COUNCIL of CROSS-TIME KANGS
COUNCIL of CROSS-TIME KANGS
MEMBERSHIP: Chairman Kang,
Kang of Earth 123488.23497, Kang of
Earth Mesozoic-24, Kang Cobra, Kang "Kaseo",
Kang Kong, Kang Nebula (Terminatrix),
Kang "Orphan", Kang Ransom,
Kang Raulex, Kang Swaatch, thousands of others;
It consists of an executive committee (including Chairman
Kang)
PURPOSE: Discovery and possession of the weapon within the Time Bubble
AFFILIATIONS: Avengers, Fantastic Four, Kang,
Tempus,
Terminatrix, Time-Trooper Patrol;
Gladiator of Earth-Time Bubble
ENEMIES:
Alioth,
Avengers,
Congress of
Realities, Death's Head (Freelance
Peacekeeping Agent), Fantastic Four, N'astirh and the demons of Inferno;
Galactus of Earth-Time Bubble
presumably the
Delubric
Consortium,
Revelation, and the
Time
Variance Authority
ALIASES: Council of Kross-Time Kangs, Cross-Time Kangs, Cross-Time Kang Korps, Great Council, Kang-Korps, Kross-Time Kang Korps
BASE of OPERATIONS: Kang Krossroads (presumably in some way associated with Limbo)
FIRST APPEARANCE: Avengers I#291 (May, 1988)
HISTORY:
(Avengers Annual#21/6 (fb) // Avengers Forever#9 (fb)) - The Council of Cross-Time Kangs is made up of beings
who had defeated an alternate Kang in the past, adopting his armaments and
methods.
(Avengers I#295 (fb) - BTS) - The Council of Cross-Time Kangs learned of the existence of the Time Bubble, and recognized it as containing a weapon of some sort.
(Avengers I#296 (fb)) - A series of Kangs attempted to penetrate the Time Bubble: some were destroyed violently, rendered instantly to atoms, while others merely ceased to exist.
(Avengers I#296 (fb)) - An occasional low probability anomaly in the time flux enabled the Council of Cross-Time Kangs to obtain some imaging from within the Bubble. They learned of the involvement of the Black Celestial and of the existence of his massive weapon at the center of the bubble.
(Avengers I#295 (fb) - BTS) - Infiltrating the Council of Cross-Time Kangs, the Ravonna Lexus Renslayer, then known as Kang Nebula, learned of the Time Bubble, and began to seek out the weapon. She--and the Council--came to believe that the Avengers would be the ones to pierce the Time Bubble based on glimpses they had obtained which showed by Iron Man and Thor as among those entering it.
(Avengers Forever#9 (fb)) - Realizing that he would be lost forever if he did not act quickly, the "prime" Kang was forced to use the temporal circuitry in his helmet, creating an additional divergence, spreading his madness between the two counterparts. One of the Kangs (who continued as the prime Kang) made his way to Chronopolis to recuperate, while the other, still addled from the experience, returned to the Council Chambers.
(Avengers I#291) - Kang Nebula began to infiltrate the dreams of Dr. Druid. Meanwhile the one of the two divergent forms of the "prime" Kang managed to return to Council Chambers. There he was assaulted by Kang Orphan until he managed to slay the orphan. However, he was then teleported away by a blast from Kang Nebula, who thought he'd make a welcome addition to the great Council.
(Avengers I#292) - Kang Nebula continued to spread her influence across Dr. Druid. Meanwhile, Kang-"prime divergent" was brought before and introduced to the Council of Cross-Time Kangs.
(Avengers I#293) - Chairman Kang and the other Council members led Kang to believe that they represented a higher order, composed of various Kangs who had each survived a local "Kang war" within their own Council of Kangs. The Chairman dubbed the "prime-divergent" as Kang of Earth 123488.23497 and offered him membership in the Council, with execution as the penalty for refusal. Kang Nebula showed Kang of Earth 123488.23497 to his quarters, and told him to choose a name to differentiate himself from the others; he chose "Fred, as in Flintstone, an appropriately stone-age name for a backward novitiate in such a unique, powerful, and ambitious secret council." Kang Nebula told him to come visit her some time and she'd tell him about the deadliest weapon in the omniverse. She then returned to her efforts to take control of Dr. Druid and guide him to take over the Avengers.
(Avengers I#294) - Kang Nebula continued her efforts to control Dr. Druid and the Avengers, and Kang of Earth 123488.23497 watched from afar as she adopted a new form and traveled to Earth-616. Meanwhile, Kang Cobra reported to the Chairman, notifying them of their newest member's activities. The Chairman, Cobra, and a third (Kong?) discussed this and decided to discuss the matter with Kang of Earth 123488.23497.
(Avengers I#295) - Kang Nebula directed Dr. Druid in a failed effort to slay Thor, who resisted his control. The Chairman, Cobra, and Kong(?) confronted Kang of Earth 123488.23497, offering him membership in the Council in exchange for the knowledge he had gained in his investigations of the Council. Kang of Earth 123488.23497 informed them of Kang Nebula's activities, leading the Council to investigate her room. There they found technology specific to numerous members of the Council, leading to the conclusion that Nebula had seduced a large portion of the Council in order to gain their knowledge and technology. Chairman Kang decided that a contingent of the Council would need to head to Earth-616 to stop Kang Nebula.
(Avengers I#296) - As Kang Nebula continued to manipulate
the Avengers toward investigating the Bubble, the Council of Kangs discussed the
recent discoveries about Kang Nebula, which degenerated into many Kangs blaming
other Kangs. Annoyed with the Council's behavior, Chairman Kang sent a trio--himself,
Kang of Earth 123488.23497, and Kang of Earth-Mesozoic 24--to
try to prevent her from claiming the weapon, so that the Council could have it
instead. However, they arrived mere minutes after Kang Nebula and the Avengers
had departed.
Kang Nebula, along with the Avengers (Black Knight,
Dr. Druid, She-Hulk, and Thor), traveled forward (and across)
time, approaching the Bubble, itself.
(Avengers I#297) - The trio of Kangs traveled back in time,
latching on to the Avengers Quinjet before it left Avengers Island.
Maximizing the power of her
temporal equipment via Thor's hammer, Kang Nebula led the
Avengers to pierce the surface of the Time Bubble. As they
continued to penetrate the Bubble, the Kangs managed to
neutralize Kang Nebula's control over the Avengers, and the Black
Knight, She-Hulk, and Thor turned on her. Without Kang Nebula's
guidance, their Quinjet skimmed back out of the Bubble. Kang Nebula
was cast from the ship and pulled into a temporal vortex, and Dr.
Druid leapt in after her.
All three Kangs were lost in the timestream, as well.
(Avengers I#300) - Still trapped at the surface of the Time Bubble and thus Kang of Earth 123488.23497 had ceased to exist in any substantive reality. His view of rapidly diverging realities suddenly narrowed to fewer and fewer realities, many of which were being plagued by the demons of Inferno. Kang knew that his only chance to escape the Bubble would be when the heroes of Earth (whom he believed to be Avengers) pierced the Bubble in the future, and he also realized that if Inferno were allowed to spiral out of control, there would be no Avengers to pierce the Bubble. To prevent this, Kang focused his power to partially enter reality in Earth-616 and send the Growing Man to assault the Empire State Building, the fortress of N'astirh and the demons of Inferno. This led the Avengers to rescue Franklin Richards, closing the demons' portal to Limbo.
(Fantastic Four I#341(fb) - BTS / #337) - Reed Richards discovered the Time Bubble as it effectively blocked time travel past it across the realities. Kang Nebula had her agents send a bomb to slay the Fantastic Four, and when Reed neutralized the bomb, she recognized that he would be the one to actually pierce the Bubble; soon after she took possession of the Human Torch. Using his Radical Dodecahedron, Reed powered their timesled Rosebud II, with which the FF, assisted by Iron Man and Thor, entered the zone around the Bubble, observing hundreds of divergent timelines converging on a single point.
(Fantastic Four I#338) - Chairman Kang, Kang of Earth-Mesozoic
24, and Kang of Earth 123488.23497, as well as Kang Nebula (who left Dr. Druid
behind),
latched onto Rosebud and were drawn into the interior of the Time
Bubble with the FF, Thor, and Iron Man. Soon after, Kang of Earth-Mesozoic 24 assaulted
the Fantastic Four, Thor, Iron Man, and Death's Head, who incapacitated his
armor and left him behind on the Earth of that reality.
As the FF, Thor, Iron Man, and Death's Head approached the
"weapon" within the Time Bubble, the two remaining Kangs attacked them. Death's
Head incapacitated Chairman Kang's shields, but then Kang of Earth 123488.23497
damaged Death's Head's craft's probability generator, banishing him from the
Time Bubble.
The Kang Nebula-possessed Human Torch then took advantage of Kang of Earth
123488.23497's dropped shields (required for his assault on Death's Head),
firing a nova blast that slew him. Chairman Kang recognized Kang Nebula's
involvement and elected to take his chances with the weapon. Fleeing from Kang
Nebula, Chairman Kang flew into the black hole and was instantly destroyed. They
then observed the mammoth Galactus surrounding the black hole, which was the
perceived "weapon."
(Fantastic Four I#341(fb)/339, 340) - The FF, Thor, and Iron Man joined forces with the Gladiator of Earth-Time Bubble in discovering the involvement of the Black Celestial. Kang Nebula assaulted the Human Torch and Invisible Woman, seemingly trapping them in the Black Celestial's base when Gladiator blew it up, but she had activated Sue's force field to save them all. A vengeful Reed duped the Black Celestial into flying into Galactus' event horizon/black hole.
(Fantastic Four I#341) - After learning of Sue and Johnny's
survival, Reed led the group to the Ultimate Nullifier. Kang Nebula had been
possessing Sue, and she attempted to usurp the Nullifier, but she fell for a
trap set by Iron Man under Reed's direction, as Reed had suspected her
involvement. Stunned by the electrical shock, Kang Nebula was forced out of Sue
and lost into the atmosphere of the Bubble. Reed subsequently led Galactus to
activate the Nullifier, and a sphere of nothing consumed him and then the entire
universe, effectively destroying the Time Bubble.
The heroes narrowly escaped that reality, but there is no
evidence that Kang of Earth-Mesozoic 24 escaped.
(Avengers Spotlight#36) - Dr. Druid and Kang Nebula escaped the Time Bubble...but she had pretty much stopped being a Kang since Avengers I#294, so I'll cover her info in the upcoming Terminatrix profile.
(Avengers Annual#21) - The prime Kang had one of the Lieutenants of the Council impersonate him in order to draw out the assassin who was stalking him. The Temptress took the bait, leaping from the shadows and killing the Lieutenant, after which the prime Kang ambushed and captured her. She revealed herself as Ravonna, now calling herself the Terminatrix.
(Avengers: Terminatrix Objective#1 (fb) - BTS) - Posing as the true Kang, the Terminatrix (formerly Kang Nebula) again infiltrated the Council of Cross-Time Kangs, taking over the leadership of the Council.
(Avengers: Terminatrix Objective#1) - Kangs "Kaseo," Raulex, and Swaach met with the "prime Kang," proposing an assault on the Congress of Realities, which the "prime Kang" ignored.
(Avengers: Terminatrix Objective#2) - Two groups of Avengers-related heroes gathered by Revelation and the Terminatrix agreed to cease fighting until they learned what was going on. At that point, Revelation teleported the six of them into the middle of a Council meeting.
(Avengers: Terminatrix Objective#3) - The Kangs assaulted the Avengers who fled, breaking out of the chamber and escaping the Time-Trooper Patrol that pursued them.
(Avengers: Terminatrix Objective#4) - The Terminatrix revived the true Kang as Alioth assaulted Chronopolis; the Council soon fell before the temporal entity, which began to consume them. Kang manipulated the Avengers into bringing a device to play against Alioth; when activated, the device transformed into Tempus, which then consumed the temporal energies the Council members' life forces had accrued during their numerous jaunts through the timelines. These energies allowed Tempus to combat and contain Alioth.
COMMENTS: Created by Walter Simonson, John Buscema, and Tom Palmer.
According to Avengers Annual#21, the "prime" Kang was the one who organized the Council of Cross-Time Kangs, and that he controlled Chairman Kang and the others from behind the scenes; however, that account also fails to differentiate the Council of Kangs from the Council of Cross-Time Kangs. According to Avengers Forever#9, Kang of Earth 123488.23497 encountered the Council after they had first formed, and the "prime" Kang later took control of the Cross-Time Kangs after the loss of the Chairman during the Time Bubble incident. That's the version I'm going with.
Similarly, according to Avengers I#293, the Council of Cross-Time Kangs represented a higher order, composed of various Kangs who had each survived a local "Kang war" within their own Council of Kangs. However, that was all written by Simonson, who was the one to reveal that some of the members were actually aliens, rather than alternate divergent Kang counterparts. This was further confirmed in the Citizen Kang annuals, and further with Avengers Forever.
Thanks to Per Degaton for pointing out the scene with Kang of Earth-Mesozoic in Avengers Annual#21.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Not to be confused with:
Earth 123488.23497 is the Council of Cross-Time Kang's designation for the world from which the "prime divergence" Kang hailed. Actually, all Kang's would originate from some version of Other Earth, but I think they meant the Earth which he usually was involved. The world in which they became involved was Earth-616, perhaps indicating that Earth-123488.23497 is the Council of Cross-Time Kang's designation for Earth-616 (which is the designation from the Core Continuum (aka Saturnyne and the like). However, since this Kang was one of two divergents of the "prime" Kang, I decided to just describe him by the designation used in the Avengers Index.
Chairman
Kang
He led the Council, as well as the contingent that investigated Kang Nebula and the Time Bubble, but was ultimately destroyed by the black hole that fed Galactus within the Time Bubble.
--Avengers I#293 (294-297, Fantastic Four I#338
Kang
of Earth 123488.23497
Nathaniel Richards of Other Earth
A divergent form of the prime Kang created to escape the
madness caused by absorbing the memories of every previous Kang in existence, he
was brought to the Council, discovered the activities of Kang Nebula, and joined
the Chairman on the mission to investigate the Time Bubble. After being trapped
on the periphery of the Bubble, he sent the Growing Man to help the Avengers
overcome Inferno. He subsequently neutralized the device allowing Death's Head
to remain active within the Time Bubble, but was then slain by a nova flame
blast fired by the Kang Nebula-controlled Human Torch.
--Avengers I#293 (Avengers Forever#9(fb), Avengers I#293-297, 300, Fantastic Four I#338
Kang
of Earth Mesozoic-24
A reptilian humanoid who had slew a Kang and usurped his armor in the past, he was part of the contingent that investigated Kang Nebula and the Time Bubble. Within the Bubble, his armor was incapacitated by Death's Head, and he was left on the Earth of that reality. He was presumably slain when the ultimate nullifier consumed that reality.
It has been suggested, though unconfirmed that Earth Mesozoic-24 is just another name for Earth-99476 (Dino-World).
--Avengers I#296 (Avengers Annual#21/6 (fb), Av296, 297, Fantastic Four I#338
Kang
Raulex, "Kaseo," and Swaach
(from left to right)
A trio that proposed an assault on the Congress of Realities, but they were unaware that they were making the proposal to the Terminatrix (posing as Kang), who ignored their recommendations.
--Avengers: Terminatrix Objective#1 (#2-4 - presumably BTS
Kang
Cobra
He discovered that Kang of Earth 123488.23497 was deliberately obscuring monitoring of him, and informed the Chairman of this. He joined the Chairman in confronting Kang of Earth 123488.23497, as well as the subsequent initial investigation of Kang Nebula. He presumably met his fate when Alioth and Tempus absorbed the life forces of the Council.
--Avengers I#294 (295; 296 - BTS, Avengers: Terminatrix Objective#1-4 - presumably BTS
Kang
Kong
He participated in the initial investigation of Kang Nebula.
He presumably met his fate when Alioth and Tempus absorbed the life forces of the Council.
He was APPARENTLY the one shown here, but it's not certain.
--Avengers I#295 (296 - BTS, Avengers: Terminatrix Objective#1-4 - presumably BTS
Kang
"Orphan"
A young boy in Kang's armor, he assaulted Kang of Earth 123488.23497 when he returned to the chamber of the Council of Kangs. Kang of Earth 123488.23497 manage to locate him from his hidden site and slay him.
--Avengers I#291
Kang Ransom
He participated in the initial investigation of Kang Nebula.
He presumably met his fate when Alioth and Tempus absorbed the life forces of the Council.
He was never clearly seen, but he would appear to look almost exactly like Kang.
--Avengers I#295 (296 - BTS, Avengers: Terminatrix Objective#1-4 - presumably BTS
images:
Avengers I#291, p15, panel 4 (Kang Orphan)
panel 5 (Kang
of Earth 123488.23497)
p16, panel 3 (Kang Nebula)
#292, p11 (Council)
#293, p16, panel 2 (Chairman Kang)
#294, p22, panel 5 (Kang Kong?)
#295, p19, panel 6 (Kang Cobra)
Avengers: Terminatrix Objective#1, p18, panel 1 (Kangs "Kaseo," Raulex, and
Swaach)
Avengers Annual#21, p57, panel 3 (Mesozoic, original form)
Fantastic Four I#338
Avengers I#291-297 (May-November 1988) - Walt Simonson (writer), John Buscema (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Avengers I#300 (February, 1989) - Walter Simonson (writer), John Buscema (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Fantastic Four I#337-338 (February-March, 1990) - Walter Simonson (writer/artist), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Avengers: Terminatrix Objective#1-4 (September-December, 1993) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Mike Gustovich (pencils), Don Hudson, Bud LaRosa & Dell Barras (#4) (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Last updated: 01/09/05.
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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