He’s the man of the Multiverse.

Kang has been the topic of conversation since his variant’s first appearance in Loki in the summer of 2021 (yes, it has been almost 2 years). And we have only seen a few versions of him since that time, the most recent being in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. But that movie has established quite a few versions of Kang, so we thought now was the time to break into his character a little more and understand where this next Big Bad will take us. As always, if you haven’t had the chance to listen to the podcast episode, take a second to click the button below to listen on your platform of choice or listen live in this blog post.

The Jonathan Majors Situation

Before I start us on the Kang train, I want to take a second to address the situation that the actor who portrays Kang, Jonathan Majors, is involved in. In all cases, domestic assault allegations need to be taken very seriously and the victim should be given support. While we do believe in someone being innocent until proven guilty, it is also critical to understand, especially in this situation, that the victim did show signs of abuse. We are not here to give a verdict in our court of public opinion, but we want to be clear if Majors is guilty, that we do not and will not further support him in any way.

The only reason we will be raising the question of how his arrest affects the MCU is due to the nature of our podcast. Otherwise, we want to ensure people worry about the well-being of the victim during this time. The future of Kang being played by Majors seems dismal, as recent updates have allegedly claimed Majors has been dropped by his manager and PR team. He has also since been taken out of several other projects he was involved in. He did meet with Marvel a few days back, prior to these latest developments, but there didn’t seem to be any decisions made at that time. Due to the changes outside of Marvel, I think it is anticipated Marvel will be dropping him as well, although we will still be seeing him appear in things he has filmed, such as Loki Season 2, as I’m not sure the plot may allow for him to be cut out. This means we can likely expect a recast coming our way long before we reach Kang Dynasty. As of now, this is only our own thoughts on the matter and where the situation stands, but we will be keeping you all updated as more information comes to light.

Who is Kang?

Starting off, here are a few quick cheat sheet facts to know about Kang.

• He is most commonly an opponent of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four
• He is actually a descendent of Reed Richards
• As a single character, he has the most known variants
• Kang, over the years of comic book stories, has become a mantle more than one singular person. Other characters to take on the Kang moniker are his three wives Ravonna (yes like the one from Loki), Mantis, and Nebula. His two sons also become Kang at one point, along with Sue Storm and Kamala Khan.
• The story of Kang begins when he first finds Victor Doom’s (with who there might also be a relation) time-traveling technology

Major Variants of Kang

Iron Lad – Not Yet Seen

I won’t go into too much detail about Iron Lad, as he was spoken about and covered in several recent episodes and posts, including Quantumania Predictions and Young Avengers. He is Nathaniel Richards, the young version of who would eventually become Kang. He is made aware of his future and the evil person he becomes and forms the Young Avengers to try and stop his future self. He eventually succumbs to his fate of becoming Kang after realizing there is no other way to beat fate. This is, of course, the whole story in a tiny nutshell.

Rama Tut – Seen

Rama Tut is one of the versions of Kang that we see in the end credit scene of Quantumania. He is technically the first variant of Kang, as he becomes Rama Tut after he travels back in time for the first time to Ancient Egypt. Unfortunately, he runs into two semi-ironic situations, the first being that he actually interacts with our frenemy Khonshu in his time there, and the second being that bad luck happened to leave the Fantastic Four stranded at the exact same place and time. This was the first time they would defeat our buddy Kang, but certainly not the last.

Scarlet Centurion – Seen

Another of the three we saw in the end credit scene, Scarlet Centurion sort of just sucks as a Kang variant. He creates some chaos and makes it everyone’s problem. His big storyline is when he goes back in time to change the outcome of an Avengers battle and convinces the Avengers that more enhanced individuals would destroy the world (think what Vision was saying in Civil War). To fight this, the Avengers became almost evil, neutralizing and imprisoning all enhanced individuals in their timeline. Later, the 616 Avengers end up in this screwed-up timeline (689) and the two groups battle until 616 is able to build the time machine they would need to leave and also defeat the Scarlet Centurion. I actually could see this coming true in the MCU just due to the concept of Secret Wars coming up. It could be a cool way to wrap Kang more fully into it.

Immortus – Seen

And finally, the third Kang variant we saw at the end of Quantumania was Immortus. Talk about a complicated variant, this guy can’t decide what level of bad he wants to be. In a nutshell, this guy didn’t start as the worst. He was actually Rama-Tut and reinvented himself as Immortus to help the Time Keepers (like the real comic ones not the weird robots from the MCU) in preserving the timelines. He runs into the Avengers and spends many comic books messing with and battling them. At one point he helps to defeat another version of himself, but then also tries to use the Scarlet Witch to make him the absolute master of time. So as you see, he kinda can’t decide when he doesn’t want to be the worst and when he does. But one important fact to remember is that Immortus still doesn’t like his variants and is the one who wants them all to die. Because of this, he uses the Council of Kangs, led by Prime Kang, as an opportunity to trick Prime Kang into killing all the other Kang variants, as Prime Kang becomes Immortus later. For your own sanity, I need to ensure you you aren’t crazy, just that a lot of Kang variants shift and become other variants.

Victor Timely – Seen

I chose arguably one of the most important variants to go last and that’s our buddy Victor Timely. He’s the variant from the second end credit scene, the one relating to Loki. Victor is best known for creating a small town in Wisconsin in which he’s the mayor and pulls a Kingo, pretending to be multiple generations of Timelys to continue his rule of the town. He uses the town to create Chronopolis, which is a weird time Limbo that can act relatively similar to a time machine. He also creates the original Human Torch during his time. Funny enough, Timely’s company eventually is in charge of security in both the Baxter building and Avengers Tower. And here is that weird circle of Kang once again, as Victor eventually takes on being Kang Prime, and we all generally know how that goes.

So that’s that! This is of course not an exhaustive list of all the Kang variants, but it is a good start to some of the more important ones and some of the ones the MCU seems to be singling out. From the looks of it, our buddy Victor Timely seems to be the next variant of Kang we encounter in Loki Season 2, expected right now in late summer/early fall. As far as where we are going next, GotG3 is right around the corner, believe it or not, so purchase those movie tickets if you haven’t, and get ready for something that looks like it’s going to hurt my feelings. We will of course be covering it, so keep an eye out for our predictions episode which will be coming very soon. As always keep up with all this great content, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Kang Variants”, Jamie Dunkin, We Got This Covered

They’re like Pokemon and we think we have collected them all.

We’re finally ripping the bandaid off of the Young Avengers topic and diving headfirst into who we might have joining the team up. But it wouldn’t be our show if we didn’t also hit on where and how this team might come together. All this being said, we have a ton to discuss, so let’s get right into it. If you haven’t listened to our latest podcast episode, use the button below to find your platform of choice or listen live using the link provided.

The Young Avengers Line Up So Far

Let’s start with the “simple” part of this article, which is who may be making the team that we have already seen in the MCU.

The first on our list is Billy and Tommy Maximoff, aka Wiccan and Speed. We know a good bit about both of these characters, as we have seen them in WandaVision and are set to see them (hopefully) again soon in the Agatha series. Billy takes more after his mother with his powers, able to cast spells and locate people, things we have already witnessed, for the most part. Tommy takes more after his Uncle Pietro and is best known for his speed. As Agent Hill once said with a little change, one’s fast and one’s weird. In the comics, they are better known by the last name Kaplan due to some fun reincarnation shenanigans we won’t get into.

Next is Elijah Bradley, a member we have seen, but definitely only briefly. He is the son of Isaiah Bradley, who we met in TFAWS. Elijah initially joins the team with no abilities but eventually develops super-soldier-like skills. At first, this is due to drug use, yet later, Elijah, in need of a blood transfusion has blood given to him by his grandfather, which then gives him full super soldier abilities. As I mentioned, we only met him very briefly on screen but I don’t take it lightly that they made time to show us him.

Moving right along, we meet Kid Loki. Just talking about MCU-related Kid Loki, he is bound to be pretty weird since we technically saw him chilling at the end of time. Now I know we have seen people move from different parts of time using TVA tech, but whatever they use to bring him into the right timeline will definitely be interesting. Instead of being considered a variant of Loki, Kid Loki in the comics wasn’t ‘stunted’, if you will, at his point of deflection from the main timeline. Instead, he is actually Loki trapped in a younger version of himself after dying and coming back to life (sound familiar?). Being Loki, he joins the Young Avengers and wishes to get Wiccan’s powers for himself, but eventually grows fond of the team and becomes less, well, Loki-like.

Our next Young Avenger comes to us later in the form of Kate Bishop. I think Kate is when things started to become much more clear about the direction Marvel might be going with the Young Avengers. Sounding very much like a Kate thing to do, she joins the Young Avengers by sort of forcing herself into the group. She adopts the name of Hawkeye in the comics with the blessing of Captain America, although I believe the MCU will see Clint bless her to take on his mantle.

America Chavez is next up, coming to us in MoM. As we know, she has the ability to blast a hole in timelines and move throughout the Multiverse. She supposedly can also fly and has super strength, although we haven’t seen much of that in the MCU version of her yet.

Lastly, coming from the most recent release from Marvel Studios and is the last official member we have seen in the MCU. That is, of course, Cassie Lang. Cassie, so far in the MCU, seems to be leaning towards the name Stinger, although as a Young Avenger, she is best known as Stature. She was initially planning to join the Runaways, but instead found the Young Avengers and convinced them to let her join the group. She has a love interest in Iron Lad, who will get to in just one second.

The last person I am throwing on this list as sort of a hail mary is Kamala Khan. While she isn’t typically on the Young Avengers team in the comics, Taylor and I could see Marvel pulling her in post The Marvels. I’m not sure I see her traveling in space with Monica and Carol all the time as a teenager, so I could imagine her finding counterparts in the Young Avengers and hanging around them. She’s more of a wild card in this lineup, but still worth putting out there.

Young Avengers Who Are Yet to Appear in the MCU

Continuing through the lineup, this next group is pretty well-known Young Avengers who we haven’t yet seen in the MCU.

I mentioned Iron Lad before and he, arguably, is the most important member of the Young Avengers, so it’s only right to tackle him first. We’ve discussed Iron Lad in other episodes, specifically because Iron Lad is young Nathaniel Richards, aka young Kang. His story is actually pretty sad, as he pretty much learns he is going to become the literal worse person ever and attempts to stop his future and future self by forming the Young Avengers. He wears a suit given to him by a future Kang and eventually leaves the group to fulfill his future of becoming Kang when he realizes he can’t run from his destiny. He has a romantic relationship with Cassie Lang.

Hulkling is next, a shapeshifter who is super strong (this is him in a nutshell). He is an original member chosen by Nathaniel and is the son of Captain Marvel (the comic book male version, although a possible loophole in how the MCU might bring him in) and a Skrull. He is in a romantic relationship with Wiccan aka Billy.

There is also a ‘Young’ Vision as I will refer to him, to not get muddled with the not young Vision. He is created from the Iron Lad suit and combined with Nathaniel’s emotions. A strange relationship forms between him and Cassie due to this connection. However, Young Vision meets his demise when Nathaniel returns and kills him. So fun.

The last two are slightly more obscure in the sense that the MCU may or may not bring them in. The first is Marvel Boy, a Kree who has enhanced speed, stamina, and strength. While he has the Kree connection, it’s unclear, other than Hulkling, who he may connect with to join the team.

Last is Prodigy. This one is a little gray due to Prodigy being a former X-Men, and well, I don’t need to remind everyone that so far we don’t have the X-Men in the MCU. I think Prodigy is contingent on the next part of our conversation, which is when and where the Young Avengers may come in. He joins the Young Avengers through Speed after he himself loses his mutant abilities.

When and Where We Might See the Young Avengers

Now that we know the lineup, the big question comes in the form of when will the Young Avengers actually happen? As we all know, they aren’t on the slate for Phases 5 or 6, although there are some solid blanks in the lineup. Is it possible they will fit in the next two phases somewhere? One of our theories points to yes and the other to no, so let’s get into it.

The one pointing to yes suggests that the Young Avengers may appear yet in Phases 5 or 6, brought together by the impending threat of Kang. This holds merit, as the true origin of the Young Avengers is the fact Nate forms them to defeat his future self. Since this is the age of Kang, I see this being a huge possibility and not really hard to do. It easily could slide into a slot that is open in Phase 6, and as the rest of this post proves, we’ve clearly seen a good number of the main members already. This would also mean they would all likely be brought together through whatever connections they already have, so Kate’s being Clint would mean Clint is how she meets, let’s say Cassie because of Scott. Essentially their mentors or Avengers connection would bring them all into the fold. Past Secret Wars and Kang Dynasty, we have to assume Kang is defeated, which strengthens the thought that the Young Avengers have to at least form before that unless the MCU doesn’t follow the track of Nate creating them to defeat his future self.

So while the first theory does have merit and I could see it working out really well as far as flow and continuity, this second theory proposing that the Young Avengers will wait until Phase 7 to form holds my heart a little. And that’s mainly because I think we will have a different team up, an official Avengers team, formed for the big battles of Phases 5 and 6, and forming the Young Avengers at the same time seems just a little too much. Not to mention, Secret Wars is going to have wide effects, which opens the door to bringing in the members of the Young Avengers that we haven’t yet seen or to clarify Billy and Tommy since they technically don’t really exist on Earth 616. To summarize why I think they’ll wait until Phase 7 it goes like this: Secret Wars is crazy and the ramifications will be widespread. But on the positive side of waiting for the team to come together, I think we would be able to really focus on them in Phase 7 and give them the time of day, maybe even have them be considered our main team. They have great storylines, so I wouldn’t be angry getting 2-3 team-up movies from them later down the line.

So it’s definitely a little crazy where we stand with the Young Avengers, but it’s important to prepare for them as they will come eventually, we’re positive about that. I hope that this little run-down has made you feel at least a little more prepared for when it happens. Next up for us is an episode all about the man of the hour himself: Kang the Conqueror. Or I guess just Kang since we will be running down his notable variants and who he is as a character. Don’t miss out on another post-Ant-Man 3 episode, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Avengers#Members

Image: “Young Avengers”, Ariel, Discussing Film

Is the future of the MCU Quantum?

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania isn’t the first time we’ve been to the Quantum Realm. It’s not even close to the first time that we’ve heard about it either. But after making its’ major world debut, it left us wondering, now what? And inside of that question, we still want to understand what the Quantum Realm is, how it works, and where it might play again. We might not have complete answers but we have many theories to play with in our latest episode, all about the Quantum Realm. Before continuing this article, listen to our corresponding podcast episode by clicking the button below or listening live with the link provided.

Let’s start with a brief look at the comic origins of the Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm is sort of a mish-mash of two different comic locations: the Quantum Zone and the Microverse. The Quantum Zone in the comics is the source of all energy, which is where we think we probably get the energy layer of the Quantum Realm from (more to come on layers in a second). On the Microverse side, we mainly got characters from this, which I discussed during the Ant-Man 3 Reactions episode. I will briefly focus on the Quantum Zone as we have a theory that it. The Quantum Zone has these things called the Quantum Rings, which might be a tie to Shang-Chi in the MCU. Instead of these Quantum Rings being their own entity, the MCU instead might use Shang-Chi’s ten rings and Kamala’s bangle as these special pieces. This would tie them into the Quantum Realm, but this is only one of our theories on how this could be done.

Getting briefly into the layer idea I spoke about before, the Quantum Realm so far has been shown to us in three different ways. In the first Ant-Man, we see a mirror-like layer, then in Ant-Man 2 we see more of an energy field and now we have seen a whole world laid out for us. On top of that, in Endgame, they appear to be in tunnels that connect different parts of time. This all being said, the Quantum Realm is a lot more complex than just the civilization we’ve seen now. Are there additional layers? Can you move between layers? While we don’t have much knowledge to answer these, I’m going with yes and yes. There may be layers even further below the layer with civilization, possibly the place Kang went after being defeated. And it appears that moving between layers should be possible, as Janet was found in the energy layer but was friendly with those in the civilization layer. It’s possible she used her suit to move about, which would leave regular Quantum Realm citizens less likely to be able to move. Lastly, on the topic of layers, is there a connection between the mirror layer and the mirror dimension? Once again, we want to say yes. First, rarely do we see two things that look so similar to one another that aren’t connected. And second, with the way dimensions, realms, and universes are looking, I think things are a lot more connected than we think or have been given guidance to believe.

Let’s continue this thought a little, as dimensions, realms, and universes, which apparently are all the same thing, now leave us with some other gaping questions. If things like the Dark and Mirror Dimension are their own universes, then how were they opened before the Multiverse officially was? Once again, no concrete answers but we have theories. The first idea is that the Loki show itself sits outside of time, so technically we can neither confirm nor deny when it actually takes place in the MCU. Loki himself was a product of the 2012 timeline going wrong, which means the Loki show effects from 2012 onwards, at least theoretically. The other theory, which hurts our brains a little more, is that when Sylvie killed He Who Remains, his death’s ramifications went through both the past and the future. Meaning it would have affected what we already knew and what is to come. This would also help explain the whole Janet being in the Quantum Realm 30 years ago storyline. But even I have to say, this one is definitely a headache. Our last one is what I spoke about in the predictions episode, which is that the Quantum Realm has always existed, it’s just the basement, if you will, of our universe. I still think this one likely makes the most sense as far as understanding how there is history in the Quantum Realm. I think it sits differently than other universes and just has always been around. But honestly, who knows, we’re only guessing.

Another concept that hurts our brains is that magic might be involved here. Upon research, magic has a part in the Quantum Realm so is it possible it could be part of the source of its existence. This would be a possible way of explaining how it predates the Multiverse as well, as we’ve seen things like the Dark Dimension predate what we know of the Multiverse and Strange accessed that through magic. If we throw away all our other theories from above, we could say magic may be responsible. I mean, we’ve watched magic form worlds of its’ own, so it’s a possibility. That being said, that could be another way we access the Quantum Realm beyond time travel and shrinking subatomic.

Now that I’ve made everyone’s brains explode, I’m going to move away from how we think the Quantum works and exists and talk a little bit more about what we still think is a solid connection, which is Shang-Chi’s rings and Kamala’s bangle. We believe that it’s possible that when Cassie opened the door to the Quantum Realm or when Kang himself gets his chair back, those could be moments that correspond with when we see the rings calling out at the end of Shang-Chi. The rings have been used at about 5% of their actual powers, so the possibility of the rings being activated and able to open doors to other universes, such as the Quantum Realm, is extremely possible.

Continuing with this direction of theories, I see the Quantum Realm as possibly like the Labyrinth from the Percy Jackson series. It lives beneath our world and distance/time don’t exactly work the same. In Percy Jackson, you could enter in New York and end up in California in 10 minutes, I think that might be very similar to the Quantum Realm. You can enter at one place or time and could possibly exit at other places and times, just like Scott in Endgame. Our theory here involving the rings and bangle is that they might be using the Quantum Realm below to call each other. It’s possible the Quantum Realm is actually really old, and these artifacts are a part of it. This may be the connection needed to start helping this all make a little more since. Emphasis on “may be”.

Finishing with the big question we are all wondering: will we see more of the Quantum Realm? The simple answer from us is yes. While we don’t have many theories on how this may take place, we do have one that we are willing to put into the ring. Due to the background that Kang has with the Quantum Realm, including the one we saw in this film and his many variants, there’s a big possibility that part of the battle in the Kang Dynasty or a lead-up battle to the big one may take place in the Quantum Realm. The characters that we already met and invested more time in than we had thought would be allies for the Avengers in the battle. This makes sense to us, as we rarely see Marvel movies create such depth for characters we are only going to see one time.

Personally, my head aches a little from typing all these theories out and they are our theories. Yet, it is important that we throw all possibilities out there, as you never know what could be right. If you have any thoughts on the Quantum Realm, tweet us or comment on this post and let us know what you’re thinking. Moving forward for us, our next podcast episode is going to be about the Young Avengers, who we’ve seen so far, how we think they will come together, and when it might happen. Catch that episode this weekend and as always, stay up to date with all our content as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “The Quantum Realm”, Mars Garrett, Bols

It’s Women’s History Month, y’all!

If you didn’t know, March is Women’s History Month, a great time to look back at all the accomplishments and the contributions that women have made in history and continue to make today. As two women in the podcasting realm, we wanted to use this month to discuss the women of Marvel themselves. So strap yourself in, as I will give a very brief history of the women of Marvel (I just did an entire newsletter devoted to the comic history). Then we will be sharing our answers to Marvel female-related questions. As always, the podcast episode can be accessed using the button below or by listening live with the link provided.

First, I will share a very brief history with you all. Starting with the comics, the very first female superhero to make her debut was Invisible Girl/Woman aka Sue Storm. She is an icon and she is the moment, as she began everything for all of the female superheroes we see today. As time went on, more female superheroes were added to the roster, but it wasn’t until the mid-70s into the 80s that female characters would begin to actually take on more assertive roles and step into leadership. This was also the time we would see female characters become more powerful with many of the main characters leading this endeavor being the women from the X-Men franchise. As for the MCU, we all are pretty familiar with the first official Marvel female hero: Black Widow. If we work from timeline, we could easily put Captain Marvel first, however, for a story truly about paving the way, Black Widow is the person who did that. While she may have been missing from the female fight scene in Endgame, the scene itself wouldn’t have been possible without Natasha Romonaff hitting the scene in Iron Man 2.

Now, let’s get into some Q&A with the hosts regarding female superheroes!

Question 1: Our favorite female character introduced in Phases 1-3

Katie: Natasha and Wanda

Taylor: Okoye

Question 2: Our favorite female character introduced in Phases 4-5

Katie: Yelena, Kate, Thena

Taylor: Kate and Kamala

Question 3: The female-led property currently on the slate that we’re most excited for

Katie: Agatha Coven of Chaos

Taylor: Echo

Question 4: What superpower we’d like to have from a female superhero

Katie: Physically, Black Widow, archery abilities from Kate Bishop, but if I could truly have any power, 100% Scarlet Witch

Taylor: Mystique’s ability to change her appearance to be whatever she wants

Question 5: One female character from the comics we want to see join the MCU soon

Katie: Spider-Gwen or Sue Storm

Taylor: Storm or Black Cat

So there you have it folks! Our picks are in for the above categories, focused all on the girlies this month. We hope you enjoyed this fun little discussion and feel free to answer some of these questions in the comments to this post, as we would love to hear who you all are thinking about! We are continuing with our release schedule of every two weeks right now, so get ready as our next episode is all about the Quantum Realm coming out of Ant-Man 3. We will be breaking it down with what we know and talking about the future of the Quantum Realm, so tune in, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Women of Marvel”, Rebecca Fleenor and Caitlin Petrakovitz, CNET