The character debuted in a single panel (and unnamed) as a wartime love interest of Captain America in Tales of Suspense #75 (March 1966), and then receiving a backstory in #77 (May 1966). She was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. She was created to give Sharon Carter a family background.[2][3] She appeared again as the older sister of Sharon Carter in Captain America #161 (May 1973). She was later retconned as Sharon's aunt, then later great-aunt, due to the unaging nature of comic book characters (see Captain America vol. 5 #25 (April 2007)). The character has appeared frequently in Captain America stories set during World War II.[citation needed]
Fictional character biography
Dr.[4] Peggy Carter joins the French Resistance as a teenager and becomes a skilled fighter, who serves on several operations alongside Captain America.[5] The two fall in love, but an exploding shell gives her amnesia and she is sent to live with her parents in Virginia.[6]
During the "Original Sin" storyline, it was revealed in 1952 that Peggy Carter worked with Howard Stark and Woody McCord when they investigated an alien ship in Siberia.[7] The three of them worked to keep the alien from being taken by Hydra and had the alien live with Anton Vanko.[8]
In the 1960s, Peggy Carter joined up with S.H.I.E.L.D. for a long tenure.[9]
At the time when Captain America resurfaced in the world, Peggy Carter was taking treatments from Doctor Faustus. When she was rescued by Captain America, she maintained her friendship with him.[10]
Peggy Carter later helped Captain America fight the Secret Empire.[11] She also dealt with his decision to stop being Captain America for a while.[12]
Peggy helps Captain America when her niece Sharon Carter and some S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents went missing while gathering information on the new Grand Director.[13]
During her retirement, Peggy lived in a nursing home and started suffering dementia where she couldn't recognize Sharon. William Burnside later visited Peggy claiming to be the original Captain America.[15] Following her death,[7] S.H.I.E.L.D. erected a memorial statue of her outside the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy in Newark.[16] Steve Rogers, Nick Fury, and Dum Dum Dugan attended her funeral.
Through unknown means, Peggy Carter was revived and rejuvenated where she joined Sharon in forming the Daughters of Liberty under the alias of Dryad. Besides Sharon, the only other people who knew were Falcon and Winter Soldier.[17] She assisted the group in working to clear Captain America's name when he was framed for the death of Thunderbolt Ross. Dryad fought Ross' real murder Foreigner until Crossbones and Sin fired a missile at them. Dryad survived while Foreigner presumably perishes.[18] She secretly assists Winter Soldier into feeding false intel on Captain America's whereabouts to Nick Fury Jr. in order to throw him off. After getting some intel from Baron Strucker's mind, Peggy's location is stormed by Nick Fury Jr. and his men while Peggy was asking Sharon when she is going to tell Captain America about her revival. Peggy tells Nick Fury Jr. that he and his men will have to go through her first if they want to get to Captain America. Peggy subdues the soldiers and holds Nick Fury Jr. at gunpoint in order to straighten him out.[19] Deciding it's time to let Steve know about her return, Peggy arranged for Daughters of Liberty teammate Agatha Harkness to bring Steve to her. She revealed to him that she has been tracking Aleksander Lukin ever since the event where Lukin and Selene took a soul fragment from Sharon. In addition, Peggy stated to Steve that Lukin was behind the death of Thunderbolt Ross, the attacks of the Watchdogs, and the new Scourge. Sharon, Falcon, and Winter Soldier enter while explaining why they kept Peggy's revival a secret. Peggy and Winter Soldier reveal to Steve that the soul fragment that manifested as a stone was used to revive Lukin which also revived the remnants of Red Skull's mind that is in him.[17]
Abilities
Peggy Carter is shown to be a superb martial artist, also excelling in using firearms. She is a highly trained spy and tactician.
As Dryad, Peggy wears a type of battle armor that is strong enough to protect her from a missile attack and keep her insulated when it is ablaze.
Other versions
Peggy Carter (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
Full name: Margaret Elizabeth Carter, race: human, citizenship: English/UK, gender: female, date of birth April 9, 1921, date of death June 18, 2016. Title SSR agent (former) Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Head of S.H.I.E.L.D. (former) The founder of S.H.I.E.L.D. dependent on Implementation of special operations (previously) British Armed Forces (formerly) MI5 (formerly) S.H.I.E.L.D. (previously)
Shows Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Avengers: Endgame, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Agent Carter, What If...(as SSR Agent Peggy Carter and Captain Carter), Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (as Captain Carter).
Margaret Elizabeth "Peggy" Carter was one of the most prominent agents of the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR) during World War II and one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D. She was originally a codebreaker working at Bletchley Park following the death of her brother to the spy agency Special Operations.
Carter later joined the SSR and began fighting Hydra. She saved Abraham Erskine from Johann Schmidt during a mission in Germany.
The success of her mission led the SSR to begin Project Rebirth and develop the Super Soldier Serum to build an army of superior soldiers.
During this project, Peggy Carter met Steve Rogers, who was one of the candidates for this project.
In 1943, after Project Rebirth abruptly ended and Rogers became the only super soldier, Carter helped him become the world's first superhero. Rogers and Carter eventually fell in love.
After Rogers disappeared in 1945, Carter continued the fight against HYDRA and captured the last high-ranking officer of the organization, Werner Reinhardt. She continued her service in the SSR after the war. As an SSR agent, Carter helped Howard Stark, her former colleague, clear his charge of being a traitor.
Carter later traveled to Los Angeles to meet up with Stark. During that time, she clashed with Whitney Frost, an actress and scientific genius who had become infected with Substance Zero. Carter later helped Stark found a new peacekeeping organization called SHIELD.
Carter finally met The Allied soldier, married, and became the mother of two children, while continuing to serve in SHIELD.
After the Cold War, Carter became the head of SHEILD until 1970. At the beginning of the 21st century, Carter retired and her niece, Sharon Carter, continued in her footsteps.
During Peggy Carter's resurrection, young Steve Rogers was pulled from the ice and found to be alive, however Carter, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease at this point, barely remembered Rogers. Carter finally passed away in 2016. In 2023 after finding a method of time travel, Rogers returned to the 1940s and created a new timeline where he married Carter and grew old with her.
The concept of Peggy Carter (modelled after Hayley Atwell) serving as Captain America was created for the game Marvel Puzzle Quest for Captain America's 75th anniversary. She was adapted into the third series of the comic Exiles.[21]
As a result of the success of the new Captain Carter from the What If...? animated series, Marvel introduced a similarly-named reinvention of the Exiles Captain America Peggy Carter (modelled after Hayley Atwell) in the comic Captain Carter #1. It is set in its own universe, unrelated to the main Marvel universe or the MCU one. Captain Carter is cryogenically frozen from WWII up to the modern day, as in the usual origin story of Captain America, and discovers that HYDRA is still active.[25]
Another Captain Carter, similar to the MCU character as well, appeared in Avengers Forever #4, a crossover involving the multiverse and many alternate versions of characters.[26] She alongside Warbow and War Widow find Moon Knight and Vision from Earth-818 at the Center of Infinity and recruit them into Avenger Prime's army.[27]
As the Multiversal Avengers and the Avengers of Earth-616 fight the Doctor Doom variants working for Doom Supreme, Captain America of Earth-616 fights alongside Captain Carter as she tells him to maintain the formation.[28]
House of M
In the alternate reality created by Scarlet Witch in the 2005 "House of M" storyline, Captain America is never frozen in the Arctic, and instead marries Peggy shortly after World War II ends.[29]
On Earth-65, Peggy Carter (designed after Hayley Atwell) is the long-lived director of S.H.I.E.L.D., much like Nick Fury in the primary universe. She also sports an eye patch similar to the one worn by Fury,[30] later recruiting an amnesiac "Mr. Murderhands" to work for her as an assassin.[31]
Peggy Carter appears in Marvel Puzzle Quest. Additionally, an alternate universe version of Carter who became Captain America appears as a playable character.[47]
^Catherine Saunders, Heather Scott, Julia March, and Alastair Dougall, editors, 2008, Marvel Chronicle: A year by Year History, London: Dorling Kindersley, p. 115; ISBN978-1-4093-8399-4.
