From joining the Mighty Avengers to falling into Wonderland, there's a whole lot that Cassie Lang — also known as Stature — has done and seen in the Marvel comics universe.
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00:00From joining the mighty Avengers to falling into Wonderland, there's a whole lot that
00:04Cassie Lange, also known as Stature, has done and seen in the Marvel Comics universe.
00:11Many Marvel moviegoers learned about Cassie Lange in the first Ant-Man film, in which
00:16her father Scott had to rescue her from the villainous Yellow Jacket.
00:19I want my daddy.
00:22I want your daddy, too.
00:28Marvel comic fans may also know that Cassie's alter ego, Stature, is a relatively modern
00:33creation of Marvel Comics, debuting in 2005's Young Avengers 6.
00:39Despite what you might think, though, Cassie herself is no newcomer.
00:43She made her first appearance all the way back in 1979's Marvel premiere, 47.
00:48In the issue, Cassie Lange makes her debut alongside her father Scott, who makes his
00:53own first appearance as the second Ant-Man.
00:56Unlike the first Ant-Man film, in which Scott steals the Ant-Man suit because he can't hold
01:00down a job, comics Ant-Man turns to a life of crime to try to make money to fix Cassie's
01:05heart defect.
01:06When he learns that the only doctor who can save her is being held hostage by Darren Cross,
01:11he steals Henry Pym's old super suit to save Dr. Sondheim and cure his daughter's ailment.
01:17After Lange becomes the new Ant-Man full-time, he inadvertently leaves Cassie with superpowers
01:22of her own.
01:23It's later discovered that constant exposure to the Pym particles that power the Ant-Man
01:28suit gives Cassie her father's ability to change in size, without the need for any special
01:33equipment.
01:35Ant-Man himself has gone by a few different names, and so too has Cassie Lange.
01:40Stature is just one of a few superhero names that she's adopted over the years.
01:44She was briefly nicknamed Ant-Girl after her father, too.
01:48However, Cassie also has another super identity, Stinger.
01:52The first version of Stinger doesn't exist in the main Marvel Universe, Earth-616.
01:58Even longtime readers may not remember that Cassie's Stinger persona has its own origins
02:03in the MC2 universe, Earth-982, as seen in the pages of A-Next, number 1.
02:10There, she fights as a member of a future offshoot Avengers team.
02:14More than a decade after that appearance, Cassie Lange would officially take the name
02:18Stinger in the main Marvel Universe.
02:21This occurs after an incident in which she is kidnapped by Darren Cross, and has her
02:26heart stolen, leaving her without her powers.
02:29Desperate to regain them, Cassie resorts to extreme measures, making a deal with a villainous
02:33power broker for a suit that will restore her shrinking powers.
02:38As Stinger, she dons her purple jumpsuit and classic Ant-Man helmet, giving Cassie the
02:43iconic wasp look, complete with bug-like wings.
02:47Human superheroes need best friends, and comics history has given us plenty of buddy
02:51pairings, from Superman and Batman to Spider-Man and the Human Torch.
02:56Cassie Lange has her own superhero bestie, Hawkeye, her teammate and the leader of the
03:01Young Avengers.
03:02We're not talking about Clint Barton, but his protégé, the teenaged Kate Bishop, who
03:07took up the name and title of the avenging archer in the mid-2000s.
03:12While Lange and Bishop have had romances with different superhero teammates over the years,
03:17they always took solace in each other's friendship as BFFs.
03:20More than just superhero colleagues, Kate and Cassie support each other through good
03:24times and bad.
03:26When Cassie has her powers taken away, it's Kate who comes to her side to remind her that
03:30she doesn't need superpowers to be special or to be a hero, something she can personally
03:35attest to as the non-powered Hawkeye.
03:37Being a hero isn't just for people who can fly or shoot lasers out of their hands, it's
03:42for anyone.
03:44Given the pair's history in the comics, it's fair to speculate that their friendship could
03:47find its way to live action now that both are heroes in the MCU.
03:53Those familiar with Cassie Lange's stature probably know that she was one of the earliest
03:57members of the Young Avengers.
03:59First appearing in the mid-2000s, the group has become one of the most popular teams of
04:03young heroes in Marvel Comics, much more than a mere collection of sidekicks.
04:08However, the Young Avengers aren't the only team that Cassie Lange has been a part of
04:13during her colorful history as a hero.
04:15During Marvel's Civil War storyline, Stature is rescued by the Resistance and fights on
04:20Captain America's secret Avengers team.
04:22However, she's also one of the earliest members to defect, quitting the team in Civil War
04:274 after becoming disillusioned at the prospect of fighting other heroes.
04:33When S.H.I.E.L.D. teams up with Iron Man to establish officially sanctioned superhero
04:37groups for every state, Stature is one of their first recruits.
04:41Later in The Mighty Avengers Number 21, the reappearance of the Scarlet Witch spurs Stature
04:47and the newly reborn Vision to join the reassembled Mighty Avengers team, although it's later
04:52revealed that the person they thought was Wanda Maximoff was actually Loki in disguise.
04:59In Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania, Cassie Lange and her father square off against the
05:04most diabolical villain the MCU has ever produced, Kang the Conqueror.
05:09As odd as it may sound, the teenaged Cassie Lange was actually romantically involved with
05:14Kang for a time in the comics.
05:16Well, sort of.
05:17This connection comes from Cassie's time with the Young Avengers, where one of her teammates
05:22was a new character known as Iron Lad.
05:25While initially introduced as a mystery hero who some speculated might be related to Iron
05:29Man, it is eventually revealed that he is actually a time-displaced, younger version
05:34of the temporal despot Kang.
05:37For a story in Young Avengers Number 5 in which the youthful Iron Lad kills Kang, a
05:41future version of himself, he is forced to return to his proper place in the time stream.
05:47Before he does, he gives Cassie a kiss and programs his armor to become a new version
05:52of the former Avengers hero Vision, and gives it both his and the Vision's memories.
05:57Eventually, this new, somewhat more naive and vaguely younger-looking version of the
06:02Vision begins a new romance with stature, rekindled thanks to his memories of being
06:08Iron Lad.
06:10Kang the Conqueror wasn't the only Marvel supervillain that Cassie Lange had eyes for.
06:14It seems her attraction to enemies of the Avengers is something of a pattern.
06:18However, like her relationship with Iron Lad, who wasn't quite Kang, her love for another
06:24one of Marvel's evil tyrants isn't quite what it seems.
06:28In this case, she was smitten with Christoph Vernard, the young ward of Dr. Doom, who would
06:33eventually take up the mantle of the Lotverian dictator himself.
06:37You'd be forgiven if that name doesn't ring any bells, as many of Vernard's appearances
06:41were in the 80s and 90s, when he was still a child.
06:45Initially, he comes into Doom's care after his parents are killed in a violent revolution.
06:50After the real Doom is apparently killed, Vernard is brainwashed by Doombots in Fantastic
06:55Four, number 278, leading him to believe that he is Dr. Doom.
07:00After being defeated by the Fantastic Four, the team takes the child to live with them,
07:05and that's where he meets the young Cassie Lange.
07:07A childhood crush soon develops between them.
07:10It's hardly a true romance, but an alternate future offers a glimpse of what their relationship
07:15could have been.
07:16In the MC2 universe, Vernard, now a heroic Dr. Doom, and Cassie have an adult romance
07:22in the pages of Fantastic Five, number 5, where they do some pretty passionate lip-locking.
07:29Cassie Lange doesn't seem to have many longtime enemies or rivals in the first two Ant-Man
07:34movies, except maybe Agent Wu.
07:36Why can't you just leave my daddy alone?
07:39Oh, Cassie.
07:41In the comics, though, her long history has left her with bad blood for several major
07:46characters.
07:47There's one notable bitter enemy of hers that might surprise you, Wanda Maximoff, better
07:52known as the Scarlet Witch.
07:54While the two haven't met on-screen yet, they were well-acquainted in the Marvel Comics
07:58continuity.
07:59Wanda was a longtime co-worker of Cassie's father before she sparked a few company-wide
08:04events in the 1998 issue of The Avengers that left Cassie holding a serious grudge.
08:10In Avengers number 500, a hero known as Jack of Hearts, who had been dead for some time,
08:16returns unexpectedly.
08:18He kills Scott Lang in a scheme orchestrated by Wanda, who has begun to lose her grip on
08:22reality, while others are able to forgive Wanda, as she is revealed to have been mind-controlled.
08:28Cassie never does.
08:31As Stature, Cassie Lange has the power to grow to tremendous size, much like her father.
08:36This gives her the ability to take on some of the strongest villains around, and even
08:40some fellow heroes during the Civil War storyline.
08:44However, even after the Civil War ends and Stature joins the 50-State Initiative, she
08:49has one last hero-on-hero fight when she clashes with her father's Ant-Man replacement, Eric
08:55O'Grady.
08:56This happens at Camp Hammond, when the Initiative is training new recruits, including Stature.
09:02In Avengers The Initiative number 8, O'Grady begins mocking the previous Ant-Man to impress
09:08Taskmaster, pushing Cassie over the edge.
09:12Grown to giant size, she calls out her father's replacement, and he super-sizes himself, unwilling
09:17to back down.
09:19What follows is a brutal hand-to-hand fight between skyscraper-sized heroes.
09:24Unfortunately, the more experienced O'Grady comes out on top.
09:28Years later, Cassie gets a kind of revenge from Ant-Man number 3.
09:32There, Black Ant, a villainous life-model decoy posing as Eric O'Grady, briefly takes
09:38her hostage.
09:39In the ensuing fight, Black Ant is no match for Cassie, who grows to a massive size and
09:44squishes him with the palm of her hand.
09:48After Scott Lang is killed through the machinations of the Scarlet Witch during the Avengers'
09:52disassembled storyline, Cassie is inconsolable, though she would eventually find solace and
09:57family with the young Avengers in the ensuing years.
10:01She never lets go of the bitterness she feels after the death of her father.
10:05However, Cassie gets a second chance with the help of Iron Lad, who takes her and a
10:09group of Avengers back through time to try and restore Wanda Maximoff to her old self.
10:15Finding themselves back in the past before the death of her father, Cassie is compelled
10:20to whisk him away into the future before he can meet an untimely demise.
10:25This leaves the Avengers of the past to believe that Scott has been killed by Jack of Hearts.
10:30As a result, history remains unchanged, but Scott returns to the land of the living in
10:34the present day, where he and Cassie get another chance to be a family.
10:39In some ways, this storyline shares similarities to Cassie and Scott's relationship in the
10:43MCU, where Scott reunites with his older, more mature daughter after returning from
10:48five years in the Quantum Realm.
10:50"-Cassie."
10:51"-Dad."
10:53"-Dad."
10:55Sandwiched between massive crossovers, House of M and Avengers vs. X-Men, Avengers The
11:01Children's Crusade sees the resurrection of Scott Lang lead almost directly to Cassie's
11:06own demise.
11:07After the time-traveling adventure to restore Scarlet Witch, momentary ally Dr. Doom winds
11:13up stealing Wanda's reality-warping abilities.
11:16Armed with some of the most incredible powers he's ever wielded, Doom attempts to force
11:21the X-Men and the Avengers to join him in his quest for ultimate domination.
11:25As you might expect, the two groups can't reach an agreement, and the Avengers find
11:29themselves engaged in battle with a supercharged Dr. Doom.
11:33Stature attempts to take on Doom directly in Avengers Children's Crusade number eight,
11:38but it's far from a fair fight.
11:40He ends up killing her on the spot.
11:42Though her father seeks revenge, it is Doom himself who returns Cassie to life.
11:47A subsequent story in the pages of Avengers World, number 16, sees several major Marvel
11:53foes turn good, and Dr. Doom hopes to right his previous wrongs.
11:58Chief among them is the death of Stature, which he chooses to be the one and only action
12:02he reverses, thanks to the help of Scarlet Witch's power.
12:07Stinger isn't the only variant of Stature we've seen in a parallel world.
12:11There's also the Cassie of the Ultimate Universe, Earth-1610.
12:16While originally launched to be a more realistic version of the mainline Marvel Universe, Ultimate
12:21also got increasingly wacky over time.
12:24When they brought in Scott Lang, for example, he was introduced as part of an entire team
12:29of giant men.
12:30And Cassie was a member of their Giant Woman Brigade, appearing first in Ultimate Comics'
12:35Ultimates, number 17, in 2012.
12:38This version of Cassie joins up with S.H.I.E.L.D. alongside her father.
12:42She has quite a few adventures of her own, though.
12:44She was once mind-controlled by Thor's villainous son, Modi, and she eventually joins a new
12:50Ultimates team that took on the appropriately named Dark Ultimates.
12:55If you're looking for the weirdest version of Cassie Lang in the Marvel multiverse, sit
12:59down and listen to this tale.
13:01Specifically, Marvel Fairy Tales.
13:04Written by C.B.
13:05Cebulski, this short series introduced readers to Marvelized versions of famous stories and
13:10folklore.
13:11In Avengers Fairy Tales number four from 2008, we find Marvel characters populating
13:17a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, while Avengers Fairy Tales number one explores the world
13:22of Peter Pan.
13:24There's also Avengers Fairy Tales number three, a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, that stars
13:29none other than Cassie Lang.
13:31In this version of the Lewis Carroll tale, illustrated by Takeshi Miyazawa, Cassie takes
13:36the role of Alice, while the other members of the young Avengers team of that era play
13:41various roles in the story.
13:42It begins with Stature's shrinking ability sending her tumbling into the same kind of
13:47rabbit hole as in the original book, bringing her to Wonderland.
13:50There, she finds Patriot and Hawkeye taking on the roles of the King and Queen, while
13:55Tigra is the Cheshire Cat, Wiccan is the March Hare, and Hulkling is the Mad Hatter.
14:01Even Scott Lang pops up as the Caterpillar, in what is easily one of the weirdest takes
14:06on the Marvel heroes you'll ever see.