- "Ah, to again face an intractable force on the field of battle! Surely there is nothing more glorious than this!"
- ―Hercules
| "The Kang Dynasty!" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| The Avengers | |
| Title: | "The Kang Dynasty!" |
| Volume: | 1 |
| Number: | 268 |
| Cover price: | .75 |
| Cover date: | June, 1986 |
| Publisher: | Marvel Comics |
| Credits | |
| Chief: | Jim Shooter |
| Writers: | Roger Stern |
| Pencilers: | John Buscema |
| Inkers: | Tom Palmer |
| Cover artists: | John Buscema |
| Cover inker: | Tom Palmer |
| Colorists: | Christie Scheele |
| Letterers: | Jim Novak |
| Editors: | Mark Gruenwald |
| Navigation | |
| Previous: | Avengers #267 |
| Next: | Avengers #269 |
"The Kang Dynasty!" is the 268th issue of the first Avengers ongoing comic book series published by Marvel Comics. It was written by Roger Stern with artwork by John Buscema and inks by Tom Palmer. Buscema & Palmer also rendered the cover art illustration to this issue. It was lettered by Jim Novak and colored by Christie Scheele. The story was edited by Mark Gruenwald. This issue shipped with a June, 1986 cover date and carries a cover price of .75 cents per copy (US).
"The Kang Dynasty!"[]
Namor and Captain Marvel. Gettin' it done!
Captain America, Captain Marvel and the Sub-Mariner, assisted by Edwin Jarvis, investigate the second sub-basement tunnels beneath Avengers Mansion to determine what happened to the Black Knight, Hercules, and the Wasp. The Sub-Mariner finds that the Black Knight's auger module suffered a power overload, so Cap asks him to haul it to the electronics lab. Once there, they find that the sensor-core's memory had been scrambled by a chronal displacement wave. Cap Immediately suspects that Kang is behind all of this.
Buh-bye, Space Phantom!
Trapped in Temporal Limbo, the Black Knight, Hercules, and the Wasp stare at images from the Avengers' past, including an apparition of Iron Man's original gold armor. They encounter the Space Phantom, whom the Wasp recalls from one of the Avengers' earliest missions. He seems befuddled, but when Janet tries to ring information out of him, he is zapped in the back by an energy blast. Jan and Hercules turn around to find Kang mockingly laughing at them. This is just a hologram however, and he taunts them to come find the real Kang.
At some incalculable distance away, Kang and Ravonna take delight in confounding the Avengers. Kang's plan is to use them to defeat his final chronal duplicate. But he also wants to have fun with them first, driving them into a fury. Kang monitors his physically older variant as he confers with his lieutenants in the 41st century. Kang then takes Ravonna on a tour of his robotics laboratory, showing her the assembly line of Kang robots that he will distribute throughout the various timelines to take the place of their human variant counterparts.
Miles away, Wasp, Hercules, and the Black Knight continue to wander about the mist-covered landscape of limbo. They suddenly come upon a horde of Dire Wraiths. Wasp unleashes her bio-electric stings, while Hercules man-handles multiple wraiths at once, and Black Knight swipes at them with his Ebony Blade.
Lunch time at Avengers Mansion.
Back on Earth, Edwin Jarvis takes note of the throng of protesters and counter-protesters assembling outside of the mansion. He knew that opposition to the induction of the Sub-Mariner into the ranks of the Avengers was to be expected given Namor's controversial history. Jarvis brings coffee and sandwiches to Cap and Namor, who are working in the electronics lab. They are putting the final repairs touches on a Doctor Doom's Time Platform that they acquired from the Leader on a previous mission.
The Black Knight fights a Dire Wraith.
Back in Limbo, the three Avengers finally get done fighting up against the Dire Wraiths. One wraith begs for them to kill her. She reveals that Kang sent them to stop the Avengers, and that she would rather die mercifully then be tortured by Kang for failure. Hercules agrees if the wraith points them in the direction of Kang's lair. After traveling for many miles, they finally come upon Kang's castle. After getting a pep talk from Dane, Wasp shrinks down to insect size and slips through a crack in the entrance to disengage any alarms Kang may have set up. They come upon the body of the deceased Kang Councilor, whom Kang only recently murdered. Kang appears and pretends to blame the death of his temporal brother on the Avengers... just to enrage them. He then unleashes the Growing Man - a stimuloid who can increase his size. Hercules begins battling the robot and his surprised when he grows to twice its original size.
Jarvis makes a whoopsie.
Back at Avengers Mansion, Captain America and Namor have completed work on the time platform. Along with Captain Marvel, they stand in the center of the platform and have Jarvis throw the switch. To the surprise of all, the Time Platform disappears with them. When they arrive in Limbo, the Time Platform explodes. Captain Marvel flies off to reconnoiter. She returns in a few moments, but to her, it has been several hours.
Confrontation with Kang!
Suddenly, the body of the Growing Man comes hurtling towards them like a missile and smashes into the ground, inert. It had been punched by one of Hercules' titanic blows, which apparently disabled its growing circuitry. Gauging where the body came from, this gives Cap, Namor and CM a direction to follow.
Back at the castle, Kang attacks Hercules, Wasp and the Black Knight. Captain Marvel finally arrives on the scene and shorts out Kang's power harness with her light-body energy transfer. After Kang is defeated, they come to discover that this is not the true Kang, but one of his chronal variants. The real Kang emerges, along with Ravonna, and traps the Avengers in paralysis beams. He then announces that he will allow them to play witness as he dispatches this lesser Kang before committing himself towards destroying them all.
Appearances[]
Featured characters
- Black Knight, Dane Whitman
- Captain America, Steve Rogers
- Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau
- Hercules
- Sub-Mariner, Namor
- Wasp, Janet van Dyne
Supporting characters
Villains
Minor characters
- Black Panther, T'Challa (As a photo on the mansion wall)
- Iron Man, Tony Stark (As a chronal apparition)
- Kang Councilor II (Corpse only)
- Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff (As a photo on the mansion wall)
- Space Phantom
- Thor Odinson (As a photo on the mansion wall)
Referenced characters
Organizations
Races & Animals
- Altered humans
- Asgardians (As a photo on the mansion wall)
- Atlanteans
- Dire Wraiths
- Humans
- Olympians
- Space phantoms
Locations
Items
- Iron Man armor (As a chronal apparition)
- Time Platform (Destroyed)
Vehicles
Powers
Miscellaneous
Notes & Trivia[]
- The Avengers were created by writer Stan Lee and artists Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. They first appeared in The Avengers #1 in September, 1963.
- This issue shipped in both direct market and newsstand editions.
- The newsstand edition of this issue carries the approval stamp of the Comics Code Authority.
- According to Amazing Heroes #88, this issue shipped to retailers on February 18th, 1986.
- The signatures of cover artist John Buscema and cover inker Tom Palmer, Sr. are featured on the cover to this issue.
- The events of this issue take place only a few hours after the events of Avengers #267.
- Despite his pointy ears, Namor mis-hears Kangs' name as Krang, who is an Atlantean warlord, and an erstwhile foe of the Sub-Mariner.
- The apparition of Iron Man's golden armor is a callback to events from Avengers #2, which is when the Avengers first encountered the Space Phantom. Wasp makes reference to the first time she encountered the Space Phantom.
- The Avengers fight up against Dire Wraiths in this issue. The Dire Wraiths are the known enemies of ROM the Spaceknight. ROM deposited the wraiths into Limbo in ROM #66.
- The Avengers acquired the Time Platform from the Leader after he had used it to scatter the Avengers through time in Incredible Hulk #284 and 285.
- One of the Dire Wraiths begs Hercules to kill her rather than face torture from Kang. Presumably, Hercules acquiesces, though this is not overtly revealed in this issue.
- The Growing Man first appeared in Thor #140 in May, 1967.