Immortus
AKA: Kang the Conqueror, Rama-Tut, and quite probably the Scarlet Centurion (dang time travellers!).
First Appearance: as Rama-Tut, Fantastic Four 19; as Immortus, Avengers 10
What's His Problem? Most of Immortus's background can be found on Kang's page. One of the infinite incarnations of Kang (time travelling so much has created numerous divergent Kangs, which also serves to explain why several of them have apparently become the Scarlet Centurion, and also why both Kang and Immortus keep showing up after they seem to have died) grew tired of being a conqueror and wanted to settle down and meditate (he was over 60, which is retirement age...). He went to Limbo and was visited by the Time Keepers, and given the task of overseeing 80 millennia of existence. His function is to keep the timelines from getting all silly (a little late for that, it seems to me, but hey, it's a living).
Powers: He has no powers as such, but, thanks to the Time Keepers, not to mention his own history (ooh! bad pun!) as Kang/Rama-Tut/et al, he has access to some pretty spiffy technology.
Heroes He Keeps Running Into: Mostly the Avengers. He has especially mucked around with the Vision and the Scarlet Witch, so much so that no one is sure of anything where those two are concerned any more.
Favorite Quote: "Understand, Captain Marvel, that as ruler of limbo it is my duty to untangle the realities brought about by my divergent counterparts. It is an onerous and often distasteful duty. I found it preferable to let one Kang eliminate the others than to intervene directly myself." (Avengers 269, wherein Immortus sums up his work ethic.)
People Who Think He's Not So Bad: At least one incarnation of the Princess Ravonna (Kang's lady love) was willing to help Immortus when he was pruning alternate Kangs in Avengers 267-269. She called him "my lord" and everything. Obviously this was an especially wimpy version of Ravonna (I mean, c'mon, a princess calling someone "my lord"?), which is no doubt why Immortus chose her.
Most Despicable Act: The aforementioned Avengers 267-269, wherein he basically manipulated various versions of Kang, Ravonna, and the Avengers in order to kill off alternate Kangs. When you get right down to it, it's murder, and in particular using Ravonna against Kang like that always struck me as unkind in the extremis.
by Keith R.A. DeCandido
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