Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter was first introduced to audiences in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger as an MI6 agent assisting the Strategic Scientific Reserve during World War II. Their secret project is a super soldier program that transforms a frail Steve Rogers into the enhanced Captain America. Carter and Cap would soon develop a romantic interest in one another, but his seeming death put an end to their budding relationship. Luckily for Marvel fans, the two would later reunite as seen in Captain America: The Winter Solider, and again at the end of Avengers: Endgame, where it’s revealed that Rogers stayed in the past to settle down with Carter.
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But Carter was much more than a mere love interest. Intelligent, resourceful, and not afraid to embark on a dangerous mission, Atwell’s Marvel character starred in her own two-season television show, Agent Carter, which sees her post-WWII adventures working for the Strategic Scientific Reserve. While the show was mostly contained to its own world, it nevertheless helped explain the past lore of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, making Carter a more important character than she might seem. Now, ten years after the show’s premiere, we take a look at the various times that Agent Carter referenced (and even set up!) the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe.
#1 – The Creation of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR) was a central intelligence and counter-espionage agency established to ward off the growing threat of the Nazis and HYDRA during WWII. Peggy Carter was one of its top agents and embarked on numerous important missions with the organization, such as neutralizing the last surviving HYDRA base (that they knew about, at least) towards the end of the war. Carter and the SSR continued their work after WWII – even setting up a new facility in Los Angeles – to investigate bizarre crimes, often involving the paranormal.
The SSR may have played a major role in Agent Carter, but it was first introduced in Captain America: The First Avenger. But not only that, the top-secret agency would eventually form the basis for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, also known as S.H.I.E.L.D., which would play a major role in multiple MCU films under the leadership of Nick Fury. Naturally it would all come crashing down in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, thanks to HYDRA of course.
#2 – Howard Stark
Howard Stark was an inventor and industrialist whose brilliance was unmatched. He played an important role during the SSR’s early days, helping them develop technology to fight the Nazis and HYDRA. After WWII, he often worked closely with Peggy Carter, such as when he recruited her to help him retrieve his stolen tech that appeared on the black market.
Howard is the father of Tony Stark aka Iron Man, who kicked off the MCU. It would later be revealed that Howard was a founding member of S.H.I.E.L.D. The character made sporadic yet impactful appearances throughout the MCU; while it’s established that Tony always had an uneasy relationship with his father, he gradually learns how much Howard truly cared about him, culminating in an incognito Tony seeing Howard one last time during the time heist in Avengers: Endgame.
#3 – Arnim Zola
Arnim Zola was a high-ranking HYDRA scientist who worked closely with the Red Skull. Together, they harnessed the power of the Tesseract to develop advanced weapons until their plans were stopped by Captain America. After WWII, Zola was recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. wherein he secretly kept HYRDA alive, slowly rebuilding its ranks. When Zola was stricken with a terminal illness, he uploaded his consciousness into a complex computer system and continued to oversee Project Oversight.
While Zola’s primary appearances were in Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, he did make a cameo in Agent Carter. He was seen in the episode “Valediction” in which it’s revealed that he is the cellmate of the recently apprehended Johann Fennhoff; Zola, of course, wastes no time in recruiting him into HYDRA.
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#4 – Jarvis
Initially in the MCU, J.A.R.V.I.S. was Tony Stark’s personal AI assistant, a digital butler of sorts who accompanied him pretty much everywhere, even when he was suited up as Iron Man and saving the world with the Avengers. This was pretty far removed from the comics wherein Jarvis is an actual stereotypical butler to Stark; the decision was made to make him an AI assistant in the MCU to avoid comparisons to the Batman films which also featured a billionaire playboy with a British butler. However, Agent Carter went back to the source material by giving Howard Stark – Tony’s father – a butler named Jarvis. The original Jarvis presented in the show also appeared in Avengers: Endgame still assisting Howard well into the 1970s, and cementing the canon status of Agent Carter in the MCU.
#5 – Dum Dum Dugan and the Howling Commandos
In the comics, the Howling Commandos were a team of soldiers led by Sgt. Nick Fury who embarked on dangerous missions together during WWII. Several of these soldiers – including Fury’s right-hand man Timothy Aloysius Cadwallader “Dum Dum” Dugan – would join S.H.I.E.L.D. with Fury after the war. We got a version of the Howling Commandos in Captain America: The First Avenger, in which Cap recruits several freed POWs to join his squad taking out HYDRA bases during the war.
Dum Dum Dugan and a different iteration of the Howling Commandos appeared in Agent Carter episode “The Iron Ceiling” wherein they join Carter on a mission to Eastern Europe to learn more about the secret organization, Leviathan. Even though the war was over, Dum Dum and his Howling Commandos were more than happy to suit up and dive into a dangerous assignment they might not return from.
