Acquiring

Target 06 of 30 · Avengers

Ant-Man

IdentityConfirmed

Real nameScott Lang

CodenameAnt-Man

ContinentAvengers

In DoomsdayPaul Rudd (on Marvel's cast list; role not yet named)¹

First seenAvengers #181, March 1979²

Created byDavid Michelinie, John Byrne²

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Level 1 // The briefDecrypted · 30 seconds

WhoA reformed burglar and electronics engineer who stole a shrinking suit to save his daughter, then was allowed to keep it as the hero Ant-Man.³

AbilitiesA suit that shrinks him to ant size or grows him giant.³

In DoomsdayMarvel lists Paul Rudd in the cast but has not named his role; his most recent released role was Scott Lang / Ant-Man.¹

Last seenAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), as Scott Lang / Ant-Man: Trapped in the Quantum Realm, he and Hope knock Kang the Conqueror into his own engine.⁶

Sources

Level 2 // Surveillance recordOn screen · 5 sightings, 5 in the MCU

Every live-action sighting of Ant-Man, and everything Marvel has confirmed.

2015
Ant-Man MCU
Paul Rudd Fresh out of San Quentin and struggling to stay in his daughter's life, Scott breaks into Hank Pym's house and walks off with the Ant-Man suit. Pym and Hope van Dyne train him for a heist against Darren Cross, who plans to sell his Yellowjacket suit to Hydra. To beat Cross, Scott shrinks into the Quantum Realm and only just makes it back.¹²
2016
Captain America: Civil War MCU
Paul Rudd Clint Barton recruits Scott to Steve Rogers's side in the fight over the Sokovia Accords. At Leipzig-Halle Airport he risks a giant-size growth he had only tested once in a lab, to hold off Iron Man's team. He ends up in the Raft prison until Steve breaks the team out.¹³
2018
Ant-Man and the Wasp MCU
Paul Rudd Days from the end of two years of house arrest, Scott is pulled back in by Hope and Hank, who need him to help rescue Janet van Dyne from the Quantum Realm. He dodges FBI agent Jimmy Woo while they contend with Ghost. In the closing scene he is left stranded in the Quantum Realm when Thanos's snap wipes out his team on the surface.¹⁴
2019
Avengers: Endgame MCU
Paul Rudd A rat stepping on a control panel sets Scott free from the Quantum Realm five years later. He drives to the Avengers Compound with the idea that becomes the Time Heist: use the Quantum Realm to travel back to before Thanos. He goes to 2012 New York to help steal the Tesseract and fights in the final battle against Thanos.¹⁵
2023
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania MCU
Paul Rudd Now a celebrity with a memoir to promote, Scott is dragged into the Quantum Realm with his whole family after a signal from Cassie's new device opens a portal. There they face Kang the Conqueror. Scott pushes Cassie to safety, sabotages Kang's Multiversal Engine Core with Pym Particle discs, and with Hope knocks Kang into the core.¹⁶

What Marvel confirmed

The film. Avengers: Doomsday opens 18 December 2026.⁷

Sources

Level 3 // Deep archiveThe comics · since March 1979

Origin, the comics by era, abilities and recorded feats.

Origin

Scott Lang grew up in Coral Gables, Florida, and trained as an electronics engineer. Repair work could not pay his family's bills, so he turned his skills to burglary. He was caught and sent to prison, and his wife Peggy Rae divorced him while he was inside. Lang kept studying electronics, earned parole for good behavior and landed a job in Stark International's design department. He made his comics debut in exactly that role, as a technician installing equipment at Avengers Mansion in Avengers #181.

One issue later the real story began. His young daughter Cassie was diagnosed with a serious heart condition, and the one surgeon who could help her, Dr. Erica Sondheim, had disappeared. Desperate, Lang broke into Hank Pym's New Jersey home and stole the original Ant-Man suit and helmet. He had no idea that Pym, then working as Yellowjacket, saw the theft and quietly followed him to see what he would do with it.

Lang shrank down to raid Cross Technological Enterprises, where industrialist Darren Cross was holding Sondheim captive to keep his own failing heart going. He freed the doctor and beat Cross, and Cassie's operation was a success. Lang was ready to give back the suit and go back to prison. Instead, Pym let him keep the Ant-Man identity, on one condition: that he use it on the right side of the law.¹²³⁴

The record, by era

1979
Stealing a Legacy Bronze Age debut
Scott first appeared as a Stark technician installing hardware at Avengers Mansion, where Wonder Man confronted him until Tony Stark stepped in. The very next month, by cover date, he was starring in Marvel Premiere, stealing the Ant-Man gear to save his daughter and winning Hank Pym's permission to keep it. A thief who became a hero for his kid gave Ant-Man a working-class heart the first version never had.²³⁴
Key issues: Avengers #181 (1979) · Marvel Premiere #47 (1979) · Marvel Premiere #48 (1979)
1980-1987
Iron Man's Smallest Ally Stark's specialist
Scott's day job at Stark International made him Tony Stark's go-to man for tiny problems. He helped implant a device meant to keep Bruce Banner from turning into the Hulk, and he shrank into the Iron Man armor to save Tony's life. During the Armor Wars he slipped physically into Justin Hammer's computer systems to trace who had bought stolen Stark technology.⁵⁶⁷¹
Key issues: Iron Man #131 (1980) · Iron Man #133 (1980) · Iron Man #225 (1987)
1994-1997
Stand-in Scientist Hired help
When Stane International bought out Stark's company, Scott quit out of loyalty and started his own electronics business. With Reed Richards missing, Tony recommended him to the Fantastic Four as their resident scientist, and Scott and Cassie moved into Four Freedoms Plaza. Later, with many of Earth's heroes believed dead after the battle with Onslaught, he signed on with a revived Heroes for Hire.⁸⁹¹
Key issues: Fantastic Four #384 (1994) · Heroes for Hire #5 (1997)
2003-2004
Avenger at Last Avengers
After years of turning down membership offers so he could put Cassie first, Scott finally joined the Avengers after the war against Kang. The cost showed up quickly. His team life helped his ex-wife win custody, and he clashed constantly with the volatile Jack of Hearts. Their feud ended when Jack gave his life rescuing Cassie from a kidnapper.¹⁰¹¹¹
Key issues: Avengers Vol. 3 #62 (2003) · Avengers Vol. 3 #76 (2004)
2004
The Day the Mansion Fell Avengers Disassembled
Jack of Hearts staggered back into Avengers Mansion. When Scott went out to greet his friend, Jack exploded, taking Scott and part of the building with him. The blast turned out to be the opening move of the Scarlet Witch's breakdown, which tore the team apart. With her father gone, Cassie went on to become the hero Stature in the Young Avengers.¹²¹
Key issues: Avengers #500 (2004)
2011-2012
Rescued From the Blast The Children's Crusade
Traveling through time, the Young Avengers reached the moment before Jack of Hearts detonated and pulled Scott out, so the Avengers of that time believed he had died. The reunion with Cassie did not last: she was killed in battle with Doctor Doom, and Scott, holding his daughter's body, swore revenge on Doom.¹³¹⁴¹⁵¹
Key issues: Avengers: The Children's Crusade #5 (2011) · Avengers: The Children's Crusade #7 (2011) · Avengers: The Children's Crusade #8 (2012)
2013-2014
Leader of the Future Foundation FF
Reed Richards asked a grieving Scott to lead a stand-in Fantastic Four, alongside She-Hulk, Medusa and Darla Deering, while the real team took a trip that was meant to last four minutes. Things went wrong, as they tend to. The run ended with Scott facing Doctor Doom one on one and beating him, refusing Doom's offer to bring Cassie back to life.¹⁶¹⁷¹
Key issues: FF Vol. 2 #1 (2013) · FF Vol. 2 #16 (2014)
2015-2016
The Second-Chance Man Solo series
A spell that briefly flipped Doctor Doom's morals led him to bring Cassie back to life. Scott then followed her to Miami and opened Ant-Man Security Solutions, a firm staffed partly by ex-villains. Darren Cross came after Cassie's heart, and a later rescue mission landed Scott in court with She-Hulk as his lawyer. He walked free, and the story ended with father and daughter working together as Ant-Man and Stinger.¹⁸¹⁹²⁰²¹¹
Key issues: Ant-Man #1 (2015) · Astonishing Ant-Man #1 (2015) · Astonishing Ant-Man #13 (2016)
2017
Mole in the Resistance Secret Empire
With Hydra running the United States, Scott joined the underground resistance, until Hydra captured Cassie and forced him to spy for them. His tip-off led to an attack on the heroes' hidden base, and he confessed almost at once. He made up for it in the final battle by shrinking the Winter Soldier down into the Cosmic Cube so the real Steve Rogers could be restored. Afterward he stowed away with the Guardians of the Galaxy.²²²³¹
Key issues: Secret Empire #6 (2017) · Secret Empire #10 (2017)

Capabilities

Size alteration

Pym Particles let him shrink to about half an inch tall or grow to giant size, and can resize other objects too.¹

Full-size punch when tiny

Shrunk, he keeps his normal mass, so a blow from a half-inch Ant-Man lands like a punch from a full-sized man.¹

Giant-size strength

At large sizes he can lift more than 50 tons and shrug off Doctor Doom's energy blasts.¹

Pym Particle toughness

He learned to tap the strength and durability axes of Pym Particles without changing size, once surviving a point-blank nuclear blast unharmed.¹

Insect command

His cybernetic helmet lets him talk to and direct insects up to about a mile away, sending hundreds of ants against a single foe.¹

Gauntlet blasts

Wrist gauntlets fire bio-electric blasts whose force he can adjust.¹

Engineer and thief

Holds a master's in electrical engineering and could get past and hack advanced security systems even before he had the suit.¹

Source of power

Pym Particles carried in his belt let him shrink or grow, the power at the heart of the Ant-Man suit he stole from Hank Pym.¹

Hank Pym's cybernetic helmet commands insects, and wrist gauntlets fire bio-electric blasts.¹

An electrical engineer with a master's degree and a skilled thief before he ever wore the suit.¹

Recorded feats

comics Stole the Ant-Man suit to save his sick daughter, broke into Cross Technological Enterprises, freed the surgeon held there and beat Darren Cross. Marvel Premiere Vol 1 #47-48 (April-June 1979)³⁴¹
comics Doctor Doom's gauntlet blasts had no effect on him; he crushed the gauntlets and tore Doom's armour apart with his bare hands. FF Vol 2 #16 (March 2014)¹⁷¹
comics Shrank to microscopic size and, guided by Dr. Sondheim, fought his daughter Cassie's white blood cells so her body would accept a new heart. Ant-Man Vol 1 #5 (July 2015)²⁴¹
screen Switched off his suit's regulator and shrank small enough to pass through the titanium of Darren Cross's Yellowjacket suit, disabling it from inside. Ant-Man (2015)²⁵²⁶
screen Grew into Giant-Man mid-battle at Leipzig-Halle Airport, a size he had tested only once, throwing War Machine and ripping the wing off a plane. Captain America: Civil War (2016)²⁷²⁶
screen As Giant-Man in the Battle of Earth he punched a Leviathan out of the sky and crushed Cull Obsidian underfoot. Avengers: Endgame (2019)²⁸²⁶

Notes from the archive

In his second appearance, Scott names his flying ant steeds 'Steed' and 'Emma', a nod to the 1960s British spy series The Avengers rather than the superhero team.⁴
Years before Peggy Rae was introduced, David Michelinie and Bob Layton had planned to reveal that Tony Stark's girlfriend Rae LaCoste was Scott's ex-wife, and to turn her into Madame Masque.¹
Adrien Brody, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Simon Pegg and Ewan McGregor were all in the running for Ant-Man before Paul Rudd got the part.²⁶
Early in the development of Captain America: Civil War, Scott was meant to fight on Iron Man's side, as Hank Pym did in the original comic event. The plan changed as the script evolved.²⁶

Sources