Hayley Atwell Agrees With You That Captain America's New Romance Is Weird
Let’s discuss the most important topic of conversation surrounding Captain America — his dating life! As you recall, in The First Avenger, Cap and Agent Peggy Carter had a romance that was just starting to blossom before it was, well, put on ice. Then in The Winter Soldier, Cap and his neighbor, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent assigned to surveil him, make some eyes at each other. You know, eyes. The two of them wind up sharing a smooch in Civil War. Great, right? Wrong! It’s actually kind of weird.
That’s because the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is Sharon Carter, Peggy’s niece. And Cap knows that, and Sharon knows it, and we know it. We know now that Aunt Peggy would not be on board with this new relationship, because the actress behind the woman, Hayley Atwell, said as much.
In an interview with IGN at the Dallas Comic Con Fan Expo, Atwell said, “Well, first of all she’d be turning over in her grave. She’d be like, ‘No.’ And she’d inject herself with the blue serum and become a supervillain. She’d break out of her coffin and ground [Sharon]. She’d ground her. Then she’d kick Steve’s ass as well.”
Atwell called this kind of relationship incestuous and actually wondered if Steve Rogers is the right guy for any Carter woman, now that it’s been revealed in the comics that he’s a Hydra agent. Atwell said, “Now with this whole ‘Hail Hydra’ business, I don’t know if Steve’s good enough for her. So on all levels, it’s just a big fat no.”
Steve and Sharon’s relationship does have a history in the comics. Before it was retconned, Sharon was Peggy’s younger sister — meaning their romance had an even stranger origin. As time moved further away from World War II, Sharon became Peggy’s niece and a love interest of Steve’s. Perhaps the relationship felt less awkward in the time that it was first conceived. However, we’re in 2016, and when you look at the details surrounding a Sharon/Steve relationship, it gets even stranger.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Steve Rogers was born in 1918, meaning that he’ll be celebrating his 100th birthday when the next Avengers sequel comes to theaters in 2018. Sharon Carter, on the other hand, is probably around the age of the actress who portrays her, Emily VanCamp. VanCamp turned 30 back in May, giving us an age gap of just about 70 years. This is where you argue Rogers was frozen for most of that time, so in reality, he’s physically and emotionally more of a 30-year-old than a senior citizen. Sure, but that doesn’t change the fact that his kiss with Sharon happens just days after Peggy’s funeral.
Possibly the worst aspect of Sharon and Steve’s kiss was that it was unnecessary for Civil War to include. The very fact that Sharon is a Carter is enough to justify her helping Rogers; it doesn’t need to have romantic connotations. Marvel’s films have been mostly entertaining and well-crafted blockbusters, but they haven’t cracked the code on the relationships they’ve tried out. If anything, Sharon and Steve’s kiss only spotlighted this flaw.
The writing and direction of Civil War is good, so putting in an unnecessarily off-putting relationship was a superweird decision. Can’t Cap just be … Cap? Does he have to be a secret Hydra agent who dates his late girlfriend’s niece?
Chris Evans Responds to a controversial Captain America twist:
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