Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is now in theaters - and Scott Lang's daughter Cassie Lang experiences quite a lot of superhero drama in her first outing..
Cassie's central role in Quantumania makes perfect sense. In comics, just as in the MCU, Cassie has been Scott Lang's guiding light since she first inspired him to become Ant-Man - with Scott also providing Cassie's own inspiration to later become a superhero.
Who is Cassie Lang?
Cassandra 'Cassie' Lang has been a part of her father Scott Lang's career as Ant-Man since he first put on the suit and shrunk down way back in 1979's Marvel Premiere #47 - though she didn't become a hero herself till years after her initial debut.
In comic books, Lang originally became Ant-Man after stealing Hank Pym's original costume as part of a scheme to steal enough money to afford treatments for a condition that was affecting Cassie, a pre-teen at the time.
When Pym discovered the reason behind Lang's theft of the suit and came to know Lang as a noble, if flawed, person, he let Lang keep the suit, officially embracing him as his successor as Ant-Man.
In the years after becoming Ant-Man, Lang was associated with both the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, while also operating as a superhero on his own - and through it all, Cassie was part of his life.
Then, in the 2004 story Avengers Disassembled, Scott Lang is killed along with several other Avengers when the Scarlet Witch suffers a mental breakdown and begins violently altering reality around her.
In the wake of Avengers Disassembled, the Avengers disband, as the title implies, leaving a void in the Marvel Universe where Earth's Mightiest Heroes once stood. As a result, several young heroes inspired by the original Avengers come together to form the Young Avengers - including a now-teenage Cassie Lang.
Cassie Lang as Stature
As it turns out, years of exposure to Pym Particles thanks to her dad's career as Ant-Man left Cassie with the inherent power to change size, which she used to become the giant-size growing hero named Stature.
As a founding Young Avenger, Stature formed an instant bond with Iron Lad, a teenage incarnation of the villainous Kang who became a superhero in the present day to prevent his future self from growing into Kang the Conqueror and his other variants. A budding romance blossomed between the two teen heroes - but as is the way of comics, tragedy struck.
Kang himself arrived in the present day to take Iron Lad back to his own timeline - a sacrifice the young hero was forced to make to save the team - leaving Cassie heartbroken.
And sadly, there was more tragedy to come for Cassie.
In the 2010 story Avengers: The Children's Crusade, Young Avengers Wiccan and Speed guide their team on a quest to find their missing mother, the Scarlet Witch. In the course of the story, the Young Avengers discover she's been under the magical control of Doctor Doom, and it's his influence that caused her to lash out back in Avengers Disassembled.
In the confrontation with Doom, the Young Avengers' old ally (and Cassie Lang's first love) Iron Lad shows up, using his time travel tech to save Scott Lang from the moment of his death and bring him to the present, effectively reviving him. But the reunion between Cassie and her dad doesn't last long, as Cassie herself is struck down by Doom, dying just as her father once did.
Later, in the 2014 story Avengers & X-Men: AXIS, the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe have their morality altered to act in the polar opposite way each of them normally would (meaning superheroes went bad and supervillains good) - leading Doom to seek repentance for killing Cassie Lang by using his magical abilities to erase the moment of her death from the timeline.
Cassie Lang as Stinger
Once again, Cassie is reunited with her father - but this time it's for good. Though it takes a little while due to the loss of her inherent size-changing abilities, Cassie eventually becomes a superhero again using Pym Particles and a special suit, just like Ant-Man.
However, rather than returning to her former identity of Stature, she becomes a shrinking hero partially inspired by Janet Van Dyne, the original Wasp.
Donning a purple costume with a helmet and wings (not unlike the suit Cassie Lang is seen wearing in the Quantumania trailer), Cassie takes up the name Stinger, becoming her father's sidekick in the 2018 title Astonishing Ant-Man.
Interestingly enough, through the magic of comic books and the Marvel Multiverse, Cassie Lang's superhero identity as Stinger actually technically predates her becoming Stature.
In the late '90s, Marvel launched an alt-universe line of comics featuring the children of the Avengers and other heroes under the name MC2, including the introduction of an older Cassie Lang as Stinger.
That name and its accompanying theme were later brought to the mainstream Marvel Universe for the resurrected Cassie Lang, and she's still using it now.
Cassie Lang in the MCU
Cassie Lang has been a part of the MCU since 2015's Ant-Man, and unlike many characters, just as in comics she's been allowed to grow up before our eyes - though that also means she's been recast a few times, with Kathryn Newton set to portray her in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Though she hasn't shown powers in her previous appearances in Ant-Man and 2018's Ant-Man and the Wasp, the MCU Cassie has been in on her dad's life as Ant-Man almost since it began, just like in comics. And Ant-Man and the Wasp did include dialogue between Scott and the pre-Avengers: Endgame five-year-jump grammar school Cassie that hinted at a superhero partnership in the future.
Now in 2023's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, it looks like she'll finally inherit her father's legacy as a superhero, with a central role in the plot that takes her whole family into the Quantum Realm. That said, we still don't know if she'll be Stinger (as we can likely presume) or if she'll take on her previous codename of Stature.
One other thing we're not sure of yet - but you can best believe we're keeping an eye on - is how or if she'll meet up with the other Young Avengers who have come to the MCU so far, including Wiccan and Speed, AKA Vision and Scarlet Witch's sons Billy and Tommy; The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's Eli Bradley, who has yet to become the Captain America inspired Patriot; Kid Loki (seen briefly in Loki Season 1); Hawkeye's Kate Bishop, who is already a fully formed hero under the tutelage of Clint Barton; and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' teen hero America Chavez.
And that's not even mentioning teen heroes Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel and Riri Williams/Ironheart, who haven't been Young Avengers in comics but have been part of Marvel's other modern teen team the Champions.
And then there is Hulk's son Skaar, surprised-introduced very briefly in the Disney Plus She-Hulk finale. Skaar has never been on either teen team but Marvel Studios is putting a lot of younger, second-generation characters on the MCU chessboard, seemingly for a reason.
Whatever direction Cassie and her powers take after Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, we're betting that she's sticking around for some kind of Young Avengers story - at least, here's hoping anyway.
The Young Avengers are one of the best teen superhero teams of all time.
