The Marvel Cinematic Universe has gone through some shocking changes over the past few years, with the most menacing being the looming threat of Kang the Conqueror, the most tyrannical variant of Nathaniel Richards. This time-traveling despot has some big shoes to fill as the big bad of the MCU, especially after Thanos left such an unforgettable impression over the course of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.
While Thanos and Kang both rank among Marvel's most dangerous villains, their paths to earning that distinction couldn't be more different in comics Now, we're taking a closer look at both of these villains to see which one is truly the Avengers' ultimate threat.
The Mad Titan has been a powerhouse in the Marvel Universe since his first appearance in 1973's Iron Man #55 by Jim Starlin, Mike Friedrich and Mike Esposito, even if it did take some time after the character to find his footing. His Deviant physiology has enabled Thanos to go toe-to-toe with every single one of Earth's Mightiest Heroes and emerge relatively unscathed. Almost all of Thanos's defeats have been the result of some outside force or cunning ploy on the part of his opponents, as bringing the Mad Titan to heel by force alone is effectively impossible.
That being said, the Mad Titan has never had many problems beating his foes into submission. In the current goings-on of Eternals, by Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribic, Thanos has embarked on a shockingly successful homicidal campaign against the titular cosmic gods, taking on multiple Asgardian-level threats by himself. This is exactly the sort of feat that the comparatively minuscule Kang is far less capable of. The twisted, future version of Nathaniel Richards is in his own right a skilled combatant, and his neuro-kinetic armor goes a long way in making him even more of a threat on the battlefield. It is rare that brute force becomes Kang's primary course of action.
The countless ages that Kang has seen under his multiple monikers have left him with a great wealth of experience when it comes to building an empire and turned him into a master planner. When Kang first appeared to torment the Marvel Universe in 1964's Avengers #8 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, he wasted no time at all in making Earth's Mightiest Heroes his captives. In fact, if it hadn't been for the Wasp and Rick Jones slipping through his grasp at the very start, the Avengers would have never stood a chance against Kang, which has become something of a theme surrounding his machinations.
Kang has seen his empire expand across the centuries only to be undone by his long-lost love and built a dynasty that was beaten down into dust by the Avengers, but he has never stayed down for long. Unlike Thanos, whose own grand schemes have always played out in a much more public fashion, Kang has mastered the art of knowing how to stay out of the spotlight until the time is right.
Thanos is without question the stronger of these two tyrants, but brawn isn't what turns a villain into an existential threat to the Marvel Universe. That isn't to say that Thanos isn't a capable conspirator. Anyone who can claim the Infinity Gauntlet as their own or hunt Eternals without fear of reprisal is certainly quite cunning, but Kang is cut from a different cloth completely. Through ruling over vast empires that cover large swaths of time and space, something inside Kang has driven him to become more dangerous than Thanos could ever be.
A version of Nathaniel Richards might have created the Time-Keepers of the MCU, but he murdered the Time-Keepers of the comic book Marvel Universe. The fact that wiping out the Time-Keepers isn't even high on his list of accomplishments is a testament to how dangerous Kang really is.
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