The Big Picture

Captain Carter is less interesting than her prime MCU counterpart, Peggy Carter. The MCU should focus on honoring Peggy Carter’s non-hero strengths as Agent Carter did. The continual revisiting of alternate universe characters like Captain Carter speaks to the larger issue of the MCU’s inability to move on from the past and create new, original characters.

It’s no secret that Marvel Studios has been having a hard time making anything stick since Avengers: Endgame. Many of the shows and films that spawned after the fact weren’t as well received as their predecessors, and the franchise feels more disjointed now in comparison to previous MCU phases. There have been bright spots in the MCU since, though, including the Disney+ animated series What If…?, which explores the multiverse in ways we could never dream of. But even though What If…? has been a blast, the show has continued to push one character that, quite frankly, isn’t as interesting as her prime MCU counterpart: Captain Carter.

What If…? Based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name, this animated anthology looks at alternate timelines in the multiverse that would happen if specific moments in the MCU occurred differently. Release Date August 11, 2021 Creator A. C. Bradley Seasons 2 Streaming Service(s) Disney+

Peggy Carter Is Already Important to the MCU
Since 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, Hayley Atwell has shined as Peggy Carter. Proving her worth against the forces of Hitler and Hydra during the Second World War, Peggy instantly became a fan favorite. Captain America (Chris Evans) fans everywhere were heartbroken over their final moments and the broken promise of another dance, and thus we all wanted more. With positive fan reaction, it wasn’t long before Peggy got her own Marvel One-Shot, appeared in episodes of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and returned via flashbacks/visions in both Ant-Man and Avengers: Age of Ultron. An older Peggy even showed up in Captain America: The Winter Soldier to say a tearful goodbye to Steve Rogers. Peggy’s always been important to the MCU, and proven herself a driving force in the franchise.

So, after some animated appearances in the non-MCU series Avengers Assemble and her own live-action MCU spin-off series Agent Carter (more on that later), Peggy and Steve finally got their happy ending in Avengers: Endgame, which closed the chapter on Rogers’ tenure as Captain America and this chapter of the MCU. In all this time, we’ve seen Peggy do everything from helping inspire Captain America in the first place to building S.H.I.E.L.D. from the ground up. Without Peggy, the Avengers may not have been formed, nor would Earth have been able to ward off alien invaders or other massive threats in the years following. The way Peggy Carter is framed in the MCU, she’s just as important as, say, Howard Stark (John Slattery) or Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), or even Odin (Anthony Hopkins). All of these characters play vital roles in the initial development of the MCU, but only Peggy, of all of them, became something more in the process, inspiring other MCU heroes like her great-niece Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) to do the same.

This brings us to The Multiverse Saga, which promptly introduces us to an alternate Peggy Carter who took the super soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers. While her role in the first season of What If…? was interesting (the show is all about endless possibilities, after all) and Captain Carter is a fun concept on the surface, what made the alternate version of the character compelling originally was that she wasn’t the norm. Only now does it seem like Marvel wants her to be. With live-action appearances in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and now multiple episodes in What If…? Season 2, it seems like Captain Carter has overstayed her welcome.

The MCU Should Honor Peggy Carter’s Non-Hero Strengths

Super-soldiers have become something of a cliché in superhero media, especially in the MCU. What made Steve Rogers special as Captain America was that he was the only successful one in his time, and still the biggest success in the 21st century. Sure, Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) succeeded too, but the serum had disastrous effects on his mind and body. The same was true for Emil Blonsky aka the Abomination (Tim Roth), and even the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany) could be considered super-soldiers. That’s not to mention all the others on the list, such as the MCU staple Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). It’s clear here that Captain Carter isn’t as unique as she may seem.

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But perhaps the bigger issue isn’t the increasing number of MCU super-soldiers. (After all, there are more superheroes now than ever.) The bigger problem with Captain Carter is that, aside from maybe that first appearance, she doesn’t offer anything particularly new. “What If… Captain Carter Were The First Avenger?” might’ve been an interesting look at a role reversal from the first Captain America, but that’s all it is. She’s not much different than the normal Peggy Carter, except instead of sticking to her strengths in leadership and espionage, she throws herself directly into the fire. This isn’t unlike what Marvel attempted with Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) in the travesty that was Thor: Love and Thunder, which (as it did with Chris Hemsworth’s Thor too) turned an interesting character into nothing more than a caricature. It may be fun for a moment, but the novelty wears off almost immediately. Especially the harder Marvel tries to sell us on the idea.

Instead of introducing a new and interesting take on the MCU at large, such as the adaptation of Marvel Zombies we got in Season 1, What If…? continues to get enveloped in the Captain Carter web into its second season. Not only does the character get a sequel episode here (though we’d prefer if What If…? just stuck to its original premise of highlighting a new universe with every installment), but she’s the lead in the final two episodes as well. Interestingly, this comes after Peggy already returned in Season 2’s “What If… Peter Quill Attacked Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?,” which featured her in a more believable (and far more interesting) capacity that highlighted the character’s impressive resume as a leader at S.H.I.E.LD. But instead of more stories like that, What If…? gave us more Captain Carter, and by now the fun has entirely worn off.

‘Agent Carter’ Is Proof Peggy Doesn’t Need Powers

Don’t misunderstand, the problem isn’t Peggy Carter herself. Peggy is a wonderful character and an important addition to the MCU who should continue to appear in as many installments as Hayley Atwell is willing to commit to. Not unlike some of the other supporting characters who have come before or since, this universe (and its multiverse) still needs Peggy to stick around. But in doing so, she should stick to what she’s good at. Rather than divulging into a one-note power fantasy, Marvel might renew interest in the character by focusing on her own strengths rather than on the strengths of Steve Rogers superimposed onto her. The same thing would be true if suddenly a Hulkified Hawkeye showed up and became a main player in the MCU. It’s fun to think about, but we don’t need to keep revisiting the idea. Hawkeye is great because of his skillset, and the same is true of Peggy Carter.

We previously mentioned ABC’s Agent Carter as one of the mediums in which Atwell shined brightest as Peggy, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t revisit that here. This Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. prequel/spin-off put the character front-and-center and showed her abilities as both a leader and a spy. In Agent Carter, she wasn’t a supporting role but rather took center stage and helped drive the narrative in an interesting direction that would’ve taken entirely different turns had a super-soldier been at the helm. No doubt, Peggy Carter is a force to be reckoned with, and she’s even more impressive when unaided by an enhancing formula that makes her nothing more than a British copy of Captain America. Perhaps What If…? should consider revisiting this era of the MCU more often so that we can watch Peggy again at her Agent Carter peak? “What If… Agent Carter Discovered S.H.I.E.L.D. Was Hydra?” sounds like a great episode that would write itself!

The continual revisiting of this alternate universe character speaks to the larger issue the MCU is currently facing: it’s inability to move on from the past. Make no mistake, there’s a balance that needs to be struck between new characters and old, but do all the new faces of the MCU need to be sub-par copies of somebody else who did it better? At least with Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), Steve Rogers gave him the role of Captain America, but with many of the other current faces of the MCU, their names and identities are blatantly ripped off from someone else (yes, I understand there’s comic book precedent for this, but just because something happened in the comics doesn’t make it good). Since the MCU already has its Captain America and super-soldier requirements filled, maybe it’s time for Captain Carter to exit the multiverse so that we can again focus on what made Peggy Carter special in the first place.

What If…? is available to watch on Disney+ in the U.S.

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