The
film's first official trailer finally gives us a glimpse of the new threat on the playing field:
Kang the Conqueror. First played by Jonathan Majors on the Disney+ series Loki,
Kang will be the new big bad of the MCU and the ultimate villain of the next Avengers movies.
Kang's gimmick in the MCU is that he's not just one person, but infinite people
from infinite universes, all warring against each other to take control of all existence.
"If you think I'm evil, just wait 'til you meet my variants."
While it's exciting to see this classic Avengers villain finally brought to the
big screen, Kang's role in the MCU going forward has many fans asking:
Is he really more of a threat to the MCU than Thanos? After all, when Thanos came to town,
he wiped out half of all life in the universe, including multiple Avengers.
So who would win in a battle between Kang the Conqueror and the Mad Titan?
When it comes to unarmed combat with no tricks allowed, it's easy to imagine that
Thanos would beat Kang — after all, the Mad Titan is a widely feared conqueror of planets
even before he is granted the powers of the Infinity Stones. In Infinity War,
we see him dispose of gods like Loki without breaking a sweat, and even taking Stormbreaker
to the chest only slows him down. Kang, by contrast, is a mere human. If the two of them
were to do battle with nothing but their fists, Kang would undoubtedly be in for a bruising.
However, if Kang were to wield his formidable 31st-century technology and Thanos dons the
Infinity Gauntlet, it would be a more even match. Kang's technology, as depicted in Marvel comics,
is leagues ahead of anything available in the present day. An accomplished scientist, Nathaniel
Richards invents a time machine, which he uses to travel to ancient Egypt and rule over the land as
Pharaoh Rama-Tut. Consistently throughout the comics, Kang has proven himself to be a
master strategist who's willing to play the long game to achieve domination over all existence.
Kang is first introduced in the MCU as He Who Remains,
a variant who created the Time Variance Authority to stop his Multiversal selves
from dominating the Multiverse. Using a TemPad, Kang has gained near omniscience,
meaning he knows nearly everything that will happen throughout time.
When the MCU's Avengers take Thanos on at the height of his power, they nearly succeed in
stopping him multiple times, first on Titan and later on Earth during the Battle of Wakanda.
Although Thanos does eventually win, he can't keep the Avengers from using time travel to goad him
into one more confrontation, which he ultimately loses. Against Kang, with all his strategies and
time-traveling powers, Thanos would likely be defeated before he even knows what's happening.
It's worth remembering that Kang wouldn't need to face Thanos at his most powerful,
either, since he could pick any point in time to attack from. In fact, he might not even need to
face Thanos at all. Why not simply destroy Titan before Thanos is even born? Or kill his father?
And that wouldn't be the end of Thanos' worries. There are infinite versions of Kang scattered
across the Multiverse, many of whom are hell-bent on conquering every universe in existence. Thanos,
on the other hand, doesn't concern himself with other universes or variants of himself,
with his sole goal being to kill half of all life in his own universe of origin.
If multiple Kangs ally against Thanos, they'd easily outnumber their enemy. Not only would
they be able to coordinate their attacks across time, space, and universes, but they'd also be
sharing technology from all those places. Even if Thanos defeats a hundred versions of Kang,
a hundred more would take their place, and he would lose the odds eventually.
Ultimately, while a hypothetical conflict would be tough for both parties, Kang's
advantages against Thanos would be more than enough to tip the scales in his favor.
"See you soon."