Scott LangAnt-Man

Feeling Small

Before becoming a husband and father, Scott Lang used his expertise in electrical engineering to steal from criminals, returning their ill-gotten gains back to the victims they stole from. After marrying Maggie Lang and having daughter Cassie, Scott made a promise to give up his life of thievery. But when he discovered his company, VistaCorp, was stealing money from its customers, he couldn’t stand the injustice. After infiltrating VistaCorp’s headquarters and hacking into the system so he could return the stolen profits, Scott went a step too far, committing a crime that cost him his marriage.

After three years behind bars, Scott Lang was released from jail. However, he couldn’t escape his past as an out-of-work engineer who had resorted to burglary to get even with his unscrupulous ex-employers. Once on the outside, Lang found he couldn’t hold down a job and lost his right to see his daughter. With help from another ex-con, former cellmate Luis, he returned to crime to make ends meet and to help provide child support.

Ant-Man or Can’t Man?

For his first post-jail break-in, Lang chose the home of reclusive scientist Hank Pym, but once inside Pym’s vault, all he found was a strange suit and accompanying helmet. Thinking it might still be worth something, he took the equipment home and quickly discovered the extent of Pym’s work. The suit enabled him to shrink to ant size, and though Pym himself—who had intentionally led Lang to the suit—tried to talk Lang through the experience by way of the helmet, the engineer had enough and attempted to return the gear to its rightful owner. 

Lang might have been able to put the experience behind him, but Pym’s estranged daughter, Hope van Dyne, caught him at the house and had him arrested. Disguised as his lawyer, Hank Pym later visited him in his cell and gave him the suit as a means of escape, an offer Lang accepted. Out from behind bars once more, he also learned of Pym’s former career as a superspy codenamed “Ant-Man.” Pym offered him a job, and Lang accepted, becoming the second man to wear the Ant-Man suit and bear the title.

All Shapes and Sizes

Through the use of Pym Particles, which reduce the space between any object’s molecules, Hank Pym’s special suit allows Lang to shrink down to the size of an ant. Risking great danger to himself, Ant-Man can shrink so small that he can move between molecules themselves in the Quantum Realm, which proves to be an unstable and unpredictable process. 

The Ant-Man suit protects the wearer from damage, and its helmet grants communication and some control over ants and other similar insects. Though the Ant-Man suit doesn’t have a built-in flying mechanism, Scott is able to communicate with ants using a device in the helmet that sends pheromones into the ants’ olfactory nerve centers. This gives him a friendly “command” over ants, which allows him to ride on them while they fly for faster travel.

While in his miniature form, Ant-Man still retains his full-sized strength and endurance. When he returns to full size, a momentary shockwave allows Scott to hit an opponent with an enhanced strike. While small, Ant-Man's density and strength allow him to jump great distances at great speeds so that he can barrel at his foes like a bullet.

Ant-Man can also use the suit’s Pym Particles to make himself grow into a giant, reaching a record maximum height of 65 feet. Though the process also increases his strength to the point where he can lift and crush vehicles, it’s a physically taxing power that Scott can only maintain for a short while, leaving him exhausted and in need of recuperation afterward.

Ant-Man carries Pym Particle Discs, small discs that can cause objects to either shrink or enlarge upon contact, turning the most innocuous objects into potential distractions or weapons.

Ant-Trails

Hank Pym’s first task for his new Ant-Man was to send him out to retrieve valuable information on Darren Cross and his new “Yellowjacket” suit, suspiciously similar to Pym’s own technology. At this same time, Hope van Dyne expressed her unhappiness over the choice of Lang, as she wanted to wear the suit herself to prove her capabilities to her father. In the end, van Dyne helped train Lang in both the suit’s abilities and how to fight.  

Agreeing to don the Ant-Man suit and to aid Hank Pym in retrieving his tech, Scott trained with Hank and Hope so that he could expertly use the suit’s powers and utilize the shrinking ability in combat. Scott recognized that Hank and Hope’s relationship was strained due to the loss of Hope’s mother, Janet, decades earlier while she and Hank were on a mission to save the U.S. as the original Ant-Man and Wasp. In order to stop a missile, Janet had shrunk herself down so small that she entered the Quantum Realm and never returned. 

For the final heist puzzle piece, Scott was then sent to steal a signal decoy from an old Stark Industries facility, not knowing that Tony had recently transformed the facility into Avengers Headquarters. Scott, as Ant-Man, scuffled with Falcon, making off with the signal decoy. 

Hank’s Heist

Learning that Cross had beefed up security at Pym Technologies, Scott brought Luis, Kurt, and Dave in to help with the plan. His friends enabled him to infiltrate the facility just as Cross was about to sell the Pym Particle–powered Yellowjacket suit to Hydra. During a confrontation, Cross shot Hank and took off inside the Yellowjacket suit, causing Scott to pursue him and pit Pym tech against Cross tech.

Never Cross a Yellowjacket

When Scott Lang stumbled into Hank Pym’s war with his former lab assistant Darren Cross, he quickly created an enemy of his own in the process. Cross saw himself as a man able to crush the original Ant-Man as well as any new recruits, but he underestimated Lang’s tenacity and cleverness when he made the big mistake to threaten a little girl with a father who’d move the world for her.

The duel eventually led to young Cassie’s bedroom where, in order to save his daughter, Scott did the unthinkable and shrank himself down to subatomic size so that he could destroy Cross and the Yellowjacket suit. Cassie’s voice, as she called out for her dad, shook Scott out of his Quantum Realm trance and allowed him to think fast enough to escape. Once Scott was out, Hank was astonished that he was able to return, making Hank wonder if Janet was also still alive in the Quantum Realm. 

Later, Lang enjoyed being welcomed back into his ex-wife’s home and life to visit with Cassie. He also formed a relationship with Hope van Dyne, Pym’s daughter, and while they had met under less than perfect conditions, the two seemed to be falling for each other. 

Lang viewed Hank Pym as a mentor and father figure, appreciating the scientist’s belief in him when everyone else seemed to hold him in disdain and distrust. For Pym, Lang was his way to continue Ant-Man’s legacy and help him right the wrongs he sees around him. 

I Know a Guy

Falcon, in the meantime, was impressed enough by Ant-Man to recommend him to Captain America. When the star-spangled hero went rogue, he needed to put together a team to protect his friend Bucky Barnes from Iron Man and the Avengers. Lang agreed to join the group of fugitive heroes and flew off to an airport in Berlin, Germany. Though one of the last to catch up with the group, he stood alongside the fugitive heroes during a tense standoff between Rogers and Stark.

In battle, Ant-Man surprised his opponents by seemingly appearing out of nowhere and even retrieving Rogers’ famous shield from a wisecracking Spider-Man. He also held his own versus the Black Widow, shrunk and enlarged a truck to be used as a weapon, and rode an arrow to get closer to Iron Man and infiltrate his armor. In the epic clash of heroes, Ant-Man used his Pym Particles to grow to giant size and dominate the battlefield. This allowed Rogers and Barnes to escape but also set Ant-Man up for a big fall when Spider-Man webbed up his legs to bring him crashing down to the tarmac.

Scott Lang and his newfound allies Falcon, Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye were subsequently arrested and incarcerated on the U.S. government’s high-security, water-borne prison, the Raft. With Captain America’s actions deemed treasonous, Cap’s entire team was apprehended and confined to the Raft. Captain America wound up breaking in and freeing his helpers, but because Scott didn’t want to live the life of a fugitive away from his daughter, he returned home and took a deal that placed him on house arrest for two years.

Small Circle

Cassie Lang, Scott Lang’s young daughter, is his entire world, and everything he does he does for her. After Scott saved Cassie’s life during his first real mission as Ant-Man, Maggie opened the door for him to more actively help raise her. Lang’s heroic actions in turn mended fences with Maggie’s fiancé, police officer Jim Paxton, who previously had been hostile and suspicious toward the ex-con. All of Cassie’s parental figures remained on friendly terms. 

Ex-cons Luis, Kurt, and Dave act as a support crew for Scott Lang and provided real aid to him while he learned the ropes as Ant-Man. Their respective skills may be what landed them all behind bars, but they learned to utilize them in a more positive way as allies of a bona fide Super Hero.

House Arrest

Scott and Hope’s budding romance never quite took off, and due to Scott’s ordeal in Berlin, and because he had used Hank’s Ant-Man suit, Hank was now a fugitive from the law. Part of Scott’s plea deal stated that he was no longer allowed to contact Hank or Hope. Any violation of his house arrest or subsequent probation would land him back in prison for a very long time.

Playing it super safe so as not to jeopardize his future with Cassie, Scott stayed put in his house for two years, occupying himself by reading, learning the drums, and becoming skilled at close-up magic. He was frequently visited by Jimmy Woo, an FBI agent convinced that Lang was poised to run out on Avengers business at any given moment and who was determined to catch Lang in any escape attempt.

Meanwhile, his friends Luis, Kurt, and Dave planned on Scott joining them in a security consultation business when it came time for him to leave his home. The only thing off-kilter in his life was the fact that Janet van Dyne had been contacting him in his dreams. Because Lang had been in the Quantum Realm himself, he had now formed a psychic connection to Janet. 

Helping Hope

Days before he was due to finish serving his house arrest, Lang was involuntarily sprung from his home by Hope. Taken to a mobile, shrinkable lab that she and Hank used to hide from the world, Lang learned that Hank had built a portal to the Quantum Realm to use for a rescue mission to locate and bring back Janet. Scott was torn because he wanted to help Hank but risked violating the terms of his house arrest. Though he was only days away from his freedom, Lang agreed to assist them in getting one final component for the portal. 

During the meeting to obtain the piece from a black-market dealer named Sonny Burch, Hope found it necessary to don the Wasp suit and fight Sonny’s goons in order to make a clean break with the tech. Hope’s victory was abruptly cut short by Ghost, who arrived on the scene with the power to phase through objects and took the piece for herself—along with Hank’s miniature mobile lab. 

The Goliath Behind the Ghost

Scott, Hank, and Hope visited Hank’s former S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague Bill Foster to ask about possible ways to track Hank’s lab. Barely overcoming the bad blood between Bill and Hank, the team was able to track Hank’s lab to Ghost’s lair. But when they arrived, Ghost subdued them. She revealed that she was the daughter of Hank’s former partner, Elihas Starr, and was rendered unstable on a molecular level after a Quantum Portal lab accident killed her father and mother. Ghost, who was cared for by Bill Foster since the accident, told Hank that she needed Janet’s quantum energy to heal her own body before she died.

After escaping Ghost’s base, Scott, Hank, and Hope faced a race against time that involved outwitting the FBI, thwarting Sonny Burch and his gang, evading Ghost, and making sure the mobile lab was safe and secure during the only window Hank could use to enter the Quantum Realm and rescue Janet. 

Chased through the streets of San Francisco, Scott turned giant so he could enter the bay and nab Sonny on a ferry, retrieving the mini lab so that it could be enlarged and Hank could exit the Quantum Realm with his long-lost wife. Once free from her subatomic prison, Janet was able to heal Ghost’s worsening condition with one touch, stabilizing her with quantum energy. 

Back in a Snap

Scott made it back home in time to prove to FBI Agent Jimmy Woo that he’d never left his house. Once free from house arrest, he went to work with Luis and the others at X-Con Security Consultants, which was now getting a lot of business due to Luis appearing on TV for busting Sonny’s operation.

After the excitement died down, Scott assisted Hank, Hope, and Janet on a rooftop, using a portable Quantum Portal to harness more energy to heal Ghost. Scott shrank himself down to subatomic level and entered the portal, but when it was time to return, there was no one on the other side to help him. The other three had been erased from the world after Thanos used the Infinity Stones to wipe out half of all existence.

Back from the Quantum Realm

How do you pass the time in the Quantum Realm for five years? Luckily for Scott, five years only felt like five hours. Upon returning back to this world, he learned the extent of Thanos’ destruction. Not only had half a decade had passed, but half the population was gone. Fearing the worst for his daughter, Scott rushed off to look for Cassie. He found her, now older and taller, and the two had a tearful family reunion.

This is when Scott realized that time had passed differently for him the Quantum Realm. Driving the X-Con van across the country, he sought out the rest of the Avengers, realizing he could help reverse Thaos' terrible events. Scott explained to Black Widow and Captain America that they could use the Quantum Realm to go back in time in order to stop the Mad Titan.

A Time Heist Is Born

The three of them headed off to talk to Tony Stark, who was no longer working as an active Avenger. While Tony was willing to hear out Scott’s “Time Heist” plan, he declined to help them. The three returned back to the Avengers compound to try to figure out time travel for themselves. 

Attempt to master time travel did not go well for Scott and Hulk. Using the Quantum Portal in the X-Con van, Hulk accidentally turned Scott into a baby, a teenager, and an old man before bringing him back as his regular self. Losing confidence in the viability of his plan, Scott’s bad luck streak continued when the ship carrying Nebula and Rocket arrived at the compound and blew away his taco.

Despite declining Lang’s idea at first, Tony Stark couldn’t shake his desire to see it through. After another successful journey back in time by Hawkeye, the Avengers renewed their hopes in time travel and actually began planning the Time Heist. 

A Trip Back to 2012

It was decided that Scott—along with Tony, Steve, and Bruce—would travel back to 2012 to retrieve the Time Stone, the Mind Stone, and the Space Stone, aka the Tesseract. Ant-Man and Iron Man suited up and successfully managed to get the Tesseract in hand. Unfortunately, they were blocked at the last moment by an upset Hulk and tricked by the mischievous Loki, who escaped with the Tesseract. 

Furious at themselves for failing, Iron Man and Captain America resolved to travel further back in time to 1970, although Ant-Man raised concerns about their having enough Pym Particles to travel back home to the present.

Giant Steps

When the Infinity Stones were collected, Tony placed them into a new Nano Gauntlet, which Hulk put on. With Hulk’s snap, he was able to undo all of Thanos’ destruction. Scott was the first to realize that there was suddenly a surge of life on Earth. However, the celebration was short-lived, as moments later, Thanos from 2014 arrived and stormed the Avengers compound, momentarily incapacitating the heroes. 

With War Machine and Rocket trapped under the rubble of the compound, Scott sized up into Giant-Man and successfully brought them to the surface to rejoin fighting with the rest of the Avengers. While still Giant-Man, he was able to punch a Chitauri ship, completely removing it from the battle. 

Scott was also reunited with Hope, who fought alongside the rest of the Avengers as Wasp. The two tried to find and use the Quantum Portal in the back of the X-Con van, but it was buried under too much rubble while they were being attacked by Thanos’ forces. Nevertheless, they were able to aid the Avengers to victory, though at a terrible cost to the team.

Following the battle at the Avengers compound, and after attending Tony Stark’s funeral, Scott returned home to be with Hope and Cassie. The three of them sat together on the front steps of their home, watching the fireworks above them.