In the next few months, you’re going to hear a lot of feminists reflecting on if Marvel’s latest dip into television, the mini-series, Agent Carter, is “feminist or not.” With a show that features a woman in the title role and the woman is a tough woman navigating an action filled largely male world, it seems almost inevitable that that feminist critiques will debate how “bad ass” Agent Carter (played by the magnificent Hayley Atwell) is and if she and the series are worthy of the title of “feminist media.” In these days of limited representation of women in the superhero genre, it’s an interesting discussion, but one that entirely misses the point. Peggy Carter is not a bad ass. She’s so much more than that, and that’s where her importance lies.
Agent Carter picks up a year after WW2 has ended. Peggy is working for the SSR, the Marvel Universe’s version of the CIA or FBI in New York. It is also a year after Captain America (or Steve Rogers) is lost in a plane crash in the Arctic. Fans of Captain America know that he actually survived the crash and was frozen in ice for 70 years. But for this series, Peggy and the world thinks he is dead. Peggy has carried on with life, but she is not unaffected by the death of Rogers. And it is her grief that is a major motivator of the entire series.
Witness how the show handles sexism in a post-WW2 world. Whereas during the war, with the occasional boorish exception, men largely respected Peggy’s work and worked alongside her as an equal. Post-war men, on the other hand, are for the most part, dismissive and often outright rude to her, expecting her to fetch them coffee and lunch. Peggy sees and deeply feels their sexism on two levels. First, she is very much aware the men are treating her this way because she is a woman–but she is even more aware that Steve Rogers never treated her like that. With every new insult, or every new casual dismissal, viewers can tell that Peggy is sitting judgement on her coworkers, but also deeply missing the man she never had to explain herself to.
We also see Peggy repeatedly choosing to sit with and befriend working class people (including a waitress played smartly by Lyndsy Fronseca) and others who exist within the invisiblized spaces of high powered New York. While others who are new to the US are shown busily hitting up the Statue of Liberty or other tourist destinations, Peggy recommends hanging out in those invisibilized spaces, and getting to know the people that make New York great.
Of course, followers of Captain America know that Steve Rogers is from working class Brooklyn, and that it was that community that Captain America felt make New York great. Peggy also knows this, and similarly makes the choice to align herself with those communities. But as with the sexism that Peggy experiences, she understands these communities in a more complicated way. When we see Peggy return to Brooklyn later in the series, we understand that in talking to the waitress or the man selling newspapers, Peggy is not just living up to Steve’s values, but also is finding ways to be with him, even when he is no longer there. Like the person who sleeps wrapped in a dead loved one’s clothes, Peggy is wrapping herself up in working class communities to be closer to Steve, to hold him even when he’s no longer there.
One of the most touching scenes in the entire series comes when Peggy figures out that Howard Stark has stolen and hidden a vial of Steve’s blood. When Peggy confronts Howard about why he would possibly have a vial of Steve’s blood, Atwell portrays Peggy not as a fierce bad ass, but as a woman filled with an overwhelming mix of confusion, grief, love, and anger. When she finally cracks and slugs Howard, it’s as much because it would be impossible to give voice to all her emotions as it is because Howard sort of deserves it.
Many have pointed out that Peggy has no super power and imply that because of that, Agent Carter can’t be all that interesting. And yet viewers are consistently treated to a well rounded character whose grief is as important as her fighting style, whose admiration of a working class sensibility increasing defines who she is, whose loyalty and love of other people existing in marginalized spaces motivates her actions. Peggy, like Peter Parker or even Superman refuses to “lean in,” or become a person that values power more than the people without it. Peggy may not be a superhero or even a bad ass, but maybe that is what makes her so much more interesting. She is a normal woman living an extraordinary life, and so could be any woman.
There were a few missteps in Agent Carter. I found the prominence of Howard Stark in the season finale tedious at best, and Peggy’s changing opinion of herself happened much too quickly and wasn’t clearly explained. Agent Carter also desperately needs some color. One Asian agent and a quick glimpse at a black woman boarding in the same building as Peggy is just not enough. A central woman of color character that is as interesting as Peggy will be essential to show as it moves forward, especially as the Civil Rights movement had already profoundly changed the landscape of the US during the war, and only grew bigger and more intense as soldiers came home and refused to ‘go back to normal.’ I don’t believe for a minute that Peggy Carter would simply ignore or not be aware of what was unfolding.
There is some question as to whether or not Agent Carter will return for a season 2. It would be a mistake for ABC to not renew the series. There is an entire market of viewers that are hungry for a lead woman character in the Marvel universe. It takes time, however, for word of mouth to build an audience, and with such a short season, Agent Carter didn’t have the same time that other shows do to catch on. Agent Carter also didn’t get a viewing in the UK, a market that is used to short seasons. Running the series in the UK would definitely help to build an Agent Carter audience. And Agent Carter, more than any other superhero show in recent years, deserves an audience.