Why Peggy Carter Was the Best TV Superhero

"If I'm working with him (Vernon Masters*) to take down a woman

 killing people with black space goop, the I'm in."

 -Chief Souza (Enver Gjokaj) to SSR Director Thompson 

* Vernon Masters is Kurtwood Smith, Eric's dad from That 70's Show, just to assist in this visual).

Image from Google

     Did you ever have one of those dreams with singing and dancing that was supposed to bring clarity to a decision you had to make? British-born SSR Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell)  did, after getting swift knock in the head and thrown in a van on its way to the desert. After that, she tried to escape put of the desert with loyal friend (and recent attempted murderer) Mr. Jarvis. Good thing Agent Carter wore a pantsuit before this mission. How did she come to arrive here? What will she do next? It's not such a simple story.

     Season 2 of Agent Carter was poorly sandwiched between breaks of Agents of the S.H.I.E.LD., a show that one must watch religiously if they want to understand each Marvel Avengers movie. The second round picked up shortly after the season 1 capture of Russian spy "Dottie." The SSR (Strategic Scientific Reserve) is a post-WWII, CIA-type organization that evolves into the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization. In closing  the Dottie case,  NY office member Daniel Souza is sent to head up a new branch in Los Angeles, fronted as a talent agency.  When a woman turns up frozen in a lake, Chief Thompson (Chad Michael Murray) sends Peggy to Hollywood,  where she settles into old pal Tony Stark's (SR., not Ironman) mansion and gets into some good old-fashioned spy work. This eventually lands Carter and Stark's butler Jarvis (James D'Arcy) in the desert, captured and plotting escape.

     Why is Peggy Carter such a badass? I've never been much for superhero stories, but I think part of the character's appeal is that she is a positive female role model. To be honest, I started watching this shoe because I missed Chad MM, but I stayed for the likable heroine. She doesn't have super powers like Supergirl or Buffy or any of the powers-driven Avengers (I'm still trying to figure out if  Scarlett Johanson's (Black Widow) super power is disapproving, pouty stares) but she is out fighting bad guys, breaking codes, and sneaking into dangerous parties to save the country. Plus, she is doing this all in the 1940's  when most women were at home having babies and riveting to help the war effort. Agent Carter is part of the actual war effort! She chooses her career over love (time and again) and she may not always be rewarded, but she fulfills her deep commitment to duty and to her home country and adopted home of the U.S.A.  Agent Carter was introduced in the first Captain America movie, which I could not watch all the way through on T.V. tonight (it got a little boring). Peggy takes a liking to Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a test subject in a  super soldier program, who becomes Captain America. But Peggy is not doting or wallowing too much when she loses Capt. into the ocean (2nd Capt. America movie). She is out fighting Nazis and Russians with the best of them while she moves on with her life. Plus, she looks like Carmen San Diego in that flowy trench coat.

     Agent Carter and Mr. Jarvis get out of their predicament and prevent total chaos in a studio back lot. In a nutshell, a delusional scientist-turned-actress Whitney Frost (played by Wynn Everett, and what a nice name for a villain) has accidentally dosed herself and Carter's possible love interest Dr. Jason Wilkes with a substance called Zero Matter*. Zero matter gives you a ghost-like quality and some weird powers. See below for some more clarification. Frost ( tries to take all the Zero Matter for herself and feeds the evil inside her, destroying anything that gets in her way. Bodies start to pile up as Zero Matter further falls into the wrong hands and the secret government committee that once OKs it gives up. Frost tries to open up a time rift and the gang gets a gamma ray to zap all of the Zero Matter into another dimension. Crazy Frost is partially deformed and locked up in a mental institution. Chief Souza thought moving to L.A. would help him get over Peggy, and he gets dumped by his fiancee because of how much her still cares for Peggy. Mr. Jarvis's wife is shot over the whole Zero Matter fiasco and in her the recovery, discovers she can never have children. Peggy is more confused than ever over choosing Jason (now corporeal again) or Chief Souza (freshly jilted).  Finally, Director Thompson steals an incriminating file on Carter from baddie Vernon Masters and gets shot as the episode closes.

     Where are we now? The show has been cancelled, so we are lost. Technically, nothing is ever over in this crazy T.V./Movie Marvel universe, but it's unlikely people will go back in time and spend much time with this lovable gang of (misfit) spies without some major retooling and selling the story off to someomone like Netflix.  But the fan support is still there. We need more shows like Agent Carter. There's  such a strong reliance on technology in modern-day adventures that it's refreshing to see characters using their resources like their knowledge to help solve a problem (pre-Google era, everybody). The themes present in Agent Carter and other stories of its time also ring true to today's society. America is fighting many foreign threats that may destroy the way we live. The enemy may change, but the bravery of a hero is s story that will live on. Also, Peggy and her friends show us that even super spies cannot always leave their feelings at the door, and a true hero uses emotion and instinct to get results.

*Zero Matter per Wikipedia: 

"It is a powerful, extra-dimensional energy that can be manipulated in slightly different ways by a handful of beings that are attuned to it. There are slight yet inconclusive hints that it may be a corruptive influence of some kind (at least to Cloak, possibly to Darkhawk as well) and perhaps even a sentient entity." 

6/2 UPDATED: Star Hayley Atwell would love to play Peggy again.