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TV review: 'Agent Carter' yet another Marvel winner

One shudders to think how badly comic-book stories are often mangled before they make it to the tube. Luckily, Marvel's Agent Carter, which premieres with a double episode at 8 p.m. Tuesday on ABC, is a most worthy addition to the Marvel universe.

While there's no assurance this spinoff will have legs, the opening salvo is worthy of a hearty "Hail, 'Carter.'" (Marvel Entertainment screenshot)
While there's no assurance this spinoff will have legs, the opening salvo is worthy of a hearty "Hail, 'Carter.'" (Marvel Entertainment screenshot)Read more

One shudders to think how badly comic-book stories are often mangled before they make it to the tube.

Luckily, Marvel's Agent Carter, which premieres with a double episode at 8 p.m. Tuesday on ABC, is a most worthy addition to the Marvel universe.

While the network's other comic book adventure, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., is set very much in a high-tech present, Agent Carter takes us back to a richly detailed and wonderfully atmospheric 1940s, a world introduced to us on the big screen by the Captain America franchise.

The TV show features several of the same cast members and the characters they play, most notably Hayley Atwell, who reprises her role as the busty titular heroine, Peggy Carter. A British secret agent with the Strategic Scientific Reserve, she became a fan favorite in the films for her romance with Captain America (Chris Evans).

Evans appears in a brief flashback in the opening scene, then exits for the remainder of the series. This is Atwell's show, and she owns it from the first shot.

She plays Peggy as a confident, no-nonsense spy who wages battle against not only the bad guys, but also her sexist male coworkers.

The pilot opens with several women complaining that they've lost their jobs now that the G.I.'s have come back home. Things are equally bleak at SSR, where the male agents, including young hotshot Jack Thompson (Chad Michael Murray) and SSR chief Roger Dooley (Shea Whigham) exclude her from their missions.

"Let the professionals handle it," Dooley tells Peggy in front of a room full of guys, while Thompson forces her to do filing because she is, he believes, better suited for the job. (Why?, Peggy asks dryly: Is it because she knows the alphabet?)

Dominic Cooper also is back, as Howard Stark, the inventor, weapons manufacturer, and cofounder of the good-guy S.H.I.E.L.D. organization. His son, Tony, becomes Iron Man. Cooper plays Stark as a slippery eel, a rich, eccentric jokester who never sits still long enough to reveal anything about his inner character or motives.

As if Peggy's Englishness weren't enough (Cooper's Stark is American), Agent Carter features another drily ironic Brit, Stark's butler, Edwin Jarvis (James D'Arcy).

As the season opens, Stark has been accused of selling arms to America's enemies and has been hauled before a congressional committee. When he goes on the run, the SSR is tasked with hunting him down.

Peggy won't believe he's dirty and investigates how he was set up.

D'Arcy is hilarious as Jarvis, a snobbish servant who refuses to do any work after 9 p.m., when he and Mrs. Jarvis (a character we've actually yet to see) go to bed.

It's gratifying to see Atwell (Black Mirror, The Pillars of the Earth) finally receive real recognition and a degree of fame on this side of the pond. The 32-year-old already is an old hand at period espionage stories - she's superb in two recent William Boyd miniseries, Any Human Heart (2010) and Restless (2012).

While she has to bring it down a notch or two for American TV, Atwell also exudes a dangerous sexuality that nicely complements her otherwise Girl Friday demeanor.

If the first episodes are any clue, Marvel's Agent Carter will make millions of fans very happy, indeed.

TV REVIEW

Marvel's Agent Carter

8 p.m. Tuesday on 6ABC

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