Ant-Man's daughter Cassie Lang is introduced to the Marvel Universe as the ill daughter of
Scott Lang. Her congenital heart condition forces her father to steal
Hank Pym's Ant-Man equipment and Pym Particles, which he uses to rescue Doctor Sondheim, the only doctor able to cure Cassie's condition, from
Cross Technological Enterprises. After the divorce of her parents, Cassie lives for most of her childhood with her father, whom she loves and admires greatly. Although Scott tries his best to keep his superhero life secret, Cassie gradually finds out that he is Ant-Man, and secretly experiments with his Pym Particle supplies on her own. She is fascinated by her father's life as a superhero, and generally has a good relationship with her father's colleagues; when she was younger, she even called Tony Stark "Uncle Tony." Scott's time as an engineer for the
Fantastic Four brings Cassie to the team's then-headquarters of
Four Freedoms Plaza. In the spectacular environment Cassie calls home, she forges a strong friendship with the former ward of
Doctor Doom,
Kristoff Vernard. During the time they share a home with the Fantastic Four, Cassie helps Kristoff adjust to life outside of Doom's castle, and she develops a
crush on him. It is also during this time that she meets her father in his Ant-Man identity, and confesses that she had known about it for a long time. After the Fantastic Four go missing and Cassie's father finds himself without a job, Scott takes employment at Oracle, Inc. with the
Heroes for Hire (H4H). While working with the Heroes for Hire, Cassie has further adventures, accidentally activating the
Super-Adaptoid and receiving horrifying visions of things to come. The H4H easily defeated Super-Adaptoid, and Cassie's participation in these dark events help her father and his allies defeat
Master of the World in a battle for the fate of the Earth. All of these adventures give Cassie a taste for the action-filled life of a superhero, but it causes her mother
Peggy Rae to take sole custody from Scott. As a result of Cassie being kept away from her father Scott, she grows more and more bitter toward her mother, and even more so toward her stepfather Blake Burdick. As a police officer, he cannot stand the world of superheroes the young girl loves, and he unsuccessfully tries to keep Cassie and Scott apart. For years, Cassie visits her father whenever possible, much to her mother and stepfather's chagrin, until the events of "
Avengers Disassembled," when Scott is killed due to the actions of an insane
Scarlet Witch. Cassie retreats into herself, blaming Blake for being unable to understand her as her father always did. Blake tries unsuccessfully to be a caring stepfather, despite being sometimes distant toward her, seeing his stepdaughter as a "less than brilliant" girl. Some time after her father's death, and after another confrontation with her mother and stepfather, Cassie decides to run away to Los Angeles to join the
Runaways, but after seeing the "Young Avengers" on television just before leaving, she subsequently changes her plans, as she later tells
Jessica Jones.
Young Avengers Special'' #1 (December 2005). Art by
Neal Adams.
Iron Lad, a younger version of classic Avengers foe
Kang the Conqueror, desperate for help against his future self after learning what he will become, uses the
Vision's database to track and recruit young superpowered individuals connected to the Avengers' history; however, Cassie Lang is not one of the individuals on the list. Wishing to join the Young Avengers, she and
Kate Bishop meet the young heroes at the Avengers Mansion; when they refuse to let them join or to let her take her father's gear, she angrily rebukes them, only to discover much to her own shock that by doing so she had increased her size. She later confesses that she had repeatedly stolen
Pym particles from her father for years, but until then it seemed they never had any effect on her. Cassie later displays the ability to also shrink. Iron Lad assures her that if Vision had known she had developed powers, she would have been part of his plans for the Young Avengers, thus accepting her as a teammate; she then takes part in the battle against Kang, which ends in the villain's defeat. However, as the altered timeline causes several of them to disappear, Iron Lad realizes that he must return to his own time and accept the fact that he will become Kang, much to Cassie's sorrow, as she had fallen in love with him. While
Captain America and
Iron Man order the team to disband, both Cassie and Kate refuse and convince the others to keep the team active; after initially considering
Ant-Girl or
Giant-Girl, she ultimately adopts the codename
Stature, along with a new costume based on her father's. Despite this, she feels guilty when overhearing her mother and stepfather discussing the possibility of her being a member of the team, also showing that rage or guilt make her respectively grow or shrink, metaphorically reflecting her being a
shrinking violet about her family issues. After deciding to continue her life as a superhero, Cassie overhears her stepfather talking to her mother. They suspect that she is secretly Stature, but refuse to believe it. Later, Jessica Jones talks to Cassie's mother and confirms Cassie's dual identity. Cassie's mother is overwhelmed by this news and begs Jessica not to tell her husband about this due to his hatred of superheroes; she also worries that although Cassie was cured of her heart condition, her heart might not be able to handle the strain of continuous size-changing. When Jessica Jones asks Cassie if there is not even a small part of her wishing for a normal life, Cassie replies, "Ms. Jones, my dad was Ant-Man. I never had a normal life." In the
Civil War limited series, Cassie, along with her fellow Young Avengers, join Captain America's resistance to the
Superhero Registration Act; she and the rest of her team stay at a
safe house, while
Nick Fury arranges new secret identities for them. During this time, she participates in a rescue effort, which turns out to be a trap laid by Iron Man: during the subsequent battle,
Goliath is killed by a
clone of
Thor and her teammate
Wiccan is captured. Afterwards, Cassie opts to leave Captain America's side and to register, citing her reasons as wishing to fight villains rather than cops and other heroes.
The Initiative Cassie Lang joins the
Initiative, as a trainee. Along with fellow Initiative members
Dusk,
Tigra,
Silverclaw, and
Araña, she is ensnared by the
Puppet Master. Although she (along with the others) is mentally controlled into fighting
Ms. Marvel, she is eventually freed from the mind control. Her time at
Camp Hammond brings her in to contact with her father's successor as Ant-Man:
Eric O'Grady. O'Grady makes several disparaging remarks about her father, not realizing that she is within earshot; this causes a literally giant-sized brawl between the two as both grow to their giant forms. After O'Grady picks up a bus and hits Lang with it,
Hank Pym intervenes.
Taskmaster breaks up the fight by attacking their now giant-sized
Achilles tendons, bringing all three crashing to the ground. Later, the
Vision visits Cassie, disguising himself as Tony Stark to take her out on a date. After fighting off an attempt by
A.I.M. to steal the Vision, he confesses that because he was programmed based on Iron Lad's mental patterns, he shares Iron Lad's attraction to her, and hopes that she can love him; Cassie is unsure, but does not reject him, telling him to give her time to sort things out. Cassie accidentally injures her stepfather Blake while stopping the
Growing Man. Her guilt causes her to continue shrinking down, and the other Young Avengers attempt to snap her out of it before she shrinks into non-existence. With the help of
Patriot, she comes to terms with the responsibilities and risks of her position as part of the Young Avengers and the Initiative, reasoning that Blake also faces the risks as a policeman.
Secret Invasion Stature fights against the
Skrull invasion of Manhattan as part of the Initiative. She grows larger than the Skrull Yellowjacket and punches him out.
Dark Reign In the aftermath of the Skrull invasion, Cassie Lang leaves the Initiative at the start of the
Dark Reign storyline and rejoins the Young Avengers. Cassie and Vision (now seemingly in a relationship) fly to the Avengers Mansion ruins, having been summoned by Wiccan with warnings of a great magical threat. After finding their teammates turned to stone, they encounter the Scarlet Witch transporting them away to be a part of the
Mighty Avengers, led by Hank Pym. Despite her evident and vocal distrust of Scarlet Witch, whom she holds responsible for her father's death, she remains on the team. During a confrontation with the Fantastic Four for a device of the late Bill Foster, she refuses to participate in the attack and instead warns them about what was really happening, citing her reluctance to fight those she feels are like family to her. Eventually, Cassie's distrust of Scarlet Witch leads her to expose her as
Loki in disguise. While part of the team, Lang also fights a demi-god at
Mount Wundagore and a homicidal ancient
Inhuman.
Norman Osborn later mounts a
full-scale attack on
Asgard. Teaming up with the rest of the Mighty Avengers one last time, Cassie and Vision help stop the Thunderbolts from delivering Odin's Spear (an Asgardian weapon of virtually limitless power) to the Iron Patriot; in the battle, she also fights the new Ant-Man again.
Heroic Age At some point, Cassie applies for a babysitter job with
Jessica Jones and
Luke Cage, though more in the hope of eventually finding her way into the ranks of the
New Avengers rather than any dedication to babysitting itself; she is dismissed in favor of
Squirrel Girl.
The Children's Crusade and death When Wiccan's uncontrolled magical energy nearly kills several members of the
Sons of the Serpent, the Avengers begin to fear that he might become another Scarlet Witch; they explain to the Young Avengers how the Scarlet Witch went insane after the loss of her twin boys, resulting in the death of the original Vision and Scott Lang, and rendering nearly all of the world's mutants powerless. When Wiccan feels unsure about what to do, Cassie suggests that they try to find the Scarlet Witch, believing that if they can show her that her children are alive, she may be able to reverse everything she has done, including her father's death. During the team's search in Latveria, Cassie is reunited with Iron Lad, and, when he takes the team back to the period of
Avengers Disassembled, she is able to bring her father forward in time to the present, avoiding his original death from the attack by
Jack of Hearts. After she manifests her powers in front of him, Scott tells her he's proud of her. After the Scarlet Witch is found, Doctor Doom steals her powers and fights the combined forces of the Avengers and X-Men. As Doom seemingly kills her father (who actually managed to shrink down and escape with minor wounds), a distraught Cassie charges the super-powered dictator, gaining time for Scarlet Witch and Wiccan to prepare a joint spell to remove his new powers; however, Doom retaliates by blasting Cassie with an explosive spell, killing her. Although Iron Lad offers to take her into the future to save her, his offer is rejected by the other Young Avengers, as it is more in line with what Kang would do than what an Avenger should do.
Resurrection During the
AXIS storyline, Doctor Doom is transformed into a more heroic, altruistic form as a result of the battle with the
Red Skull that involved a spell that inverted heroes and villains' personalities. Seeking redemption for his past crimes, but only able to draw on enough power to alter one key event, Doom chooses to use that power to resurrect Cassie. She is then seen tearfully reuniting with her father and his new girlfriend Darla Deering. In the
Ant-Man ongoing series, she is shown living a normal life as a middle-school student. Worried that Scott's lifestyle and actions might attract more danger to her, Cassie's mother decides to relocate to
Miami despite Cassie's reluctance. Scott nonetheless decides to relocate there as well to stay near his daughter. She is later kidnapped by
Crossfire on behalf of
Augustine Cross, who believes that Cassie's Pym Particle-irradiated heart can sustain his father
Darren Cross's sickly body. After Cassie's heart is removed and transplanted into Cross, Dr. Sondheim transplants another heart into Cassie's body to make sure she survives. A now depowered Cassie struggles with her everyday activities, while feeling frustrated by her current status; feeling resentful over Scott's seeming disappearance, she is later shocked and outraged to find out that he was secretly following her around, watching over her. One day, she is reunited with Kate, who has found out about her resurrection; despite her lack of powers, she follows her friend to a
Secret Empire hideout, but almost gets killed, which further fuels her frustration, despite Kate's assurances. However, Cassie ultimately decides to turn to the new
Power Broker to regain her powers; although he realizes that she has no intention of actually becoming a supervillain, he tells her about Darren Cross having stolen her heart and that her father hid it from her. Power Broker offers a deal, in which he will grant her wish if she infiltrates Cross' base to shut him down; Cassie accepts, and adopts the new codename
Stinger. When Scott learns about her disappearance, he rushes to help her, but ends up captured in her place; however, Cassie manages to get his crew to help him escape. In the end, though, because of Darla's show, they end up discovered by the police; to protect his daughter, Scott takes the blame and claims he kidnapped and forced her to help him. Cassie captures Power Broker shortly after her father's arrest. When Cassie finally confesses to her mother what she did, Peggy takes her to the trial, where they are attacked by Darren Cross, Crossfire, and
Egghead. Cassie rushes to help her father, and the two make amends during the fight, which ends with Cassie defeating Cross. Cassie's mother is called as the final prosecution witness, but surprisingly she declares that Scott was innocent, as he always looked after Cassie and has always been her hero, admitting that he took the blame for what she did; this allowed Scott to be acquitted. Afterward, Cassie finally receives her mother's blessing as a superhero, and joins her father as a new crimefighting duo. ==Powers and abilities==