what's up variant nation for the first time in three years marvel studios returned to san diego comic con bringing with them a ton of announcements and big reveals for the mcu including our first look at black panther wakanda forever which looks next 

good luck as well as a release schedule for the mcu's phase 5 that also had a couple of surprises those included official announcements for a daredevil born again series on disney plus 

A thunderbolts movie and the official title for sam wilson's first movie is captain america captain america new world order we also finally got a release date for the fantastic four film toward the beginning of phase six in november 2024

 which by itself opens all kinds of potential but their biggest drop was when they revealed that the multiverse saga would conclude in phase six with back to back Avengers movies in 2025 and the titles of each movie really showed a crazy ambitious direction for the mcu with the first being avengers the Kang dynasty followed by avengers secret wars 

effectively making them the infinity war and endgame of the multiverse saga now we already knew kang was going to play a central part in the multiverse saga but with everything they've now put on the table there are so many possible directions they could go and several other big name characters we could see introduced into the mcu over 

the next two to three years most notably in my opinion being doctor doom especially after seeing the wakanda forever trailer and the direction they seem to have taken with the story i think we could be seeing doctor doom introduced sooner rather than later having said that we'll be diving more into that possibility in a separate upcoming episode

 so watch out for that but over the next two episodes we're going to focus on the Kang Dynasty and secret wars to look at what we know about each of the stories those two titles are pulling from and what they could mean for the direction the mcu is headed and we're going to start with avengers the kang dynasty titled after the kang dynasty storyline found in the avengers 1998 comics also referred to as the kang war

 the premise of the story begins with kang setting his sights on earth which we see at the very beginning of avengers issue 41. he's basically telling his son marcus that the time has come to conquer earth followed by kang giving a long rant about

 how he's mastered military tactics over many thousands of years shortly after kang makes good on his plans and arrives on earth where he begins his assault with an attack on the united nations to attract

 the avengers he then takes his ship which is oddly in the shape of a gigantic sword and has it fire an energy blast into the u.n the avengers then start tearing apart the wreckage looking for survivors and the wasp goes to kang saying you monster

 i swear to you kang in the name of the good men and women you just murdered but kane cuts her off saying save your outrage wasp for as you'll see i have killed no one as he reveals that he put a force field around everyone in the building to save them he then continues

 i have no interest in crushing you this was merely a demonstration to show you that if i needed to i can do it easily there are more important things to discuss however such as your future and that of this entire planet

 i have seen what is in store for you avengers and the world as you know it is doomed doomed to destruction and the only hope you have the only man who could save you all stands before you now that is an intense flex moment for kang and i imagine we'll see quite a few similar moments for the mcu version of kang leading up to the avengers kang dynasty movie but before we continue

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Comic and gary starter set for just three dollars again that's harry's dot com forward slash variant comics now picking up where we left off in avengers issue 42 after the scarlet centurion arrives kang tells the avengers i'm not here to destroy you not today or you would already be dead 

he goes on to show them a future in which radioactive beings brought death and destruction as we see vision lying dead iron man's armor split open and spider-man's mask torn on the floor kane continues to explain they come out of the east and by the time any credible resistance is mounted

 their numbers are too great to withstand they are living death radioactive soldiers directed by a single communal mind king then closes the screen saying that this fate could be avoided but asks even if humanity survives this threat will you be prepared for what else lurks just beyond the horizon 

What you have no defense against because you do not even know it's there the avengers and leaders at the united nations watch on as kang shows them more possible dystopian futures that would lead to the end of humanity meanwhile while kang is rambling on the secretary general is able to contact his men and fire missiles at kang's ship but the explosion just reveals 

that it's surrounded by a force field kang sees this and says i'm quite able to protect myself from your backwards technology and you misunderstand my purpose here i fear this is not an offer of assistance but the declaration of war i intend to conquer earth in order to save it

 i will of course extend to you all the opportunity to surrender but i know you won't take it so instead let me tell you exactly what will happen to you he then goes on to explain that his forces have been undefeated on a thousand worlds and that they'd take earth starting with france and germany then once the world falls he plans to use genetic scanning to breed a stronger humanity

 he also goes on to tell the secretary general that the world's governments may unite against him but his promise of protection and security will convince the people to join him and he'll create a star-spanning empire to sum it up kang wants to save the earth by enslaving it so you can already see the potential for the movie version of this premise but we're not done yet from here over

 the entire first half of the story the avengers aren't necessarily fighting kang himself but rather other villains who come into play such as the presents who controls those green radiation monsters that kang and warned them about and glam are being made by the deviants who serves dupless basically a butt ton of villains get bold and start attacking the avengers after kang's declaration of war

 then by the halfway point of the story arc avengers issue 49 to be exact we see kang the conqueror get tired of all the games and enter the fight personally taking his swordship and unleashing its firepower on washington dc killing countless people in seconds as he simultaneously controls sentinels to fight the avengers and the military that combined assault puts the avengers on the ropes with even thor on his knees broken and defeated so with kang demonstrating that much unmatched power

 the united nations had no choice but to sign an article of surrender officially making kang the conqueror the ruler of earth this event made kang the conqueror the first villain in the marvel universe to successfully conquer earth besides dr doom that is who technically conquered earth in the emperor doom story but he did that by using purple man's mind controlling powers whereas kang the conqueror conquered

 the world solo through force so not quite the same but this is comic so when a villain actually wins it doesn't last very long it's also worth noting here that doctor doom may end up playing just as significant a role as kang in the multiverse saga and you'll get a much better understanding on why 

i'm saying that when we dive into the secret wars in the next episode regardless once kang is officially named ruler of earth the avengers regroup over the next several issues and eventually are able to destroy kang's ship and weaken him to the point where in issue 54 the star-spangled avenger himself captain america has an epic one-on-one duel with kang

 the fight carries on over a few pages but captain america has the edge the entire time ending the fight with a solid right hook to destroy kang's helmet it's pretty great and a bit reminiscent of when captain america punched hitler in the face on the cover of captain america issue one and who doesn't love to see that after this 

the avengers imprisoned kang alone deep in a mountain and when he woke up he thought to himself they treated me with respect or at least fear and i am content i had everything i built an empire i won great victories even defeated the avengers and accepted their surrender i have a son and heir whose name will ring across 

the cosmos they will kill me and i will be tried and executed by the only foes ever to defeat me decisively i would have preferred to die in battle but it is nonetheless a good ending a fitting ending i will go to the gallows as befits a king but as kang finishes his thought marcus comes in to save him having stopped time around

 the mountain and drilled a hole through to his prison an angry kang just looks at his son and yells you should not have come marcus i was content to stay here to allow events to play out now forced by the option kane goes to the ship with marcus and suits up again telling his son i would have died and my life would have been complete my legend eternal

 you are not me and do not understand what i value but you are the best of them you'd make your own legend he then brings marcus to his private chambers and explains that marcus betrayed him and that he would have happily died in his defeat to end his legend but now that he was here he couldn't tolerate a traitor as he pulls out a dagger and kills his own son now holding 

his son's body he thinks to himself i am kang i had victory a glorious end to my legend a son and heir whose name would ring across the cosmos but now i am nothing and the kang dynasty story arc closes with that tragic end it's just an amazing avengers story so if the mcu adapts 

the storyline even half as good as the comics the movie and the story leading up to it is gonna be glorious there are honestly quite a few similarities to thanos arc in the infinity saga where thanos fought

 the avengers to carry out what he thought would save the universe and kang in the comics fought to enslave the earth in order to save it and in each case the avengers are first beaten by the villain only to find a way to rally and inevitably defeat each of them in the end another thing 

Every interested to see is how the avengers lineup is reshaped throughout phase 5 leading up to the kang dynasty in the comic version of the story the avengers team actually had a bunch of characters we've already seen in the mcu

 but there are also several more that haven't even been mentioned yet so here is the comic version of the lineup compared to what we know at this point in the mcu first we have captain america which is easy sam wilson took up the mantle and falcon and the winter soldier so he'll be the captain america for these upcoming avengers films

 then there's hercules who was recently introduced in a thor love and thunder post credits scene so we'll likely be seeing more of him in the near future next is iron man and we know the iron man mantle is going to be taken up by riri williams who will be introduced in wakanda forever followed by her solo series ironheart in phase 5.

 the team also had scarlet witch however her status is unknown in the mcu after possibly being killed at the end of the multiverse of madness although i don't buy that at all and definitely think she'll be back then there was the hulk who was also part of the kang dynasty avengers team and it looks like they're currently lining up she-hulk to fill that role so they'll have a hulk one way or another

 how about thor he didn't die in his movie so he's accounted for and vision was reintroduced in wanda vision as the white vision so between now and the end of phase six it's probably safe to assume he'll figure things out and join the team as well next is warbird another alias of carol danvers who we know as captain marvel also the wasp who was introduced in ant-man and the wasp and will return in quantum mania and then there's yellowjacket which was another alias of hank pym

 when he was the main ant-man so his spot could either be filled by scott lang's ant-man or scott lang himself could take up the yellow jacket name in his upcoming quantomania film and the last match between

 the avengers in the kang dynasty comics and the current mcu version is black knight who was introduced in the eternals movie and will return in the blade solo film that leaves firebird jack of hearts stingray triathlon and wonder man unaccounted for so we may see one or a few of them introduced somewhere in phase five or six but what i think is more likely is for their spots to be filled by other characters recently introduced or returning including the new black panther chongqi spider-man daredevil kate bishop america chavez one or more of the eternals blade namor the submariner the fantastic four and miss marvel 

who was not only recently introduced but appears to be the catalyst marvel is using to introduce mutants and the x-men into the mcu on top of that there are still several unannounced projects in phase six so i'm sure we'll be getting a lot more surprises as those are revealed the bottom line is that while the avengers team is largely on track to resemble 

the team shown in the kang dynasty comic there are so many potential twists that could change that between now and 2025 when avengers the kang dynasty is set to release so who knows what the avengers team could look like by then i just can't wait for the story to be told and i'm very curious to see how it will lead into secret wars because the kang dynasty story could easily be two movies all by itself now i will say for me personally

 the recent marvel films haven't lived up to past standards so i've really got my fingers crossed that they do the kang dynasty and secret wars story lines justice because they deserve a very carefully fleshed out and complete story arc and as i mentioned we're going to break down the secret war story in our next episode so make sure to have your notifications on so you don't miss that one but now it's your turn my friends what do you think will play out in avengers the kang dynasty how closely do you think they should adapt the story from the comics.