Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang is the underdog superhero known as Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But can the ex-convict truly be considered an Avenger?
In the first Ant-Man film from 2015, Scott is recruited as a professional burglar by Michael Douglas’ Hank Pym, an older scientist who is the original Ant-Man within the MCU. Though Hank performed heroics of his own back in the day — alongside his wife and superhero partner, Michell Pfieffer’s Janet Van Dyne, AKA the Wasp — the Avengers did not exist back then. Instead, Hank worked for S.H.I.E.L.D.
How did Scott Lang become the new Ant-Man?
Once Scott successfully proves his salt by stealing the Ant-Man suit from Hank, the older scientist gives him the suit and declares he is the new Ant-Man. As Ant-Man, Scott saves the day a couple of times in some smaller adventures, with Hope Van Dyne joining him as the new Wasp in 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp. So what is Scott’s status with the Avengers team?
Scott first gets involved with the Captain America: Civil War conflict, siding with Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers. However, the 2016 film still did not see him take on the full-blown status of an Avenger at the time. In fact, it wouldn’t be until 2019’s Avengers: Endgame that Ant-Man gets officially inducted as an Avenger, shortly after he gives the team the idea to use the Quantum Realm to time travel and make an attempt at undoing Thanos’ genocide (this takes place in 2023 in the MCU’s timeline).
How the comics differ from the MCU
In the comics, Scott Lang initially declined an invitation to be part of the Avengers, opting instead to join a new iteration of Heroes for Hire. When that team burned out, Scott finally accepted his invitation to be part of the Avengers. However, he died in battle at the hands of a Scarlet Witch who went insane.
Despite Scott’s daughter, Cassie Lang, going back in time to rescue her father as part of the Young Avengers, that too would end in tragedy. You see, Scott then had to witness Cassie die at the hands of Doctor Doom shortly after he was revived. After that, Scott became a member of the replacement Fantastic Four, known as FF.
When it comes to Hank Pym in the comics, he was one of the founding members of the Avengers. He’s largely remained aligned with them over the years, though he has had periods of going his separate way at times. Hank has also taken on different identities over the years, like Goliath, and Yellow Jacket, the latter of which was the result of gaining a split personality from an experiment gone wrong. Also in the comics, it was Hank who invented Ultron, not Tony Stark.
