Expert spy Sharon Carter’s loyalties lay with her country, but she will bend the rules if it’s something she believes, even while working for government-backed agencies, such as S.H.I.E.L.D. and the CIA.
Spying Runs in the Family
Sharon grows up idolizing her great-aunt Margaret “Peggy” Carter, legendary spy and co-founder of S.H.I.E.L.D. Seeing a photograph of her great-aunt with JFK, Carter thinks she has a pretty cool aunt. When Sharon grows up, Peggy encourages her niece’s career in espionage by purchasing her first thigh holster, while Carter’s mother opposes her enlistment in S.H.I.E.L.D.
Highly-Trained Agent
As a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Carter is trained in undercover work and becomes an expert spy. She is also trained in armed and unarmed combat and is a skilled fighter. She is a master marksman, possessing adaptability to various firearms. At S.H.I.E.L.D., and later while working with the CIA, she has access to numerous assets, resources, and anything within their custody.
Enemies of the State
Carter’s enemies are typically the same enemies of S.H.I.E.L.D., such as the terrorist organization Hydra who infiltrates the ranks at the agency. She faces former allies such as Brock Rumlow when he turns out to be a double agent for Hydra.
Some of her opponents are temporary, like James Buchanan Barnes, AKA Winter Soldier, when he becomes mind-controlled. Ongoing enemies include Zemo, a colonel for the Sokovian special forces, responsible for activating Barnes’ Winter Soldier programming and for the events that lead to a civil war between the Avengers.
Agency Allies
Carter looks up to her great-aunt Peggy Carter, the legendary co-founder of S.H.I.E.L.D. She refrains from sharing her relation to Peggy since she didn’t want to live up to such high expectations.
Under order from S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury, Carter meets Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, while posing as his next-door neighbor. During the assignment, Rogers flirts with her and a mutual romantic interest blooms between them. Carter later aides Rogers and his ally Sam Wilson, AKA Falcon, in their search for the Winter Soldier when Zemo frames him for a bombing. Carter goes out of her way to help Rogers.
Alongside fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Natasha Romanoff, AKA Black Widow, she fights a mind-controlled Barnes to prevent him from escaping custody at the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre in Berlin.
Living That Spy Life
Taking orders from Nick Fury, Sharon received an assignment to protect Steve Rogers and posed as his next-door neighbor “Kate,” a nurse. One day as she was headed to finish her laundry, she runs into him in the hallway. He offered her his machine instead and invited her out to coffee. She politely declined and told him that he may have left his stereo on, and departed to do the rest of her laundry.
Hearing gunfire from Rogers’ apartment, Carter breaks down the door. She enters, armed, and calmly reintroduces herself as an “Agent 13” of S.H.I.E.L.D. Special Service. Coming into the room further with her guard up, she informed Rogers that she was ordered to protect him by the man now lying on the floor, Fury, who had been shot several times through the wall. After checking his pulse, she then pulled out a walkie talkie and spoke to it, using Fury’s callsign Foxtrot, and requested EMTs. Fury apparently died of his wounds shortly thereafter.
After debriefing Secretary Alexander Pierce at the Triskelion, S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, she passed Rogers in the hallway, and acknowledging the Captain, he responded curtly referring to her only as “Neighbor.” While in the central control room, her next orders came from S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Jasper Sitwell. He told her and a room full of agents to bury whatever operation they were on, giving them new orders to track down Rogers, who had taken down multiple STRIKE operatives and ran from HQ. Carter respectfully demanded to know the reason for the manhunt, and Pierce entered the room claiming Rogers lied to them about the details of Fury’s death, calling him a fugitive from S.H.I.E.L.D. He demanded that they pursue the Captain’s capture and Carter reluctantly followed suit.
Following Rogers’ discovery, at the Triskelion, Rogers’ voice came over the PA system, as Carter listened, he informed all of S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel that Hydra had infiltrated the agency, with Pierce as their leader, and with both the STRIKE team and Project Insight crew as his operatives, and that they shot Nick Fury. He warned them not to launch the new Helicarriers, which would allow them to shoot anyone that got in their way.
STRIKE team leader Brock Rumlow then entered the central control room and ordered agent Cameron Klein to launch the Helicarriers. When the agent refused, Rumlow pulled his gun on him and Carter responded in kind, confirming she sided with Rogers. The entire room went into a standoff but Rumlow dropped his weapon but then reached for a knife in his pocket and sliced Carter’s arm. She dropped her gun and then fell to the floor. As Rumlow fired at other agents and nearly killed Klein, she kicked Klein’s chair, sending him out of harm’s way. Rolling under the table, she then defended herself, firing at Rumlow who shot back as he ran out of the room having successfully launched the ships.
Following Hydra’s uprising within S.H.I.E.L.D., the agency disbanded, leaving Carter without a job. She sought employment with the CIA and easily passed their shooting range test, demonstrating pinpoint accuracy with a firearm. Her skills as a spy with S.H.I.E.L.D. and her expert marksmanship got her a position with the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre working alongside Deputy Taskforce Commander Everett Ross.
When her Great-Aunt Peggy Carter passed, she gave the eulogy at her funeral in London where Rogers and Wilson were also in attendance. While giving the eulogy, she admitted that she never spoke of her relation to her aunt because Peggy was the founder of S.H.I.E.L.D. and it was a lot to live up to. After the funeral, Rogers walked Carter back to her hotel and Carter revealed she now worked in Berlin with the Joint Terrorism Taskforce. Rogers asked her if Peggy knew about Sharon previously spying on him, and she admitted that she kept it from her so her aunt wouldn’t have to keep a secret from him. Sharing an intimate moment of silence, Wilson interrupted and informed them of a bombing at a United Nations meeting in Vienna.
Returning to Carter’s hotel room, Carter got up to speed on the situation via her connections at the CIA, while Rogers and Wilson learned from a news report that the bomber was James Buchanan Barnes, AKA Winter Soldier. Carter had to go back to work and left the others behind. Upon arriving on the scene in Vienna, she managed the team on the ground. Before she left for Berlin, she met up with Rogers and Wilson at a café where she shared all the info the CIA had on Barnes’ possible location, giving them a head start. She warned them that the order out of the CIA was to shoot Barnes on sight.
Back in Berlin, Carter joined Ross who greeted the captured Rogers, Wilson, Barnes, and T’Challa, who all had been fighting and causing destruction in a rather public way. Ross ordered her to take their equipment and lock it up. Carter then joined Wilson and Rogers in a conference room, giving Wilson a receipt for his gear (He, needless to say, was offended by the receipt and how his advanced set of wings was labeled as a “bird costume.”) In the room, there was video feed of Barnes’ interrogation which was simultaneously occurring. Looking around for any superiors, Carter turned on the audio. Rogers questioned her about the situation, asking why the authorities would release Barnes’ photo at all and she replied to get the word out. Rogers suggested that it was a good way to flush a guy out and she realized someone framed him to find him. In their discussion, Carter also realized that it didn’t guarantee that he would be captured by the person that framed him, but it would ensure his capture by them. They turned their attention back to the feed at the interrogator who they’d later find out was actually Zemo, a Sokovian bent on revenge against the Avengers and at that very moment was using Barnes’ Winter Soldier programming against him. Suddenly, the electricity went out at the facility, disconnecting the interrogation feed. Carter told them Barnes’ location, to which Rogers and Wilson rushed down to him.
Carter then led Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, and Natasha Romanoff, AKA Black Widow, to an area where they could cut off Barnes’ who had escaped his cell. They found Barnes’ fighting operatives and working together, they fought him as well to prevent him from leaving. Tony engaged first, but when his efforts proved fruitless, Carter joined the fight with Black Widow. The pair used their combat skills and the fight was brutal against the mind-controlled Barnes. Carter and Black Widow slowed him down but were ultimately defeated. Even with T’Challa joining the fray against him, Barnes still escaped.
After Rogers and Wilson detained Barnes, he was no longer under Zemo’s thrall but the government was still hunting them. Rogers called Carter for help, and she rendezvoused with them in a secret location, having stolen their previously confiscated equipment. Rogers commented that he owed her and she said she was keeping a list. Carter looked at Barnes saying that he tried to kill her and Rogers apologized for that, adding it to the list as well. He also warned her that she’d become a fugitive in helping them and she departed the trio to go on the run.
After Thanos gathered all the Infinity Stones and snapped away half of the universe’s living creatures from existence, Carter was one of them. She returned five years later after the Avengers had obtained the Stones and reversed Thanos’ Snap that caused the Blip.
