Friday, September 11, 2015

Relationship Spotlight: Steve Rogers a.k.a. Captain America & Peggy Carter (The Avengers)


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.

No comments:

Post a Comment