Okay I’m not going to belabor the obvious when I talk all about the inequality of women or the fact that Peggy Carter is wearing some pretty tight tops(!) – I think both of these points are covered very well in Agent Carter itself and doesn’t bear repeating ad nauseum! So with that being said let’s move on to the story itself and what is going on in TV’s newest Superhero prime time show – Marvel’s Agent Carter.
Agent Carter tell the story of Peggy Carter whom we first met in Captain America The First Avenger. After Captain America’s death fighting against Hydra and the Red Skull in the First Avenger, Peggy Carter is left shattered and at loose ends. While we’ve seen her appear in a couple of episodes of Agents of Shield where she is continuing the fight against Hydra, Marvel’s Agent Carter portray’s her as more of a mourning widow than a hero in her own right which is actually quite disappointing.
After the war and as a part of the Strategic Science Reserve (S.S.R), Peggy doesn’t receive the respect that she thinks and we know she deserves – but rather is denigrated as ditzy and someone that only got the position she’s in due to whom she was supposedly sleeping with (in this case, the assumption is obviously made that this is due to her relationship with Captain America). As nothing more than a glorified office clerk, “Agent” Peggy Carter is woefully underused.
However, when Howard Stark (Tony Stark’s father) is accused of selling secrets to the enemy and in fact is in front of congressional committee very similar to one that his son had to face in Iron Man 2, he is forced to flee the country to try and clear his name. Before he leaves though, he gets in touch with Peggy Carter based on his relationship with her from Captain America The First Avenger and he informs her that she is the only one that he can trust. We are also introduced to Howard Stark’s man servant – Edwin Jarvis – whom we’ve all come to know and love as the entity inhabiting all of the Iron Man suits and all of Tony Stark’s computer systems [note: I’m not implying that this Jarvis becomes the Jarvis used by Tony Stark – I think he only named his trusted friend and adviser the same thing as the person that provided support to his Father … but if somehow this Jarvis does become that Jarvis … well, you saw it here first!] Before he leaves, he tells her about his formula for molecular nitramene that is going to be sold at a club in the city.
When Peggy starts to investigate she is able to use her “womanly ways” to enter the nightclub and gains access to the room where the nitramene is being stored. Here she learns that this is not just a formula but is in fact a weapon! Managing to steal it away from the club owner before the other agents from the S.S.R are able to fully investigate, she takes it to her home where she is able to disarm it with Jarvis’ help.
However unbeknownst to her, she has been followed from the club by a villain! This nameless man kills Peggy’s roommate, but before he can do the same to her, she manages to disarm him (quite a good fight sequence here it must be said and while it didn’t really compare to the May on May fight from Agents of Shield, it was still pretty good!) and knock him out of the window of her flat but when she looks for him, all she sees are shards of glass as he managed to miraculously disappear.
Peggy with some assistance from Jarvis and Stark Industries scientist Anton Vanko determine that the weaponized nitramene came from a Roxxon Oil refinery near the city. Peggy visits the refinery with Jarvis and here she meets Leet Brannis – the thief/individual who actually stole everything from Stark. Peggy also finds that a whole shipment of these lethal weapons has been manufactured by the Brannis and his Roxxon associates and while she is able to stop Leet from manufacturing more, he escapes with all of the already completed bombs save one. This one he uses to destroy the entire building as Carter and Jarvis escape.
Phew … lots happening in just one episode that’s for sure! I think Marvel has learned some lessons from Shield – namely while we like our story we don’t want to wait a whole season for it to develop as they did in Season 1. This episode definitely kick starts the show off on the right foot and while (I feel) there were a couple of wobbles, the show overall was definitely entertaining and enjoyable. As this was a two-parter though … stay tuned for the second half!
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