As many 20th century Marvel readers are aware of (it seemed appropriate to actually cite the century, given our subject matter), Kang the Conqueror's road to conquest began in the year 3000 A.D., in an era of peace on Earth that he found intolerable. Discovering access to a time machine designed by his ancestor, he traveled back to ancient Egypt and took on the identity of Pharaoh Rama-Tut, where he planned to establish a base of operations for himself and then begin raids of conquest throughout time. Yet as we've seen evidence of recently, Kang actually hails from an alternate reality--a parallel Earth that endured a shocking history of destruction and decimation well before even our first world war. The Earth on which Kang was born rose from its ashes--and ironically, it was Kang's own ancestor who was responsible for the peace that he found he couldn't bear.
Since we're talking about a time machine, and the fact that Kang's ancestor conceived its design, the original story by Stan Lee from Fantastic Four Annual #2 that followed up on the Rama-Tut tale implied that the ancestor in question was either related to Dr. Doom or was Doom himself; but when that connection was invalidated by writer Roger Stern's Avengers story from 1986, the same story underscored a revelation from a Fantastic Four story from '84--namely, that this ancestor was in fact Nathaniel Richards of our own Earth, the father of Reed Richards. Some family tree, eh? Imagine Thanksgiving at the Richards table. "Pass me that turkey leg or I'll conquer your puny century!"
So to complete the circle on this subject, it might be interesting to review scenes from John Byrne's 1984 story and have a look at the fate of Earth, a virtually destroyed world that would in time produce a ruthless conqueror--a story that begins with Reed's search for his missing father, a search which led to that same parallel world where Reed gained historical information from the queen who led a rebellion against none other than his own father, a man who on this world is known as the Warlord. In the tale that Reed hears, it seems Earth's course for disaster was set with an event which, on our Earth, symbolized national pride and achievement.
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