Summary
- Thanos’ dramatic deaths resonated emotionally due to established character arcs, making him a memorable MCU villain.
- Kang’s multiple deaths lack the same emotional weight and impact, requiring a different approach to establish a threatening presence.
- To save Kang as a major MCU villain, future projects should focus on humanizing him and delving further into his motivations.
Thanos has endured as a menacing threat to the Marvel Cinematic Universe even though a fellow cosmic villain like Kang is equally (if not more) intimidating with his dimension-altering powers and ability to lead multiple variants of himself. In his quest to snap half of the universe out of existence, Thanos served as the overarching antagonist in the MCU movies up till his demise in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. This was, of course, not Thanos’ only brush with death, as the universe and timeline hopping nature of the MCU means he has been killed a few other times on-screen as well.
The animated series Marvel’s What If…? contributes to most of the eight Thanos deaths in the MCU, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness similarly imagined another Thanos death outside the main MCU timeline. With Thanos’s death in Avengers:Endgame concluding Phase 3 of the MCU, Kang stepped in to fill the void by becoming the franchise’s next big villain. Despite major appearances in Loki and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Kang has struggled to match up to the Mad Titan – and despite audience speculation, this seemingly isn’t down to one major factor regarding Kang’s villain story.
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Thanos’ 8 MCU Deaths Prove Kang’s Quantumania “Death” Wasn’t The Real Problem
Ant-Man and Wasp faced off against Kang the Conqueror in the Quantum Realm in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, leading to a twist ending that saw the duo kill him off by pushing Kang into his multiversal engine. It’s unclear if Kang is gone for good, but even if this variant of the supervillain is dead, the emotional impact of Thanos’ many deaths can’t be felt with Kang. The same can be said for Kang variant Victor Timely’s multiple deaths in Loki, and Sylvie killing He Who Remains moments after the Kang variant was introduced in the season 1 finale.
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While Kang’s surprising deaths may have suggested to audiences that the issue was him being defeat so drastically in the first place, a more pressing matter appears to be that Kang’s multiple deaths in the Multiverse so far lack imposing moments to truly establish a threat before his defeat. The deaths of Thanos, on the other hand, are rooted in dramatic character arcs.
For example, when Thanos’ adopted daughter Gamora attempts to take him down, the violence springs out of a toxic father-daughter relationship touched upon in flashbacks and previous movies. This leads to a fitting death fakeout that still felt like it had pathos to audiences because of the pair’s connection, and carried clear emotional weight because of how intimidated the ever battle-ready Gamora appeared to be of her estranged parental figure.
Similarly, a disgruntled Thor beheading Thanos was an awe-inducing moment from Avengers: Endgame that came out of the Asgardian’s guilt for not “going for the head” in the previous movie. Ant-Man tackling down a multiversal conqueror doesn’t carry the same impact, and this makes it clear that – should Kang be kept as the major villain of the Multiverse Saga after the MCU cut ties with Jonathan Majors – a different tack needs to be taken with the antagonist if he is to continue into the franchise’s future.
How The MCU Could Still Save Kang
As Kang is ominously thrown into oblivion and doesn’t visibly disintegrate, there are chances that he might have survived the ending of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This could be an interesting way to keep the Conqueror variant alive and establish more background for the character in future MCU projects like the aptly titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Considering that Kang the Conqueror is a prominent Fantastic Four villain in the comics, the Fantastic Four reboot can also foreshadow Kang’s bigger plans, much like how Thanos was teased since early MCU entries like The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy.
In the comics, Kang’s younger self once became Iron Lad and assembled the Young Avengers, which could also tie the character to a prospective MCU Young Avengers release.
Currently, the MCU seems set to recast Kang, as Marvel Studios parted ways with Jonathan Majors following his trial’s guilty verdict. With The Kang Dynasty still in the works, a new actor could delve more into Kang’s origins and personal motivations. Loki season 2 attempted this, but was mostly fixated on Victor Timely’s past, avoiding the ability to tie his story fully into the present of the franchise as a result – though the series did touch upon how easily even a well-intentioned Kang variant could be corrupted by his own potential, which carries real potential for the MCU.
Humanizing Thanos – while simultaneously establishing him as a brutal and truly merciless agent of his own machinations – is what made him stand out in the MCU. To elicit similar emotions from Kang, future projects must explain what made Kang variants like the Conqueror villainous instead of merely setting up fatal fights.
Key Release Dates
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
