Central themes of the superhero tales seem to be:
- Courage in the face of adversity, weakness, the underdog, marginalised,
- Heroic qualities
- Goodness, selflessness, all based around ideas of courage.
- These are reflected in the text’s treatment of both Agent Carter and Captain America
Soooo many archetypes:
- In Captain America
- The dial, the ridiculous amount of knobs that need turning as they do the Captain America make-strong machine thing
- The wistful looks between Captain America and Agent Carter
- Someone dies in the hero’s arms and his last words (although no words are actually spoken) are of inspiration to the hero
- Car chase
- On the roof, shoots bullets through the roof, Captain America dodges them
- Hail Hydra, Hail Hitler
In the short:
- Playing the innocent woman and walking straight through the front door
- The cute music while people are getting beaten up in the background
- Henchman turning up behind the protagonist as it looks like her quest is successful, just happens to be the biggest, baddest henchman. Like the boss level in a video game. Everything about him makes him look like some kind of monster
- Witty quip as she leaves the building having kicked ass, Learn to count
- Close-up self pride moment
- The underdog wins moment
Kettle scream
- The anonymous hats
- The old school spy gadgets
- Iconic image of the trench and the briefcase, the silhouette
- Weeping over the body of her dead friend
(In the episode of Agent Carter) she becomes the femme fatale
She turns objects associated with oppressed womanhood into deadly weapons. Great symbolism. Knocking someone out with a stapler, getting people tea to get information, the great fight scene in the kitchen.
The male characters are all pitted against her, it’s sexism to the extreme. They are all characterised as fools, where she is wise and brave in the face of oppression. None of the characters are trustworthy except
But still, she’s the token female. In the scene from Captain America, she is the only woman to appear in the 25mins who wasn’t a nameless victim on the street. In the short she’s the only woman full stop. In the episodes of the four woman who have dialogue, Agent Carter is the only independent woman. Of the other three we have the innocent victim who dies after congratulating Agent Carter on finally getting dolled up so that she won’t become a spinster, the assistant at the call centre thing, a friend to the protagonist and the second strongest female character with only two lines, and the other a victim of sexual harassment who must be ‘saved’ by Agent Carter. I looked up the series to discover that every episode in the first season was directed by a man, all but one were written by a man and the majority of the show’s producers are men. This show isn’t even remotely concerned with gender equality.
The content of the show is feminist, but not quite. I’d like to see some henchwomen and some evil lady overlords. In the world of Agent Carter, congrats to her she kicks ass and whatever, but apparently she’s the singular woman in her entire universe who’s capable of looking after herself or sees herself as an equal to a man. Fuck the patriarchy and mainstream media.