Top 10 Characters who could be on Agent Carter

Marvel may be having a bad time lately, but a week ago news was good. After its problematic first season, Agents of SHIELD was renewed for a second season but more exciting was the announcement of an Agent Carter television series. Based on the well-regarded Marvel short film, the series will follow Hayley Atwell as Captain America supporting character Peggy Carter during the founding of SHIELD in the 1940s after WW2. So given the Postwar setting and Spy-thriller focus, here are 10 established Marvel characters who I think could plausibly make an appearance.

Top 10 Characters who could be on Agent Carter



10. Phil Sheldon

The main character of the critically-acclaimed Marvels series, Phil Sheldon was a photographer for the Daily Bugle. Yes, the same Daily Bugle Peter Parker works for. At that job he chronicled the entire history of the Marvel Universe, from the first appearance of Captain America during the war to Galactus' attempt to eat the planet. Having started his career during the war, Sheldon makes chronological sense to appear on Agent Carter but I think he could make narrative sense as well. Maybe he could be working as a reporter investigating what happened to Captain America and he tracks down Peggy. And inevitably gets caught up with whatever spy business she's getting up to. There's potential here for a good recurring character, even if they'd have to drop the Daily Bugle angle to not anger Sony.

9. Baron Blitzschlag

So The Winter Soldier established that after WW2, SHIELD participated in Operation Paperclip and brought Nazi scientists over to work for the US in exchange for pardons. And that those same scientists reformed Hydra in secret within the ranks of SHIELD. So given that Agent Carter is set when all that happened, the show will need a face for those evil Hydra scientists. Now Arnim Zola was the head of the new Hydra but they probably can't get Toby Jones for a series regular. But thankfully Marvel has plenty of long-lived Nazi scientists, and that's where Baron Blitzschlag comes in. He'd serve much the same purpose as Zola with the addition of some TV-friendly electrical powers. Plus he'd be useful plot-wise whenever the writers need to give Peggy an arbitrary roadblock.

8. Thomas Halloway

Tom Halloway was, in the comics, one of Marvel's very first superheroes. Created in 1939, he was The Angel (no relation to the later X-Man) a detective with a magic costume that allowed him to fly. Now, for the show I think he could just be re-tooled as a regular SHIELD agent, but another aspect of his personality could be exploited. Later in life Halloway founded the Scourge of the Underworld, a group of vigilantes who assassinated superpowered individuals as revenge for the collateral damage caused by super-battles. So maybe in the show Halloway could be disdainful of anything superhero-related, even to the point of hating Captain America. He could even hook up with the secret Hydra guys, becoming a precursor to John Garrett over on Agents.

7. Jacqueline Falsworth (Spitfire)

Spitfire is a British Superhero, gifted with super-speed from a transfusion of the Human Torch's blood. The original Human Torch, who was a robot. Okay. Anyway, Jackie is the sister of James Falsworth the British Howling Commando. There's our connection to Peggy, the Commandos were key in the early days of SHIELD so maybe there's an episode where they have to go to Britain. In fact, there's the episode. Falsworth's sister manifest weird superpowers, so Peggy and him have to go investigate. They'd have to rejigger her origin because there's no Human Torch, but that's easy enough. Plus, it'd be fun for Marvel to mess with DC by having a speedster on their show when the Flash's show premieres. Also Jackie becomes a vampire later, so that's as good a way as any to use those Blade rights Marvel just got back.

6. The Yellow Claw & The Atlas Foundation

All right, this one's a tad problematic but I think it could work. The Yellow Claw began as a racist stereotype, a Fu Manchu style Oriental Mastermind, but unlike his contemporary the Mandarin has been rehabilitated in a better way. First the legendary Jim Steranko made him a scientific genius and the personal enemy of SHIELD and Nick Fury, then comic writer Jeff Parker turned him into the centuries-old leader of an extensive crime organization known as The Atlas Foundation and added an important retcon. The Yellow Claw was a racist mistranslation, in the original Chinese he's called The Golden Claw. So yeah, Marvel would be walking a pretty tightrope with this guy but I think he and Atlas would fill an important niche. With Hydra (suppposedly) gone at the time of Agent Carter, SHIELD is going to need somebody to actually fight. Atlas, with all its weird trappings and weirder soldiers, would make a great over-arching antagonist and The Yellow Claw would be a great villain part for an Asian-American actor. As long as they use The Golden Claw name and stay away from the more racially offensive aspects of the character. 

5. Jimmy Woo

Another thing that helped rehabilitate the Yellow Claw? His nemesis was Asian too. Jimmy Woo was an FBI, later SHIELD, agent who was a constant thorn in the Claw's side. He's taken an anti-hero turn in recent years as he gathered a group of 50s-era superheroes and taken over the Yellow Claw's Atlas Foundation. As a SHIELD agent in its early years, he's a natural fit for Agent Carter's time setting. And the presence of an Asian-American main character, I'd use him as Peggy's usual partner, would help bring some diversity to the still really white Marvel Cinematic Universe. Especially if they do use the Yellow Claw.

4. Baron Zemo, both of them

Now this is where Marvel could actually get clever. Both Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter are going to be on at the same time, so why not do a crossover? But they take place decades apart, I hear you say. That's where Zemo comes in. Yet another Nazi supervillain, Baron Heinrich Zemo (on the left) swore a vendetta against Captain America after the Sentinel of Liberty accidentally caused Zemo's purple mask to fuse to his face. After his death, Heinrich's son Helmut (on the right) took up the vendetta. Maybe you can see where I'm going with this. Like on Agent Carter, Peggy and cohorts could track down Heinrich while he's in the middle of some nefarious plot. A plot that would take years to pull of. Peggy stops him, of course, but not before he passes the knowledge on. Then over on Agents of SHIELD, Coulson and gang could run into Helmut trying to put his grandpa's evil plot back into action.  There, now you've given people a reason to watch both shows. But even if they don't do that, they both have a cool visual and as a Nazi he makes sense for a 40s-set SHIELD show.

3. The Destroyer

Another Golden Age Marvel hero, The Destroyer was something of a human missile used against the Nazis. They'd tell him where to go and just watch the destruction unfold. Yeah, Keen Marlow was kind of nuts. It's not his fault though, he was caught for spying in Nazi Germany and used as a guinea pig for an early version of the Super-Soldier Serum. Which is how he could basically mow through Nazis later, he was a half-baked Captain America. The Destroyer could actually be used to work the Hydra angle, like he decides to go all Kill Bill on the Nazi scientists who experimented on him, scientists that now all work for SHIELD. A crazy dude with Captain America's powers and a skull on his chest killing all their scientists is certainly something that would catch SHIELD's attention and it would be a cool way to play with our foreknowledge. We the audience know Hydra will remain hidden until the events of Winter Soldier, so if someone's trying to expose them ahead of time it would be a great way to create drama.

2. 50s "Commie-Smasher" Captain America

Okay, this is a really long story but I'll try to make it short. Remember how Captain America got frozen at the end of WW2 and didn't wake up until, well now basically? Yeah, well he had somebody filling in for in the meantime. In the 1950s, an unnamed college professor became obsessed with Cap and actually tried to recreate the Super-Soldier Serum. But because Dr. Erskine was the only person who knew the complete formula, the professor screwed it up. He took the bad serum anyway and it sort of worked; he got Cap's powers, started wearing his costume, and fought evil communists. But eventually the bad serum affected his brain and made him crazy, making him think he was Captain America and increasingly violent. He outright attacked anybody he felt wasn't "American" enough, which basically meant minorities and anyone politically left . Eventually the government stepped in and put him on ice, but he's been unfrozen a couple of times. Usually to create a contrast with the real Captain America.

So yeah, he's basically the "ra-ra America is #1" Fox News Patriot most people think Captain America is like. This guy has been talked about as a possible baddie for Captain America 3, but I think it'd be interesting to see him on Agent Carter. There would be a lot of thematic weight in seeing Peggy having to fight a twisted version of her first love.

1. Scorpio

I'm actually a little surprised this guy hasn't shown up on Agents of SHIELD yet. Scorpio is a long-standing SHIELD foe from the days of Jim Steranko, a super-powered counter-terrorist who wields the mysterious Zodiac key. Oh, he's also Nick Fury's brother Jake Fury. Yeah, Nick Fury has a brother who hates him. Now that part will no doubt be changed, but this guy is actually probably a shoo-in for Agent Carter. See the original short film the series is based on concerned Peggy on a mission to retrieve a vial of purple stuff from a group called Zodiac, which is also the name of the supervillain group Scorpio belongs to. And that vial was emblazoned with the Zodiac Key symbol, the same as Scorpio's trademark weapon. As for what form he himself will appear in, that's still up in the air. But for now, it's a safe bet that he and Zodiac will be involved in Agent Carter.