I'm not going anywhere. 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!
As Cassie became older she wanted to become a hero just like her father. With Ant-Man for a dad, Cassie was able to encounter the world's greatest heroes on a frequent basis. Scott's time as an engineer for the Fantastic Four brought Cassie to the team's then headquarters of Four Freedom's Plaza. In the spectacular environment Cassie once called home, she forged a strong friendship with Kristoff Vernard, the former ward of Doctor Doom. For the time they shared a home with the Fantastic Four, Cassie helped Kristoff adjust to life outside of Doom's castle, and she developed something of a crush on the boy.
When the Fantastic Four went missing and Scott found himself without a job, he found employment at Oracle, Inc. with the Heroes for Hire. It was while working with the Heroes for Hire that Cassie had further adventures, accidentally activating the Super-Adaptoid, and receiving horrifying visions of things to come. The H4H easily defeated the Adaptoid, and Cassie's participation in these dark events helped her father and his allies defeat the Master in a battle for the fate of the Earth itself.
After the divorce of her parents, Cassie's father joined the Avengers. Cassie spent much of her time with her father living in Avengers Mansion. She loved and admired her father, and formed strong relationship with his colleagues (she even referred to Tony Stark as "Uncle Tony").[2] Unbeknownst to anyone, Cassie used this time to secretly expose herself to Pym Particles, in hopes that she could be a superhero like her father.[3]
However, when Cassie's mother Peggy remarried, she and her new husband, Blake Burdick, continued to harbor a growing resentment towards superhuman heroes and worry for Cassie's safety. Peggy was able to obtain a court ruling limiting Scott's time with Cassie to supervised visits.
Cassie went through a traumatic experience during this time, being kidnapped and held hostage with the looming threat of violence from a deranged individual hanging over her head. Scott arrived in time to save Cassie, and nearly took the life of the crazed man who had taken Cassie from her school. Her father's teammate Jack of Hearts had followed closely behind his fellow Avenger, unwilling to let Scott make a fatal mistake before Cassie's very eyes. Jack did the avenging for Scott, and did so at the cost of his own life.[4]
Death of Scott Lang
Having felt responsible for Jack of Heart's death, Scott ran out to greet his fallen comrade when he inexplicably landed on the Avengers Mansion grounds. Scott was incinerated when Jack suddenly exploded, leaving some skeletal remains of Ant-Man in the newly formed crater. The Avengers lost a great deal during the coming hours, leading to the apparent end of the team itself. Cassie Lang was left without the love and support of her father. He was her parent, her inspiration, her hero and more. The man who had meant so much to her had died. Cassie was very saddened by her father's death, but as one hero would leave this world, another would take his place.[5][6]
After Scott's death, Cassie began living with her mother and step-father. Tensions were high, and Cassie constantly fought her mother. One night Cassie planned to leave home and join the Runaways. However, that same night Cassie learned about the Young Avengers.[7] Intent on joining them, Cassie sought out Kate Bishop, the young woman rescued by the Young Avengers. Together the paired went to the Avengers Mansion and found the four teen boys called Iron Lad, Patriot, Hulkling and Asgardian. An argument soon erupted about Young Avengers membership, and Cassie began to grow at an alarming rate to everyone's surprise, including Cassie's.[8]Captain America, Iron Man and Jessica Jones arrived to quell the argument and help Cassie.[3]
While alone in the Avengers Mansion, Cassie confided to Tony that she had been secretly taking Pym Particles for years, and Tony told her the truth about her father's murder. Not long afterward, the Mansion was attacked by Kang the Conqueror.[3] During the battle both Cassie and Kate joined in, and a brief romance sparked between Cassie and Iron Lad. After defeating Kang and saving the world, Cassie and Kate remained on as permanent members.[9]
Captain America and Iron Man ordered the team to dispand and refused to train them. However, Kate used some of her family's money and connection to procure a new lair, costumes and weapons for the team. Although codenames like "Ant-Girl" and "Titan" were suggested, Cassie adopted the title Stature.[10]
After deciding to continue her life as a superhero, Cassie's stepfather and mother began suspect that she is secretly Stature. Later, Jessica Jones confirmed Cassie's dual identity to her mother in an effort to stop the Young Avengers.[11] Despite her mother and stepfather's objections, Cassie remained with the Young Avengers helping to avert a new Kree-Skrull War, rescue Speed and battle the Zodiac.[12][13]
Civil War
During the Superhero Civil War, Cassie originally sided with the other Young Avengers in rebelling against the Registration Act.[14] When Goliath was killed by a clone of Thor and her teammate Wiccan captured by Iron Man, Cassie decided to leave Captain America's side. She cited her reasons as being a desire to fight villains rather than cops and other heroes.[15]
Cassie later he joined the Initiative and began training at Camp Hammond, Connecticut.[16] During her time at Camp Hammond, Cassie met her father's successor Eric O'Grady, the new Ant-Man. O'Grady made several disparaging remarks about her father, not realizing that she was within earshot. This caused a literally giant-sized brawl between the two. Henry Pym grew to his giant size to quickly intervened. Taskmaster used the distraction to attack, but after a brief brawl, O'Grady and Cassie was able to reconcile.[17]
After journeying around the world, Vision arrived at Camp Hammond disguised as Tony Stark to visit Cassie. in order to take her out on a date. Vision confesses that he shares Iron Lad's attraction to her, and hopes that she can love him. Cassie is unsure of her situation, but open to the possibility.[18]
Cassie once accidentally injures her stepfather Blake, while stopping the Growing Man. Her guilt causes her to shrink and the other Young Avengers attempt to snap her out of it before she shrinks into non-existence. 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 understands the risks as a policeman.[13]
When Stature and Vision received an ominous message from Wiccan, they arrived at the Avengers Mansion to find the other Young Avengers apparently turned to stone. However, Loki, disguised as The Scarlet Witch appeared to whisk them away and offer them positions on her new Mighty Avengers.[21]
For a time, Stature and Vision split their time between both Mighty Avengers and Young Avengers.
During the Siege of Asgard, the Young Avengers joined the battlefield alongside all the heroes available. Stature and Vision assisted the Mighty Avengers,[22] while the other Young Avengers helped elsewhere.[23]
The Children's Crusade
After Wiccan's powers overloaded and the Avengers decided to keep him under observation, the other Young Avnegers broke Wiccan out of holding and began the search for the Scarlet Witch. Accompanied by Magneto and Quicksilver, the team travelled to Transia and then to Latveria before discovering a depowered and amnesiac Wanda engaged to Doctor Doom. The rediscovery of Wanda did not go unnoticed though, as the Avengers soon arrived on the scene. A battle with Doom's Doombot army soon broken out and was only stopped by the arrival of Iron Lad.[24]
Iron Lad took the Young Avengers and Wanda into the timestream in an attempt to regroup and restore Wanda's memories. The group arrived at the Avengers Mansion, shortly before the Scarlet Witch originally killed some of her fellow Avengers. Cassie used this opportunity to save her father's life from Jack of Hearts. This trip was successful in restoring all of Wanda's powers and memories. Returning to the present Avengers Mansion, Wanda and the Young Avengers were met by BeastJessica Jones and Hawkeye. Scarlet Witch regaining her memories
With Wanda's memories restored, she desired to make amends for M-Day, but was unsure how. To determine if she could repower any mutants, a volunteer was needs: Rictor from X-Factor Investigations. Wanda was successful in restoring his powers, but the celebration was cut short by the arrival of both the Avengers and the X-Men.[25]
With tensions high, a brawl broke out between the Avengers, Young Avengers, X-Factor and X-Men over the custody and fate of the Scarlet Witch, forcing Wanda to put everyone asleep in an attempt to quell the fighting. Next with the Young Avengers, Wanda returned to Doom in Latveria to regain her reality warping powers. However, during the ritual to restore her powers, Patriot intervened and Doom betrayed them stealing the power for himself.[26]
Armed with the reality warping powers, Doom returned to New York City to offer the Avengers and X-Men a choice: join him or perish. During the ensuing battle, Doom's powers were overloaded and depleted. Unfortunately, Stature gave her life to defeat Doom.[27]
Iron Lad proposed saving Stature by traveling into the timestream, but Vision refused, resulting in his destruction at the hands of Iron Lad. Although Wiccan warned of the danger of becoming Kang the Conqueror, Iron Lad left with the intent of altering the timestream to suit his will and promising he would be much better than Kang.[28]
In the aftermath of the battle, the Young Avengers disbanded and remained low profile for sometime until Captain America officially inducted all the remaining Young Avengers (Hawkeye, Hulkling, Speed and Wiccan) as full-fledged Avengers, and a memorial to Stature and Vison was unveiled.[28]
Stature was born as a normal human without any superpowers, but through intentional, repeated exposure to Pym Particles,[3] she gain the following abilities:
Size Reduction: Stature possessed the power to reduce herself to the size of an ant, approximately one-half inch in height.
Size Addition: Stature possessed the power to increase size to gigantic heights, requiring the rapid acquisition of body mass (presumably from an extradimensional source). This extra mass fortifies all of her cellular tissue, including her bones and muscles, enabling her to support her increased weight and giving her superhuman strength and durability.
The exact limits of Stature's abilities were not undetermined. It appeared to be linked to her emotional state, as her anger has caused her to increase on a few several occasions,[8][2] and guilt caused her to shrink.[13][2]
Stature's costume is made of unstable molecules, allowing it to grow and shrink along with her. It appears to be based largely on her father's uniform. Rather than the insect-controlling helmet of her father and his predecessor, Cassie wears a domino mask.
Cassie applied 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.[32]
According to solicitation text for the second issue of the new volume of She-Hulk, Cassie was to be known as Titan rather than Stature. It is unknown the reason behind the change, although speculation leans towards too great a similarity to a competing teen team title from DC Comics.