Snap Into Marvel Captain Carter: From The Multiverse To Marvel Snap!

Real Name: Margaret “Peggy” Carter of Earth-76

First Appearance: What If? Season 1 Episode 1 (August 2021), voiced by Hayley Atwell

First Comic Book Appearance: Captain Carter #1 (March 2022).

Powers & Abilities: As a recipient of the Super Soldier Serum, Captain Carter possesses the same powers and abilities as Captain America, including peak human strength, speed, stamina, agility and durability.

Comic Book Chronicles

Captain Carter is part of small but proud tradition of comic book characters who originated in animation. Harley Quinn over at DC Comics is probably the best known/most popular example. But at Marvel, characters like Firestar and Laura Kinney debuted in animated series before making their way into the comics.

While Peggy Carter has existed as a comic book character since Tales of Suspense #75 in 1966, the version which takes the Super Soldier Serum instead of Steve Rogers and becomes a superpowered weapon against the Nazis debuted in the first episode of the Disney+ What If? animated series. She proved popular enough from that episode that the character soon migrated into comics with her own miniseries, and into a cameo role in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness a few months later (with Hayley Atwell, who played the “main” Peggy Carter in the MCU, reprising the role).

In her self-titled comic book series, Captain Carter underwent a similar narrative arc to the original Captain America. After gaining her powers and signature shield (with a Union Jack instead of the American stars and stripes), she led a commando unit called the Carter Commandos against Nazi Germany and Hydra, eventually getting frozen in ice after a battle with Hydra leader Baron Von Strucker. Awakening in the present day, she teams up with STRIKE (the British version of SHIELD), working alongside STRIKE member Lizzie Braddock (an alternate version of the X-Men’s Psylocke).

Other versions of Captain Carter have popped up in comics as well. A version of the character which predates the MCU animated one appeared in an issue of the reality-hopping Exiles series back in 2018. Yet another Captain Carter played a role in the second Avengers Forever series. In this book, the Robbie Reyes Ghost Rider traveled the Multiverse assembling an army of Avengers to battle a multiversal Masters of Evil; a Captain Carter was one of the Avengers who joined that fight.

Fit & Finish

There’s not a ton of variety to Captain Carter’s launch variants. Which isn’t surprising, given her relatively short comic book CV.

Form & Function

Captain Carter’s card ability is a little confusing — largely because it uses terminology that doesn’t seem that common. Apparently, if you have four cards at a location, the bottom two are considered in the “back row”. Those are the cards that Captain Carter buffs by increasing the power of the one or two cards in that row by however much power Captain Carter has.

With Captain Carter being a riff on Captain America, the card’s ability is similar a twist on Captain America’s “boost the other cards at the same location” ability. Yet similar to way later cards tends to overpower early series cards of bedrock comic book characters (like how Sam Wilson Captain America is a better card than OG Cap), the variation Captain Carter brings to the “buff other cards” Cap dynamic makes it, on paper, at least, a better card that Captain America.

Whereas Captain America’s buff to other cards is relatively static (barring something like Onslaught being played on the same location), the options to buff Captain Carter’s power — and therefore the power it adds to the back row cards — are more numerous. Blue Marvel, Forge, Ironheart, Nakia, Namora, Okoye and Spectrum all buff Captain Carter AND the back row cards. Whether that’s enough to help Captain Carter maintain the recent string of Season Pass card success remains to be seen, but it seems likely to at least elevate the card over its alternate reality inspiration.