The arguments generally are, "Should women have greater representation?" "Do women already have enough representation?" "How should we represent women?" "Should we cater to social pressure?" "What about writer's rights?" "Is it a comic distributor's responsibility?" and many others I'm sure you're already aware of. Many people see this as a pretty simple question with simple answers of "yes" and "no." In truth, the problem is far more complex and while some recognize that, many others simply make their answers more complex to fit the role rather than explore the situation at hand. Some will give a "free market" answer along the lines of, "Men read comics predominantly, and so comics cater to men, and so long as men read comics then comic companies should cater to them." Others will respond, "No, women are equal and are treated as second string. Women don't read comics because there are no comics for women."
The answer? For another post, because this one is about Marvel's Agent Carter.
Every once in the while a show comes along which transcends all boundaries and expectations and pushes past convention and argument to be something all it's own without need to cater or subvert any preconceived notions of what it should be. Last night I witnessed this with Agent Carter, the miniseries which takes place a short while after the first Captain America movie and is focused on the titular (come on) character Peggy Carter. In this little show Agent (not miss) Carter is an independent and very strong woman both physically and mentally who is continuing her work with the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR), which itself is the precursor to the cinematic S.H.I.E.L.D. What is portrayed is her mission to stop a weapon from being released while dealing with the norms of her time such as sexism, lack of wireless communication, cloak and dagger business and so on.
So is it a good show? Well, only two episodes in and I can say I enjoyed them immensely. The lovely Hayley Atwell plays a convincing and daring Peggy Carter who must be versatile, strong, smart, and even a little vulnerable as we must remember Peggy is still mourning the loss of Steve Rogers at this point in her life. The mourning is a bit important because Captain America is still highly publicized and marketed and she is reminded of this in pictures and oddly on the radio as a radio drama of Captain America's exploits are played often. It's actually a point of humor since Peggy is more annoyed with the portrayal of the stories, and in particular her part in them as her part has been replaced by a character named "Betty Carver" who is the breathy voiced triage nurse who enjoys hemming pants on her brand new electric sewing machine when she's not the damsel in distress for Cap to rescue as opposed to Peggy's actual role in the war and to Captain America.
The action is quick paced and how they portray Peggy in the rumpus is actually well handled as she looks like someone in that time as opposed to the "waif fu" action women we normally see doing high wire, high acrobatic stunts in the movies and film. Notably she is very different from Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow in combat since the Widow prefers high acrobatics and twirling where Carter believably delivers a strong straight right to people's chins. This can only really be done since Peggy isn't fighting superbeings, but it is still a very nice and separate way for Peggy to deal with action. It's not to say Peggy is portrayed as strong as her male combatants, just that she isn't doing backflips and jumping six feet into the air to use her legs as choking tools. No, Peggy wears a skirt and is an agile capable fighter, but in a way which is just enough for the viewer to see her as every bit equal a threat to her male combatants.
Personality wise Peggy is a stern, smart, incredibly capable Agent of the SSR who is able to do undercover work as a blonde party goer, switch to a mouthy health inspector, and oddly enough she commonly plays the role of slightly snarky but mostly obedient unofficial "office lady," which has her commonly taking harassment from the men aside from the one legged agent who sympathizes with her as an outcast. Peggy is portrayed perfectly by Atwell as a woman who knows what to do, when to do it, and not in a way that seems forced or just shoehorned in. Peggy is very much a capable Agent and it is very separate from her simply being a woman Agent. She's an Agent who happens to be a woman, and is just damn good at it. She doesn't walk into every scene as the immediate ass-kicker, nor does she show her authority and capability by walking in and ordering everybody around in a "bitchy" way like other strong female lead shows would have a leading woman should behave. Peggy is smarter than her peers and knows how to manipulate her surroundings to accomplish her goal without being heavy handed and imposing. Aside from her work as a false health food inspector where she instead invokes the "bitchy woman" trope to a T and still gets the job done. What's nice is that she only plays that part as she needs to, without being an imposing authoritarian who must be a cold and headstrong jerkbag to get what she wants, and can achieve similar if not the same goals by relying on simply being smarter as opposed to smarter and meaner. This isn't to say that I think women are better in this role and should "know their place under the man," but I would like to say it's refreshing to see women in more flexible portrayals in the same way I enjoy men playing roles which aren't machismo filled, gun toting, one liner spitting, death machine roles all the time. Peggy's personality is very much a conflicted human being who wants to achieve deeds in a very self reliant way we would see in other roles attributed to male leads. And when she pushes too far with the insistence of "I can do this myself, I don't need you," she is skillfully brought back down by Edwin Jarvis, played by the wonderfully charmful James D'Arcy, who reminds the strong willed Agent that no man or woman can do her job alone, and that even Captain America had a world of support for his strength. And namely that Peggy herself was what pushed him on. A revelation which forced her into quiet contemplation and a brusque acknowledgement by telling Jarvis to get back to patching up her leg from a recent skirmish.
What's important and best is Peggy's portrayal. As I've talked about it is unique given how most female leads either are not just unflinchingly strong, but almost offensively so, must have quirky personalities, isn't emotionally fragile, and more or less is just isn't reacting to the world around her as it happens to her, but moves with her world to best figure out what needs doing and simply does it. In short, Agent Carter isn't a one trick pony who is not some scorned and hurt woman who lashes back against the world, or a leading doctor in her field, or even some highly respected leader in her community due to personality and results. She is both soft and hard without having to be too much in one way or the other. She doesn't have to be strong to the outside world to protect her soft and fragile inside in the way some women characters are portrayed. She isn't just good at her job and bad at her life because of some sort of defect in her biology. She understands her world and bucks the convention when she knows it will work, not because she feels she has to, and knows how to navigate a world men lead at the time. Peggy is a very unique character in this regard and foils perfectly to D'Arcy's much more softer Jarvis.
So who is Jarvis? Unlike some reporter who said it was a shout out to Tony Stark's robotic butler, he is actually the adaptation of the comic character Edwin Jarvis who was the butler to both Howard and Tony Stark. In this show he is portrayed expertly as a tight schedule keeping man who wants to help, both out of direction of his boss and of his personal desire to see Agent Carter not killed in her pursuit of stopping terrorism nor does he want to see her lose her sense of purpose through poor decisions. "But Mak, you just said she ISN'T that!" What I said was Peggy wasn't one dimensional, she is actually very subject to complex human behavior, and this is perfectly pointed out when Jarvis responds to a comment by Peggy of her not needing anybody by saying to the effect, "I cannot tell if that was from ignorance or arrogance," and then following up after another comment with, "You wish to save the world by detaching yourself from it?" forcing Peggy to realize she needs to be more than what she currently is. Perhaps his best deliveries are when he sees her pushing the "stiff upper lip" and reaches out an understanding hand as a fellow British when he hands her a handkerchief in the diner they talk back to back at to let her know it's okay to feel the way she does, and truly his best when he tells her about the line already mentioned about Captain America: That she can accept him and those who wish to help her as support and strength as no person can do it alone, in the same way Captain America drew strength from her. In truth, Jarvis plays the very entertaining and secondary comedy act with his naive nature and his comfort with being given precise direction and assuming servant. In one scene Peggy radios him to pull a car around while she's escaping an implosion and he asks, "When?" as he's used to with Stark, which of course has her calmly giving "Now." Another he is instructed to stay inside the car when he and Peggy go to find a milk truck and he foresees her need of help and disables a car because, "A good butler knows when they're needed without being told," or something to that effect. His own vulnerabilities and sensibilities are just entertaining as all out and I cannot wait to see how they further develop. The show is a miniseries which means laser sharp focus, but I can already tell I'll miss this show when it's gone if anything due to the great characters I've thus far seen.
There's so much more to talk about, but I implore you to go watch this show yourself.
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