Nathaniel Richards

• Core Identity: In the Marvel Universe, the name Nathaniel Richards is a paradox of legacy, representing both the brilliant, time-traveling father of Mister Fantastic and, more famously, the original identity of the time-conquering despot known as Kang the Conqueror.
• Key Takeaways:
• A Name, Two Destinies: The name “Nathaniel Richards” is not one man but a dynastic title of immense consequence. One Nathaniel is a secretive hero working from the shadows of time to protect his family and reality itself. The other is his descendant, a 31st-century scholar who, out of boredom and ambition, became one of the greatest threats to the avengers and the entire space-time continuum. fantastic_four.
• The Engine of Marvel's Time Travel: The actions of both major Nathaniel Richardses are foundational to the concept of time travel and alternate realities in Marvel Comics. The elder Nathaniel's experiments set his descendant on his path, while the younger's constant meddling as Kang has created countless divergent timelines, paradoxes, and temporal wars that have defined entire eras of storytelling.
• Comic vs. MCU Divergence: In the comics, the two primary Nathaniel Richardses are distinct individuals separated by generations. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) streamlines this complex history, presenting Nathaniel Richards as the single, original 31st-century scientist who discovered the multiverse. His different personas—He Who Remains, Kang the Conqueror, Victor Timely—are presented as direct variants of this one man, making him the central figure of the MCU's “Multiverse Saga.”

The legacy of Nathaniel Richards was built over decades, with its two primary bearers being introduced years apart, their connection only being revealed and fleshed out over time. The first character to bear the name, the father of Reed Richards, was first mentioned and seen in a flashback in Fantastic Four #35 (February 1965), created by the legendary duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. However, his full story and in-person debut would not occur until Fantastic Four #272 (November 1984), where writer-artist John Byrne significantly expanded upon his backstory, establishing him as a brilliant time-traveler with a mysterious and morally complex agenda. The man who would become Kang the Conqueror debuted earlier, though not under that name. His first chronological persona, Pharaoh Rama-Tut, appeared in Fantastic Four #19 (October 1963). He then appeared as his primary identity, Kang the Conqueror, in The Avengers #8 (September 1964), created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as a futuristic nemesis for Earth's Mightiest Heroes. His original name, Nathaniel Richards, and his status as a descendant of either Reed Richards or Doctor Doom, was a long-running plot thread hinted at for years, most notably in “The Celestial Madonna Saga.” This connection was solidified in stories like What If? #39 (June 1983) and later made a central plot point with the introduction of his teenage variant, Iron Lad, in Young Avengers #1 (April 2005). This slow-burn reveal cemented the name “Nathaniel Richards” as one of the most significant in the Marvel timeline.

The in-universe origins of the two Nathaniel Richardses are separate and distinct in the comics, while being consolidated into a single narrative thread in the MCU. Understanding this separation is critical to understanding the character's full impact.

Nathaniel Richards (Father of Reed Richards):\ Born on Earth-616, Nathaniel was a scientific genius specializing in theoretical physics, robotics, and temporal mechanics. Married to Evelyn Richards, he was the father of the boy who would one day become Mister Fantastic. However, Nathaniel's genius led him to discoveries far beyond his time. He successfully invented a working time machine, but his experiments attracted the attention of a secret society, the Brotherhood of the Shield. He faked his death, abandoning his family to pursue a higher calling: protecting history itself. His travels took him to a war-torn alternate future, designated Earth-6311, also known as “Other-Earth.” Finding a world ravaged by centuries of conflict, he used his advanced knowledge to bring peace and usher in a golden age. He became known as the Benefactor, a benevolent ruler who married a local woman, Cassandra, and had several children, including one who would father the other Nathaniel Richards. Tragically, Nathaniel's attempts at creating a utopia had an unintended consequence: he created a society so peaceful and stagnant that it bored his brilliant descendant, setting him on a path of conquest. Eventually, Nathaniel returned to his native timeline and reality, revealing himself to his son Reed and the fantastic_four. His motives remained complex; he operated from the shadows, manipulating events and people—including doctor_doom—to safeguard the future he believed must come to pass, often putting him at odds with the very family he sought to protect. Nathaniel Richards (The Future Conqueror):\ Born in the 31st century on the peaceful Earth-6311, this Nathaniel Richards was a direct descendant of the time-traveling Nathaniel from Earth-616. Living in a world without challenge or conflict, he grew profoundly bored. A brilliant historical scholar, he became fascinated with the heroic age of the 20th century. His life changed forever when he discovered a hidden fortress containing the time travel technology and weaponry of his distant ancestor. Some accounts suggest he may have also found technology belonging to Doctor Doom, beginning a lifelong obsession and rivalry with the Latverian monarch. Driven by a thirst for adventure and power, Nathaniel embarked on his first temporal journey. He traveled to ancient Egypt on Earth-616, using his future technology to easily conquer the populace and install himself as Pharaoh Rama-Tut. His reign was cut short by the time-traveling Fantastic Four, his own ancestors, who defeated him. Escaping into the timestream, he attempted to return to his own era but was caught in a time storm, flinging him into the 40th century. There, he found a war-torn Earth and, using his intellect and advanced technology, swiftly conquered it. Re-styling himself as Kang the Conqueror, he built a vast empire spanning galaxies and timelines. His first major assault on the 20th century was thwarted by the avengers, beginning a conflict that would span millennia and define him as one of their greatest and most persistent adversaries. Every defeat, every journey through time, splintered his personal timeline, creating numerous variants of himself, including the heroic Iron Lad, the manipulative Immortus, and the calculating Scarlet Centurion.

The MCU takes a more direct approach, merging the concept of Nathaniel Richards into a single origin point for its Multiverse Saga antagonist. As revealed in the Disney+ series Loki, Nathaniel Richards was a human scientist born on Earth in the 31st century. His defining achievement was the discovery of alternate realities—the multiverse. He was not alone; variants of himself from other universes made the same discovery simultaneously. While some of these “Nathaniels” were peaceful and collaborative, others were bent on conquest, viewing other universes as new lands to be conquered. The result was a catastrophic multiversal war, where infinite versions of Nathaniel Richards fought each other for supremacy, threatening to annihilate all of existence. The “prime” Nathaniel Richards—the one who would become He Who Remains—found a way to end the war. He discovered a creature capable of consuming space and time, Alioth, and used it to defeat his malevolent variants. To prevent such a war from ever happening again, he isolated a cluster of realities into a single, managed timeline he dubbed the “Sacred Timeline.” He then created the Time Variance Authority (TVA) to monitor this timeline and “prune” any deviation (or “branch”) that could lead to the birth of another Kang variant. For eons, he ruled from the Citadel at the End of Time, a lonely, eccentric, and weary figure known only as He Who Remains. When Loki and Sylvie confronted him, he explained his history and offered them a choice: take over his job, or kill him and unleash the multiverse, along with all his infinitely more dangerous variants. Sylvie chose the latter, killing him and causing the Sacred Timeline to fracture, re-igniting the multiversal war and setting the stage for the rise of countless conquerors, all of whom originated as Nathaniel Richards.

The capabilities of the two primary Nathaniel Richardses in the comics reflect their different goals and life paths, while the MCU version combines elements of both into a singular, multiversal threat.

• Abilities and Intellect:
  • Super-Genius Intellect: Nathaniel possesses a towering intellect, easily on par with his son Reed and his rival Doctor Doom. He is a master of virtually all known sciences, with an unparalleled expertise in temporal physics, dimensional engineering, and advanced robotics.
  • Master Inventor: He personally designed and built his own time machine and a sophisticated suit of power armor without the vast resources of his descendants.
  • Expert Strategist: Having lived through and manipulated countless historical events, he is a cunning and pragmatic strategist, though his plans are often inscrutable to others.
• Equipment:
  • Time Platform: His primary means of traversing the timestream.
  • Power Armor: A custom-built suit of armor providing superhuman strength, durability, force field generation, energy blasts, and a sealed life-support system for travel through hazardous environments and the time vortex.
  • Brotherhood of the Shield Technology: As a high-ranking member, he has access to a vast repository of secret technology and historical knowledge hidden from the rest of the world.
• Personality:
  • Nathaniel is defined by his moral ambiguity and secretive nature. He is fundamentally a hero who believes he is acting for the greater good, but his methods are often manipulative and extreme. He is willing to sacrifice individuals and even entire timelines for what he perceives as the optimal future. This creates a deep and often painful rift between him and his more idealistic son. He is pragmatic, ruthless, and carries the immense burden of the knowledge he possesses.

• Abilities and Intellect:
  • Extraordinary Genius: While perhaps not the inventor his ancestor was, Kang's intellect is focused on application. He is a master of 40th-century technology, a subject so advanced it is indistinguishable from magic to 21st-century minds. He has mastered disciplines that do not yet exist.
  • Master Tactician and Strategist: Considered one of the greatest military minds in history, his strategies are formulated with a perfect knowledge of past events and a high-probability understanding of future ones. He has conquered thousands of worlds across millennia.
  • Seasoned Combatant: Through centuries of warfare, Kang has become a formidable hand-to-hand fighter, proficient with countless weapons from every era.
  • Indomitable Will: Kang's defining trait is his absolute refusal to accept defeat. Every loss is merely a temporary setback he can undo with another trip through time. His ego and willpower are nearly unbreakable.
• Equipment:
  • Battle Armor: Kang's most iconic piece of equipment. This neuro-kinetic suit, controlled by his thoughts, grants him:
    • Superhuman Strength & Durability: Allowing him to physically battle powerhouse heroes like Thor and the Hulk.
    • Energy Projection: Capable of firing powerful concussive blasts from his gauntlets.
    • Advanced Weaponry: Contains a host of devices, including anti-gravity fields, electrical discharges, and holographic projectors.
    • Life Support & Time Travel: Fully-sealed environmental protection and a personal 30-day time machine for short-range jumps.
  • Time Ship: His primary base of operations, a massive vessel capable of traversing any point in space, time, or the multiverse. It houses his armies and a vast array of futuristic super-weapons.
  • Damocles Base: A colossal, sword-shaped orbital station that serves as his command center when launching large-scale invasions.
  • Robotic Armies: Including his nigh-indestructible Growing Man androids, which absorb and redirect kinetic energy.
• Personality:
  • Kang is supremely arrogant, viewing all of history as his birthright. He is driven by a profound need to impose order on the chaos of the timeline, with himself as its supreme ruler. He possesses a strange and twisted code of honor, respecting formidable opponents like captain_america while showing no mercy to those he deems inferior. His greatest motivations are the conquest of all existence and his obsessive, tragic love for the princess Ravonna Renslayer.

• Abilities and Intellect:
  • Multiversal Genius: As the first human to discover the multiverse, the MCU's Nathaniel Richards possesses an unmatched understanding of temporal mechanics, quantum physics, and dimensional engineering. He Who Remains demonstrated omniscience within the confines of the Sacred Timeline, knowing every possible outcome because he had lived it all.
  • Technologically-Granted Powers: Kang's combat abilities are derived entirely from his suit. The variant in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania displayed powerful energy blasts and a form of telekinesis, used to manipulate technology and restrain his enemies. Without his suit and technology, he is a normal human.
• Equipment:
  • He Who Remains' TemPad: A highly advanced version of the TVA's device, allowing for instantaneous teleportation and timeline viewing.
  • Kang's Power Chair & Suit: His throne acts as the control hub for his technology and contains his Time Sphere. The suit itself is the source of his powers, and it is directly linked to his Multiversal Engine Core, a device capable of powering his entire empire and allowing travel to any reality.
  • The Time Variance Authority (TVA): Created by He Who Remains, this vast bureaucratic organization possesses technology capable of erasing entire realities from existence.
• Personality:
  • The MCU presents a spectrum of personalities across his variants. He Who Remains was eccentric, talkative, and profoundly tired after eons of lonely stewardship. He was past conquest, seeking only to prevent the rise of his more malevolent selves. Kang the Conqueror (the “Exiled One”) is much closer to the comic version: cold, ruthless, intimidating, and consumed by a desire for revenge and conquest. The Council of Kangs showcases even more variety, from the strategic Immortus and the pharaoh-like Rama-Tut to more bizarre and comical versions, all united by a common goal of protecting their own power.

While primarily a solitary figure, especially as Kang, Nathaniel Richards has formed several key relationships, often defined by love, manipulation, or necessity.

• Ravonna Renslayer: The one true love of Kang the Conqueror. A princess from a 40th-century kingdom, she initially despised Kang for his attempt to conquer her world. She sacrificed herself to save him, an act that shattered him and sent him on countless quests through time to save her. Their relationship is a tragic cycle of love, death, betrayal, and resurrection, with Ravonna often serving as his staunchest ally or his most bitter enemy, depending on the timeline.
• The Anachronauts: Kang's elite personal guard, comprised of the greatest warriors he defeated and recruited from various eras and timelines. Members have included the Roman Terminatrix, the pirate Captain Black-Jack, and the samurai Death-Stryke. They serve him out of fear, respect for his power, or the promise of glory.
• The Fantastic Four (for the elder Nathaniel): Though their relationship is strained by his secrets and manipulations, Reed Richards' father ultimately seeks to protect his family. He has allied with them on several occasions to combat universe-ending threats, providing crucial knowledge and resources from the future.

Nathaniel Richards, especially in his Kang persona, has cultivated a legendary gallery of foes.

• The Avengers: Kang's most persistent and hated enemies. He considers them the ultimate challenge, the only force in the 20th and 21st centuries consistently capable of thwarting his grand designs. His war with them is deeply personal, and he has dedicated lifetimes to studying their tactics and psychologies to achieve victory.
• Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom): Kang's greatest rival in both intellect and ambition. The two men share a profound, if grudging, respect for one another. Their relationship is complicated by the long-standing mystery of their potential ancestry; for years, it was debated whether Kang was a descendant of Doom or Richards. They have been both bitter enemies and reluctant allies, each seeing the other as the only true peer to their genius.
• Immortus: Kang's own future self. Where Kang seeks to conquer time, Immortus seeks to preserve it as an agent of the Time-Keepers. This fundamental ideological conflict makes them eternal enemies. Immortus often works subtly to undermine his younger self's chaotic plans, representing the future of weariness and servitude that Kang desperately fights to avoid becoming.

• Council of Kangs: At one point, Kang convened a council of his most successful variants from across the multiverse to eliminate weaker or divergent versions of himself. True to his nature, the “Prime” Kang eventually manipulated the council and destroyed them to ensure his own supremacy.
• Young Avengers (as Iron Lad): A heroic teenage variant of Kang, upon learning of his villainous destiny, traveled to the past and formed the Young Avengers to stop his future self. This affiliation represents the constant internal struggle within the “Nathaniel Richards” identity—the potential for heroism warring against the inevitability of villainy.
• Brotherhood of the Shield (for the elder Nathaniel): The elder Nathaniel was a key member of this secret organization, alongside figures like Howard Stark and Leonardo da Vinci, dedicated to protecting Earth from historical and futuristic threats.

The history of Nathaniel Richards is written in the timeline-altering events he has either caused or participated in.

This seminal 1970s epic delves deep into Kang's motivations. He arrives in the 20th century with a bold plan: to marry the “Celestial Madonna,” a woman destined to give birth to a cosmic messiah, and thus father the most powerful being in the universe. His primary target is Mantis. The storyline forces the Avengers to fight Kang across time, from the Old West to the depths of Limbo. It is here that we first get a detailed look at his rivalry with Immortus and the reveal that Immortus is his future self, fundamentally altering the understanding of the character forever.

Considered Kang's ultimate achievement, this storyline saw him do what few villains ever have: he won. Using his son Marcus as his proxy and Damocles Base as his weapon, Kang launched a full-scale invasion of 21st-century Earth. He systematically destroyed Washington D.C. and imprisoned the world's heroes in concentration camps, successfully conquering the planet. The storyline was a brutal, protracted war that pushed the Avengers to their absolute limit, culminating in Captain America defeating Kang in a raw, physical brawl in space. Though ultimately defeated, the event remains a monument to Kang's strategic genius and ruthlessness.

This storyline introduces the most significant “heroic” version of Nathaniel Richards. A 16-year-old Nathaniel is visited by his future self, Kang, who shows him the path of conquest he is destined for. Horrified, the boy steals Kang's neuro-kinetic armor and travels back to the early 21st century, seeking the help of the Avengers. Finding them disbanded, he uses the Vision's databanks to recruit a new generation of heroes, becoming Iron Lad and founding the Young Avengers. The story ends tragically, as his presence in the past begins to unravel the timeline, forcing him to accept his destiny and return to his own era to become Kang, leaving his armor and his friends behind.

Due to his constant time travel, the personal timeline of Nathaniel Richards is fractured into an infinite number of variants. These are not merely alternate-reality versions but often distinct personas from his own past, present, and future.

• Immortus: The final stage of Kang's life. After millennia of conquest and loss, Kang eventually accepts an offer from the cosmic Time-Keepers to become their agent. He retreats to the timeless realm of Limbo, taking the name Immortus and dedicating himself to pruning divergent timelines and preserving established history. He is a master manipulator who prefers subtle scheming to open warfare, and he is often in direct conflict with his younger, more impulsive self.
• Iron Lad: The embodiment of Nathaniel's lost potential for heroism. As a teenager, upon learning his future, he rejected it and tried to become a hero like Captain America and Iron Man. He founded the young_avengers and proved to be a natural leader and a true hero, but was ultimately forced back into his own timeline to prevent a temporal paradox, ensuring he would one day become the villain he despises.
• Rama-Tut: Nathaniel's first assumed identity. As a young man on his first time-traveling adventure, he landed in ancient Egypt and used his future technology to become a powerful pharaoh. He was arrogant and relatively inexperienced, making him vulnerable to defeat by the visiting Fantastic Four and a time-displaced En Sabah Nur.
• Scarlet Centurion: An identity Kang adopted after a particularly galling defeat by the Avengers. Inspired by Doctor Doom's blend of monarchy and technology, he created the persona of the Scarlet Centurion. In this guise, he traveled to an alternate reality (Earth-712, home of the Squadron Supreme) and successfully conquered it, demonstrating his ability to learn from his rivals and adapt his methods of conquest.
• Victor Timely: A variant identity created for a more subtle form of influence. In the early 20th century, a version of Kang established the identity of Victor Timely, a brilliant industrialist who founded the town of Timely, Wisconsin. From there, he introduced advanced robotics and technology into the American industrial base, subtly shaping the timeline to his advantage. A separate part of his consciousness also existed as the town's futuristic command center, Chronopolis. This persona appears in both the comics and the MCU's Loki series.

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