Marvel’s Missing Moment could change everything there is to know about history, but what does it mean for Kang the Conqueror?
The following contains major spoilers for Timeless #1, available now from Marvel Comics.
Of all the eras across the history of the Marvel Universe, Kang the Conqueror has staked a claim to each at one point or another. At least, that was the case until recently. Apparently, there is one fleeting second in time that Kang has somehow never managed to find. Apart from haunting Kang personally, the Missing Moment might just hold the key to changing the Marvel Universe forever, though not necessarily for the better.
Timeless #1 (by Jed MacKay, Greg Land, Jay Leisten, Patch Zircher, Salvador Larroca, Frank D’Armata, and VC’s Ariana Maher) finds Kang the Conqueror living through one of the many moments in history that had once struck awe in him as a child. On a far away planet, Kang’s forces burn their way through the hallowed University of Phearthon, all in the hopes of uncovering the one thing that has always eluded the self-proclaimed Master of Time. As it turns out, across all of Kang’s travels through the time stream, there is one single second that he simply cannot experience for himself, although not for any lack of trying.
Marvel’s Missing Moment and How it Affects Kang the Conqueror
Despite being told what the Missing Moment holds, not even slaughtering nearly an entire world gets Kang any closer to attaining it. In fact, everything that Kang learns of the Missing Moment only furthers his resolve to find it while also making it seem as though he will never accomplish that feat under any circumstances. From what Kang is told by an alien savant, the Missing Moment isn’t just “the hidden starting point of the road to the greatest prize in all of history,” it is a moment that Kang is incapable of living through by his very nature as a villain.
As the savant explains, the Missing Moment is one for heroes alone to experience, and Kang is anything but that. Of course, this calls into question what exactly the Missing Moment could be if it is to be met only by heroes. This is especially because that description would seem to exclude most other “tribulation events” that Marvel fans are aware of. Nearly every major turning point in the Marvel Universe has consisted of both heroes and villains. Then again, most of them have lasted far longer than a single second as well, even if there are a few fleeting moments that have irreparably changed the course of history in so little time.
Marvel’s Missing Moment Sets a New Precedent
2008’s Amazing Spider-Man #545 by J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada certainly fits the bill when it comes to history defining moments in the Marvel Universe. Or rather, the decision that Peter Parker and Mary Jane made to give up their marriage to the demon Mephisto in exchange for Aunt May’s life does. Despite the obvious villainy that Mephisto exudes, this moment still rewrote history as it was known on levels that no one saw coming. This included everything from bringing back Harry Osborn to potentially erasing Peter and MJ’s future daughter from the timeline entirely.
This doesn’t mean every major moment in Marvel history was so devastating, however, as the end of the Reckoning War made perfectly clear. The threat of the Reckoning may have nearly obliterated the Multiverse, but in the wake of their fall it was expanded in ways that still haven’t been fully explored. By Uatu’s hand, the previously unfathomable Borderlands were revealed, making the Marvel Universe quite literally ten times larger than it had ever been before. Presumably, the Missing Moment isn’t going to be making that same type of impact, but it absolutely has the potential to.
