The trailers for Avengers: Doomsday have so far teased not only a big showdown between the Avengers and the X-Men but also Doctor Doom himself using his sorcery to control the rusted remains of the mutant-slaying Sentinels. While some of these Avengers have faced off against killing machines before with Ultron, they might need some extra help with these towering metal behemoths.
Marvel Comics revealed a new Doomsday-inspired comic book variant cover for issue #5 of Avengers: Armageddon by artist Leonel Castellani. It depicts the Avengers and X-Men fighting against Doctor Doom and his Sentinels. However, one member of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes sticks out: Ant-Man.
Throughout the trailers for Doomsday, Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang has had the least screen time among the heroes. But looking at the background of this variant cover, fans finally see him getting into the fray, shifting into his Giant-Man form, and ready to go ham on a Sentinel.
Aside from Chris Hemsworth’s Thor Odinson, dual-wielding both Stormbreaker and Mjolnir, fans noticed that the heroes of Earth-616 lack their biggest guns from Avengers: Endgame, but Ant-Man growing 65 feet tall certainly helps even the odds against Doom’s army of Sentinels.
Getting a closer look, the variant cover for Avengers: Armageddon #5 shows a giant-sized Ant-Man charging at a damaged Sentinel as he narrowly avoids getting blasted with one of its powerful chest lasers.
It also gives fans another look at Scott Lang’s new Ant-Man costume, thankfully ditching the overly designed outfit from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and returning to a more simplified fit akin to Endgame.
Considering that Scott Lang went toe-to-toe with multiple Chitauri Le knocking the head off some barely functioning Sentinels should be a cake walk for the ant-themed Avenger
Will Ant-Man Get Squashed in Doomsday?
While Scott’s Giant-Man form is powerful, it comes with some detrimental drawbacks, as explained in Scott Lang’s in-universe memoir. Maintaining the form “takes a big toll on the human body,” not to mention that he gets far slower in his new size, which led to his defeat at the hands of Spider-Man, War Machine, and Iron Man in Captain America: Civil War.
Bigger isn’t always better, especially if it makes you a larger target, and your franchise has hit a rut with two of your major co-stars, Evangeline Lilly and Michael Douglas (both retiring from acting). As it stands, Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang has become expendable, especially when he has someone waiting in the wings to replace him.
While the Sentinels might not give him trouble, Doctor Doom would, particularly if the Latverian dictator sees him as ar Earth-616 superhero who has any significant power. Doom killing him would show audiences that he’s a credible threat and doing what Kang couldn’t in Quantumania
Scott Lang’s death could also lend more credence to Secret Wars adapting parts of Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, since it and his subsequent revival were a major part of the story’s climax.
Years before The Children’s Crusade happened, when Scarlet Witch lost her mind with grief in Avengers Disassemble, she reanimated the corpse of another hero. This hero was Jack of Hearts, who blew himself up, taking the Avengers Mansion and Scott Lang with him. After his death, Cassie Lang wanted to honor her father’s legacy by becoming a superhero in his stead and eventually joined the Young Avengers.
During The Children’s Crusade, the teenage superheroes rescued an amnesiac Wanda Maximoff from marrying Victor von Doom. After escaping the sorcerer by traveling to the past, the young heroes realized they had traveled back to the moment Cassie’s father died. Through their timely intervention, the team managed to save the second Ant-Man.
Of course, this story also ended with Cassie Lang’s death when she fought a Doctor Doom empowered by Wanda’s magic, something that’s commonly theorized to happen in the conclusion of the Multiverse Saga.
Doomsday and Secret Wars might not follow The Children’s Crusade exactly, but all the pieces are in place to align with most of it. However, it’s unlikely that Scott’s daughter will be the one to bite it, at least, not for long.
