Strictly
speaking, this relationship generally stays in the specific context of the
Captain America films and their satellites, but I figured I might as well
follow my precedent of lumping all my Marvelverse write-ups, save the
individual movie reviews, under the Avengers heading. This relationship is my favorite romantic
pairing in the franchise by a landslide, and it’s high time I geeked out about
them a bit. (Some Captain America
spoilers.)
Maybe
it’s a little odd to place Cap/Peggy so high, since they really only have one
movie together and theirs is more of a will-they-won’t-they turned into a
what-might-have-been. By the end of the
first Captain America film, they’ve been utterly separated by time, and they
haven’t even had an official date.
(Their last scene in that movie is devastating, oh my goodness.) So yeah, maybe they’re affecting or
significant as a wistful would-be romance, but my favorite? Really?
Really. And honestly, a huge part of that is the
simple fact that Cap and Peggy are both just so awesome as characters in their
own right. Cap is a runt who was
transformed into a golden boy, and even though he packs a hefty punch, he
remembers how it felt to be powerless.
As such, his strength is never used for cruelty, and he keeps an
ever-present eye on his moral compass.
Peggy, meanwhile, is a cool-as-a-cucumber badass who rises to an
important position in an age when her field is considered a definite men’s realm. She shuts down all the haters in the best way
possible: by proving herself, time and
again, to be tough, intelligent, and capable.
Both are strong, both are sensitive, and both strive endlessly to do
what’s right. I mean, come on!
It goes
without saying that, when put together, they’re pretty sensational. From their first conversation, although Steve
is sweetly awkward around Peggy (chalked up equally to her hardcore
amazingness, his attraction to her, and his inexperience with women,) he in no way treats her as being any less
competent due to her gender. Throughout
their time together, if he ever pulls the old, “No, you stay here – I’ll handle
this,” it’s not because he doubts her abilities or thinks the fight is no place
for a woman. Rather, it’s just Cap being
Cap, wanting to take all the risk on himself because a) he knows the serum gives
him an added advantage, and b) his V-for-Victory eagerness do his part
sometimes forgets that others wish to do the same. More often than not, all Peggy has to do is
make it clear that she wants to contribute, and then they can go forward as a
team. It’s more than a little
heartbreaking to see all the sexism and dismissiveness Peggy has to put up with
on Agent Carter, especially since, in
Steve, she had someone who always valued her as a person. In turn, Peggy treats Cap as more than a
walking lab experiment. She respects his
integrity and his tactical instincts, and she recognizes that, super-soldier or
not, he’s also human and sometimes needs help, comfort, or to be cut a little
slack.
I think
both of them see themselves in the other.
Both are well-acquainted with being denied the opportunity to show what
they’re capable of, and when they meet, it’s no surprise that each empathizes
so easily with the other. Such
compatible, complementary pairings don’t come along nearly often enough. Let’s take a moment of silence for all that
this one could have been; these two would’ve been unstoppable together.
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