I was intrigued by Marvel’s super hero movies and how Marvel uses this medium of transmedia in their film making and story telling. The research readings were interesting as it talked about Marvel’s Avengers and how it came into being. There was also a reading by Whitehall on how comics have been using this Transmedia concept long before other big Studios applied in movies. In class we started with discussing the same and ended up watching short films made on Agent Carter and other movies she was featured in.
In Captain America, Agent Carter (played by Hayley Atwell) is Captain America’s love interest. She has a short role but one can remember her even after the movie has ended. She has her own story being formed in Captain America but as the movie is about Captain America, her character does not develop more than just a love interest of his. Her role is officially born with Marvel’s one-shot Agent Carter which follows Carter’s story after the events of Captain America – First Avenger. Now she is a member of Strategic Scientific Reserve. She seizes opportunity to carry out a mission which is a success that leads to her being co-heading SHIELD.
This short got great reviews from critics and audiences and a TV series was commissioned on her character which is again a continuation of the events from Agent Carter. She has also featured in two episodes of Agents of SHIELD and will feature in the upcoming film called ANT-MAN. Hayley’s character is also featured in a video game called Captain America – Super Soldier.
On further analysing her character, there are quite a few similarities with other super hero characters. What does super-heroes like Batman, Iron-Man, Spider-Man and Agent Carter have in common? Firstly there is a great loss in their lives. Batman and Spider-man lost her parents, so does Agent Carter. Well she does not lose her parents but she loses Captain America – her love. This triggers a certain emotion that give all super hero a reason to fight. There are more similarities than you think. Batman can never find the killers of their parents and that loss is hard to fill. In the same way, Agent Carter is met with gender inequality. In both cases, the protagonist cant do much for the situation they are in. But unlike Batman, Agent Carter fights it in her own way. The character is an ode to all the inequalities faced by women now and especially during that time.
Female characters during that time and otherwise portrayed in movies depicting that time are always inferior to men. Agent Carter destroys that notion. As Roger Ginger says, She can do anything what Captain America can do. On her role Hayley says that ‘She might stand there with a machine gun shooting Nazis, but she’s obviously gone to the loo beforehand and applied a bit of lipstick. She is a modern woman stuck in the wrong time.
There is always a lack of female super heroes. I am guessing, while planning the Avengers, Marvel studios much have throughly planned Carter’s character. Also ofcourse, it would have been developed as they went along with the project as the character gained more popularity. Also the fact that Agent Carter was a high budget short film in Marvel’s One-shot movies and looking back now seeing Carter’s role in so many films other than Captain America says that they might have planned this throughly before hand.
Roots 