Quantumania's Giant-Man Power (& Side Effects) Are The MCU's Biggest Plot Hole
This article contains spoilers for "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania"
Changing size is an integral part of the "Ant-Man" film series, and "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" uses the trick at every opportunity. From Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) saving money by turning a tiny pizza into a family-sized one to the entire gang being swept into the immeasurably tiny Quantum Realm, the whole movie revolves around the theme. However, even after a trilogy of movies and various appearances across other Marvel Cinematic Universe films, one aspect of Scott Lang's (Paul Rudd) powers continues to befuddle us deeply.
Ant-Man's growing powers are just about the most inconsistent thing in the MCU. In "Captain America: Civil War," Scott pulls out the Giant-Man stunt without much issue, though he does note beforehand that it's extremely dangerous and has a decent chance of killing him. Come "Ant-Man and the Wasp," he's able to use the stunt with less reservations. However, the movie makes very clear that growing is super hard compared to shrinking, and that even a moderate Giant-Man experience takes a toll on Scott — to the point that he passes out while he's standing in the sea, and almost drowns.
That's just the beginning, too. In other movies, Scott's Giant-Man alter ego becomes increasingly confusing, and by "Quantumania," it seems that all the rules of his powers have been thrown out of the window. Here's why the Giant-Man's powers and their side effects might just be the MCU's biggest ongoing plot hole.
Scott's random Giant-Man power boosts make no sense
After Scott's Giant-Man teething problems, he's been able to change relatively comfortably, possibly because of the tech upgrades his suit visibly receives between movies. By "Avengers: Endgame," he's shown to be handy enough with his Giant-Man powers to stop a Leviathan with a punch — which you may notice is a stunt more often associated with the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). You can probably attribute this to his giant mass, but let's forget for a second that Scott can become the world's largest land animal at the drop of a hat while still moving around almost as comfortably as a normal-sized Paul Rudd. That's a brain hurt for another day.
Instead, let's consider what further confusion "Quantumania" adds to the equation. Scale is a difficult thing in Quantum Realm, but for all intents and purposes, the kaiju-sized Giant-Man we see in the final act of the movie might just be the biggest version of the character yet — scaled to the rest of the environment, at least. He's also absurdly durable, as dozens of Kang's gunships blast him with energy bullets for the better part of a minute without even puncturing his suit, let alone skin. That ... seems pretty new.
By now, Ant-Man's ability to tower over the MCU is well established, so sure, let's randomly throw in madcap levels of durability to go with his Giant-Man form's mass and powers. After all, this particular power basically exists to create cool, destructive action scenes as plot dictates, so why bother keeping things consistent? Still, even Scott's seemingly random power upgrades aren't the most confounding thing about Giant-Manning in the MCU. That would be Cassie Lang's (Kathryn Newton) newfound ability to grow in "Quantumania."
Cassie towers over the competition a little too easily
When Cassie becomes a giant to fight MODOK (Corey Stoll), she seems to have no problems growing to a similar size with Scott's current towering heights for a prolonged period, on what's pretty much stated to be her first attempt ever. Though she does eventually pass out for roughly 0.1 seconds, this is an impressive debut as a giant — especially since it runs counter to "Ant-Man and the Wasp," where much is made about the fact that becoming huge is a massive, calorie-consuming hassle.
In that movie, it's established that Scott is the only person who's ever managed to surpass Bill "Goliath" Foster's (Laurence Fishburne) record of 21 feet. At this point, Scott's stated height record is 65 feet. It's clear that he's spent a lot of time practicing since then, as his height in the final battle of "Avengers: Endgame" seems to be somewhere around 100 feet. So, how can Cassie easily grow until her fist is MODOK-sized, with the minimal side effect of very briefly losing balance after a minute or so?
While "Quantumania" does address the fact that becoming a giant makes you hungry, it adds another hitherto unrevealed layer to the Giant-Man-sized pile of Pym particles' inconsistently portrayed growth powers. Apparently, the turning-into-a-giant process now has the curious side effect of giving you a massive craving for citrus fruit. Maybe the MCU has realized how illogical and all over the place the whole thing is, and a nice snack of limes after a stint as a giant is a last-ditch attempt to inject some semblance of continuity to Pym particle-powered growth ... at least, until the next movie forgets the whole thing and it's papayas instead.