Attack of the 50 Foot Girl
Cassie: “Trying to help people isn’t dumb.“
Ant-Man and The Wasp
Scott: “Well, I screw it up just about every time.”
Cassie: “So maybe you just need someone watching your back. Like a partner.“
A bank robber climbs a fire escape. The cops nearly caught him, but now he’s five stories up. The pipe bomb he left below means they can’t follow. He aims his gun at the roof access. The pigs won’t get him without a fight. He hears a loud thud and turns. Was that wall always red, black, and bumpy?
“Hey! My eyes are up here, dude!” a booming voice says. Looking up, the crook realizes he’s looking at a giant woman. He raises the gun, but she flicks at him with a finger, throwing him into an AC unit. Gingerly picking him up, she lowers the crook to the waiting police. Stature shrinks down to give her statement to the cops.
Stature isn’t the biggest superhero, but she’s got gigantic potential. She’s the daughter of an Avenger who tries to honor his legacy as part of The Young Avengers. So who is she? How did she get her powers? What is Stature’s connection to one of the Avengers’ greatest foes? Let’s find out.
Scene Select
Shrinking Violet: Stature’s Backstory
Stature: “My father was an Avenger. This was his home. And one weekend a month, it was mine, too. Now he’s dead. And all I have left of him is inside the mansion. So I don’t care who you are…or what powers you have… I’m not leaving without it!”
Young Avengers #2
Stature debuted in Marvel Premiere #47 in 1979. She was created by David Michiline and John Bryne.
Cassandra Lang is the daughter of engineer Scott Lang. She suffered from congenital heart problems, but the only doctor that could fix them had been kidnapped. Scott stole the Ant-Man armor from Stark Industries to rescue the doc and heal his daughter. The Avengers were understanding of his motives and allowed him to become the new Ant-Man as long as he stayed out of trouble.
The Avengers became Cassie’s second family, and she frequently visited their base. They didn’t know that she often played with her father’s Pym Particles, which altered her DNA. Her mother and stepfather disapproved of Cassie spending time with her criminal father and the Avengers, thinking them a bad influence.
Cassie’s life changed when the Scarlet Witch killed Ant-Man during a psychiatric break. The trauma and years of exposure to Pym Particles gave Cassie the ability to sizeshift at will. She briefly considered joining the Runaways to spite her mom and stepdad, but was drawn to the Young Avengers.
The Children’s Crusade: Stature’s History
Stature: “[Wanda’s] the one who made Mutants an endangered species. She’s the one who murdered my dad. And why did she do all that? Because she thought she’d lost her kid. So if we can show her that her sons are alive and well, she can undo it all. All of it. And can reverse the spell, give the Mutants back their powers…and she can bring my dad back to life.”
Avengers: The Children’s Crusade
Stature had a rough career with the Young Avengers. During a battle, she almost crushed her stepfather and fell into a depressive state. She struggled with controlling her powers and missing her father. On the bright side, she found love with her time-traveling teammate, Iron Lad.
The Young Avengers learned two of their members, Wiccan and Speed, were the Scarlet Witch’s reincarnated children. Stature convinced the team to find Wanda in hope of fixing several recent problems. They tracked her to Latveria, where Doctor Doom was trying to steal her reality warping magic. Doom fought the Young Avengers and murdered Stature.
Iron Lad wanted to save Stature with his time machine, but the Young Avengers stopped him to prevent a paradox from damaging the timeline. He considered their refusal to be a betrayal and quit, taking his first steps to becoming one of the Avengers’ deadliest villains: Kang the Conqueror.
Cassie was resurrected by Doctor Doom a few years later. She tried to live a normal life, but was kidnapped so a villain could steal her powers. Becoming powerless upset Cassie, who began working for a villain called The Power Broker to get new powers. Cassie betrayed Power Broker and has begun fighting crime alongside her father as Stinger.
Big Things Come in Small Heroes: Stature’s Powers and Personality
Stature: “I did the best I could. And I’m through apologizing for who and what I am.”
Young Avengers Presents #5
Stature has the power to sizeshift without needing special gear and can reach 250 feet tall although she can only be a giant for a short time without straining herself. Her powers are also tied to her emotions, making Cassie shrink when she’s sad and grow when she’s angry.
Cassie’s Pym Particle-infused heart is the source of her powers. She lost them when her heart was surgically removed by villains and only survived thanks to an emergency transplant. Cassie compensated with the Stinger armor, which lets her sizeshift, command insects, fly, and fire energy blasts. All the best tricks of Ant-Man and The Wasp in one suit.
Stature is a catalyst. She influences other people’s lives through her own story. Cassie has heart problems? Scott becomes Ant-Man to fix them. Stature is killed in battle? She indirectly creates Kang the Conqueror. Doom gets one chance to retcon the universe while a good guy? He resurrects Stature. Her own story is sparse, but Stature is one of Marvel’s most influential heroes.
The Actors Who Play Stature
Colleen O’Shaughnessey – The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes
Laura Bailey – Ant-Man
Abbey Ryder Fortson – Ant-Man, Ant-Man and The Wasp
Emma Fuhrmann – Avengers: Endgame
Kathryn Newton – Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumaina
Didya Get All That?
A small hero with a big role to play
Image: (L-R): Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man, Kathryn Newton as Cassandra “Cassie” Lang, Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne/Wasp in Marvel Studios’ ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.
Jared Bounacos has written for Movie Rewind since 2016.
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