Just who is Ravonna Renslayer? According to the series Loki on Disney+, she is an agent of the TVA trying to keep order and protect the sacred timeline. If your a fan of Marvel Comics (especially old school Avengers titles) you will know there is so much more to Ravonna. For example, she has a unique relationship to one of the universe's biggest threats to all existence. Of course the threat I speak of is Kang the Conquerer. Most of you reading this only know teh Ravonna Rebslayer you have seen on TV, so I decided that I would give you a little background knowledge of the one who has done so much damage to the timeline without realizing it.
Ravonna Lexus Renslayer was the daughter of King Carelius. Ravonna first met Kang when he attempted to annex her time era into his empire. Kang loved Ravonna, but she hated him due to his attempt to conquer the kingdom. While the kingdom threatened rebellion, Kang let it be in the hope of winning the princess Ravonna's hand in marriage. Eventually, however, outright rebellion broke out, and as Kang was on the verge of winning the battle, he brought the Avengers there to witness his triumph. He hoped to defeat them and then marry Ravonna. Finally his army attacked the kingdom at his signal. One of his generals, Baltag, rebelled against him after he did not execute Ravonna, as he had done to the rulers of other conquered kingdoms. Kang then enlisted the aid of the Avengers to overthrow Baltag. He also enlisted the aid of citizens of the city, and, after stealing weaponry, the rebellion went ahead. Kang gained access to a chamber which could only be opened by the sound of his heartbeat, and activated a device that destroyed all the weaponry of his rebelling army. He released Ravonna from her dungeon, revealing he really loved her. However, Baltag attempted to shoot Kang as he sent the Avengers back to their own time, and Ravonna, realizing she loved Kang, threw herself in front of the blast, and fell into a deathlike coma, after which the general was executed.
Kang preserved her in stasis for a time, but when he played a game with the Grandmaster in a tournament of champions, to gain the power to free Ravonna and kill the Avengers, he only partially won, and chose in anger to try to kill the Avengers instead. He failed due to the presence of the Black Knight, losing his chance to save Ravonna. A temporal counterpart of Ravonna was later revealed to be a consort of Kang, and later learned to be a confederate of Immortus in his scheme to defeat Kang and destroy the Kang divergents. Kang rescued her from the moment before death due to the devices of Immortus when he was thrown into Limbo (later it was revealed this was due to mental manipulation), then learned this had created an alternate reality in which he was slain. He begins to destroy variants of himself, not realizing this is part of a plan by Immortus. Ravonna does not alert Kang when the paralysis beam he is using to hold the Avengers is overloading due to the strength of Hercules, enabling the Avengers to escape. She then holds a Kang divergent double at gunpoint, and tells him if he really loves her he must not kill the other Kang. He refuses this and she lets him leave. That variant is killed as his weapon was booby-trapped by the other Kang. Ravonna tells the other Kang that Immortus was all that was ever good in Kang. In a flashback, it was revealed that the real Ravonna was rescued by the Grandmaster, who revived her despite Kang's choice out of curiosity and told her of the choice Kang had made. She was embittered at Kang for not saving her when he had the chance, and she swore revenge on Kang.
She became a subversive and assassin. She appeared to Doctor Druid in visions in a scheme to enlist his aid in acquiring the deadliest weapon in the omniverse. Assuming the guise of Avengers foe Nebula, she attempted to infiltrate the Council of Cross-Time Kangs. She completed her mental subjugation of Doctor Druid, and directed him to take over leadership of the Avengers. She used Druid to help her ensorcel the Avengers to accompany her to the center of a timestorm to retrieve the great weapon. She was ultimately thwarted by the Avengers and three Cross-Time Kangs, and fell into the timestorm with Druid. As Nebula, she attempted to enlist the aid of the Fantastic Four to free her. She appeared in a vision to the Human Torch, and mind-controlled the Invisible Woman. She attempted to steal the Ultimate Nullifier, but was thwarted by the Fantastic Four. She eventually escaped the timestorm to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1961, where she was thwarted by a rejuvenated Doctor Druid.
Still later, she vainly attempted to enthrall Doctor Druid again. She convinced Druid to help her investigate Kang's 20th Century stronghold. Taking the name Temptress, she met the Fantastic Four, and used their time-sled to enter Chronopolis. She then fought openly with the prime Kang after taking on a guise as Terminatrix in a personal duel, a battle which ended with Kang apparently sacrificing himself to save her in the same manner she once had him. She became ruler of Chronopolis with his defeat.
After ruling Kang's kingdom for a time, and becoming bored, she revived Kang — and stabbed him through the heart.[volume & issue needed] She later revived him again, properly, and the two became lovers until Kang himself became bored and left to reassume his earlier identity of Rama-Tut and battle his younger self.
Ravonna Publication Information
Publisher: Marvel Comics
First Appearance: Avengers #23 (December, 1965)
Created by Stan Lee & Don Heck
Alter Ego: Ravonna Lexus Renslayer
Team Affiliations: The Council of Kangs & the Anachronauts
Partnerships: Kang the Conqueror
Notable Aliases: Nebula, Terminatrix, Kang-Nebula, Hecate, & Temptress
Well, that was your introduction to the origin stories of the deadly Ravonna Renslayer.
Until next time, get your READ on!
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