Marvel Studios confirmed the one big problem that comes with Paul Rudd’s growing powers as Giant-Man.
Scott Lang is known for his shrinking powers—hence his classic Ant-Man moniker. But, ever since Captain America: Civil War, the Marvel hero also began utilizing the ability to grow instead of shrink.
This came in handy a number of times, from being the winning move during the Avengers’ big airport brawl to Scott Lang crushing Goliath flying Chitauri ships in Avengers: Endgame.
However, as the films sometimes indicated, there’s one key disadvantage to growing so large with the Pym Particle.
The Limits of Scott Lang’s Giant-Man Powers
In a new book from Marvel, titled Look Out For The Little Guy! that’s supposedly written by Scott Lang himself, the MCU hero exposed the one problem with his Giant-Man powers.
In a Q&A section of Rudd’s hero’s book, he answered a fan question asking him if there’s a limit to how big he can get.
Lang first noted how that question is one “[he] hate[s] to ask [Hank Pym]:”
“To be perfectly honest, that’s one of those Hank Pym questions that I hate to ask him, because he takes everything as a critique: ‘Oh, so it doesn’t get big enough for you now? Why do you need to be bigger?'”
The hero then warned that “self-enlargement” is something that “takes a big toll on the human body:”
“But seriously, from what I’ve experienced, self-enlargement is something any user of the Ant-Man or Wasp suit needs to be really careful with. For a variety of reasons, it takes a big toll on the human body. Or at least mine. For one thing, going big puts a strain on my nervous system. So if my size hits a certain threshold, I start to see things, like, specifically, the ground coming toward me, Fast!”
Could Wasp Ever Use Giant-Man’s Powers?
Interestingly enough, those above quotes seem to confirm that Hope van Dyne Wasp’s suit has the ability to grow as well as shrink. Audiences have never seen her attempt to utilize those powers, as it has only been relegated to Scott Lang so far.
Could fans see Wasp enlarge herself in a future appearance? One can’t help but wonder if she’d be able to fly in such a large state—maybe that’s something she can only do while small and could play into why she doesn’t both with those blue Pym Particles.
When it comes to Scott, the movies haven’t defined how big Paul Rudd’s Avenger can get. The films did previously show how he becomes disoriented the longer he remains big—something that inevitably happens most of the time.
Scott Lang does mention at the start of his new book that “[he] can make [his] body as large as the Empire State Building”—though, this is likely an exaggeration since that’s far larger than anything fans have ever seen on screen.
While Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania might not have done so well with fans and critics, hopefully, that won’t keep Marvel Studios from using those characters again sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, What If…? Season 2 is confirmed to introduce Bill Foster’s iteration of Giant-Man to the world for those interested in seeing what he would look like as a key MCU player.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is now streaming on Disney+, while What If…? Season 2 will reportedly drop later this December.
