Heroes: Kang Is The First Black Villian And He Matters

“When I grew up, criminals were my heroes” — Heroes by Macklemore

Allow me to be vulnerable for a moment and share one of my character flaws with you. I appreciate your patience with this indulgence. I must admit that I am a product of video/computer games, and while my wife views this as a flaw, this is not the character deficiency I am confessing. Like many children of my generation, I was a latch-key kid. My Atari 2600 was my trusted babysitter. It occupied my days and nights until my mother got home and then summoned me to report on what I had done with my day. Then I was forced to do some form of school work to keep my mind sharp or practice my piano lesson. My father didn’t care as long as I did not make a mess. He knew it kept me in the house, and I was less prone to get in trouble playing with a joystick. Later my Nintendo Entertainment System would become my new guardian.

I will turn 50 soon, and I still play video games. As I type this I am simultaneously playing a mobile game. I love video games. However, that is not what I want to divulge to you. My confession is that I can only play these games if I play as the hero. I cannot play as a villain. I do not know what it is about me that does not allow me to participate in the chaos and anarchy sowed by being the bad guy. For some unknown reason, I cannot do it. Perhaps the reason is that when I was growing up, none of the villains on TV or on the big screen that had schemes to conquer the world were black. I had no villains to admire or to pattern my villainy after…until now…until Kang.

Kang is the villain that I have needed my whole life. It was not until I saw Jonathan Majors give him life in the season finale of Loki that I saw someone that I could root for. I know some of you will yell the name Erik Killmonger, but he was too small for me. He was using stolen technology from black people to help other black people. While his goals were noble, his tactics I could not abide with. Moreover, he was born of tragedy. Finding his father murdered by his Uncle altered him. From that moment forward, he dedicated his life to getting revenge. I don’t need that Bruce Wayne-type trauma…I need Kang.

Kang is a black man who conquered the universe to prove to his selves that he was the best iteration of all of them. He was not the spawn of tragedy but the byproduct of boredom. He conquered not to save the universes but because they…