The Sad Fates Of Marvel Super Heroes’ Children

Cassie Lang, daughter of Ant-Man (Scott Lang)

Traumatic events: heart condition as a baby forces dad to become a criminal, killed in action by Doctor Doom as a teenager

Status: Deceased

Kudos to Marvel for figuring out a way to have Cassie serve up torment to her father at both the beginning and end of her life. Born with a heart defect, little Cassandra forced Scott, who had already had some brushes with the law, to return to a life of crime by stealing Hank Pym’s Ant-Man gear. Yes, it was for a good cause, and Pym’s certainly no saint, but still.

She actually grew up to live a fairly trauma-free life, save for being involved in a custody battle between her divorced parents. Oh, and her father was killed by the Scarlet Witch (he got better!). I meant trauma-free other than those two things.

Once her delayed reaction to Pym particles kicked in, she even got to join the Young Avengers as the size-changing heroine known as Stature, but even if you aren’t familiar with Cassie’s history, I think you can tell where this is going now. She gets killed by Doctor Doom while trying to avenge the seeming second death of her father, who wasn’t actually killed this time. You’ve got to love comics.

It’s since been suggested that due to the nature of her death, Cassie might someday be able to pull herself back together as an ionic being like Wonder Man. At this point, that can only lead to further misery, so I hope this doesn’t actually happen.