You know something, I love Kang the Conqueror, and I’m not afraid to profess it right here! I’ve also realized that Kang hasn’t been given nearly enough face time here, so that will be remedied immediately! The trade Avengers: Kang: Time and Time Again will be featured in Ye Olde School Café starting today! You know, the names Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, and Sal Buscema are names that are synonymous with the 1960s and 1970s, and also with comic book greatness! These four creators are the main players in this awesome trade, that included issues from 1967-1969-1971-1986, respectively. The first issue is coming up right now!
In the pages of Thor #140, Thor is congratulating Odin and all the other Asgardians after the war with the Trolls. Thor then tells his father that he needs to return to Midgard (Earth) to help the humans. He bids him goodbye, and then heads out. Meanwhile on Earth, a museum expedition was digging around and discovered some sort of robot. It was actually the size of a doll when it was first unearthed, but now it’s grown to the size of a man. A few cops are there when suddenly the robot lurches forward and grabs the museum curator. He begins to kick the crap out of the cops, museum faculty, and anyone else in sight.
As Thor returns to Earth, he dons his guise of Dr. Don Blake. He then tries to explain to the janitor that his assistant Jane Foster might not be back for a while. In the park, this robot is going bananas and destroying everything in sight. Hiding behind some boulders is Kang the Conqueror, and he uses some sort of ray gun to minimize the robot back to doll size, while the cops are reeling from the beating. The cops then confront Kang, but their threats really don’t scare him at all. Another batch of cops are bringing Blake to the scene to get a “professional” opinion on the situation. Before they know it, Kang lets the “Growing Man” (the robot) loose, and Blake must transform into Thor to try and stop him!
The son of Odin jumps right into the battle, and begins to fight this monstrosity. After a few moments, Thor realizes that no matter how many times he smashes the “stimuloid,” it just grows bigger. But, after a mighty blow from Mjolnir, the stimuloid grows so enormous he’ll soon topple the earth itself! As he’s crying that he’s getting too large, Kang jumps out of nowhere and attacks Thor. He actually gets the upper hand on Thor, but the stimuloid is still going nuts, so Kang once again uses his laser gun to minimize the stimuloid, and runs to his time travel machine. As he tries to escape to the future, Thor throws Mjolnir at his machine and it engulfs it, swirling around it. At that time, Thor could use Mjolnir to time travel by swirling it around an object. As he does this, it seems meaningless at the time, but later, in the pages of Avengers, we’ll learn that Kang doesn’t end up in his future, but somewhere far more advantageous!
Well, that’s it for now, but be back next week with more of Kang and the Growing Man, and then we’ll see Tony Stark on his death bed, and Kang versus the Grandmaster! See you next week!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net