"if we save one life, we save an entire universe."
made by @ironladders / @dailyironlad
nate richards / iron lad:
time-traveler, founder of the young avengers, and the last avenger.
a (mostly) spoiler-free history of nate richards *
*does not cover nates from alternate universes
one day in the far future, Nathaniel "nate" richards jr. was being relentlessly attacked by some of his bullies. when nate fought back, one of the bullies attempted to slit his throat, only to be stopped in the nick of time by the villain kang the conqueror. it was then that kang revealed to the sixteen-year-old that he was nate's future self, and gave nate his neurokinetic armor and a glimpse into what was meant to be his future. kang intended to recruit the boy, giving himself an earlier start on the glory of conquering.however—despite kang's hopes that nate would commit his first kill, then join kang's side—nate was horrified by the vile nature of his future self. stealing the armor, nate rejected kang and used the armor's ability of time-travel to escape to the 21st-century earth. knowing kang would be coming after him, nate sought out the avengers in hopes they would be able to assist him. but nate found out that he landed at a point after the avengers had disbanded, and none of the living former members were easily reachable.nate took matters into his own hands and, after robbing tony stark, tracked down three super-powered teens: william "billy" kaplan, theodore "teddy" altman, and elijah "eli" bradely. with them recruited, nate founded the young avengers and took on the codename iron lad, squatting in the abandoned avengers mansion. as the founder and leader of the young avengers, nate would take the small team through several training exercises and small missions to try and prepare for the inevitable threat of kang. eventually, the team would add katherine "kate" bishop and cassandra "cassie" lang, the latter of whom sparked a brief romance with nate.eventually, nate would have to leave the young avengers, eli and kate taking the positions of co-leader. but his story doesn't end there: traveling throughout different time periods and worlds, nate has vowed to spend the rest of his life reversing kang's conquests, liberating all enslaved by kang, and erasing every last version of kang he can find from existence.at some point, nate ended up with the young avengers again during avengers: the children's crusade. but after the events of children's crusade, he would leave the young avengers again and go off on his own. later on, nate would end up having to work with immortus and kang at the "end of the line," probably against his will. this time period is known as the days of the very last avenger—nate richards. how nate got this title is currently unknown.currently, nate is not tied down to a superhero team or alliance of sorts. he hops around, working with groups such as the avengers and the league of free realities, but nate is a solo hero. he does his best to do what he believes is good and to avoid his fate of becoming kang for as long as possible. even though he has not seen the young avengers after the events of children's crusade, they are still the people nate trusts & loves the most out of the entire multiverse.
reading guides:
!! for more of nate's friends, the young avengers, check out this reading guide !!
reading guide:
nate richards (the main one)
anything not highlighted isn't required
young avengers (2005) #1–6
- contains nate's first appearance as iron lad & his origin story.
- while nate isn't in the last 6 issues, i would highly recommend reading the rest of the run for more context on the teamyoung avengers special (2006)
- takes place after issue 8 of ya v1. while this is focused on the other members of the team, nate makes several small appearances throughout everyone's respective backstories
- good if you want to know more about the young avengers as individuals. trigger warning for drugs, (off-screen) sexual assault, & homophobiathe mighty avengers (2007) #33
- if you haven't read stories with cassie or jonas + previous issues in this run for context, you might be lost.
- nonetheless, while this is not what i would deem essential, it does touch on nate & cassie's relationship, planting seeds for the love triangle in children's crusadeavengers: the children's crusade - young avengers (2010)
- takes place before nate appears in issue 4 of A:TCC, but whether you read this before or after reading children's crusade is up to you.
- very nate-centric; fleshes out his personality, relationships with the og4 (especially billy), and what led to his return.avengers: the children's crusade (2010) #4–9
- the next big young avengers story after ya v1, albeit very billy-centric. read the previous issues for context on what is happening.
- imo this has some issues with nate's characterization; especially issue 9, which did some damage to his character and how fans percieved him for years afterff (2013) #8-16
- aka: nate's brief villain arc as kid immortus
- this is the character damage i was talking about. if there's any optional stuff on here you should skip, it's this oneavengers (2012) #34
- this'll be very confusing if you didn't read the previous issues in the run beforehand.
- regardless, i recommend it as it establishes nate as the last avenger, along with his canonical disliking of tony stark. also has some nice moments with steve rogersinfinity wars (2018) #1
- i'm not sure why he was in this comic to be honest. he didn't do anything other than say a few things and be in the background
- establishes that he can stop time, at least??the last annihilation: wiccan & hulkling (2021)
- nate's presence here is small, with him only appearing at the end in a short cameo
- very billyteddy-centric as it focuses on their relationship. i recommend it if you're interested in the story of how they got togethermarvel's voices infinity comic (2022) #5, #10
- aka "young avengers: paradox lost." the in-between issues all are centered around individual young avengers members, whether you choose to read them is up to you. (note: this is not in print, only available on the marvel unlimited app)
- nate serves a very important role in this story. ya:pl also finally drags him out of the curse of being stuck at 16, aging him (and cassie) up to a young adult.
exiles!nate:
exiles (2018) #1-12- the favorite amongst nate fans. in exiles, this nate never formed the young avengers, choosing to stay in his time period and get revenge on his bullies instead. however, things change when he is recruited by the mutant blink, and nate goes on a journey with the rest of the team that transforms him into the hero he's destined to be.
- warning: he suffers a little
dormouse!nate:
avengers fairy tales (2008) #3- "what if cassie had a dream where she was alice in wonderland, with nate as a dormouse?"
- he doesn't suffer here
runaways!nate:
what if? house of m (2008) pg. 28-38
what if? fallen son (2008) pg. 25-29
what if? newer fantastic four (2008) pg. 35-40
what if? spider-man: back in black (2008) pg. 27-32- basically nate, but if he recruited the runaways team to be the young avengers instead of billy, teddy, and eli.
- warning: he suffers here.
kang's origin:
kang the conqueror (2021) #1-5- while this is less about nate as iron lad and more about how Nathaniel richards became kang the conqueror, this still features nate pre-kang and it's my belief that every nate fan should at least know kang's background.
- warning: nate ALSO suffers here