Peggy Carter
Margaret Carter is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is usually depicted as a supporting character in books featuring Captain America. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, she first appeared in Tales of Suspense #77 as a World War II love interest of Steve Rogers in flashback sequences. She would later be better known as a relative of Captain America's modern-day significant other Sharon Carter.
Hayley Atwell portrayed the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with ', and continuing in the Marvel One-Shot Agent Carter, ', the television series Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Marvel's Agent Carter, ', Ant-Man, and '. Atwell will return to voice an alternate version of the character called Captain Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe animated series What If...? on Disney+, which will debut in mid 2021.
Publication history
The character first appeared, unnamed, as a wartime love interest of Captain America in Tales of Suspense #75 and #77, by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. She appeared again as the older sister of Sharon Carter in Captain America #161. She was later retconned as Sharon's aunt due to the unaging nature of comic book characters. The character has appeared frequently in Captain America stories set during World War II.Fictional character biography
Peggy Carter joins the French Resistance as a teenager and becomes a skilled fighter, who serves on several operations alongside Captain America. The two fall in love, but an exploding shell gives her amnesia and she is sent to live with her parents in Virginia.During the "Original Sin" storyline, it was revealed in 1952 that Peggy Carter worked with Howard Stark and Woody McCord when they investigated an alien ship in Siberia. The three of them worked to keep the alien from being taken by Hydra and had the alien live with Anton Vanko.
In the 1960s, Peggy Carter joined up with S.H.I.E.L.D. for a long tenure.
At the time when Captain America resurfaced in the world, Peggy Carter was taking treatments from Doctor Faustus. When she was rescued by Captain America, she maintained her friendship with him.
Peggy Carter later helped Captain America fight the Secret Empire. She also dealt with his decision to stop being Captain America for a while.
Peggy helps Captain America when her niece Sharon Carter and some S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents went missing while gathering information on the new Grand Director.
Peggy Carter later joined the Avengers' support staff at Avengers Mansion.
During her retirement, Peggy lived in a nursing home and started suffering dementia where she couldn't recognize Sharon. William Burnside later visited Peggy claiming to be the original Captain America. Following her death, S.H.I.E.L.D. erected a memorial statue of her outside the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy in Newark. Steve Rogers, Nick Fury, and Dum Dum Dugan attended her funeral.
Through unknown means, Peggy Carter was revived and rejuvenated where she joined Sharon in forming the Daughters of Liberty under the alias of Dryad. Besides Sharon, the only other people who knew were Falcon and Winter Soldier. She assisted the group in working to clear Captain America's name when he was framed for the death of Thunderbolt Ross. Dryad fought Ross' real murder Foreigner until Crossbones and Sin fired a missile at them. Dryad survived while Foreigner presumably perishes. She secretly assists Winter Soldier into feeding false intel on Captain America's whereabouts to Nick Fury Jr. in order to throw him off. After getting some intel from Baron Strucker's mind, Peggy's location is stormed by Nick Fury Jr. and his men while Peggy was asking Sharon when she is going to tell Captain America about her revival. Peggy tells Nick Fury Jr. that he and his men will have to go through her first if they want to get to Captain America. Peggy subdues the soldiers and holds Nick Fury Jr. at gunpoint in order to straighten him out. Deciding it's time to let Steve know about her return, Peggy arranged for Daughters of Liberty teammate Agatha Harkness to bring Steve to her. She revealed to him that she has been tracking Aleksander Lukin ever since the event where Lukin and Selene took a soul fragment from Sharon. In addition, Peggy stated to Steve that Lukin was behind the death of Thunderbolt Ross, the attacks of the Watchdogs, and the new Scourge. Sharon, Falcon, and Winter Soldier enter while explaining why they kept Peggy's revival a secret. Peggy and Winter Soldier reveal to Steve that the soul fragment that manifested as a stone was used to revive Lukin which also revived the remnants of Red Skull's mind that is in him.
Abilities
Peggy Carter is shown to be a superb hand-to-hand combatant and martial artist. She excels in using firearms and is an experienced tactician and commander.As Dryad, Peggy wears a type of battle armor that is strong enough to protect her from a missile attack and keep her insulated when it is ablaze.
Other versions
- In the alternate reality created by Scarlet Witch in the 2005 "House of M" storyline, Captain America is never frozen in the Arctic, and instead marries Peggy shortly after World War II ends.
- On Earth-65, Peggy Carter is the long-lived director of S.H.I.E.L.D., much like Nick Fury in the primary universe. She also sports an eye patch similar to the one worn by Fury.
- In Super-Soldier: Man of War #1 from Amalgam Comics, Mademoiselle Peggy is a cross between Peggy Carter and DC Comics' World War II version of Mademoiselle Marie.
In other media
Television
- Peggy Carter appears in the Captain America segment of The Marvel Super Heroes, voiced by Peg Dixon.
- Peggy Carter is featured in Avengers Assemble. She is alluded in Avengers: Ultron Revolution. Hayley Atwell voices the character in the Avengers: Secret Wars episode "New Year's Resolution." After arresting Doctor Faustus back in 1949 on New Year's Eve, Peggy Carter and Howard Stark are attacked by Kang the Conqueror's robots disguised as Hydra agents and brought to the present as part of Kang the Conqueror's plot to eliminate Howard Stark so that his enemy Iron Man 2020 does not exist. Captain America and Iron Man help to defeat Kang the Conqueror and return Peggy and Howard back to 1949.
- Peggy Carter is portrayed by Hayley Atwell in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This version is depicted as a brunette British agent rather than a blonde American.
- * Hayley Atwell portrayed Peggy Carter for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. She appears in the second-season premiere episode "Shadows" where she and the SSR raid a Hydra facility and arrest Daniel Whitehall and Hydra Agents. Carter later appeared in the episode "The Things We Bury" where a flashback shows her interrogating Whitehall. In the season three episode "Emancipation", which occurs during the events of Captain America: Civil War, a newspaper headline is shown that says Agent Carter has died at the age of 95.
- * Hayley Atwell starred as Peggy Carter in the series Agent Carter. Set in the immediate post-war years following the events of Captain America: The First Avenger, the series depicts Carter's advancement from routine office work to a position as a celebrated and well-respected agent of the Strategic Scientific Reserve. In addition, she works with Howard Stark's butler Edwin Jarvis to uncover his framing at the hands of Leviathan. The series aired from January 6, 2015, until March 1, 2016.
- * Peggy Carter will appear in the first episode of the Disney+ animated series, What If...?. In this perspective, she receives the Super-Soldier Serum and becomes a superhero named Captain Carter, with Steve Rogers becoming an early version of Iron Man.
Film
- The character first appears in the 2011 film '. Christy Lemire of the Associated Press said, "Atwell’s gorgeous looks make her a great fit for the part, but her character is better developed than you might imagine; she’s no damsel in distress, waiting for Captain America to save her, but rather a trained fighter who is very much his equal." Roger Ebert felt that she resembled "a classic military pin-up of the period" with her depicted "full red lips" of the film.
- She then appears in the Marvel One-Shot short film Agent Carter, which was packaged with the Iron Man 3 Blu-ray disc. The film takes place one year after the events of Captain America: The First Avenger, and features Carter as a member of the Strategic Scientific Reserve, searching for the mysterious Zodiac, and dealing with sexism.
- She appears in the 2014 film '. Set in the present day, CGI was used to make the character appear in her 90s. Steve Rogers visits her in the retirement home where she is living.
- She appears in the 2015 film ' in Steve Rogers's 1940s hallucination caused by the Scarlet Witch's powers.
- She makes a cameo appearance in the 2015 film Ant-Man. She is featured in a 1989 opening teaser, aged in her late 60s, when Hank Pym resigns from S.H.I.E.L.D. after discovering that Mitchell Carson was trying to replicate Pym's shrinking formula without consent.
- In the 2016 film ', she dies in her sleep off-screen. Rogers serves as one of the pallbearers at her funeral, where he learns that Sharon Carter happens to be her great-niece.
- She appears in multiple time periods in . Using Pym Particles, Steve Rogers first time travels to 1970, where he sees her working in her office. At the end of the film, he travels back to sometime in the 1940s to be with her, and they reunite, marry, and subsequently grow old together.
Video games
- Peggy Carter appears in , voiced by Hayley Atwell.
- Peggy Carter appears in Lego Marvel's Avengers, with Hayley Atwell reprising the role.
- Peggy Carter appears in Marvel Puzzle Quest.
- * Peggy Carter as an alternate version of Captain America appears as a playable character. She was created as part of the 75th Anniversary of Captain America Promos.
- * This version of Peggy Carter as Captain America also appears in the comic Exiles.