Warning: spoilers for Avengers Mech Strike #3
In his latest attempt to take over the Kang as the next big bad evil guy, it’s auspicious timing to give readers a taste of just how over the top the time travelling tyrant can really be.
From the start of writer Jed Mackay’s and artist Carlos Magno’s Avengers Mech Strike, the series has delivered fun action with nostalgic 90s cartoon flair. The latest instalment, issue #3, cranks up the zaniness and fully embraces the limitless opportunities—no budget considerations required—of comic books. It isn’t enough that Kang blasts one of the Avengers’ leaders into another dimension—whom his teammates consider KIA—and takes over every Earth timeline simultaneously, but he adds insult to injury by unleashing a host of bizarre and disparate legions to destroy the world’s heroes.
As previously mentioned, Kang doesn’t the highly-advanced techno-Kaijus wreaking havoc across the globe, now humanity faces annihilation at the hands of a prehistoric dinosaur invasion, a battle-ready Roman legion, and Martian tripods with death rays and metallic tentacles seemingly pulled straight out of HG Wells’ War of the Worlds. Keeping in mind the scope of Kang’s power, it’s entirely possible that what fans see in this story is just the tip of the iceberg.
This excessive and positively absurd show of force is completely unnecessary considering the other weapons Kang has already brought to bear against the Avengers in the previous two issues. Even equipped with Tony Stark’s incredible giant-sized mech-suits, Kang’s energy and matter consuming Biomechanoids had already pushed Earth’s mightiest heroes to the edge of exhaustion. Not only that, but the energy-hungry gargantuan monsters had effectively neutralized the threat of the team’s biggest guns, namely: Thor, Captain Marvel, and the Hulk. And on top of all that, Kang’s “Annihilation Gauntlet” lived up to its name when he totally disintegrated T’Challa, by accident. That’s right, unlike Thanos, Kang’s gauntlet is so powerful, he has to recalibrate to not destroy his enemies so easily.
The threat of Kang the Conqueror is so overblown that the Avengers must execute an emergency retreat and seek help from none other than Thanos himself. Though this isn’t the first time a super-villain has been unduly extravagant in their quest to take over the world in Marvel Comics, it’s certainly one of the most notable and exciting. Now that the Mad Titan has ed the fray, who know what else lies in store for readers?
