After a five year absence, Sharon Carter will return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. After a five year absence, the Disney+ show has a chance to treat the character with the respect her previous MCU appearances haven’t. Carter’s MCU role has been very similar to the comics. She was an ally and love interest of Steve Rogers’ Captain America. Where the comic book version differs is in the seriousness of her relationship with the Star Spangled Avenger.
Sharon first appearanced in Tales of Suspense #75, by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Dick Ayers. She was a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent with the codename Agent 13. When she was attacked on a mission by Batroc the Leaper, Captain America came to her aid, immediately seeing a resemblance between Sharon and his lost love, a French Resistance fighter. It turned out that Sharon’s espionage career was inspired by tales of the Captain’s old love interest, Peggy Carter. Peggy was Sharon’s sister in her original appearances, but was later retconned to be her aunt. After working together on many missions, against classic foes like the Red Skull and A.I.M., the pair eventually fell in love, and Sharon became one of the first characters to learn that Captain America was secretly Steve Rogers.
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Sharon’s life appeared to end in tragedy in Captain America #233, by Roger McKenzie, Sal Buscema, and Don Perlin. Working as S.H.I.E.L.D.’s liaison for the NYPD, Sharon went undercover in a white supremacist group called the National Force. While under the influence of Doctor Faustus’s mind control, she appeared to set off a self destruct device on her uniform, immolating herself. Rogers was convinced of her death after being show video evidence in Captain America #237, by McKenzie, Chris Claremont, Buscema, and Perlin. He grieved and moved on, having relationships with lawyer Bernie Rosenthal and reformed supervillain Diamondback. After a fifteen year absence, Sharon returned in Captain America #445 by Mark Waid, Ron Garney, and Mike Sellers.
Sharon revealed that she had been left behind on a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. mission, where she was presumed dead. After escaping from captivity, she worked as a mercenary. The experience gave her a cynicism that made her a stark contrast to her former love interest.
During her mercenary work, she stumbled across the neo-Nazi group the Kubecult, who wanted to use the Cosmic Cube to resurrect Adolph Hitler. That led her to team up with the Red Skull, who revived a dying Rogers to help them take out their common enemy.
An embittered Sharon mostly kept Rogers at a distance romantically following her return. A romantic tension remained between them as they continued to work together. After her brief time as the first female S.H.I.E.L.D. Director ended, they finally rekindled their romance during Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting’s Captain America run.
During the superhero Civil War, Sharon was again manipulated by Faustus. This time he set her up to play a key role in Captain America’s apparent death. His brainwashing primed her to finish Rogers off after a sniper, later revealed to be Crossbones, put him at death’s door.
Steve Rogers would ultimately return in Captain America: Reborn, by Brubaker and Bryan Hitch. Sharon’s apparent assassination of Rogers had caused him to become stuck in time. The Red Skull and Doctor Doom used her to draw the Avenger back, as part of a scheme to give the Skull control of his body. It ultimately failed. Sharon dealt a Pym Particle enlarged Skull’s deathblow with a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier’s missiles.
In the aftermath, Sharon and Steve reconciled, taking a sabbatical at her Virginia estate. They’ve been together ever since, only separated by her time in captivity in Arnim Zola’s Dimension Z, which cost her youth, and Steve’s replacement by an evil doppelganger in Secret Empire.
Unlike her MCU counterpart, Sharon Carter is the love of Captain America’s life in the comics. Although it’s been off and on, they’ve been together since the mid-’90s. They remain partners both romantically and in adventuring to this day. It’s unlikely they’ll get the happy ending that Steve and Peggy did in the movie universe, but their relationship still has an impressive legacy.
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