All Hail Agent Carter

In a recent news release discussing current and upcoming projects, most specifically VisionQuest, it was noted that Agent Carter exists within the Marvel Cinematic UniverseWhen it first began in 2008 with a little film called Iron Man no one suspected the empire that would follow. Superhero movies in the past, especially those not featuring either Batman or Superman, were usually terrible. And yet, Iron Man would lead to a long series of successful films, launching the most successful cinema brand in history: the Marvel Cinematic Universe. continuity. For fans of that show this is something of a minor victory that, in the long run, actually means very little. It’s great that the show is accepted as part of the canon. Most of us had actually assumed as much since the series starred Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter, featured cameos from a number of other Marvel characters, and featured the human version of Edwin Jarvis, James D’Arcy, who would later go on to feature as the same character in Avengers: Endgame and, in a form, VisionQuest.

At the same time, though, the show existed in the timeline fifty years before any events in the main continuity, and the show had been off the air for nearly a decade. It’s nice to know this show is now in canon, but the likelihood that it actually matters in any real way is low. When Peggy shows up now it’s generally in her Captain Carter form (from the What If…? multiverse) and we’re unlikely to ever see any kind of true continuation of Agent Carter pop up. That’s just not in the cards.

But it does show us that the MCU continuity is pretty fluid. We’ve actually seen an action like this before, with the NetflixOriginally started as a disc-by-mail service, Netflix has grown to be one of the largest media companies in the world (and one of the most valued internet companies as well). With a constant slate of new internet streaming-based programming that updates all the time, Netflix has redefined what it means to watch TV and films (as well as how to do it). Marvel shows. Those shows – Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher – all existed in this kind of limbo for a while. Like Agents of SHIELD, these shows commented on the MCU continuity, making sly references to the incident in NYC and the various heroes that showed up, but while they were on there was never any comment back from the movies about what was going on in the shows. They were the junior varsity version of the MCU and the main team didn’t even know they existed.

That eventually did shift, although it was slow to take. We first saw a couple of the actors from the Netflix shows pop up in the MCU, with Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock appearing as Peter Parker’s attorney in Spider-man: No Way Home, while Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin appeared as a major player in both Hawkeye and Echo. But even then, with the Multiverse at play, we didn’t know if these were the same versions of characters we’d seen before. Even Kevin Feige seemed to be hedging his bets, initially ordering Daredevil: Born Again to be a soft reboot of the Netflix continuity before realizing that didn’t work (and wouldn’t please the fans) and letting it be a full continuation. And because of that, all of the Defenders will eventually pop up in the series before it wraps with its third season.

These, though, were the shows that were lucky enough to get adopted back in. In contrast, Agents of SHIELD still exists in a weird limbo, both in and out of continuity, and that will likely never get resolved. The show started off clearly part of the MCU for Phase II, with the show picking up before the events of Captain America: Civil War before heading into that movie’s major twists (everyone is a Skrull… wait, no, that was a different story). We got a couple of character cameos, side and minor characters from the main MCU that showed up in the first and second seasons, and the series was constructed to comment on the main MCU movies without ever contradicting them. And while over time the show stopped getting the cameos, and stopped commenting on the films directly, they made sure to still stick within continuity.

That changed, though, during The Snap and the time jump that Avengers: Infinity War introduced. The television team was never brought in on the planning process for the story of that film and Avengers: Endgame, so they didn’t know how long the time jump would be or what would happen to all the characters. So instead of working with it, Agents of SHIELD had to ignore it. This created a branched timeline where The Snap never happens on the television show, and it clearly delineated the series as a different continuity.

Now, of course, that really doesn’t seem like that big a deal anymore when we have a Multiverse in play. It could be said that the first four or so seasons of the show take place in the main continuity, and everything else happens in a side timeline running parallel, and we could eventually get some kind of crossover if Marvel wanted. But that hinges on two things that likely won’t come to pass. The first is that the MCU would have to actually acknowledge Agents of SHIELD, hardly likely at this point. But the second is a bigger issue: what will Avengers: Secret Wars do to the MCU continuity?

Bear in mind, everyone already knows that Avengers: Secret Wars is going to soft-reset the continuity. Worlds will merge, heroes will get recast, younger versions will appear, and everything will functionally get rebooted so that Marvel can tell new stories with their popular heroes while cleaning up the mess that the continuity has become. Agents of SHIELD will likely go to the same place as Kang the Conqueror, cast out to a Multiversal Mandyville where messy side stories and narrative dead ends go to be rebooted away.

And that’s still a better fate than many other Marvel shows that came and went. While people are still mad that Agents of SHIELD got short shrift, fewer people complain about Cloak and Dagger, Runaways, or Helstrom. Now, sure, very few people could ever care about Helstrom as that was a terrible television series, both Cloak and Dagger (which went two seasons) and Runaways (which went three) had its fans. They were developed to make their own little bit of continuity, even crossing over between shows and picking up plot ideas from other Marvel shows. While I don’t think either of those shows were the best they could have been, it’s still a little sad to see them get blown away as if Thanos snapped them from existence.

But that’s going to happen to a lot of shows, and even some movie characters, once Avengers: Secret Wars happens. It’s the great reset for a lot of works, and while that seems like a safe play for Marvel to make so they can start telling stories about Iron ManBillionare Tony Stark has a secret: while he travels the world by day as a playboy philanthropist and head of Stark Industries, he combats the evils of the world as the armored Iron Man. and Captain AmericaCreated by Simon and Kirby in 1941, Captain America was a super soldier created to fight Germany and the evil HYDRA. Then he was lost in the ice, only to be found and reborn decades later as the great symbol of the USA. and all the rest (since so many successor works, like Ironheart and Captain America: Brave New World, sputtered out and died), is it really? Sure, no one will care if Marvel recasts and retells the Runaways, more than likely, but will people accept a new Steve Rogers Captain America film if the hero isn’t played by Chris Evans? I have my doubts.

I mean, just look at the fact that Feige had to let Daredevil back into the fold despite him not having any creative control over the original Netflix run and, clearly, not wanting anything to do with it. Fans bonded with a specific actor and a specific version of the character. Anything less would have been a disservice, in their minds, because they wanted more of what they knew. Marvel not only made people love their B-string heroes (since they’d previously sold off the movie rights to their A-list team), they also indelibly bonded the audience to those actors as well. But if they reboot that all away, they might have a bigger mess now than they did before.

All of that is a very long way to say that I’m glad that Agent Carter is in continuity. I actually wouldn’t be sad if other projects, like Agents of SHIELD or Cloak and Dagger or Runaways (but, come on, not Helstrom) were all accepted back into the fold. If you’re going to reboot anyway, at least give us some acknowledgment that these shows existed, had fans, and meant something. Throw a bone to the television fans before you Thanos snap it all away anyway. That may not help you in the long run for Phase VII and beyond, but it would curry some favor for those of us that have been doing the homework and watching everything Marvel produced over the last two decades, whether it tied into the continuity or not.