Marvel has revealed the origins of one of the greatest villains of the X-Men, with Kang the conqueror as the protagonist
Only one MCU villain stands out above the rest as the most powerful of all time, and despite the amount of trouble this villain has caused Marvel’s live-action heroes, he’s proven to be even more dangerous. for their comic book counterparts, particularly the X-Men, as the MCU’s deadliest villain, Kang the Conqueror, secretly created the world’s most powerful mutant. After the MCU Avengers defeated Thanos and saved the universe in Avengers: Endgame, a villain void opened up that needed to be filled by someone even more threatening. And so Kang the Conqueror appeared. Kang has the power, or rather the brilliance and technology, to travel to different points in the timeline and across the multiverse to alternate realities, but he also has the power to destroy them. This was hinted at in the series of Loki and it was shown in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. For this reason, he is the deadliest villain in the MCU, though the movies have yet to show possibly the worst action Kang has caused in his career as a villain, since he created Apocalypse.
New series that explores the origin of Marvel’s most powerful mutant
In the four-issue miniseries X-men: Rise of Apocalypse published between 1996 and 1997 by Terry Kavanagh and Adam Pollina, the definitive origin story of Apocalypse is revealed, and it’s as tragic as it is brutal. In Sabah Nur he was abandoned in the desert by his people when he was just a baby to die, but was found by a group of warriors known as the Sandstormers, who adopted him. The reason behind this is that their leader believed that this child had been chosen by the gods to defeat the tyrannical rule of Pharaoh Rama-Tut (Kang the Conqueror). Interestingly, Rama-Tut was also looking for En Sabah Nur, as he he knew this child would become Apocalypse, and he wanted to make the mutant his own personal pawn. However, as Apocalypse was found by this group of assassins, who lived by the code of survival of the fittest, he was molded into the iconic X-Men villain we all know, and all thanks to the intervention of Pharaoh Rama- Tut, also known as Kang the Conqueror.
Rama-Tut time travel altered the timeline
If Kang the Conqueror had never traveled back in time and warned about Apocalypse, the Sandstormers would never have searched for him, as there would be no prophecy about Apocalypse. Furthermore, Rama-Tut’s presence in the past disturbed the entire society, as Kang’s technology looked like divine magic, making everyone paranoid about other “mystical” dangers lurking around them. For this reason, the original people of Apocalypse abandoned him to his fate when he was a baby, as they looked him in the face and considered him a demon that had arisen in response to the presence of Rama-Tut. Then, when Apocalypse and Rama-Tut finally met, Kang took everything En Sabah Nur held dear, leaving him a disillusioned man who clung only to his new adoptive family’s credo: survival of the fittest.
Without Kang’s influence, Apocalypse might have grown up a decent person, who values peace and understanding over war and conquest. Interestingly, that’s exactly how Apocalypse is being portrayed in the current state of Marvel comics, although this is after the changes that took place in House of X/Powers of X with Moira MacTaggert’s universe reboot powers, per we don’t know how that affected Apocalypse and the paradoxical circumstances of his origin. Retcon changes aside and sticking with the decades of established canon, Apocalypse is perhaps the strongest mutant in the world that he has proven time and time again being the X-Men’s most dangerous foe, and it’s all thanks to the MCU’s newest (and deadliest) villain, Kang the Conqueror, who led him astray.
