The Smark Avengers - The Kang Dynasty… Without Kang?! Avengers Story Breakdown (Part 1)

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

One of the most famous Avengers storylines of the 2000s… and the main villain is barely there? In Part 1 of our deep dive into Marvel’s The Kang Dynasty, Dylan walks Corey and Jon through the first half of the storyline, where the plot somehow manages to involve almost every minor Marvel hero while Kang himself stays largely offstage. The trio breaks down how the story both starts and stops multiple times, escalates threats but only for a little while, and reshapes the Avengers—while also questioning whether a story called The Kang Dynasty should maybe feature Kang a little more. 🧠 Topics discussed include:The massive scope of The Kang Dynasty in regards to issue count Why the early chapters focus on everyone except Kang How useless and easily forgettable the Avengers roster was at the time B Plots, C Plots, and D Plots all while the A Plot is nowhere on the page Whether the setup works or feels misleading If you’re a fan of Avengers comics, Marvel events, or detailed story breakdowns with a mix of analysis and humor, this episode is the perfect entry point into one of Marvel’s most talked-about arcs. Part 2 is coming soon, where Kang finally takes center stage—and the payoff gets judged. 💬 Join the Discussion Does The Kang Dynasty earn its reputation, or is it all setup? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. 👍 Like the video 🔔 Subscribe for more Avengers deep dives, Marvel story breakdowns, and comic fandom debates Click the link for Dylan's radio show!: http://www.bouncedigitalradio.co.uk Click the link for Dylan's Twitch stream: http://Twitch.tv/spookylaroux Click the link for Jon's Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/bigjonbowski/ Click the link for Corey's project "Henry's Usual": https://www.tumblr.com/henrysusual Click the link for Corey's show "Large Old Cup": https://open.spotify.com/show/2YHMppnl9inQevwLIxR64f

Yeah. I feel like you could have a song and dance number. Oh, yeah, we could have. Sure, we did. I treat it like one of those old, like, variety show hours that were on TV in the 70s, like the Paul Lynn Halloween special.

Mm-hmm. You want us to do like a dance with Frankestine? What I want is I want the wall behind you to split open to reveal a grand stage with dancers, like already ready to go. and you stand up from the couch, the couch gets pulled off screen on like a dolly, and then you just go into the song and dance number, like, we're the smart Avengers, and we're here to review a book.

We're the smart Avengers. Everybody give us a look. Wow. I was waiting to see what you would rhyme book with. Oh, thank you. I'm glad I chose to rhyme the word book and not Avengers. I feel like it would have written myself. Yeah, that one.

That one could have been awkward. No, no. Well, welcome to Spark Avengers, everybody. This is Corey. That was their song and dance number. And guys, well, of course, joining me here, as always is Dylan and John. Guys, how is it going? Yeah, pretty good.

Well, I think we're here to do something we've been talking about doing for a few weeks now. time. It's time. It's Vader time. We're going to talk about the King Dynasty. Well, of course, famously Kang, the master of time. Yeah. So we took our time with it.

Because he was going to steal it otherwise. Something, something, Kang, whatever, you know. Because there's a link in there somewhere. I don't know what it is. Yeah, do the mouth of yourself. We actually recorded this episode like 300 years in the future and then sent it back.

back in time through the Kang, Kim. Continuum. What does he use? Continuum. The Kang shoot. Corey didn't like Kang shoot. Well, so I wanted to go into this story blind.

But I was like, well, I'm going to pull up some of like just the basic information about it to kind of give like the lead up to us really talking about the story. Oh, dear. What I saw was, so, okay, so everybody, this is it, this is our Marvel Comics event that we're going to be discussing. We've done something, we've done things like this in the past. Like we did nights, the nightfall, the storyline where Batman gets his back broken, we've done death of Superman, where we take a storyline and we really kind of go into it because not all of us have read everything. So Dylan has been talking about wanting to do King Dynasty for a bit because he bought the trade and it broke him in a manner. I would say that's correct. So I was like, okay, sure, yeah, we'll do that.

I don't think I know anything about this storyline because I think it was in that era where I was kind of tuned down to comic books. And I wanted to just pull it up again to give some basic information. And this seems like a bad idea. A 16-part comic book storyline, which ran through Avengers 41 through 55 and Avengers annual 2001 between June 2001 and August of 2010. Yeah. This is over a year-long story. You can see why I took 10 pages of notes. It was really like Kurt Busek and illustrated by several artists including Alan Davis,

Kieran Dwyer, Ivan Reese, and Manuel Garcia. There's no... Was the... Was the year-long thing you were shocked about? Yeah. Like how long that took? You don't really see that. I mean, like, fuck, Age of Revelation is the current Marvel.

comic storyline that's going on this event and it's only like three months and it feels fucking long in comparison. I want you to remember. We don't do year long storylines anymore. I want you to remember that this was a year long storyline

and people had to wait, you know, like a month to get the next issue or whatever. I want you to remember that. Okay. We'll do. Not for any particular moment. Just there's going to be some issues

where you're like, I had to wait a month for that. Do you what you mean? Yeah. Like, I would be pissed if that was, like, oh, I can't wait to see what happens. And then you see what happens. And you're like, well, that was, I'm going to say relatively disappointing. So, the chore, well, I think I'll cover the art in the thumbnail pretty accurately. just for anybody that's interested

this is the if you're listening if you're watching this on YouTube you can see the picture of the Kang Dynasty Omnibus which I will now turn to the side and show you that this is as thick as the Bible I think the cover

that's quite an iconic cover it's striking it really is and that was part of it too like I was intrigued about this I was intrigued like I said I wasn't Benjurs is kind of my blind spot when it comes to Marvel Common

I don't really read a whole lot of Avengers stuff. And after having, you know, all the talk about Kang and in the films and whatnot, they were going to make him the big bad. I got interested in, because I realized that was a villain, like, I didn't know anything about. So what better place to start learning about Kang than with his own dynasty, I thought. And I got it for a pretty good price. It was on, I think it was on eBay. And it was like 20-something pound, but they did a deal on it where they put it down to about 18, I think.

And I was like, that's acceptable. You know, for a whole year's worth of comics. 18 pounds is all right. You know what you mean? Like you could go to buy a trade paperback with five comics, five issues in it, and it'll be like 10.99. So this, I thought was this deal. And I'm going to say a lot happens in it. I don't know if it's a great story, but a lot of stuff happens.

You know? Yeah. And I wonder, is that like a comics thing where pacing and stuff is a very important thing in comics? You need to know how to pace things and to get people interested in the next issue and stuff. And is it possible that at some point people who write comics got really into the idea of, what if we make this 14 issues as opposed to what if we paste the story correct

now I'm going to say something critical of a man who I know you're both very big fans of but I believe it was Brian Michael Bendis who introduced the termed what deconstructed storytelling where one storyline

lasts a very long time mainly because of pacing like a Bendis of Vendors comic, for example, could have several pages that just talking heads. And that would eat up time and lengthen the story out from that. So this is from around that same time period of its early 2000s Marvel. I will say that it is not late enough, though, to be a Bendis influence. Because this is early 2000s Marvel.

This is like we're heading into bankruptcy Marvel. Mm-hmm. And you can see why. Yeah. You'll be able to see why. Should we just... Just dive in. Like through it?

Because we get a lot of talk about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's just dive on in. Johnny, are you happy to... Go and just... Let's do the show. You ready? Mm-hmm.

Okay. So, the way this whole debacle begins is Kang, a conqueror, and his son, the scarlet centurion. and their big ship which is a giant sword um cleverly called damocles base as well

yes it's very clever very clever business so the ship I don't know if this in the future they figured out that the most aerodynamic way to make a spaceship

the travel to time is to make it in the ship of a sword or if this was just a symbolic thing on Kang's part but he seemed to think that was a good idea. Yeah, I'll just pretty often say that in space, I don't think you have to worry

about aerodynamics. You have to worry about some kind of velocity and shaping of your ship. Do you? I think. I don't think you have to.

At some point, when you leave one atmosphere and go into another atmosphere. Yeah, that's atmosphere, though. Yes. But you would have to do that with the ship at some point. You would have to launch

a sword-ship ship from one atmosphere into space. I can't imagine that would be very aerodynamic. I'm just saying like if he's, well, we're going to get into the, I don't want to get in a Star Trek talk. Because I want to say, you don't bring the enterprise into atmosphere. That thing just goes, stays

up there. Shit leaves. Okay. Okay. It has to get up there. Is my point. Yeah, they get built in there. The build it in space? Yeah. They didn't build. The Death Star got built

in space. If we're going to use another, science fiction terminology then it just started out on a planet and he's like well we've got to get that thing up there where he gets too heavy that makes the most sense I didn't think it's going to take this long for us to get off the beaten track already but be fair

that was my fault that's how long it takes the issue to get off the beaten track we get a couple of pages in where Kang is like I'm going to fuck up Earth and then we see Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man riding a horse Both of these characters can fly Ryan horses Why?

Just tagging at right horses So, yep Fair enough Basically Stuff happens where all the Avengers get Summoned to the United Nations Because there's some sort of A happening

A Cuffa, if you will, at the United Nations and they find out that it's a scarlet centurion who has turned up. Whoops. He has arrived at the United Nations and he says, listen, people of Earth, I'm here to address you on behalf of my leader, Kang the Conqueror. And he wants all of Earth to just surrender right now because he wants Earth. So pretty sweet deal.

And wouldn't you know the Avengers turned up and we're like, we don't think that's cool. So we don't want to do that. and they have a fight with a scarred centurion who to his credit ends up fighting off most of the Avengers by himself right so at some point the son of the king of their conqueror wouldn't be a pushover well for that in mind keep keep all of this stuff in your head this is why we need notes okay

bear that remember that keep that pinpoint that we'll come back to that so our boy triathlon is not going to rhyme by the way this is also important you will come back later warbird aka carl dambers aka at the marvel uh she has the ability to like suck people's energy out of them or suck energy from stuff to get that's not i don't know why that's funny that's the truth and so she tries to like grab his rod his power rod this is in the book and whenever she gets close to the scarlet centurion they both have some sort of feeling

whenever she sucks on his power rod we're not even happy through the first issue where they have a feeling that they've met before they know each other before there's some sort of connection mutual understanding between the two of them at some point

Kang the Kronkker turns up because he's like what the fuck why are you fighting my son this was pretty cut and dry you surrender you surrender

and then I own Earth and then that's the end yeah so this is important the big sword spaceship

is pointed at Earth and it is pointed up the United Nations building. And Kang goes, you think I don't mean business? Watch this shit. And he shoots a big laser from the sword. And the laser just obliterates

the United Nations building. Just destroys the whole thing, right? So everybody's like, well, you've killed all the important politicians that were inside the United Nations building. And then Kang goes, no, I didn't.

They're all here. I've saved them all. They're trapped in, like, weird energy bubbles. But I did destroy the building symbolically. And that's the end of issue one. Okay? That's what I call a hook right there. So he saves the politicians for no reason.

Okay. Put a pin in that too. I want you to write down all the pins I'm putting in things, because I will forget. I can come back to them and explain them all. So that's issue one. John, have you any further notes about that? No, that's pretty much kind of as it.

Pretty succinct, I think. Issue two in this collection is issue 42. We see Kang the Conqueror and the Scarlet of Centurium. And Kang reveals to everybody that because he's from the future, he knows more about the future than they do. And he says, for example, I know how to protect the planet I came from, the earth I know, but if a lot of different threats come to your earth, are you prepared?

The Avengers are prepared for, you know, superficial supervillains that pop up. But are you really prepared for like an actual threat to all of Earth? For example, what if in the future of Earth you end up fighting really weird, ghost-like radioactive creatures? Yeah, like zombies. like zombies that could like take over your bodies and stuff but they're all like weird and radioactive and green um they have like a hive mind what what would you do if that feature hurt the earth how would you combat that you know you didn't think about that kind of thing what if uh over industrialization concentrates concentrates wealth and power in a tiny upper class and robotics eliminated the need for

working class. What if that ends up being a future that you're unprepared for? Any of these are a thousand more? I prepare to argue to do this. What you should do is just put yourselves in my hands. I'm no anyone that can lead you the greatness. I can save you. I'm here to do you a favor, is what he's saying. And all the while this is happening, the government are like, let's just fucking fire a bunch of rockets at Kang's ship. So they let him talk for a while. appreciate that. Don't like that. That's not cool.

So he comes up with a different plan. What he's going to do is he announces ahead of time what he's going to do. He says, I'm going to have my people, my warriors come. They're going to take over Europe. They're going to take over France and Germany first. And then I'm going to put a figurehead in Europe and branch outwards that way. And eventually the whole world will fall in my hands. And if heroes will undergo the re-education that will make them loyal soldiers, the rest of the world's able-bally population will be conscripted.

And basically he's going to use Earth as a good way to defend other places. Connolly ships will be set. Great armaments are built defenses against the threats to come based on the Earth. So he's like, this will be amazing. This will be like a part of the, the biggest empire you've ever seen. He also says, anybody who rises up against the present masters

who take control of a part of the world's inhabitable surface and swears fealty? Mm-hmm. Yeah. To me, it shall have a place in the new order. So he's basically saying, if you're a villain and you want to like, just turn on everybody and side with me,

you're in. There you go. And he is transmitting this message across the world. The next thing you know, a bunch of Atlanteans rise up, who are led by Tatuma. And then in China, a bunch of deviance rise up from underground, I guess. And then I think there's something else. But anyway, what is saying is... Isn't at this point, like Captain America has got his own evasion.

team in Russia. Yes. In the disappearance of the Wintergard. Yes. So as Kang finishes his spiel, he's saying, listen, more people will fall. You all need to work with me here. And then he kind of like disappears because he says, all that stuff that I warned you about at the very beginning, look to the east because it's already beginning.

And then we go to the east, we go to Russia. we're Captain America and Thor and Quicksilver and Black Knight and Firebird Firebird Dark Star This is sounding like a lot

Like our Avengers auction We had the time before last You better remember the name of every Avenger we talked about because they're going to pop up So these group of Avengers Are in Russia And then this issue ends Because those freaky-ass

Radioactive Ghost things that Kang mentioned turn up and they are being led by the presence and that's the end of that issue Corey do you have any questions about that one it sounds a lot like like when people criticize Jonathan Hickman

for getting too into world building like there was just a lot of detail there that I didn't think we really needed to know or care about and I feel like it just added on to itself in that sense and I just can't imagine you read issue one of that going, man, I cannot wait to see how this pans out because we're getting into civics.

Yeah, it feels like it could be a little bit more concise and to the point. Yeah, I still am not 100% sure exactly. I mean, I understand why Kang probably wants to take over the earth because it's, I mean, his last name's The Conqueror. So it kind of goes without saying, but I just, I, yeah, his methodology is sort of like, I, once I would love to see like a storyline where. someone wants to take over the earth but then like someone makes them think okay yeah but then what are you going to do you're in charge of the earth

what then? Pang talked about that he was just going to use Earth as like a base a military base for him to expand his own forces within the the galaxy so he was just going to use Earth's resources as a defense for like

his other shit that he cares more about that's fair it still doesn't sound like terribly well thought out but. Put a pin in that. Okay. Also put a pin in, put a pin in issues just ending with some guy turning up. Yeah, the presence or the pleasance.

The presence. I didn't know who the presence was. Oh, not did I. And I'm going to guess that after having read more issues, you didn't get a whole lot of conclusive answers. Nope. So we're going to go into issue 43. John, do you have any further notes about that last issue? No, not really.

I think we covered everything. All right, issue 43. This explains a little bit of the presence and his wife or significant other who is called Starlight and they're hanging out with their dead son who is called Vanguard. He is in like glass case

and the presence is like, boy, I wish he was still alive. wait, I just have a great idea. What if I just, like, shrink myself down and then go inside him and then just, like, travel through his body, and then you use my power while I'm inside his body to just, like, make him alive again. Okay. Is that, are we following this so far?

Oh, yeah, it makes perfect sense. I did find out that you can be the presence in the Lego Avengers games, so. Wow. It does not seem like that important of a character. He turns up in Lego. I bet he would look cool in Lego. He looks okay. So, the presence brings back his son Vanguard, who from now on will play no further part in this story. He will never be mentioned again.

The presence realizes that after bringing his son back to life, he realizes the only thing he can do to save Russia is, is to turn all Russia people into weirder active ghost zombies with a hive mind and that he will be the leader of them. That happens in about four pages. Okay? That whole bit just happens. You're like, oh, sweet, off we go. Then we cut to the Avengers fighting these weird things.

We cut to a different set of Avengers fighting the Atlanteans in Canada. We cut to a different set of Avengers fighting the deviance in China. And this kind of happens a lot through this issue, is like going back and forth with these different groups of Avengers fighting each other. One thing that's interesting is at some point, Hank Pim kind of turns up, and he's very jovial and very fun. Everybody's dressed as yellow jacket, and everybody's like, what's that about? Because he was dressed as Goliath before this.

He was dressed as Goliath at the beginning. And now he's dressed his yellow jacket. And he's very funny and witty. And he's snapped. Usually when that happens, though. That one. Okay. So that group of Avengers beat up the Atlanteans.

And they managed to kind of stop that. Stingray turns up because why the fuck wouldn't he? Smart Avengers favorite. Mm-hmm. So, Kang, this watch is all this shit happen a lot. This app, that's a big factor. It's like, Kang, this watches shit happen.

He's just hanging out. Just up in a space one. Can you believe this shit? Basically, it's a lot of that happening. At some point, Hank Pim, Yellowjacket, faint, and then it starts to turn invisible. Okay? Oh, right.

Mm-hmm. He starts to turn invisible. The other Avengers that were with, they were fighting the Russian ghosts, radioactive ghosts, they actually end up joining the hive mind except for Thor. So Quicksilver and AthnaMurica and Black Knight, I think, become radioactive ghosts. Yeah.

That is the end of issue 43. Any questions, any further notes? So, all right, real quick. Our alien invasion that's led by a time traveler has been kind of hit sideways by characters turning into radioactive ghosts and going invisible. Cool. Yeah, pretty much. All right, I'm just glad I'm still on the ball here.

I think one thing that we should. point out to to that point there, Corey, is that in the Kang dynasty in three issues Kang has blown up the UN building and see of all the people inside it

and then that's about it that's evil yeah he just hates the infrastructure it was a horrible building the architecture was a nightmare yeah I know

they needed to redesign that whole building so off we go to the Avengers annual 2001 this one oh boy oh this when I read this I'm like there's a lot of ratconning going on on this this issue is mostly about Hank Pym

so Hank Pym turns invisible and faints and then he at some point whispers to the wasp hey you have to go find the other fake

Hank Pim I don't want him to die go to what was it the Hornets hideaway yeah which is in like a tree in the Avengers front garden or something

which I really love the idea that he would because he's at 9 he could just make a tiny little base for himself that nobody would ever fine. That's very sweet. So the wasp can also, you know, she can go into that place. And when she's in there, she sees a different Hank Pim just hanging

out in like a tube. Let me just real quickly show you what that looks like. That's a little hanky Pim. In the tube. Some kind of fish bowl. Yeah, I was what to say.

Okay, so this is where things start to get a little sticky. Okay. The wasp is trying to find answers. Listen, if you feel it's got sticky so far, this is the easiest run at the moment, okay? Yeah. Burl of this in mind.

So, find out somebody that can help the PIMs with their problem. And they come, um, triathlon notices one of the people. Well, he's going to factor into this pretty heavily. He finds out that there's a guy he used to know called Jonathan Tremont, who is the head of a Treyune Understanding group. He used to be in the group and he left him at some point, but he knows that that guy's probably useful and might be able to help with his expertise. They all travel to the Treyune Understanding. And this Jonathan Tremont does some kind of weird mind-meld thing. So the two PIMs are on, you know, beds, flat beds in front of him.

He puts his hands down over both their heads. It's like, we can communicate with the Pims. Okay? Right. And so he tries to communicate with them. And then in their own heads, they're fighting each other. Yellow Jacket versus Goliath. They're both having a fight.

And they wonder what they're fighting about. They all assume they're fighting about the wasps. So somehow she gets put into this dreamscape as well. and they realize that she's not really who they're fighting about. The person they end up fighting over is a different Hank Pim. The third Hank Pim. The original. So they come to terms with this.

Real quickly, before I finish that off, we should mention during this, there's a little interlude where we realize that just, and Firestar, two more Avengers have stowed away and gone undercover in the tree and understanding. Try and find out what they're up about. Okay? I don't know why this group is important, but...

I feel like there must have been something that was happening in the comics before. Triathlon was part of the group and then he went to the Avengers. These two guys are now from the Avengers infiltrating this group. There must be something going on. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

what the context is. So they realize that the true and understanding are building a big spaceship for some reason. Very suspicious, isn't it? Why would they want to build a big spaceship? Anyway, so the Hank Pims have a heart-to-heart amongst the three

their weird mind-melt. And then they grow to accept each other, and then Hank Pim wakes up. Okay? Now, I want the first of, flash you back to, I would say two minutes ago when I told you that there were two Hank Pims from beds.

And then Hank Pim wakes up. Do they combine? Where did the other Hank Pim go? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. One Hank Pim now. I'm glad that C plot has been resolved.

Finally, we got to the answer by who is the real Hank Pim. It turns out it was Hank Pim the entire time. And it just took a whole annual to figure it out as well. You know, back in the day, annuals used to be like a really good, like one-off story, but I feel like we've been passing off some garbage for annuals for last 20-some years. So real quick, at the end of this annual, there is a little extra story with Jarvis. He was replying to emails.

And the emails are like, why is Tony Stark alive? And why does the wasp not look like a weird wasp creature anymore? Is he responding to Avengers fan mail? Like, was he? Yeah, I think so. He was about to say, like, I can't imagine like, ah, this incoming message from the Fantastic Four, how come Wasp doesn't look like a bug?

I think he's responding to, like, people in the government. But he's basically saying, look, after the events of Onslaught, when the Avengers were taken away into the Heroes Reborn universe and brought back again, they were brought back again based on the way that Franklin Richards remembered them being. And he didn't remember the wasp being a weird bug thing. And he did not remember Tony Stark being A, dead or B, a child version of himself that they brought from the past to the present.

So they used honest slide basically. So like Heroes Reborn essentially was just like, let's retcon all the dumb ideas that we had for a bit there. Essentially, yeah. So this is a meta, Marvel. just saying don't worry about it. Yes. This is them kind of explaining, listen, this is what it is.

And we're moving on. The Butler says that we're moving on. They've moved on. That is the, that is the annual. Okay. Any questions or do we have any other notes for that one? Nope. No.

I think that one was pretty cut and dry. I'm still trying to figure out where the plot started. Of the annual? Of the story in general. I'm looking at the hero's journey, and I'm not finding step one. Well, maybe this will change your tune. So we start off

issue 44 with our good friend Stingray. Fan favorite. Stingray is fighting some of the Atlanteans. and we go to other Avengers, the ones that are fighting the deviants in China. We go back to the Avengers fighting in Russia. This happens for a couple of issues where these three different fights are happening

at one time, and the Kang just watches it happen. The deviance make a deal where they will put their strongest warrior up against Carol Danbury's to see who is best and whoever is the best gets to control. the deviance or whatever. Not interesting. And then in Russia,

Thor is pretty much the only one that can stop the presence, who has the ability to control the radioactive ghosts. And Thor figures out that the best way to stop the presence is to just use his hammer somehow.

Yeah. Solid. There is not... I think as well, he just uses his rage as well, because he's so angry at the fact that he thinks, like, Cap and Co have basically been killed by the presence. Yeah. So he just like, get just something with his hammer.

And then the presence dies. Well. No, he doesn't even die. He's just... Doesn't die. They say the presence does not respond. Okay? So, I put a pin in that one.

Carol Danvers ends up being up the Deviant's champion. so she becomes the leader of the champions and she dispans them because they had like they had broken away from their own crew to do what Kang wanted them to do because that's what Kang wanted everybody to do so Carol Dambrose kind of like puts a pin in that and stops that

and then with Thor destroying the presence or like reversing that or whatever he ends up just saving all of the the ghost radioactive people so they're no longer ghosts or radioactive okay

pretty useful yeah I didn't know his hammer could do that but it does so that's what happens there so it seems like everybody's winning at the moment again not against Kain everybody's winning and the government think

okay this is this could be sticky. What are we going to do here? I know want to we build some big ass sentinels? Yeah? Why not? Happy to know? That's the end of that issue. Any questions? Any notes?

So is this by now, are these literally the sentinels? Like, are we going to get some X-Men crossover? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yes. Well, no real X-Men crossover. First. Yeah, are the real Sentinel's. Okay.

Well, there will be no X-Men crossover. because if there was the Sentinels would just beat up the X-Men. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if the Sentinels to do for the most part seem to job out to the X-Men pretty frequently. But this isn't an X-Men podcast right now.

It's an Avengers podcast. By all means, please continue. Funny enough. So we're going into issue 45. So we are still 10 issues away from the end of this fucking thing. And I'm trying to motor through this, right?

I'm trying. So Kang is gathering his forces in the future or whatever. All of his is the crazy armies and stuff like that. And he plans on making a big shoot for space. He puts a lot of faith all the way through this. He's put a lot of faith in his son, the Scarlet Centurion. He's really trying to be like, when I'm gone, this lobby, you're a son. Trying to be a good dad.

Yeah, he's a great dad. If my dad invented time travel, I mean, conquered loads of shit and they give all of it to me, I'd be like, thanks a lot. Yeah, but this is the issue where he basically recounts how Scarlett Centurion was born because he picked out a slave that he thought was attractive and essentially raped her.

So, yeah, not great. Listen, it's the future. Things are different. Things are different in the future. I mean, look, he's already blew up the UN building and let all the politicians alive. I don't agree with everything Kang does, okay? That would have been my first part of call.

So Captain America and the other Avengers, some of the other Avengers, there are 50 fucking Avengers in this team. So like this is Captain America and Thor and then I think the wasp is here as well. So they meet with the government, the Pentagon

to talk about what they're going to do and how they're going to move forward. There's a lot of waffle in this. I'm going to be honest, but there's a lot of stuff where they're like... They're basically trying to tell the government that the sentinels are a bad idea

and they shouldn't send them up there to attack king ship. That's true, but a lot of this issue itself is just the Avengers talking to each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So a lot of it's really boring. And then,

after Captain Murray is like, I don't think the sentinels are a good idea, then these big fuck-off like towers rise up under the grind like in a big wall formation just like around the United States in different places.

Okay? Okay. And then everybody goes, what the fuck was that? And then the perpetrator of this attack appears on a big screen in the Pentagon because if he has the power to reas up walls of shit

from underground, he's the power to just appear on a TV screen in the Pentagon. And the person who did this is, of course, The master of the world. That's the end of that issue. The master of the world? Yes.

The master of the world. I thought that was like the lead up to somebody's nude like, oh, the master of the world, the leader or something. Nope. His name is the master of the world. And that's the... Hold on. Just so I can understand, we have introduced so far the presence. The presence was an old villain from back in the day.

I did see that. Mm-hmm. yes so they just kind of a reimagined look for him but the presence as a cliffhanger at the end of an issue and now the leader of the world or the master of the world master of the world yeah

sid vicious he shows some respect so that's two issues that have just ended with some fucking guy that isn't Kang the Conqueror turning up to go I'm the big deal now now remember how quickly the presence

disappeared he turned up he was boss for about two issues and then he died. Well, he failed to respond. So, now we're in issue 46. And we're all happy enough with how things are going. Yep. We'll say, sure.

Okay, hang on. So, we are now on issue 46. Kang's forces have decided to attack Europe like he said they would. So they start beating up France. and here we see a lot of argument,

a lot of preparations done by the armies of the world, but also the Avengers are also here. So Thor and Shehulk and a bunch of other Avengers are in France, just beating the shit out of people. We now see that in America, there are big, rocky-looking walls that have risen out of the grind, that were the responsibility, the master of the world. And they're all very suspicious about this.

They're like, why, why did this happen now? So these weird, like, their things, just turn up and Stingray starts to chase one of them down. Chases it underwater, which was a bad move because Stingray can go underwater. He chases that thing underwater. So we'll come back to that in a second.

At some point, the vision and triathes, We're talking about infiltrating the triune understanding themselves to learn more about this mysterious group that nobody gives a fuck about. It feels like there's more important things to be doing right now than... Seriously, like this is not the time. But they think this is the time. The vision, like a very smart person is like, we got to start talking around with these guns. It seems like so far we've introduced the A plot, but we don't really want to talk about the A plot.

we're more focused on B and C and D right now. I will say, what are we like, starting in 41, and we were in 46 now? Yeah. And we have seen Tang like five times. Yeah, how is this the A plot? Because it doesn't seem like the A plot. You can see why I wanted to talk about this.

Yeah. So, Triathlon and the vision go to, the trio understanding and learn more about them and they realize that some sort of big evil force is coming and will reach earth within days.

Now, I would argue that up to this point we have seen a giant sword that blew up the UN base and we've seen radioactive ghost monsters from Russia. I would say a big evil has already appeared at least once, potentially twice

in the earth. But regardless, they think that's important. So Stingray follows that weird monster thing through a tube, I guess. And it leads him to the Master of the Universe's base. Master of the World, I'm sorry. I'm not the one giving them respect now. So the Master of the World has kidnapped a bunch of politicians. And he has put them in like stasis pods or whatever where he can talk to them.

and he plans on ruling the world himself and he wants them to do his bidding for him one of the reasons he put those big rocky walls around this is this is okay John you might I might need your assistance with this the master of the world has put barriers all around North America

yeah because he doesn't give a fuck about the rest of the world essentially yeah the master of the world cares about one specific part of the world because while this shit's happening in Europe in Germany and France there are no walls there are no defenses

made by the master of the world he pretty much explicitly says I only did it around North America because that's the bit I want right okay well so he is a real recurring foe of Alpha Flight. So he has a real start attachment to Canada.

It doesn't even seem like he's talking to Canada. It feels more like he's talking about the United States. He might mean all of North America. I will say that Mexico does not get a Mexican. He might not mean all of North America if you know what I'm talking about.

So I mean, his character is that he's basically just a really smart caveman who got some alien tech and has been alive this whole time. But yeah. Yeah, yeah. I was going to say his origin is revealed in this issue as well. And it's like, they talk about that. It's pretty uninspired.

I want to point out that Stingray is listening to all this happening in the base. With his big fucking wing things up against the wall. Put a pin in that. Okay. So. So. I hope you keep the track, man. Because I need to come back to some of these.

That one's important to me. That one's important. Because Stingray is a fan too. So. Not that part. So once they realize Stingray is in the master of the world's base,

the Avengers, Hank Pink, Yellowjacket, at Hank Pim, Brick Silver, Warbird, who is the other one? Whoever... Whoever this is?

Whatever. Whatever. Avenger that is. Silver Fang? Sure. She could turn her body metal animal stuff. Yeah. So that one. Because you want to sell in your best and brightest to beat up the mass of the world.

They all go to the master of the universe or the master of the world. Once they arrive in his base, he starts to laugh at them and he says, did you really think you could hide from me, Avengers, in my own base?

Now you remember the pin I put in, two pages ago where the stingray was in his fucking base. He didn't notice that. How did he not notice the stingray? But he noticed the other cons in the base, huh? Maybe he just doesn't care about stingray. I agree.

I can understand that. I'm just saying stuff like this seems to happen a lot. So, the master of the world has a bunch of weird alien creature things. They all fight the Avengers. And then the master of the world thing

so you guys are really good fighting my weird creature things but I have a better plan I'm just gonna blow up my base and then the base explodes okay yeah they beat my animals

that was plan one plan A plan B I got none fuck it yeah the base the base explodes cut to Captain America and a hologram

of Kang the Conqueror turns up and the hologram says I told you not to touch my base and you guys did So now this is a proper war I'm going to fuck you all up And that's the end of that issue Do we have any

Notes, any questions So we are still not part way through the story But plot A seems like it's starting Wow yeah I guess Yeah So that's Yeah I mean Dylan you kind of put the bow on it right there So this is part one

Yes Of our king dynasty review. So far what we have had happen is we've had a B plot line, at least two B plot lines get started and a C plot line, well no, one B plot line started and ended. Another B plot line sounds like it's on its way to being ended. And then we have a C plot line that's still happening that seems to have more focus on it than the A plot line. So A, A is Kang. B1. was the presence. B2 was the master of the world.

Okay. And C is whatever the fuck's going around with Atras? Atreus? I think Vision is worried about. Yes, the trium understanding. So that seems to be, even though like on paper when you're talking about like this storyline, that seems like it's going to be the least important story. story, but it's also the one seeming

had the most focus. Maybe put a bit in that. All right. Jesus. This pinboard is looking like. Oh, it's like party day, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. So, Dylan, I guess my question is,

at this point in the story, you've not given up. Even though, like, you see the title, the Kang Dynasty, you see the cover art for this book. and we're just talking about the omnibus, right? Like, single issues, every cover is going to look different, but this is the omnibus.

This is the image they wanted to go with. And they gave you this intense giant kang stabbing the earth with a thing. And you're like, oh, shit, this is going to be action-packed. But it sounds like it's action-packed for, like, the wrong reasons. Like, the B-story lines have action in it by the sound of it, but it has nothing to do with the alien invasion except for, like, tertiary things. Right. Yes, I wouldn't say that it's,

packed full of action. I believe at the beginning of the show, I said that stuff happens. And I think that we can agree that stuff has happened. Stuff has happened. And there's a lot of pins and stuff, but that we'll explain that in the second half of the show. Yep. All right. Well, you can see why I would want to talk about this.

Yeah. And it's also featuring that really dark era. of the Avengers where you have triathlon and Stingray and Silverclaw and stuff as members. A thousand Avengers. It's crazy. There's a lot of Avengers and they aren't important.

And you can kind of see why when they gave the book to Brian Michael Bendish shortly after this, they were like, Bend is clear house, man. And he was like, cool. And he just started doing just that. It turns out it's really easy to clean house when half of the Avengers suck ass.

Easily forgotten. Not triathlon, though, our best friend. Our triathlon, who very famously, was our final spin of the wheel on our third Avengers spin the wheel episode. That's why I wanted to talk about the county dynasty, because triathlon has appeared quite frequently through this. You'll notice he's appeared. He hasn't done anything. Yeah, I want to say, I mean, I keep hearing his name, but I don't hear anything saying like, oh yeah, and then he totally karate chop that guy, or he broke the case. It's just, it was also happened to be there.

A little pin in that. Put a pin in. All right. Well, we're going to put a pin in this episode for now, though. That was part one of our Kang Dynasty. We're going to decide to split this up into two after it being 16 issues long. And we're maybe at the halfway point now after the annual. And issue 46.

So we're going into issue 47, yeah. So what we're going to do is we're going to hold off on John talking about what movies he's watched for the year. and we're going to hold off. Well, I'm not going to hold off on promoting stuff because you guys need to get your stuff out there. People need to see your business. So, John, if someone did want to see what movies you had been watching and reviewing,

we're going to go to find this information. They can head to Letterbox and find me at Big John Bowsky, or one word. And Dylan, you get up to stuff during the week as well. Tell us a little bit more about your radio show and your Twitch stream. So on Monday nights, I do a radio show on Bounce Digital Radio.com. You can listen to it anywhere in the world if you put it into your web browser and you have access to the internet. I do my show at 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock on Monday nights.

So check that out if you're interested. They play rock music. It'd be cool. We play all sorts of music. And sometimes they stream on Twitch, it's a big of the route, where I draw pictures. and then they animate those pictures and put them on YouTube at Team Crows and I. So if you like that stuff, I would appreciate it. There you go.

Or TikTok is the same on TikTok. There you go. And I have other stuff that happens occasionally. We've been on a break at the moment. But by the time this comes up, maybe I've started again. You tell me. But all of that is down in the description below. Like you said, we will see you all next week as we dive deeper into the world of the King Dynasty.

Until then, goodbye. Goodbye. Bye.