Why Are Kang the Conqueror’s Face and Costume Blue?

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is about to kick off phase 5 of MCU, and with it, it is set to introduce the newest villain in the franchise. Kang the Conqueror, one of Marvel’s most formidable and enduring villains, has stood the test of time, literally, as he has been featured in many storylines and often came up against the strongest that Marvel has to offer. From the trailer, fans not familiar with the source materials are wondering about his distinctive blue skin and costume coloration. From his advanced technology to his villainous nature, in today’s post, we’re going to explore why are Kang the Conqueror’s face and costume blue. 

Kand the Conqueror has a blue face and costume due to his advanced 40th-century armor and life support system that grant him his supernatural powers. Without his special suit, Kang is not actually blue, nor does he have any superpowers to speak of. The technology behind the armor grants him superhuman strength, speed, durability, and a life-support system that ensures viability in the most extreme environments but, as a result, grants him that specific blue or purplish hue that has become Kang’s staple in the Marvel comics. The exact same thing can be observed likewise in the trailer for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. 

Now that we’ve covered why Kang was depicted with the blue face and blue suit of armor, it’s time to analyze this in a bit more detail. In the rest of this post, we’re going to cover Kang the Conqueror’s origins as well as how he came to be among the most feared villains in the Marvel Universe. Stay with us if you’re interested in knowing more about this highly-anticipated villain!

The many faces of Kang the Conqueror 

Kang the Conqueror debuted in the Avengers #8 issues back in 1964. The character was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. This is counted as Kang’s first appearance even though he appeared in Fantastic Four #19 in 1963 and Pharaoh Rama-Tut, just one of many incarnations of Kang The Conqueror. 

Kang the Conqueror has had many versions over the years. This is sort of his thing, as he has the unique ability to utilize the multiverse and gather all the versions of himself and conspire with them. So far, Kang the Conqueror has many other identities, including Iron Lad, Kid Immortus, Scarlet Centurion, Rama-Tut, and Immortus. But today, we’re going to focus on Nathaniel Richards, the man who reached across the vast expanse of space and time and managed to take control of the past, present, and future.

Kang’s story begins with Nathaniel Richards, a brilliant scientist

Nathaniel Richards was born in the 30th century. He was a brilliant scientist with a great aptitude for learning and bizarre approaches to time-traveling. He is considered to be a descendant of Reed Richards and possibly even Doctor Doom. His experimenting with the discovered remnant of the time-traveling machine led to his discovery of many versions of himself, which ultimately gave him all sorts of villainous ideas. 

Kang the Conqueror most often clashed with the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. In fact, the first incarnation of the character, Rama-Tut, was ousted from his rule of Egypt as pharaoh by the Fantastic Four. 

Kang the Conqueror never had any special superhuman powers, yes, he had enhanced intellect due to being a citizen of the 30th century, but he was ultimately, at the end of the day, just a human being with a time machine. This changed when Nathaniel Richards discovered a technology left by the so-called “Benefactor.” Benefactor was a version of Nathaniel Richards from Earth-616 that brought peace and prosperity to Nathaniel’s current timeline.

Since Nathaniel Richards was naturally inclined toward robotics and held quite an interest in studying alternative timelines, he ultimately used leftover technology to learn everything that he could possibly learn. He engaged in quite intensive time-traveling, where he discovered alternate versions of himself and decided to conquer all of reality. 

How did Kang the Conqueror get his armor? 

We’ve previously mentioned that Kang never had any inherent superpowers, and this is true, but access to many timelines and far future granted him a unique opportunity to hive himself superpowers by utilizing technology that was unavailable to anyone from his current timeline. 

Kang the Conqueror got his armor when he traveled to the 40th century. There he learned of a previously unknown alloy that allowed him to create a unique near-unbreakable piece of armor that greatly enhanced his physical and mental abilities and allowed him to survive the most extreme forms of damage and environments.  

The armor was fashioned from a rare form of an unknown synthetic alloy that had neuro-kinetic abilities, which allowed him to connect to his newly acquired piece of equipment through subconscious thoughts. 

The armor comes with a complete life-support system and a plethora of other functions and weapons built in. 

What color was Kang in the comics? 

Nathaniel Richards was in the comics presented as a caucasian male. This changed, however, when he created his powerful suit of armor in the 40th century. This resulted in Kang becoming famous for his blue or purplish appearance, which was a result of a fine layer of his armor enveloping most of his body and face. 

The armor acts as a protective layer behind him and pretty much most of the things that Marvel’s finest can throw his way. The armor grant’s him special superpowers but likewise alters his appearance drastically, resulting in the legendary trademark look for which Kang is most recognizable. Kang the Conqueror has always been blue in the comics, and the MCU’s live-action version of the character aims to stay true to the comic book character. 

We still don’t know what exact powers and abilities will the MCU’s version of the character have, but at least we can be sure that Kang’s appearance draws heavily from the comic books.