With a few notable exceptions, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has seemed to stay out of real-world politics. Sure, we can infer what these movies mean or what the characters stand for, but they’re pretty much in their own “universe” outside of our own politics. Then came Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
The first moments we get to spend with Kathryn Newton’s Cassie Lang, she’s in trouble at the police station, and Scott has to come and bail her out—because she was protesting and used her tech to shrink a cop car that she handed back to the cops with the lights on and didn’t do anything to bring it back to normal size. It was her way of, in my opinion, basically saying ACAB in the middle of a Marvel movie, and my god did I love it.
Cassie’s connection to being a “hero” stems from her desire to do what is right, with almost the Steve Rogers complex in it. It’d be so easy to make Cassie just someone who wants to be a hero like her dad. She doesn’t need to have some deeper moral compass guiding her, but in Quantumania, she wants to be a hero because she knows she can help others.
Scott sort of lucked into this life as an Avenger and went on to write books about his time with them. For Cassie, it isn’t about the “heroism” of it all. It’s about helping someone else, and it starts with something as simple as her protesting and messing with the cops in the process. And that’s why this take on her is one of my favorite “introductions” to a new character. Can’t wait to see her and Kamala Khan together.
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Cassie Lang is my hero
I love all of the younger heroes that we’ve been getting in the MCU. Kamala Khan being the hero that she always looked up to? Perfection. Watching Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) grow into her own as the new Hawkeye? Fantastic. And now, adding both Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) and Newton’s take on Cassie Lang to this catalog of amazingly strong female characters just feels like my perfect MCU.
Every time we see a new younger hero, they prove that there are still heroes who want to fight the good fight and protect those around them. Having Cassie on that team and making her moral compass part of the younger Avengers is going to be important.
There is a lot I love about Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, but the thing that I love the most is how Cassie Lang comes to be the hero that many love from the comics. She starts off by fighting back against the idea of the police being in charge, she keeps forcing Scott to think about those who need their help, and she puts her desire to help above everything else. And I love her for it.
I would also steal one of my dad’s suits and take on doing the superhero thing.
(featured image: Marvel Entertainment)
