A young scholar from the 31st-Century of the alternate world Earth-6311 (a.k.a. "Other-Earth"), Nathaniel Richards was saved from bullies by his time-traveling future self Kang the Conqueror, but was horrified to see what a ruthless monster he would become as Kang. 

     Determined to avoid this destiny, young Richards fled Kang, using the morphing suit of bio-metal battle armor Kang gave him to travel back in time to the modern-day mainstream reality, where he sought Kang's enemies the Avengers as allies. 

     The Avengers having disbanded after their clash with the insane Scarlet Witch, Iron Lad downloaded the surviving data from fallen android Avengers member the Vision, who had formulated a plan to build a new Avengers team should the original group be completely destroyed. To this end, Vision had compiled a list of young super-beings and adventurers who were connected to the Avengers in various ways. 

     During the team's inevitable confrontation with Kang, Iron Lad killed him, only to discover he then had to take Kang's place in the future or risk terrible damage to the timestream, including the era of his new friends. 

     Rendered amnesiac regarding his recent activities, Nathaniel was sent back into the future to fulfill his destiny as Kang the Conqueror. 

     The Vision programming he had downloaded took over his discarded armor, using copies of Nathaniel's brain engrams to form a new personality and becoming a new incarnation of the Vision. This new Vision continues to serve with the Young Avengers.