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Looking back: Cassie Lang in Children's Crusade

Today I will be looking back at the role of Cassie "Stature" Lang in Children's Crusade. Spoilers and some analysis to follow. (Some of these pics have been posted here before. I'm just putting them together.)

I'll start off by saying this mini is incredibly frustrating. Because by and large, this is truly Billy's story. Cassie does at least get an arc (which is more than I can say for some characters) but her arc is seemingly also seems to be misunderstood. Cassie is accused of being wishy-washy or stringing the Vision along. That's actually not true.

There are some real problems with this mini that I'll get to later as well. And it seems that a lot of people overlook these problems because of the Billy and Teddy kiss (which is great, by the way. Good on Marvel for finally showing the boys kissing.)
So we begin with Billy freaking out and the Avengers all getting concerned that Billy is going to act like Wanda did in Avengers Disassembled and House of M. They try to quarantine him (along with Teddy) but the YA bust him out and try to find the root of the problem.

(I'll add that Cassie's character has always been consistent on one front since her introduction. She is a total daddy's girl.)

So Magneto approaches the kids and offers his assistance in helping find Wanda. Billy creates "disguises" for everyone. And Cassie has a conversation with her boyfriend, the Vision, that foreshadows the rest of the mini (which most people didn't notice at the time because this damn thing was released so slowly.)

(I'd like to add that it seems like Cassie and Vision have taken some steps back. This is because while Heinberg was clearly intending to do something with the Stature/Vision/Iron Lad set-up, it was really handled by other writers in an attempt to make it seem like the YA story was continuing. Eli and Kate suffer the same problem of their relationship going backwards but nobody notices because Eli and Kate don't really do anything in this mini.)

Cassie's subplot is put on the backburner until Iron Lad arrives a few issues later.
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Iron Lad then takes the YA (and the amnesiac Wanda) into the timestream.

(I love Iron Lad's troll face.)

And yes, it does seem like Cassie is being really inconsiderate to the Vision's feelings. This is later shown not to be the case. But for now, Cassie sees something else that attracts all her attention.

(You would think Scott would notice that his daughter is a little older now.

And yes, it does look like Cassie is downplaying the Vision. Trust me, she actually isn't.)

Jack of Hearts shows up to fill his role in Disassembled and Cassie tells everybody to run. Scott asks what is going on and Cassie says if they don't die, she'll tell him.

So thanks to Wanda reclaiming her memory, she reverts everyone (including Scott) back to the "present." Wanda freaks out and wants to kill herself while Billy just wants a chance to talk to her (there's also a cute bit where Scott talks to his ex, Jessica Jones. But that isn't really important.)

This is at least the third reference made to Cassie dying in this mini. The first was the conversation between her and Vision in #2. She made a similar reference to this one when they all ran away from Jack of Hearts. And then there's this one. It isn't exactly subtle in retrospect, which is a real problem in Heinberg's writing and something people really would have picked up on if this damn thing didn't take so long to come out.

(I'd also like to point out that ever since they rescue Scott, Cassie is never really far from him. And when they are separated, she really doesn't do anything but watch what is going on around her. She would totally choose Scott over Iron Lad or the Vision. Total daddy's girl.)

So after a hug between Wanda and Billy, Wanda calms down. She wants to repower the mutants and Doom comes back into the plot and there's a lot of tension between the X-Men and the Avengers and "AvX" is totally happening soon and blah, blah, blah.

But we're at a rather big moment for Cassie. And this is a very important and very overlooked moment. Most of the super heroes have been momentarily knocked out, except for the YA.

Cassie actually lets Iron Lad down gently. She chooses the Vision over him. (Although I still say she'd choose her father over the both of 'em.) Still, it's a nice moment that is often overlooked (understandable with Cassie's impending demise.) And it's always nice when Vision isn't treated like a machine. (Except he totally is in the last issue.)

(Also, people may accuse me of being crazy but... Iron Lad didn't have a bad plan. Use the time machine and give yourself all the prep time you need to handle super giant god-mode Doom? That's just smart. The problem is that when your characters have this kind of story-breaker power, you have to find a way out. But they didn't even try. They should have had Iron Lad's time travel tech stop functioning, like when they ran into Jack of Hearts earlier, until Doom was defeated. That way he can just suggest they run and the YA can refuse, saying they won't abandon the Avengers or the X-Men.)

So Doom comes back all big and god-like and attacks Scott Lang, seemingly killing him. Cassie gets pissed.

Because Cassie distracted him, Doom is defeated by Billy and Wanda.

(At least Cassie got to throw a punch before they stuffed her into the fridge.)

(This image would be a lot more emotional if it didn't look like Scott was copping a feel of his dead teenage daughter.)

So everybody cries that Cassie is dead (and then nobody mentions it because the release schedule for this mini was so horrible and by that point everything was all "AvX") and Iron Lad wants to take Cassie into the timestream to find a doctor who can revive her. Vision tries to say it is too late and Iron Lad just freaks out on him and says Vision is a carbon copy of him and Cassie only loved Vision because he was a stand-in. Tommy, Eli and Billy try to pull Iron Lad away but he just brushes them off and fries Vision.

(Billy is a far better person than I because I would be freaking out if I just witnessed one friend murder another on top of the death of another friend.)

So Billy tries to convince Iron Lad not to go into the timestream because this is the moment he becomes Kang The Conquerer. Iron Lad states he will be better than Kang and takes off. (Cassie's death is seemingly now Kang's motivation. How unoriginal. Kang was much cooler when his origin was he was just bored and wanted to conquer for the hell of it.)

Everybody cries. Wanda turns down Avengers membership (that didn't last) and states that she wants to find some things out for herself and not be defined as Magneto's daughter or Quicksilver's sister for awhile. Then we don't see her until AvX where she was apparently living with her brother. (Okay, she beats up MODOK too and the rebuilt old Vision tells her off after Carol Danvers asks her to rejoin the Avengers.)

Back to the story. All of the Young Avengers are so despondent they just quit (and Eli moves away). Billy sinks into a deep depression until Teddy gives him a rousing speech about how he loves Billy too much to see him wallow in despair and maybe sorta "proposes" to him. They then kiss. (The one bright spot in this otherwise very bleak issue.) Then Carol Danvers, still in one of her Ms. Marvel phases, invites the boys to the mansion along with Kate and Tommy and Cap tells them that he thinks they are Avengers and shows off the memorial statues of Stature and Vision joining the Ant-Man statue with Scott Lang in attendance. (This would be really emotional if Cap hadn't already given his blessings to the kids. In stories that Heinberg himself wrote.)

So what are the odds that Cassie will actually come back? Pretty decent, I'd guess (or I could just be hoping because I liked the character).. Probably not anytime soon, unfortunately. But it's not like the first member of a team who dies never gets to come back. Still, if/when they do bring her back, it'll be a very different world than the one she knew.
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Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm really hoping to see Cassie revived somehow (yes, I know been there done that but hey it's comics). I know there's an upcoming Ant-Man movie and all and that's probably the reason they brought back Scott Lang (which I was happy about) but I actually think Cassie is a more interesting than her father was - especially her relationships to the older heroes (how many people call Hank Pym "Uncle Hank) and her feelings about being a super-hero (something she took seriously).

Yeah, after the last issue came out I saw all these people online who were super happy with it and I was like, um, did you read it? I mean, yeah, it was nice that Billy and Teddy kissed, but that's ignoring how very freaking depressing the rest of the book was. Cassie's confirmed for dead, Vision's dead, Eli's retired, Billy spends a fair amount of time in a serious depression. I feel like the kiss overshadowed all the horrible stuff that happened in the rest of the book.

Cassie'll be back, though. I mean, she predates pretty much every other character on the team. (Depending on how you count Iron Lad/the twins.) She's been around for a while, she's got something of a fanbase, she'll be back.

I liked Children's Crusade for the first half of it, but the later issues felt a bit like they were falling apart. Started strong, stumbled on the finish line. And this is coming from a big Wiccan fan.

Also, damn, that foreshadowing was not subtle at all in retrospect.

I definitely agree that Cassie is way more interesting than her dad. I think part of this comes from actually seeing her grow up. She went from a small child to a teenager, developing super powers along the way (mostly by messing with the very dangerous Pym Particles on the off-chance they would give her super powers).

And she doesn't just view Hank Pym as her uncle, but Tony Stark too. She was a child of the Avengers.

Also, it sucks that they randomly reintroduced the old Vision a few months before killing Jonas. Plus the way the reintroduced him was really dumb - Tony Stark was like "Hey guys! Check it out! The Vision's back!" And nobody questioned it.

Cassie at least has a decent shot at coming back. Jonas is deader than dead. (It sucks too because Cassie made her feelings clear that she chose Jonas over Iron Lad.)

seriously how hard is it for a time traveler to come back later and save her?

I'm more worried about seeing Eli ever again than I am Cassie. I'm sure she'll be back at some point but they seriously shipped Eli off to Arizona. I'm not sure how many of the YA kids besides Wiccan we'll see for awhile honestly :(

Kate was in the preview for Hawkeye #2 and she's supposed to be a regular in that book.

And wherever Billy goes, Teddy should be close by.

Don't know what's going on with Tommy.

And Eli looks to be MIA for some time.

GEEZ.

A woman whose died does not equal stuffed in a fridge. Dehm.

Anyway, I liked this story, cause it was really pretty and nice to read. BUT, its bad, because it's moral is horrible.

The Scarlet Witch doesn't have to pay for her crimes because nothing you do will turn back time.

WHAT?! That is not the point of punishment. EVERYTHING that woman did created her own demise. She isn't very responsible and caused her own insanity >> she should be punished, not killed, and there are a lot of creative, fitting and fair punishments for her.

GEEZ.

A woman whose died does not equal stuffed in a fridge. Dehm.
No, but a woman who dies so that a male character can use her death as a start of evil origin story and so that her father can angst about it and decide to avenger her is.

Awesome post.

Jonas has a very easy out, synthezoids can make backups of their personalities and memories.

If the time ever comes where Cassie is revived, I wouldn't be surprised if all of Jonas's files were conveniently destroyed.

RE: The flaws of this mini

I've always thought the original 6 issues of YA was pretty good, but then the next 6 went straight into fan-fiction level writing. (Where a writer proceeds to make his brand-new pet characters into integral parts of the Marvel Universe without any regards to canon)

And then this mini, sheesh. Shipping aside, reading it all in one go kind of points out its terrible pacing, it's plot where things sort of happen for no reason other than "BECAUSE!", and being completely unsubtle. (I don't really think Heinberg is that great of a writer)

It isn't terrible, I find the characters to be interesting despite some questionable choices for origins and personalities, but I have a strong feeling that the team only has such a strong following because of Billy and Teddy.

Well, I loved Children's Crusade, and as much as I love this characters and was sad to see some of them go I don't think it was bad or lazy storytelling at all.

Plus, the art is gorgeous.

Also, I don't think the waiting time between issues was such a big deal on how the story was read. I've read it when it was being (slowly) published and then as a trade in one go. It is a good reading both ways.

Children's Crusade was interesting. I love the YA, and I like the Maximoff family, with the exception of Wanda who I really don't like at all. Yadda yadda I was upset that she came back with basically a pass yadda yadda the cassie/vision stuff was nice yadda yadda.

The incredible thing is that I don't care in the least about what happend to anybody in this series. All of the events that happen, all of the character drama and supposed emotion that other readers genuinely care about... nothing. Overbearing apathy. Everything lines up for me to be at least interested in this, but I'm just not. At all.

He... She... They... *tips over the table and sulks off*

No, thats just things around her reacting to what's happened. What would we expect the father to do? And this is comics, so 'i wanna be evil now' is a pretty normal thing to do.

I'll give you this -- the women in the fridge, happens when it's simply done poorly, and completely out of the blue. Very subjective yes, but the term is incredibly subjective to begin with.

Cassie seemed nice, but this story would be weird if they all got out alive to be honest, her father dying in front of her again, and being the daddy's girl she is, reacting with pure rage -- against a charge up Doom of all people - that seems like fair reason for her to die in the out come.

It wasn't done purely for the men to have something to do. No one called out fridge when Ultimate Peter Parker died, (now that i think of it - in the heat of battle, like her) are women only allowed this title?

Yes, good Avengers. Don't let Kang take away a member of your team (sort of) without a fight.

Good to see they've learnt their lesson after the last time that happened.
http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/3939834.html

...are women only allowed this title?

Well, it is called 'WOMEN in refrigerators.'

the women in the fridge, happens when it's simply done poorly, and completely out of the blue.
Nope. That's not part of the definition. If you wanna redefine the term for your own sake, go ahead, but don't complain about people for applying the original definition.

No one called out fridge when Ultimate Peter Parker died
It's funny I've had this discussion before. I'm not very interested in having it again actually. They get tiresome those discussions.
Ultimate Peter Parker is neither female nor minority, he died in a story called "The Death of Spider-man". It's was all about HIM and how it was tragic and terrible for HIM to die. It least from what I've seen of it in scans. Yeah, they use it to launch Miles after that, but the focus is still very different.

I think it's awfully telling that Heinberg chooses to kill off one of the characters who existed before he came along, and the other gets put on a bus while the others stick around.

Fuck Iron Lad, too, the horrible little bastard.

Again, it's ironic how Heinberg chooses to completely unsubtly remove the characters he didn't have a direct hand in creating.

So you don't think there's something wrong about the manner in which the story was structured that made Cassie the one to die? Why did ANY of them have to die? You can raise the stakes in a story without killing a character.

Given Wanda got set up in the bullshittiest way possible by Bendis - A writer I actually like, but he entirely dropped the ball there for both Wanda and Jan - I don't actually care too much about Wanda getting a free pass. Marvel has put some of the earliest Avengers through some real bullshit over the past few years, so I don't really care.

But.. I do agree with the general apathy toward this. The art's nice - the art's why I bought the first series of Young Avengers - but to be perfectly frank, I think others have proven themselves able to write the Young Avengers - and fairly well - that Heinberg's return to this new series wasn't a big deal at all, to me. I don't feel it was nearly worth the wait of about what, nearly six years or so, for this.

"I'm not playing with them anymore, so I'm going to break the toys."

It didn't even occur to me until recently that one of them was the only member of the team that wasn't his creation.

See, I figured with all of the big brains in the Marvel U, rebuilding Jonas would be far easier than bringing a human back to life.

I did not like this :/ Storywise, it was good, but a big punch in the gut to lovers of YA. Plus, Cassie, I don't know what it is with you, and I know you chose Jonas and that's great, but you were in love with Iron Lad for a stinkin' hour. Does anyone remember that at all?

Everything Cassie did in early YA reinforces that she is a child. She idolizes her "cool" super hero father and hates her "responsible" mother and step-father. (Although her step-father really was a dick.)

She was actually planning on joining the Runaways in LA, upending her whole world and joining a group of kids she had never met.

Then she heard about the Young Avengers. (She was still joining a group that she had never met. Remember that Cassie and Kate really did force themselves onto the team.)

And she had been stealing her father's very dangerous Pym Particles for years and using them on herself on the off-chance she would develop super powers.

That she had met Iron Lad and fell in love instantly just goes along with her being a child. Choosing the Vision over Iron Lad is a sign that she actually is maturing. And she let Iron Lad know as gently as she could. (To the point that a lot of adult characters could learn a lesson from how she breaks the news to him.)

This kind of behavior would be infuriating from an adult character. But it feels very genuine coming from a child.

Edited 2012-09-02 15:46 (UTC)

Two. Eli had appeared previously - albeit not as Patriot - and there's obviously Cassie. But yeah, the toy analogy is so appropriate, especially if Heinberg's done it because he's going to take another six years or so to do another YA story.

You'd have thought that about the old school Vision, too. But nope, the guy just gets stuffed in a box for nearly ten years.

Ah, I hadn't realized that Eli had appeared in comics before. I thought he was new for YA.

Edit: And forget about Heinberg coming back in another few years. I don't care to wait for him. We waited years to hear about his awesome plans, and THIS is what we got? No thank you. Give them to another writer at this point. They almost couldn't do worse.

Edited 2012-09-02 18:41 (UTC)

Yeah, that's pretty much my perspective. Heinberg might've given us a good set of characters, but as is the case with many a Marvel character, doesn't mean Heinberg's gonna be the best one to tell a story.

In this instance, it clearly wasn't worth the wait, and their appearances under the pen of other writers - like the Civil War/Secret Invasion/Siege tie-ins, and the YA: Presents mini, show that Heinberg's not the only one who can write these kids. If Marvel could curry favour with him again, I'd get Cornell to do another series like the Dark Reign mini. Or Hell - Gage? The guy's (sadly) not doing Avengers Academy for much longer, after all.

Deaths that are forgotten or ignored really upset me but this isn't one of them.

The new FF series is almost entirely focused on Scott going after Doctor Doom for killing his daughter.

Can and has, the YA actually discuss it near the end of the last issue. They decide to leave him dead because they think it would be cruel to revive him only to tell him that Cassie was dead.

I can only assume that they're the only ones who know where Jonas' back-ups are and the adults don't know that he made back-ups, otherwise I think some of them might make a different argument on the matter.

I'm going to have to call bull on Peggy Rae Burdick being "responsible". She abandoned Cassie when Cassie was little -- while Scott was in jail, Cassie was staying with Scott's sister, Ruth, and her husband Carl, not with her mother. I'm not sure when Peggy Rae turns back up demanding custody of Cassie; the Marvel online database isn't all that helpful and most of my Ant-family knowledge is second-hand, but I know that Cassie lived with her dad for a good chunk of time.

We also see Peggy Rae slap Cassie across the face for talking back to Blake in the main foyer of the Avengers' Tower in Young Avengers Special, hard enough to turn Cassie's head fully to the side. If that's how she acts toward her daughter in public, can we expect that she's any better in private? As for Blake, he regularly says incredibly rude things about Cassie's dad and the other super heroes that Cassie looks up to; and Peggy Rae was so worried about his reaction to Cassie being a super hero that she begged Jessica Jones not to say anything about it to him. I'm not exactly shocked that Cassie doesn't care where she's going as long as it's out of that house.

Not the O.P., but I thought it was a clear throughline in the story that Cassie was willing to suffer any consequences if it meant undoing her father's death. I think, if given the choice, she'd consider trading her life for his a bargain worth making. (Scott, of course, would disagree like any decent parent.)

I'm speaking more in "general" because it offsets her from Scott, who took great pride in Cassie operating as a superhero. But Peggy Rae is a horrible mother.

She showed up during Geoff Johns's Avengers run to take sole custody of Cassie because she didn't want Cassie to get mixed up in the super hero lifestyle.

Oh, I guess that explains the quotation marks around "responsible", then. Whoops.

Thanks. I knew it was relatively late in the metaphorical game, I just wasn't sure when.

"The new FF series is almost entirely focused on Scott going after Doctor Doom for killing his daughter."

So.. Standard fridging for Cassie, then. Because that's living up to the definition of the trope quite specifically, albeit with the slight variation it's her father.

There's still some disconnect between a character saying they'd be willing to do anything to bring their father back and them having to die for it. It's pointless and unnecessary that she died. Just because a character says they'd suffer any consequences, doesn't mean they should.

I don't think there's anything wrong in a story where a superhero dies, I know the word 'realism' can be annoying, and death in comics IS cheap, but if your gonna have these guys go up against Doom and do what they do, the a death isn't out of the question.

Now it's silly that they traded a daughter for a father, but if they can lead it to an interesting conclusion, or result, then I don't want to be mad yet.

It could've been anyone and I wouldn't have been to annoyed. Yeah, Cassie was a nice character and she'll be missed. But the death is offensive to me.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Looking back: Cassie Lang in Children's Crusade

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