Iron Lad (Nathaniel Richards) is a fictional character, a superhero in the Marvel Comics universe. He first appeared in Young Avengers #1 (April, 2005). The issue was scripted by Allan Heinberg and drawn by Jim Cheung.

He is an adolescent version of Kang the Conqueror, armed with a bio-metal suit that responds to mental commands.

Iron Lad was "rescued" by his adult self moments before an event important in shaping the villain's life: his long-term hospitalization by bullies. Horrified at the life of evil his future self describes, he takes the time travel technology that he is given and transports himself to the past, hoping to avoid his sinister destiny.

Upon finding the Avengers disbanded, he interfaces with the remnants of the Vision, destroyed during the Avengers Disassembled storyline. They reveal a heretofore unknown failsafe plan created by the android to reform the Avengers should they disband or fall in action. It is through this plan that the young Kang assembles his new team, the Young Avengers, with the sole purpose of defeating his future self and reshaping his own future.