Peggy Carter is having a superhero moment, but Marvel seems desperate to blow it
The heavy hand of Marvel Studios is in danger of making a mess of What If…?’s tribute to Hayley Atwell’s Captain Carter
TV Features Peggy Carter
This week, Marvel Studios and Disney+ released the first episode of What If…?, a new animated spin-off of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that explores alternate realities that differ from the movies in key ways. In the first episode, a minor change to canonical events leads to Steve Rogers being shot before he can receive the super-soldier serum that turns him into Captain America during World War II, leaving British intelligence agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell, in both the cartoon and the movies) as the only viable option to become the world’s first super-soldier. Freshly imbued with super-strength, Peggy decides to jump headfirst into the fight against the Red Skull and Hydra as Captain Carter, and quickly establishes herself as a hero who might actually be better and cooler and more fun to watch than Chris Evans’ Captain America in the movies.
Peggy was always a great character, even before the animated series made her a superhero, so one of the best things about What If…? is that it has given her and Atwell another chance to be in the spotlight. But rather than letting this effort stand on its own as a fun—and very, very well-deserved—tribute to a pair of unsung MCU heroes (both the character and her actor), the heavy hand of Marvel Studios is in danger of making a mess of it. Criticism bubbled up this past weekend, before What If…? had even premiered, when the official Captain America Twitter account replaced its bio and banner image with What If…? plugs, with even the display name of the account becoming “Captain Carter.” While obviously just a promotional move, as the whole Captain America Twitter account is, a number of fans were offended by the fact that imagery related to Peggy Carter—a white woman—replaced imagery related to Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, who officially became the new Captain America (and the face of the Captain America Twitter account) at the end of Disney+’s The Falcon And The Winter Soldier.
Like most Twitter drama, it was a lot of noise made about something that doesn’t really matter, but there is something to be said for the fact that Marvel jumped at the chance to replace a Black man with a white woman in its promotional materials. They’re promoting different things, and Sam Wilson isn’t particularly relevant to what Marvel needs from the news cycle right now, but the concern is that it implies that there’s some impermanence to Sam Wilson’s Captain America or that he won’t be afforded the same level of attention and respect that Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers got when he was Captain America. It’s not really about Twitter; it’s about assuming the worst and suspecting that Marvel Studios will chicken out of making a Black man the real new Captain America. (On a similar note, people have also been quick to point out that the Guardians Of The Galaxy Twitter page hasn’t made a similar change to swap in Chadwick Boseman’s version of Star-Lord, who will debut in the next What If…? episode.)
The Falcon And The Winter Soldier somewhat whiffed its depiction of the new Captain America a little bit already, sticking him in a story that failed to live up to the excellent performances that Mackie and co-star Sebastian Stan gave, but that still doesn’t mean there’s any reason to be concerned. A fourth Captain America movie is in the works, one that will presumably focus on Sam, and Marvel will hopefully do the right thing and update the Twitter account again at some point (Peggy is pointedly not called Captain America). The company probably didn’t even consider that this might be a problem, which, yes, is part of the problem, but it seems like this is all just a side effect of Marvel’s other concern: It doesn’t have enough confidence in What If…? as a show or Captain Carter as a character.
Earlier this month, the creators of What If…? coyly teased that it’s “no coincidence” that the show is premiering after Loki, which ended with a couple of Lokis witnessing the unchecked expansion of the multiverse and infinite timelines splitting off into infinite other timelines. The implication was that What If…? is MCU canon, just not canon for the main universe that the MCU takes place in. These are real alternate universes that exist alongside what happens in the movies, not one-off experiments that don’t matter—well, they don’t matter, because they’re alternate universes, but Loki plays with other timelines and the next Doctor Strange movie does have Multiverse Of Madness in its name. So they kind of do matter, and Marvel has seemed increasingly desperate to convince everyone of that. Shortly after that “no coincidence” statement, What If…? writer AC Bradley explicitly told IGN that, yes, this is the MCU multiverse we’re talking about. These are canonical Marvel Cinematic Universe stories, just not for the Marvel Cinematic Universe we’ve seen pre-Loki.
In other words, Marvel wants to make sure that people consider What If…? with the same legitimacy that they’ve given to Loki and The Falcon And The Winter Soldier and even Avengers: Endgame, but it’s hitting the “please pay attention!” button so hard that it’s distracting from the stuff that’s actually worth paying attention to—like Captain Carter, whose appearance in the MCU is a long-awaited payoff to years of fan-service teases. A version of her, who really was an alternate-universe Captain America, first debuted in the Marvel Puzzle Quest mobile game years ago, quickly becoming a fan favorite and later cameoing in some comics like Exiles, where she met a team of timeline-hopping heroes who didn’t fit in with the rest of the main Marvel universe. That was all after Atwell’s Peggy Carter made a big enough impact on Captain America: The First Avenger that she got her own very good spin-off show on ABC.
The What If…? creators have already teased that they’re planning to bring back Captain Carter in the next season of What If…? and there are rumors that she might show up in Doctor Strange And The Multiverse Of Madness. Also, her episode of What If…? is a ton of fun. The character is great and is clearly already well taken care of; Marvel just needs to stop insisting that she and her show are a big deal and just let them naturally become one. And we spent a whole season of a TV show establishing why Sam Wilson deserves to be Captain America, so let him have the damn Twitter account. Captain Carter should have one of her own at the very least.
237 Comments
Anyone remember the Looney Tunes Show episode, “Eligible Bachelors” which featured “Granny” Emma Webster as a World War II spy?This is what eats me up.Love it or hate it, Marvel is doing something with Peggy Carter. Warners and DC have what I feel is a worthy competitor in Granny Webster (or should I say, Agent Webster), and they’re just sitting on it. Just imagine a storyline with Webster and WWII-era Wonder Woman!Those clowns at Warner Media need to get off their collective lazy asses and make this happen.
…what?
I remember that, because they were drawing clearly from real female spies of the war. That was awesome. Also that show was fantastic and deserved a better fate.
I’m pretty sure that’s Daphne from Scooby Doo
I thought it was Cinderella, no joke!
I thought it was Sleeping Beauty (the hottest Disney princess, imo).
I don’t remember this — but now that you’ve told me about it, I really want it to happen!But does Agent Webster have a Tweety Bird who warns her about “Nutzy Spy” Sylvester…?
Tweety did show up near the end, helping her to defeat the Nazi Sgt. Frankenheimer. That was the letdown in that episode. But, Granny Webster was impressive in manhandling all those German soldiers by herself.As long as the rest of the Looney Tunes cast aren’t involved, a Granny/Agent Webster stand-alone would make an excellent feature, considering one of the executive suits or bean counters don’t interfere.
Loved that episode. It annoyed me that I recognized the voice and couldn’t figure it out. I thought for a while it was Molly Shannon, but it turned out to be Stephanie Courtney, aka Flo from Progressive.
It does my heart good knowing looney tunes are still pushing the kids to understand “Nazis are bad” despite all the dipshit discourse in our country.
That was such a random ass episode. I enjoyed it, but the first time I caught it part way through and wondered what the hell it was til it got to one of the modern day segments.I don’t know who pitched “Granny is a sexy World War II spy and we just randomly become an adventure show for an episode” but it was fun!
Not to be blunt but no shit about screwing up, its happened multiple times already. They advertised the show with an Agent Carter photo, despite the show not being canon anymore I guess? Also for the 100th time, that show was far more entertaining then Agents of Shield and it would have thrived if Marvel had more faith in it. For such a great character, Marvel has never handled her as well as she deserves.
ABC cancelled Agent Carter, not Marvel. Marvel tried shopping a 3rd season to Netflix, since there was no Disney+ at the time.
“despite the show not being canon anymore I guess?”
Wow, isn’t it crazy that they advertised a NON-CANONICAL show with another one?
Oh, it’s not crazy. Not at all?
Thanks.
to be fair, Jarvis from Agent Carter did appear in Endgame.
You can canon-jump backwards from Jarvis in Endgame to all Pre-Wandavision Marvel TV being canon. Jarvis is in Agent Carter, Carter is in Agents of SHIELD which had easter egg connections to Daredevil which connected to Luke Cage which connected to Cloak and Dagger which crossed over with Runaways. (even Inhumans is mixed in there somewhere too, unfortunately)I don’t think they’ll ever be a handwaving decree of What Is Canon Or Not, but I think it’s likely those characters can pop up again played by the same actors and you can sorta squint that mostly canon. As long as they don’t recast or flat-out contradict the stories that came before. Same way the comics work, actually.
Feige was behind Agent Carter, so it’s always been canon. It’s just all the other pre-D+ shows that got chucked.
Agent Carter is absolutely canon. Everything else non-D+ either isn’t or is “broad strokes” canon in that they might use those characters and actors without referencing the events too hard – given the rumors that Daisy/Quake is coming to Secret Invasion and that Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock is in the next Spidey.
Okay I’m never sure what’s supposed to be canon with the shows anymore and I recall some hubbub about it not being canon due to Endgame and ugh. Loyalty to canon is becoming a real slog lately.
That’s why it’s usually better to just enjoy things as they are, and not worry about how they “fit together,” at least until it’s relevant to the story at hand. People hand wringing over whether AOS is canon are not is so boring, when the answer is clearly “Maybe? If it comes up, we’ll figure something out.”
I mean, you can definitely be forgiven for not knowing… Agent Carter’s canonical status is…murky. It’s never been officially decanonized like the Netflix shows, but…if you watch the Marvel Legends episode specifically dedicated to Peggy Carter that came out this week there is nothing from the show included.
They’re all canon, some are just taking place in one of the many alternate universe we now know exist.
If “loyalty to canon is becoming a real slog lately,” you realize you have a solution available, right?
People are apparently a little concerned about Agent Carter’s canon status because it was entirely excluded from the Peggy Carter recap episode of “Legends.” For all I know it could just be a minor licensing distintion between film and TV properties that stopped them from including it, but especially with the multiverse in play now I’m happy to think of all the TV shows as “second tier” canon-until-confirmed-alternate-timeline stuff.
Daredevil (the character) is top shelf Marvel as far as I’m concerned and the show was great. I’m not sure that means he should be in the MCU though. The street level approach was perfect.
I’m not sure that means he should be in the MCU though. The street level approach was perfect.It seems like you think those things are mutually-exclusive, but they’re not.
Not according to the dipshits on this site.
Agent Carter so much fun.
Dottie Underwood is the best Black Widow.
Canon or not, you’re right about the show. I never actually got into Agents of SHIELD, but I marked Tuesday night to watch Agent Carter.It was a real shame when it was canceled. I feel like if I really like a show it better not be on ABC. I was still mad about Agent Carter when they axed Stumptown.
The worst part? Killed for a procedural starring Atwell that died in 13 episode. God. Damn. It.
Worrying about canon is stupid.
Disagree about it being more entertaining that AOS, agree about it being mishandled
My take on the past shows is that, since they were already established to be in canon, they will remain in canon unless either an irreconcilable contradiction occurs (which hasn’t happened yet for any of them) or an official statement decanonizes them (which happened for Helstrom, but not any of the others).
“Like most Twitter drama, it was a lot of noise made about something that doesn’t really matter”And yet, here we are. I’ve never read a less cohesive solution in search of a non-existent problem in my life. Cheers.
Truly amazing that there were five whole paragraphs left after that sentence which really should have been the end of it. Never seen a writer contradict themselves so hard, so fast.
I definitely understand why people would be upset by the twitter channel takeover. Not a good look for Disney.
God, you’re fucking stupid.
I…really?
Oh for fuck’s sake.
you’re right. This does not really matter.
they tried so hard, we read so far…So many words, it doesn’t even matter!- AV Park
So if I’m reading this correctly, the problem is that Marvel temporarily replaced the promotional Twitter account avatar of a character whose show dropped several months ago with a different character whose show dropped last night?
That’s only part of the problem. The other part is that it’s been at least nine hours since we were able to stroke our outrage boners and we need release.
Well thanks to this news I just came!
“stroke our outrage boners” lol
You know, I don’t think that’s quite right. At least for me, over the last 18 months I’ve been like Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk—I’m never not angry. I don’t need Sam Barsanti, or Twitter, or Sam Barsanti writing about Twitter to make me mad.
“stroke our outrage boners”Christ that is good. I’m totally stealing it, and no I am not sorry!
fuckin’ sickening, isn’t it?
“but there is something to be said for the fact that Marvel jumped at the chance to replace a Black man with a white woman in its promotional materials.”
Yeah, the “something” is that THIS WAS A FUCKING ONE-OFF FOR A SINGLE EPISODE OF ONE GOD DAMN FUCKING SHOW.
counterpoint: who cares about twitter, and i doubt marvel/disney have screwed up anything, except maybe they should have had merchandise ready to go the moment the episode dropped.
Yep, my niece would be buying up every bit of Captain Carter merch they could offer!
“In other words, Marvel wants to make sure that people consider What If…? with the same legitimacy that they’ve given to Loki and The Falcon And The Winter Soldier and even Avengers: Endgame”
No. They don’t. They temporarily changed a twitter handle, asshole.
> It’s not really about Twitter; it’s about assuming the worstUnironically, this is actually Twitter’s primary function.
I enjoy getting to the end of an article and realizing I’ve learned nothing.
People are exhausting.
This reminds me of the Simpsons episode where someone says something to comic book guy who responds “That didn’t really happen, it was an imaginary story.” Bart responds, “None of this really happened.” Sam was named Captain America. There was a huge push for it. Then Loki happened. Then they wanted to advertise What if, so they replaced the character with the character currently airing in a way to tease out and play with the What If concept. In a few months, if they ever get around to releasing movies still, we’ll get Sam back for his Captain America movie that will be an outrage to a few people on Twitter and thus thinkpieces will make into a movie you either see and love despite any flaws, or you’re horribly racist. This all of course, will depend on whether Anthony Mackie makes any more statements that can be possibly construed as homophobic. (Are we mad at him? Are we not mad at him? I just want to keep up.)Or, we possibly consider returning not turning every switch of a Twitter Avatar into a massive fight.
Or, we possibly consider returning not turning every switch of a Twitter Avatar into a massive fight. Can’t. Clicks.Meanwhile, those of us who couldn’t give less of a fuck about Twitter (because it’s a trash-laden hellscape) are over here happy that there are two badass representations of Captain America that aren’t an all-American white kid in an Aryan ideal body.
I’d be delighted to have all three, because if you’re going to make Cap an all-American White Kid in an Aryan Ideal Body? Chris Evans’s Steve Rogers is the one who can work alongside Peggy and Sam as one of the team rather than Teh White Savior….
I’d be delighted to have all three Yep. Which we basically have!
Yep. Like most Twitter drama, it was a lot of noise made about something that doesn’t really matterAnd this article could and should have ended right there.
Exactly.FFS, Sam Cap is a long-established thing. Peggy Carter Cap is a somewhat-less established thing. Cap is an American institution. Twitter is the definition of a malleable and transient platform.This ain’t shit. There is ample room (and an ample audience) for all three.
I’m extremely happy we’re getting many different Captains America, and I think Sam is the one we need right now for this day and age. I want him promoted.
I need to look into the new series, which I understand is a collective of Caps?
You want to promote Sam Barsanti? (J/k. J/k.)
I’m fine having lots of discourse around it all, especially if someone who never heard of this “what if?” show are kind of like wtf replacing the black dude already? Mackie did say some homophobic shit, but it’s still amazing there’s a black Captain America. It’s fine to be critical of things, especially of a big propaganda machine like Disney.
This all of course, will depend on whether Anthony Mackie makes any more statements that can be possibly construed as homophobic. (Are we mad at him? Are we not mad at him? I just want to keep up.)App Pitch: I need something that tracks the media personalities I enjoy so I know if I’m not supposed to like them right now because of something they said at a kid’s birthday party when they were 12.
That way I can avoid upsetting the trigger-happy triggered’s because I enjoyed watching a cartoon last night, but apparently it was racist.
“there is something to be said for the fact that Marvel jumped at the
chance to replace a Black man with a white woman in its promotional
materials.”And lord knows you won’t miss the chance to write about every dipshit thing Twitter wants to bitch about today, right?
Like…I wonder if they feel even partway as bad as they should?
Narrator: They did not.
Had the change not been made: “there is something to be said for the fact that Marvel refused to replace a man with a woman in its promotional materials, especially in light of Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit and Disney’s tone-deaf media response.”This website’s writer are increasingly becoming the Film Twitter version of Michael Scott and we’re stuck in the conference room.
Sam writes “there is something to be said” and then fails to actually say much of anything (other than he’s only just now coming around to understanding the premise of What If?). It’s simple. The main purpose of the Cap Twitter account is to promote MCU stuff. Falcon and the Winter Soldier is between seasons and he’s not in a current movie, so there’s nothing to promote for Anthony Mackie’s Cap right now. What If? is coming out right now, with Cap-related content, so they temporarily changed the account to promote What If? The concept shouldn’t be foreign to Sam, since he uses Twitter to promote his articles. Given that Agent Carter was criminally underappreciated, and that What If? is a departure from D+’s other MCU offerings (mainly because it’s not live action) they should be promoting the living daylights out of this, and that means leveraging the Cap account’s 2.8 million followers. If they’d just gone with a Captain Carter account instead, I can see some of the same people complaining about Peggy not getting the big spotlight of the established Cap account and being relegated to the “second-class citizenship” of a new account with less of a following.I’m sure Sam Wilson will get his account back soon. Peggy will probably have her own Captain Carter account by then, particularly if What If? is a big hit. But the former Falcon might have to wait until What If?’s Zombie Captain America has had a turn at the Twitter account first, because that’s how promotion works. If people were upset about him being evicted for a white British lady we like, I can’t imagine how upset they’re going to be when it’s an undead cannibal white guy.
Virtue signaling, on MY internet!?
This may be the only time I haven’t wanted to punch somebody for saying virtue signalling
It’s bullshit like this that shows it’s a legitimate thing not just a ‘MAGA blowoff response’, though it’s MAGA blowoff more often than it’s legitimate.
It’s more likely than you think
I usually despise that term because, far more often than not, it’s used by utter garbage people who are literally so broken that they actually cannot fathom that some people in the world aren’t actually completely self-absorbed pieces of shit….But, in regards to this particular article….hmm…maybe?
Yep it’s a legit thing and it’s a great example of why context is important.
The ratio of people actually “virtue signalling” versus the number of times shitty people are just throwing that phrase around in complete bad faith is so infinitesimally small as to be meaningless. So, no.
It happens quite often, especially places like Twitter and Facebook. Just because people use it in bad faith doesn’t mean it’s not a thing that exists.
So, yes.
It’s also not a binary dichotomy. Often, people ARE virtue signalling… while also having a good point. The fact they have a good point doesn’t mean they’re not making that point to virtue-signal… just as the fact they’re virtue-signalling doesn’t stop the point they’re making from being a good one….but in this particular case, clearly everyone concerned has forgotten to actually have a good point, or really much of a point at all…
“Sam writes ‘there is something to be said’ and then fails to actually say much of anything”- The AV Club
Wouldn’t it make sense that Marvel would be promoting its latest character instead of one from two shows ago?It’s like how they shifted from promoting a white woman (Black Widow) to an Asian man (Shang-Chi) because one movie has already been out for a while and the other is coming soon.
I like that he’s saying Marvel is ruining the moment instead of admitting that idiots on Twitter are ruining the moment.
I immediately read the byline and figured this was going to be a. A nothing story b. Far too many words c. That didn’t say anything d. Shut the fuck up barsanti
God damn you were dead on!
I’d email the editor, but I don’t think there are any.
Hell no then they’d have to have standards like ‘If someone posts on Twitter and you write an article about it you better have something damn worthwhile to say.’
There’s probably an unpaid 11-year-old intern somewhere.
“there is something to be said for the fact that Marvel jumped at the chance to replace a Black man with a white woman in its promotional materials.” You mean… after they apparently changed it from a white man to a black man?I guess when they change the Guardians pic to Chadwick Boseman to promote the next episode, all these twitter idiots will pass around a big apology card.
I can’t figure out who this article is mad at.Tell me who I’m supposed to be mad at!
I’m not sure that it’s really mad at anyone, it’s kind of just talking about how a thing was said on Twitter one time.It’s like a little kid telling you something that their teacher said one time a few days ago.
Captain America and Sam Barsanti were on the Twitter making babies and I saw one of the babies and the baby looked at me.
Wow its a new record you replied to yourself in… (checks watch) less than a minute. Try hitting the edit button next time. I agree with Roger’s rational sentiment that its just for promotional but still waiting on the Chadwick Boseman Star Lord promotional change over, fair is fair
Marvel. They’re blowing it! Can’t you see that??
(They) finally, really did it—you maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!
Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Reading this felt like novocaine seeping into my brain.
Fake outrage is what the AVClub lives on these daysJust like Kotaku lives on bashing Cyberpunk 2077 constantly
Fake outrage is all over GMG these days.
It’s been GMG’s mission statement long before it bought The Onion.
Lol you guys are as predictable as groundhogs
I’m sorry, what exactly do you mean by ‘you guys’?
To be recognized by recognitions is a great honor. You need nothing more.
I think recognitions is making some gender-based assumptions.
is thereis there really something to be said
Officially, Black Men outrank White Women on the twitter scale. Unofficially, the White Women will acknowledge that humbly, then call the cops and burst into tears while claiming the Black Men are trying to rape them.
Wonder what happens if they replace the Twitter image with the upcoming gay teen Captain America or Native American Captain America.
Someone needs to figure out the hierarchy of minority representational importance so sites like this know what to be angry about.
TWITTER DEMANDS OUTRAGE!
Twitter’s mission statement should just be “Sound and fury, signifying nothing”
It’s Sam B.
If he’s not making a scandal over someone’s stupid livejournal, he’s not doing his ‘job.’
So, basically:
Promoting Captain Carter: Bad
Not Promoting Captain Carter: Bad
Barsanti is very frustrated that the entire universe does not precisely operate under the rules he’s kind of half thought through.
how dare you
I’m not one AT ALL to say people are too easily offended, but this seems like an especially silly “controversy.” Does anyone seriously think that Captain Carter is going to become the main Cap with Sam handing the mantle over to her?
Not before we have a whole series about whether she respects “the Shield” enough.
Hot Take: I’d actually love Captain Carter in the mainline MCU. The OG Captain Carter made years back for Marvel Puzzle Quest was such a cool idea, and I was hyped af when I heard about What If? involving her. Meanwhile, Falcon, Bucky and the rest of Steves “Cap-Family” have never interested me in the slightest.
it implies that there’s some impermanence to Sam Wilson’s Captain AmericaThere haven’t been as many Captains America as Doctors Who or Jameses Bond, but when you are the second person to play a role, you yourself are a living demonstration that the role can be recast.
Yes, but what does Captain America’s TARDIS look like, Dr Emilio Lizardo…?
Anything he wants it to. Cap keeps the TARDIS, and it’s chameleon circuit, in good repair.
Looks like someone is trying to erase Reb Brown and Matt Salinger in here.
Starred for your plurals excellent.
This is fucking stupid. What if was pretty good though.
I was worried the world had passed me by, but then I read literally every comment on this terrible thing that I’m sorry to admit I wasted time reading, and it appears that everyone has had the same basic reaction, which seems to be some form of “I can’t believe I wasted a part of my life reading and thinking about this, but I’ve come this far, so I’m going to post a comment about how asinine this is anyway.” So count me among the masses, it seems: I can’t believe effort was wasted (minuscule effort, I’m guessing, but effort nonetheless that could have been devoted to literally anything else) to bring these words to life. This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen on this site, and given that that particular standard gets lower every day, that’s no small feat. I could get apoplectic about the inanity and go point by point through it, but honestly, I’m not willing to give the post that much of my attention/time. Suffice it to say that others here have said the same things I’ve been thinking, more eloquently. Not to draw false equivalencies, but seriously—if social media accounts of fictional characters run by large corporations are enough to get people in this society all bent out of shape, society must be doing pretty damn well.
“if social media accounts of fictional characters run by large corporations are enough to get people in this society all bent out of shape, society must be doing pretty damn well.”Or horribly.
PREACH!
I mean you put in a lot of time and attention writing this comment
What is your problem?
I might ask you the same question
It’s a troll account that haunts this website like herpes.
The A.V. Club
a lot of noise made about something that doesn’t really matter
My rule, look at article title, assume issue is the exact opposite of the title, skip straight to comments for some entertainment,
“This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen on this site, and given that that particular standard gets lower every day, that’s no small feat.”
A few months ago this website published an article which argued that a pack of homophobic murderers was the apex of casually queer representation in the 90s, so there is some stiff competition!
https://www.avclub.com/on-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-characters-could-be-queer-1847138799
the Twitter change was fine and made perfect sense in the “What If…?” context; people are being stupid and Marvel hasn’t somehow forgotten about Sam. if it becomes more long term, then making separate Twitter accounts might make sense, but for now, it’s fine (and extremely unlikely to be permanent).there’s legitimate criticism that companies should respond to, but in this case, i hope Marvel dismisses ignorant people who are whining about this, who couldn’t expend even the slightest effort to actually understand the change and use some common sense about it.
“They’re promoting different things, and Sam Wilson isn’t particularly relevant to what Marvel needs from the news cycle right now, but the concern is that it implies that there’s some impermanence to Sam Wilson’s Captain America or that he won’t be afforded the same level of attention and respect that Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers got when he was Captain America.”I would counter with saying that during Evans’ tenure as Captain America, there was never another Captain America they needed to promote for the MCU. Sam is Captain America in the main timeline, once What If ends, it’s going to go back to showcasing him. They aren’t changing Sacred Timeline MCU. Even if Captain Carter were to show up in live-action (a current rumor she’ll have a cameo in Multiverse of Madness) it doesn’t change that Sam is the Prime Captain America.It’s also marketing people. Marketing doesn’t care about making the “smart” move, they do whatever they can to move the needle in the current moment. Marketing sucks, news at 11.With the GotG page not changing to T’Challa, I’d say at least wait until Monday, when they finish the weekend promotion for this episode and start the promotion for episode 2. Carter has a What If poster too, T’Challa doesn’t yet. He’ll get one before the episode releases.
What I find interesting is that the Super Soldier serum gave the petit, 5’5 Sharon Carter the lats and shoulders of a Venice Beach bodybuilder.
It turned scrawny Steve into buff as hell Chris Evans so that seems like a known side effect.
I thought the serum just got rid of some questionable CGI.
Just like it did to Steve Rogers?
Apparently it also changed her name from Peggy to Sharon!
In First Avenger, Steve Rogers is a good inch or three shorter than her, and more slightly built, so it damn well better give her some lats and shoulders…
Pretty sure Sharon won’t be born for like 40 years.
True, but whenever she is born, Steve Rogers will be there to hit on her.I think he’s just traveling through time, banging different generations of Carters.
I’m more concerned that it gave animation lens flares. What the actual hell Marvel animation? Stop it. Even JJ Abrams acknowledged its not an aesthetic.
Did you need see Steve before he got the serum or something?
Yes that’s what… a super soldier serum means.
Right??? Now WHAT IF, Steve Rogers had been given the serum???
But we also don’t know if Marvel WILL be replacing the GotG twitter pic with T’Challa until next week, when the ep comes out, right? This seems to be jumping the gun a tad.
I truly hate defending Disney/Marvel in any situation, they really don’t need it, but this is a whole bunch of stupid, waste-of-time BS. It’s just marketing doing their job. It’ll revert to Sam within a week—probably faster now that the empty husk of the AV Club got its hands on the story—and that will be that.
It’s not really about Twitter; it’s about assuming the worstReally? I’ve always thought Twitter was about assuming the worst.
really about Twitter; it’s … the worstThe A.V. Club
Watched the episode last night and I honestly enjoyed it way more than I expected. I do wish Evans could have cameo’d just for a few quick voice lines but beyond that, it was great.
His voice actor did a pretty good job tho.
He did, I was just hoping something like this could convince Evans to come back, briefly.
Reminds me of this bad-ass sequence:
I caught American Pop when I was about 5 or 6 and the WWI sequences freaked me the F out. Bakshi put out some creepy ass shit but just the rotoscoped human characters flailing about were probably the most frightening.
As a big fan of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and as someone who didn’t like Loki at all precicsely because it made things more convoluted in a way the MCU doesn’t need to be, I’d love to jump all over this. But there’s nothing here, Sam. It’s nonsense. But you got me to click, so good job. This article…
Her tv show was my favorite part of the MCU. I was not happy they canceled it.
Quick! I need 500 words of pointless bullshit! Light the Barsanti signal!
And get me pictures of O’Neal!
If only he was restricted to 500 words >.>
Shut the fuck up, barsanti.
This was the last straw with his bullshit, I’m not reading anything with his name in it. Fuck him and his clickbait.
You know, we could all be reading a book right now.>Huey Freeman
What in the hell was this incomprehensible word-salad? I mean my god, it seemed to try and tackle five different things, not one of which mattered at all. You’re pathetic.
Sam Wilson deserves to be Captain America, so let him have the damn Twitter account. Captain Carter should have one of her own at the very least.
Come on, man: I’m a black fan who is happy to see Sam Wilson as Captain America, and I understand that this marketing campaign is not meant to diminish the character, in fact its intention is the exact opposite. What If’s premise is that it dramatically alters the established reality of the Marvel Universe. Sam Wilson as Captain America is being reinforced as the established reality of the Marvel Universe, and What If is being a franchise that shifts that specific reality. Giving Captain Carter her own page doesn’t make that same point (though I’m fairly certain as she continues to be in MCU content she will get her own separate page).If Steve Rogers had remained the sole Captain America, the MCU marketing people might have used the same ploy for the exact same reasons. Then it would be incels claiming that replacing Rogers with a woman confirms an SJW agenda, and that conclusion would be as off base as this one.
What cockamamie bullshit is this?It’s marketing, Sam. And you know, full well, covering this dumbfuck story is just giving oxygen to a fire fueled by stupidity. This is what AVClub IS now, a semi-media journalism site that reports on what idiots blow out of proportion on Twitter, adding infinitely more noise to the signal, while reporting that the noise sure is awfully loud.No one is saying a white woman is more important than a black man. No one is saying a black man is more important than a white woman. Anyone who does think Marvel is saying so has the processing power of a drunk polar bear. Peggy Carter is inextricably important to Captain America’s past. Sam Wilson is inextricably important to Captain America’s future. That’s why they occupy a space within the same social media account.And you know that, because you’re not stupid. And that’s the most cynical part of this bullshit. You fucking know better, but you’re gong to pretend there’s a point being made, like a fucking child.
That was a chore to read.
And it’s already back to having Sam Wilson’s Cap back.
I think the drama over this is stupid.But then, I’m still bitter that even in AUs the MCU is continuing to promote someone who’s been a comics bit character over Sharon Carter, who’s been one of the biggest badasses in the Cap comics for years and years now and always seems to get shafted in terms of character development and story.
I would definitely love to see “The Adventures of Captain Carter” or “Captain Carter and The Howling Commandos.”
More howling commandos yes!
WAH-HOO!
I’m not outraged. Twitter doesn’t bother me. A black Captain America doesn’t bother me. A woman Captain America doesn’t bother me. A white woman temporarily replacing the black Captain America for advertising purposes doesn’t bother me. Am I the problem?!?!??!
You’re worse than 12 Hitlers, 9 Stalins, and an Idi Amin.
What is the Hitler/Stalin exchange rate these days? I can never remember.
How do you wake up in the morning and face yourself?
At this point, I’ve become convinced Barsanti’s entire function at AV is to hack out shitty takes so the comment section can fill up with people telling him to fuck off with his nonsense.
When I was 13, the AV Club is where I found out about, like, Gang of Four and Wong Kar Wai and stuff.
Twitter was a mistake.
FFS, Peggy gets one episode of an animated anthology series on a streaming platform, let her be on twitter this week. Captain Falcon is getting an entire MCU MOVIE next year. You’re about to see Anthony Mackie’s red-white-and-bedazzled face on every flat surface come that time.
“Like most Twitter drama, it was a lot of noise made about something that doesn’t really matter”.Like this story? I mean, we’re arguing over fictional characters, right? Does anyone really think Marvel is disrespecting Wilson’s character by replacing him as Cap with a white woman? And an even more fictional woman, no less, from What If world.
I sincerely don’t know what this article is about. Am I supposed to be angry that Marvel is promoting it’s current show online, or that it likes Peggy Carter as much as we do?
So they replaced a picture of a character with a picture of a different character? That’s it? That’s how they’re “blowing it”?This is really dumb, even by Twitter Outrage standards.
Barsanti to Disney:
Pretty much. I don’t want to rip on AVClub writers too much because I just got un-greyed (thanks for that!), but… yeah.
So, Peggy Carter is having a superhero moment, but she really shouldn’t? This article really makes little sense.
So did I miss the official recap of the Captain Carter episode? Because I just finished watching and I think I need a cigarette
Every time I visit this site, I miss Nathan, Todd, and Sean more
For all the (arguably correct) slamming of the article and it’s bullshit, everybody clicking on the link and commenting is doing exactly what they want so they’ll continue to do these empty, pointless, click bait posts because people can’t resist posting their outrage at coverage of twitters latest “outrage”.
Eh gotta kill time between fixing things somehow.
Of course when the show was actually on, less time was spent praising the choice to make Sam Captain America than was spent on Zemo gifs, queerbaiting accusations, anger over Mackie’s interview, etc. Now it’s a big deal.
I briefly saw that comicsgate chuds are mad because once again femoid have big muscles. So what else is new.
Like most Twitter drama, it was a lot of noise made about something that doesn’t really matterIf at any point you write something like this, that’s the exact moment you should scrap the whole essay and come up with something better to write about.
Except it’s Captain Britain, not America.
The Falcon and Winter Soldier ad must remain up forever as a tribute to that time Marvel gave a leading role to a black man in a TV series!
Luke Cage? Cloak & Dagger?
Alex Wilder in Runways?
I never saw Runaways despite really enjoying the comics, did they keep the twist in the show?
Has anyone actually asked Anthony Mackie if he’s offended or whether he’s glad a co-worker is getting her time to shine? Or are we (not me) just assuming he’s offended.
*Spike Lee angrily tweets Beyonce Knowles-Carter’s address*
Well, aside from Barsanti’s (predictable) nonsense, can we just admit that the Captain Carter episode….kinda sucked?
I was VERY disappointed. Love the concept, but the execution was so damn sloppy and downright idiotic in spots.What a wasted opportunity.
I liked it, it definitely reminded me of old ‘What If…?’ comics.
Exactly! God, the very opening got me so hyped. They even included The Watcher being the narrator for each episode.
Saying it “reminded you” of the thing it was literally based on isn’t exactly a hugely impressive feat, though, is it?
I thought it was charming and fun. Sloppy and idiotic how?
The plotting is very slapdash. The bad guys have the Tesseract, then the good guys have it, then the bad guys get it back just in time to unleash a stupid plan.
And that plan just happens to be, uh, releasing a giant squid into the world? A plan so dumb and poorly thought-out that it instantly results in the death of the villain who did it?Unlike TFA (which the episode copies at ever turn otherwise), when Peggy gets the formula, she doesn’t get to immediately go into an action sequence to show it off. The scene ends on an utterly anticlimactic note.The shitty non-excuse given for why they couldn’t create any more super soliders. They “used up” the formula? That makes zero sense. In the movie, they can’t make anymore because Erskine is dead and the lab destroyed, neither of which happen here. Erskine should be able to crank that stuff out like Kool-Aid. Clearly the plan was to create tons of soldiers, not to use all of it in the first shot, right? Dumb, dumb, dumb.The Bradley Whitford character is written is a very obvious, clumsy way and, short of Peggy throwing a quip back in his face, there is no satisfying resolution to that subplot.
The Hydra Stomper was utterly unnecessary fan fic and drew attention away from Peggy. The screen time it ate up should have been used for her.
The fact that the episode copies the large beats of TFA as closely as possible and makes Captain Carter virtually indistinguishably from Captain Rogers as a character. Despite the fact that they are very different people and SHOULD have very different personalities, ideas, points-of-view, etc. There is absolutely no character development with Peggy at all and no thematic distinction between her and Steve’s version of the character. At all. The episode argues that you give any nice person formula and the shield and you get the same results.As such, this episode fails to make a case as to why it should exist beyond the surface-level fun factor of seeing Peggy in the suit. It’s extremely shallow and pays way too much fealty to the movie. It should have gone off in its own crazy, surprising direction and given us a lead character who had her own unique style/approach/personality, not just “Rogers but in a wig.”
I mean, these sound like very nonsensical complaints (for one, Erskine is dead so I’m not sure what you’re talking about). Additionally, Peggy doesn’t really remind me of Rogers at all. Her plot line is very different as is her personality. That’s a very weird criticism. And the Hydrastomper was a fun way to incorporate Steve and Peggy’s romance into the story while honoring Steve’s near insane willingness to do anything to get in the fight.
Erskine is not showing dying on screen. Even Phillips is giving a fleeting, but specific on screen death (even though he has no lines.) So it’s weird that they’d leave just to assume this massive plot point. I’ll allow that it’s ambiguous, since he could have been blown up in the explosion, even though the directing seems to take pains NOT to show it (there are shots of other scientists, NOT Erskine dying, so why not throw him in there if that was the intent?) It’s clear that they only recycled Stanley Tucci’s lines and it’s also clear they just wanted to quickly handwave away the possibility for any future soldiers no matter the logic, so given all that it’s even MORE strange that they didn’t show Erskine dying on camera. But they didn’t.
In any event, it’s SLOPPY, which was my complaint.The other criticisms aren’t remotely “nonsensical.” Perhaps you don’t know what that word means?And I’d be delighted to hear from you the very specific, concrete ways in which Peggy and Steve’s personalities differ and the ways in which those highly specific, unique personalities affect the story. Because it sure as hell looks like they stuck 95% to the TFA outline and had Peggy doing the exact same things.but I’m happy to be proven wrong. Go ahead.
Yeah I was enjoying it until the squid thing happened. They really could’ve just found a way for her to crash her ship into ice in a similar fashion
The lab definitely got destroyed on-screen. That was the whole scene with the explosion & the fire & crud. Steve got shot, Peggy jumped in the chamber so they could fire it off once before the machinery became unusable.I wasn’t a big fan of the episode either, but the lab definitely was destroyed.
Like most Twitter drama, it was a lot of noise made about something that doesn’t really matter, but Inma write 2000 words about it- Barsanti or Hughesr
A fourth Captain America movie is in the works, one that will presumably focus on Sam, and Marvel will hopefully do the right thing and update the Twitter account again at some point.Hahahahaha
Whenever I see a ridiculous click-bait title, I know it will be Sam.
Dawes
What If…a bunch of us agreed to start ignoring Sam Barsanti until he starts writing well-reasoned articles with substance?
The fuck is this article?
Holy shit this is the definition of a nothingburger.
Hey, what a surprise, at the end of the week after the episode has been out for a couple days they changed it back to Sam. Who could have seen that coming.
I’m pretty sure the title of the article has been changed to generate more nonsense clickbait manufactured outrage.
Yeah, this is a reach.
it must get tiring pretending to be offended at the dumbest shit
It’s not a journalist’s job to invent news.
Wow, is anyone in agreement with this article? I haven’t seen such complete disagreement in a while.
Like most Twitter drama, it was a lot of noise made about something that doesn’t really matter, And yet you jumped at the chance to write about it…but there is something to be said for the fact that Marvel jumped at the chance to replace a Black man with a white woman in its promotional materials.And it’s already changed back.
Sam has a Twitter account; he’s just a gentleman and let Peggy borrow it for a single week. Geez…
They switched it back. Everyone adjust their outrage boners from “black man gets wronged” to “woman gets wronged.”
All adjusted? 1…2…3COMMENCE OUTRAGE FAP!
They switched it back. Everyone adjust their outrage boners from “black man gets wronged” to “woman gets wronged.”
All adjusted? 1…2…3COMMENCE OUTRAGE FAP!
Peggy Carter isn’t American. She could be Captain Britain.
Psst, PSSST, they changed the @Guardians Twitter account to T’Challa Star-Lord because his episode is this week. Wonder if they’ll change it back to the main MCU team on Fri/Sat like they did with Captain America. Who knows with marketing cycles.
I think it would be the right thing for the AV Club to update this piece to reflect that, and the change back to Sam as the Captain America avatar.
Bwa-ha-ha-ha!
I am now at the position where if you start caring about Twitter drama (or, god forbid, writing a surprisingly lengthy newswire post about it) it’s time to log off, take a deep breath, and do something soothing like painting or knitting.This is a hint.
“the concern is that it implies that there’s some impermanence to Sam Wilson’s Captain America”
Yes, there is, which is why he was able to become Catain America in the first place. If the title of Captain America is meant to exist in a state of permanence to the character who dons it, he never would have been given the title for it would have always, permanently, remained with Steve Rogers.
This doesn’t make his temporary time as Captain America, for however short or long it will be, un-important or any less significant. I doubt anyone would argue that John Walker’s short stint as Captain America(which he did hold the title of, even if only for a short time) was important to the development of what it means to be Captain America, if only to show us the way a title can be mis-used and to take on the title for the wrong reasons.
What the fuck are you even talking about?