Quantumania’s Stature Explained: How Ant-Man’s Daughter Became a Young Avenger

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania kicks off the MCU’s Phase 5 with several major introductions. Not only will we see the big screen debuts of both Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror and the inimitable MODOK, but Quantumania is also the first time we’ll see Scott Lang’s daughter Cassie become a superhero. Whether you call her Stature or Stinger, another Young Avenger has emerged in the MCU.

Cassie has been a part of the Marvel Universe almost as long as her father. While we wait for Quantumania to reveal the future of this superhero universe, let’s break down Cassie’s colorful comic book history and her role in the movies so far.

These are the sections we cover here:

• Cassie Lang’s Superhero Origin
• Cassie Lang: Stature or Stinger?
• Stature’s Superhuman Powers
• Stature’s Connection to Kang the Conqueror
• Cassie Lang in the Ant-Man Movies and the MCU

Cassie Lang’s Superhero Origin

Being a superhero often runs in the family in the Marvel Universe, and that’s definitely true for the Lang clan. Cassie Lang was introduced in 1979’s Marvel Premiere #47, appearing shortly after her father Scott inherited the Ant-Man mantle from Hank Pym. Cassie has spent much of her childhood around the likes of the Fantastic Four and Avengers, even if it took her a while to discover her father is the Astonishing Ant-Man.

Unfortunately, her parents’ divorce and her mother and stepfather’s distrust of superheroes have often served to keep Cassie and Scott apart. It didn’t help that Scott was among the Avengers killed by a psychotic Scarlet Witch in 2004’s Avengers Disassembled. But that tragic death also paved the way for Cassie to follow in Scott’s footsteps.

Cassie makes the transition from civilian to superhero in 2005’s Young Avengers. In that series, the time-traveling Iron Lad arrives in the 21st Century to assemble a new team of teenage heroes. While she isn’t initially on his recruitment list, Cassie proves her worth after it becomes apparent her regular exposure to Pym Particles has given her the same size-changing powers as Scott and Hank.

Cassie becomes a regular member of the Young Avengers and joins Iron Man’s 50 State Initiative after the events of 2006’s Civil War. She and her teammates even find a way to undo the events of Disassembled and bring her father back through the power of time travel. Tragically, though, no sooner does Scott return than he’s forced to watch his daughter killed in action fighting Doctor Doom. 

That may have seemed like the end of Cassie’s criminally short superhero tenure, but Doom himself brought her back during a rare moment of guilt. These days, father and daughter have defied the odds to become a true superhero team and a force for good in the Marvel Universe.   

These days, father and daughter have defied the odds to become a true superhero team and a force for good in the Marvel Universe.   

Cassie Lang: Stature or Stinger?

Cassie may be Scott Lang’s daughter, but she’s more like Hank Pym in that she can’t quite seem to settle on one codename. When Cassie first became a costumed hero in Young Avengers, she took the name Stature. But more recently she’s started calling herself Stinger, signifying the fact that she also shares certain abilities with the Wasp.

The switch to the Stinger codename came after Cassie was resurrected by Doom. Death has a habit of changing a person, and it was an uphill battle for Cassie to regain her lost powers and win her parents’ approval to keep putting her life on the line. By the time she returns to active duty, Cassie is no longer the same hero she once was.

With Cassie suiting up for the first time in the MCU in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, it’s unclear which of those two codenames she’ll be using. 

Stature’s Superhuman Powers

As we mentioned, Stature/Stinger has the powers of both Ant-Man and the Wasp at her command. Like her father, she can shrink and grow at will (though sometimes her teenage hormones trigger her powers unexpectedly). She can become as tiny as an ant or expand to become several hundred feet tall. 

Cassie’s suit bestows other useful powers. She can use the suit’s helmet to control insects, and she can also generate energy wings and bioelectric blasts similar to those of the Wasp.

Stature’s Connection to Kang the Conqueror

It’s surely no coincidence that Cassie Lang is making her superhero debut in the same MCU movie that also features the first big screen appearance of Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror. The two characters have an important connection in the comics that could carry over to the MCU.

The Young Avengers were originally spearheaded by Iron Lad. Despite his name and appearance, Iron Lad isn’t connected to Iron Man, but is actually a teenage variant of Kang from the far future. Horrified by the crimes his adult self will commit, this underage Nathaniel Richards travels back to the 21st Century to assemble a team to confront Kang. In the process, he and Cassie wind up falling in love.

Though he kills his older self, Iron Lad realizes he has no choice but to return to the future and fulfill his destiny. But he leaves behind a piece of himself in the form of a rebuilt Vision, whose android mind contains the collective memories of the original Vision and Iron Lad. That Vision eventually christens himself Jonas and continues his romantic relationship with Cassie. At least, that is, until both heroes are killed during the events of Avengers: The Children’s Crusade.

Will that relationship carry over to the MCU? Majors has already played two versions of Kang so far, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see a younger actor take on the Iron Lad role as the Kang web grows more complex. At this point, the MCU has almost every character needed for a proper Young Avengers movie or series.   

Cassie Lang in the Ant-Man Movies and the MCU

The MCU has been slowly introducing the Young Avengers roster for several years, but Cassie Lang was first in line. She’s been a part of the MCU since the Phase 2 days. Cassie originally debuted in 2015’s Ant-Man, where she was played by Abby Ryder Fortson. Fortson reprised the role in 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp, and then Emma Fuhrmann took over the role following the five-year time jump in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Cassie will return in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, this time played by Kathryn Newton. 

Thanks to that convenient time jump in Endgame, Cassie is now old enough to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a superhero. We don’t know where exactly she’ll acquire her new super-suit, but at some point during the course of the sequel she’ll don a purple costume and fight alongside Scott and Janet inside the Quantum Realm. We know that Kang is trying to escape the Quantum Realm and return to the real world, and he’s enlisting Scott’s help with the promise of giving him back the time he missed with Cassie. Scott will surely feel tempted by this Faustian bargain, but will Cassie also be tempted to help Kang in exchange for more time?

Whatever happens in this movie, we have little doubt Quantumania is setting Cassie up for an ongoing role in the MCU. She’s joining other long-time Young Avengers characters like Kate Bishop, Eli Bradley and Wanda Maximoff’s twin sons, Billy and Tommy. It may not happen until after the Multiverse Saga is finished, but it looks like only a matter of time until the Young Avengers make the jump from the comics to the MCU.

For more on the future of the MCU, brush up on every Marvel movie and show in development and what to expect from Marvel in 2023.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.