The first episode of ‘What if …?’ (Marvel’s What If …?) Focused on Peggy Carter and what would have happened if she had received the Super Soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers, creating a wave of comments on networks and reliving one of the most painful cancellations of the entertainment house. The one from the delicious series ‘Agent Carter’, focused exclusively on the character played by Hayley Atwell.
The pilot recalled Peggy Carter, who in this alternate line volunteered to become Dr. Abraham Erskine’s lab rat. Peggy became Captain Carter, with all of Captain America’s physical powers along with a different costume and a shield now with a Union Jack in the center. For many, this story gives him the prominence that they would have wanted for one of the most charismatic secondary players in the universe.
There is no Marvel series the same
Carter was featured in ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ and is a key character in the history of the MCU as she is one of the co-founders of SHIELD. He saved Abraham Erskine from Johann Schmidt, and his accomplishments led to the development of the Super Soldier Serum. Later, we saw her in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” as a 90-year-old woman before dying off-screen in “Civil War.” What many Now they seem to make it forgotten that Peggy had her own TV series. And it was good.
Recently, Marvel fans saw how in the episode dedicated to Peggy Carter of ‘Marvel Studio Legends’ the series of the character did not appear. Although it aired for two seasons on the American network ABC, Marvel has completely overlooked them in the episode dedicated to the agents of SHIELD., with which many were outraged, asking that it be considered canon in the MCU. Kevin Feige was an executive producer on ‘Agent Carter,’ and its creators and showrunners, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, have written seven MCU films to date.
Now that ‘Wandavision’, ‘Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ or ‘Loki’ reveal with transparency that predictable Marvel that desperately struggles to bring its cinematographic formula to the small screen, one does not know whether to hide something as accurate as’ Agent Carter ‘is a corporate movement for rights issues with other chains with which they were associated before the arrival of Disney + or that they are ashamed because they have not managed to surpass that product based on millions.
Mortgage-free fun
The most important thing is that not even the groundbreaking start of ‘Wandavision’ found continuity within the series itself. We are on the template of fitting plots as Tetris pieces and trying to connect characters, but we have forgotten that before each film had a strong personality that little by little has been lost. ‘Agent Carter’ appeared in 2015 but far from being outdated, today it emerges as an even cooler rarity within the MCU conglomerate.
Set in the 40s, the closest tone is that of ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’, but it is much freer than most of the current franchise films. It doesn’t even look like a superhero series. It’s more ‘Rocketeer’ than ‘Iron Man’, with the classic film noir tone of ‘Dick Tracy’ and bouts of ‘Indiana Jones’ adventure, or even doubles as a lightweight prequel to ‘The X-Files’ . What makes it something special and exciting is that we see Marvel spread its wings to try to create something new, with that conquering spirit of starting something that the first ‘Iron Man’ had.
We don’t have superhero plots that find themselves, instead we see a secret agent doing his job, facing mysteries that have their own rules, it unfolds a logic of its own without being determined by other Marvel brands, mortgages with a master plan, or not even by the aesthetic guidelines of the Captain’s movie closest to her in time. How long has it been since we saw a movie (or series) of the universe that seeks its own voice?
The MCU’s first female lead
Besides, what Atwell is doing here with Carter is brilliant. As a woman underestimated by her sexist male colleagues, the performance could easily seem like a clunky trope, but Atwell is able to trade her stiffness for sharp dialogue and the witty lines that lead us to a timing perfect that recreates the charm of Howard Hawks era comedies They would like the stilted gags of the vintage episodes of ‘Wandavision’.
Despite the espionage premise, Atwell approaches the comedy with a hypnotic sympathy that makes her lament that there was no pun for her to have been Captain Marvel. Plus, she shares many of the same struggles as Carol Danvers. Carter’s bosses and colleagues are the main villains and the series makes it clear. Marvel gets stuck in the rise of feminism and institutional sexism, wrapped up in the idea of espionage. The series can almost be seen as a small essay on how its fans would take a project starring a woman.
In fact, ‘Agent Carter’ is the MCU’s first property starring a woman, even before ‘Jessica Jones’. With the episode of Captain Carter, the affection of the fans for a character who resists being “Captain America’s girlfriend” has once again been demonstrated and Disney + would do well to reinforce its ownership with a new season that closes its adventures with dignity giving, incidentally, a facelift to his increasingly predictable film projects and the routine in which such expensive mediocrities as ‘Loki’ are entering.
Both seasons of ‘Agent Carter’ are available on Disney +