An Avenger Was Just Killed By The MCU’s Next Big Villain

Warning! Spoilers for Avengers: Mech Strike #2

Kang the Conqueror has yet to make his debut on the big screen, but that hasn’t stopped the next big MCU villain from wreaking havoc in the comics. In fact, in Avengers: Mech Strike #2, Kang just killed off a fan-favorite Avenger in an absolutely brutal fashion.

Avengers: Mech Strike by Jed MacKay is a new series from Marvel that gives all of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes an Iron Man upgrade. With massive Kaiju-like monsters called Biomechanoids invading the planet, the Avengers need every advantage they can get, but even when equipped with Tony Stark’s mech-suits, the heroes have trouble slowing the invasion. While most of the team is out fighting, Tony stays behind with T’Challa, the Black Panther, to try and figure out where the biomechanoids are coming from in issue #2. As two of Marvel’s smartest superheroes, Tony and T’Challa are convinced that figuring out the creatures’ origin will give them a better chance at stopping them in the long run. Unfortunately, their search for answers only brings more problems.

As Tony and T’Challa dissect one of the biomechanoids’ memory cores, they discover that the creatures are actually being sent from the future, which triggers Kang the Conqueror’s arrival. The time-traveling villain reveals himself and taunts the two heroes; “Look at you,” he says, “Look at your Avengers. Tired. Worn thin by endless battle. Relying on your sad little suits. Careless. Defenseless.” Black Panther quickly dives towards the villain to make an attack, but Kang scoffs at the attempt, and proceeds to disintegrate T’Challa using his annihilation gauntlet. Horrified at T’Challa’s brutal murder, Tony has no choice but to flee, ceding full control of the Avengers’ HQ to Kang the Conqueror.

Seeing as this story doesn’t take place in Marvel’s main continuity, Black Panther’s death here isn’t a huge deal, but it’s still a shocking sight. Even T’Challa’s suit made of Marvel’s indestructible vibranium stood no chance against Kang’s gauntlet, as his body was incinerated immediately from the blast. Even Kang himself seemed to underestimate the power of his weapon, as he comments, “I hadn’t intended total disintegration…I will have to recalibrate my annihilation gauntlet.” Of course, there’s always a chance T’Challa was actually sent to another timeline or dimension, and could make a return later in the series. However, given that the artwork depicts T’Challa’s skeleton being essentially evaporated, it seems likely that the Black Panther is really dead in Mech Strike.

Killing off one of the most popular Avengers in only the second issue of this series is certainly a bold move by Marvel, but it could be a good way to get readers invested. Now the Avengers aren’t just fighting to save the world; they’re fighting to avenge their friend, and Kang the Conqueror may regret giving them that extra motivation. After all, avenging is what they do best.

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