Haley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter in Captain America First Avenger and her in her own One-Shot was
excellent. So excellent, it got turned into a series. What’s Cap’s very own secret agent going to do in post-
WWII New York (and L.A.) when Cap is gone? Luckily, they didn’t turn it into a love story (well, at least
until it was appropriate to the plot in season 2) and we got some great Cold War-era\MCU storylines!
Unfortunately, the series was cancelled for being too expensive and the network moved Atwell into another
short-lived series, Conviction.
Anyway you look at, Agent Carter had a huge impact on the MCU. She helped to found SHIELD, the
premier spy organization in the MCU (until it was discovered it was a HYDRA cover). Virtually every
major character in the Avengers have been touched in one way or another by Peggy.
For Season One, it’s been revealed that somebody has stolen Howard Stark’s most dangerous inventions from
his impenetrable vault and the government and SSR (The Strategic Scientific Reserve -
before it became SHIELD) decided it was Howard who robbed himself. He, of course, did not, and wants
Peggy and his butler, Edwin Jarvis, to prove it. Jarvis is human, Tony will eventually create the AI known as
JARVIS years later in his honor. Peggy is being underutilized in the SSR for being a woman and
Captain America’s girlfriend.
We also meet Jack Thompson, a war hero who’s hiding the fact that he’s no hero. We also meet Angie Martinelli,
Peggy’s housemate, waitress and aspiring actress. She is to be protected at all costs. Most importantly, we meet
Dottie Underwood. Through flashbacks, we find out that she’s a Black Widow. Like, as in Natasha Romanoff
and Yelena Belova. She was put in the same training as they would get during the WWII-era Soviet Union.
At the time of the show, this was huge news:
Did 'Agent Carter' just reveal a connection to Black Widow?
There’s also bad guys with no voice box, an evil organization named Leviathan (specifically not HYDRA) and a
mind-controlling bad guy named Fenhoff. There’s a gas called Midnight Oil that causes people to go crazy and
attack everybody. It’s tested at a movie theater (watch Dottie with the baby carriage, she underwent the same
hysterectomy as Natasha and Yelena do). Turns out the whole thing is revenge against Howard Stark and he is
mind controlled to fly a plane into NYC and release deadly gas. Howard thinks he’s on the way to save Steve
Rogers from death and to help out Peggy. Peggy luckily stops him. Perhaps most awesomely is when Souza
pretends to be controlled by Fenhoff but has his ears full of cotton, and knocks him out. “Post Credit Scene”
turns out to be Fenhoff being recruited by Arnim Zola into HYDRA and their Winter Soldier Program.
The stand out episode is The Iron Ceiling and it involves young Black Widows, and their training camp:
Snow White cartoons, American mannerisms, being handcuffed to the bed and of course, killing your fellow
children. There are also Howling Commandos and Peggy Carter being among men who actually respect her
abilities. Fenhoff is also introduced in this episode and Souza realizes Peggy is the blonde woman he’s been
looking for.
I really want to hear The Captain America show on the radio (a weekly old-timey podcast to be specific)
starring hapless nurse Betty Carver.
Season Two is now in LA. When the crew started talking about this season at Comic-Con, they made it seem
like we would be dealing with the Black Dahlia murder, a famous LA cold case. This was incorrect: there is a
dead woman, but she is in a frozen lake. In LA, California. New SSR California chief Daniel Souza is there and
requests help from Peggy Carter. Peggy just captured Dottie Underwood in a bank robbery with a mysterious key.
Our new bad guy is Whitney Frost, a genius-intellect actress and her husband’s mysterious Council of Nine.
Howard Stark is still around, making his own motion pictures “Kid Colt (a literal comic book movie).”
We meet up with Edwin Jarvis and his wife, Ana. Sadly, as great as Ana is, she’s shot by Whitney Frost in
another adventure. Peggy also meets Dr. Jason Wilkes, a Zero Matter expert and potential love interest. There’s
still Daniel Souza, engaged but really in a love triangle with Peggy and Jason. There’s an accident and both
Whitney Frost and Jason are infected with Zero Matter in different ways. Frost is able to manipulate the matter,
causing her skin to have a cracked porcelain doll appearance. Jason became invisible before getting cured by
Howard Stark.
At the same time, we’re dealing with Jack Thompson and his awful boss, Vernon Masters. They have a file on a
“M. Carter” that details war crimes, thinking it’s Peggy, they go after her. There’s also the Council of Nine, an
organization based in a men-only social club that appears to rule the world through media and economics. We
have flashbacks to Peggy’s pre-SSR life and find out she has a brother named Michael who may or may not have
been killed in the War. Whitney Frost, because she’s a woman and actress, is underestimated in her scientific
genius. Thanks to the Zero Matter, she becomes more powerful and erratic, killing men left and right. Peggy is
injured and Daniel Souza’s fiancee leaves him. Dottie Underwood gets back in the game with Peggy and Black
Widow hijinks ensue. Finally, Whitney is defeated when her Zero Matter rift is closed, taking her powers with her.
She’s left alone and insane. Peggy and Souza hook up, Stark hires Jason and they work on the ARC reactor in
Malibu. Jack Thompson is shot by a mysterious stranger and the file and key are taken.
The breakthrough episode is “A Little Song and Dance” wherein Peggy has a dream where she sings and dances.
It’s an awesome and fun little getaway but shows what’s going on in Peggy’s head at the time. It would honestly
fit right in after "The Star-Spangled Man with a Plan."
There’s so much to cover in two seasons, I probably didn’t get them all. But how does it relate to Doomsday?
We know that Peggy and Steve finally get together for their dance around 1949 after some time traveling to
return Infinity Stones. They apparently lived their lives together (whether in our time line or another multiverse
is another question) for around 50 years before Steve came back to our timeline to give his famous shield to the
next Captain America, Sam Wilson. We also know from one of the Doomsday trailers that Steve Rogers has a
baby and seemingly gives up the Captain America life. Set photos show WWII-style cars and a farm house with
a bedroom for little James. Hayley Atwell, Peggy Carter herself has a role in Doomsday but we don’t know what
yet.
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