Avengers - The Kang Dynasty

Just read the 'The Kang Dynasty' TPB and I just had comment on it. In all, a good story. I would though have liked it for more heroes than the Avengers to participate more than just doing cameos in some panels. Am I wrong, or did this Kang war go completely unnoticed in the rest of the Marvel titles? I know that the Avengers showed up in #17(?)-18 of X-Treme X-Men (very disappointing title, dropped it after that storyline) to help out with those X-Mens' own global invasion by their villain Khan (huge tower in Australia, etc). This was around the same time as Kang War.

The Triune Understanding seemed silly, but then I haven't read any Avengers books in a long while, except for Avengers Forever.

The Master of the World part was pretty funny in a way. Here's a guy that has prepared to take over the world for 40000 years and finally makes his grand move during the Kang invasion, with incredibly strong walls of protection bursting up through the ground to protect a number of cities in North America. Then the Avengers show up and knock him dead, just like that.

Favorite parts:

Kang's basic strategy, that all groups that pledged allegience to him and turned towards the dominant powers would become a part of his army and kingdom worked well, with a lot of rebels starting wars on all parts of the globe.

The issue with no dialogue was very well done. The ending with Wasp signing the Articles of Surrender was powerful, with very fine storytelling by the panel layout.

Thor almost giving up because he's tired of always fighting for nothing, that people ultimately will die no matter what he chooses to do.

and THE scene: The ending with Kang in prison, and him being satisfied with it. He has built his empire, has a son 'whose name will ring across the cosmos.'. '...it will be good to rest.', he says. He lost to the Avengers but with dignity and honor. It's his respect for honor that makes Kang an interesting villain. The concept of honor is displayed in a lot of generic superheroes (mustn't kill, etc) and in some villains that have some code of their own to follow. I will say though, that I've not read a comic book that better portrayed honor and loyalty and their importance to a character (Kang) as well as this storyline.

Thanks to Kurt Busiek for yet another great Avengers adventure!

Johan Stensson

Glad you liked it, sir!