Kang The Conqueror #2

Kang The Conqueror #2

Marvel Comics 2021

Written by Jackson Lanning & Collin Kelly

Illustrated by Carlos Magno

Colour Assists by Espen Grundetjern

Lettered by VC’s Joe Caramagna

A young, rebellious and idealistic Kang finds himself in Ancient Egypt, where an older version of himself is ruling with an iron fist as the pharaoh Rama-Tut. When the Moon Knight draws young Kang into a battle against his future self, tragedy strikes. But will it knock Nathaniel off the course of his destiny or lock him into one path forever?

Alright this issue has a truncated version of events stopping and highlighting a few while moving the story to a certain point. I have to give credit where credit is due because while this could be a maxi-series or or just run until the whole story is told, however, this is a mini-series so the way that this is handled is utterly exceptional to see. It doesn’t move too quickly, glosses over what we think we want to see or inger where it shouldn’t so the boys do the best job on this that I have actually come across. To think I came here because of Carlos’ work on the interiors but now I’ve got two more creators on my must follow list now too.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as from how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter which does a magnificent job in bringing their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story and introducing new characters we are sucked into this like we’re caught unawares when a sandstorm hits.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen marvellously. What I love about these layers is seeing the different avenues they open up and seeing that some will be explored and knowing that others won’t be but regardless, they all add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. Seeing Khonshu’s champion and when and how he becomes Iron Lad, of which I’d like to see more of his adventures as him, and so much more. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

Oh Carlos is one of today’s premiere artists working in the industry. The linework we see is exquisite and how the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create all the detail we see within the work is mindbogglingly brilliant work. Because of how good the work is and how we see the composition within the panels and how they bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope of the story I can wholly support the lack of backgrounds. The work we see enhances and expands the moments as they are and it’s brilliantly done. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a brilliant eye for how colour works. How the colour is applied and how it can be utilised to create the mood, tone and feel of the book is magnificently rendered.

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I hadn’t thought a book featuring Kang the Conqueror would be something I would end up reading and loving like I am. This creative team could very well easily make this longer or come back and tell more stories of Kang’s adventures and I’d line up to read them. This has some massively intelligent writing and strong interesting characterisation with some bloody brilliant interiors and it has turn a more ambiguous character into someone we want to see more of!