Cassandra Langhas been making appearancesin theMarvel Cinematic Universe(MCU) as early asAnt-Man(2015). Scott’s daughter looks up to him, even before he becomes an Avenger and saves the world. But Scott was stuck in the Quantum Realm for what would translate to five years. We only see his daughter for a brief moment inThe Avengers: Endgame(2019), but it is clear that Cassie has mourned her father and is shocked at his return.
InAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania(2023), we are going to see Cassie’s first look as a superhero, following in thefootsteps of her fatheras well as Hope Van Dyne, the second Wasp. While Cassandra Lang has previously been played by Abby Ryder Forston (Ant-Man andAnt-Man and the Wasp(2018)) and Emma Fuhrmann (Avengers: Endgame), this time, she will beportrayed by Kathryn Newton. Here, we are going to look back at the source material to see what this young character could bring from her many stories in the comic books, be it her time with family or as a member of a certain superhero team.
A New Generation
The legacy of Ant-Man had already seen multiple generations, though never linked by blood. The first Ant-Man was Hank Pym, the creator of the Pym Particles, which granted the hero his size-changing abilities. The second Ant-Man would be Scott Lang, a man who had initially stolen the Ant-Man suit to free a doctor from jail to save Cassie’s life from congenital heart disease. The third Ant-Man would be Eric O’Grady, a man who has since adopted the moniker Black Ant, forgoing super heroics and instead looking to mercenary work for a profit.
While Cassie would never take on the Ant-Man mantle, she would learn she had been affected by repeated exposure to Pym Particles, gaining the ability to shrink and grow without the need for a suit. Taking on the codename, Stature, Cassie would have to learn to master her emotions in order to keep control of her size.
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Throughout Phase 4 of the MCU, we’ve been getting teases of a team that will be comprised of the next generation of heroes. We’ve already been introduced to heroes that are synonymous with the Young Avengers, such as Kate Bishop, America Chavez, Speed, and Wiccan (though they presently don’t exist in the main timeline), as well as teases of a young Loki and a U.S Patriot (though again these characters were either killed off or originated from a separate timeline).
Cassie was initially dissuaded from joining the team in the comics but would become an integral member after discovering her powers, and would often prove to be the heart of the group, keeping them all united in times of stress. Even when Cassie lost her powers, she would take on the codename Stinger and continue to work alongside her friends and her father to help save the world from dire threats, even if some came from within the team.
A Connection to Kang
The person responsible for bringing the Young Avengers together would be theyoung hero known as Iron Lad. While this young man would take inspiration from Iron Man, it would be revealed that this was actually one of manyvariants of Kang the Conqueror. Fearing that he would one day become the Conqueror, Iron Lad recruited the team, hoping to put a stop to the terrible future that awaited.
In the Young Avengers story arcs, Iron Lad and Cassie would begin to have a romantic attraction to one another and grow closer as time went on. So close that when Cassie is killed by Dr. Doom (an event that would later be undone by more time-travel tampering), Iron Lad declares his intent to alter the past to save her at any cost, killing Vision when he opposes the plan. Despite the warnings that this path would lead him to become Kang, he declares he would be better than Kang, as Iron Lad would save the ones he loves.
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A Stinger of Stature
As discussed previously, in the comics, Cassiewould be known as Staturebefore taking on the identity of Stinger. As Stature, she could alter her size at will, though not until after she mastered her emotions, as, at times, a burst of anger would cause her to grow while sinking feelings of guilt would cause her to shrink. It wouldn’t be until she became the victim of an involuntary heart transplant that Cassie would lose her size-altering powers and have to become reliant on a suit like her father.
Along with the suit’s access to Pym Particles, as Stinger, Cassie would gain access to a helmet similar to her father’s that would allow her to communicate with insects, as well as synthetic wings that enable her to fly, similar to Wasp. This is the design that is featured in the film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, though there is still potential for Cassie’s connections to the Young Avengers and Kang to crop up down the road.
