An Agent Carter series is just what the Marvel Universe needed.

For a while it didn’t look good for Peggy Carter fans, but it now confirmed that Marvel’s Agent Carter has been ordered by ABC. Plus, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is returning for a second season – although, the name seems a little incongruent now that S.H.I.E.L.D. is all, well, kaput.

I have a confession to make: I have been dreaming of an Agent Carter spinoff for a long, long time. And I certainly have big hopes for Marvel’s Agent Carter. This move not only expands the Marvel Universe outside of the present day, it addresses the serious lack of women in central roles. There are some wonderful female characters in the Marvel universe (Black Widow, Maria Hill, Agent May, to name a few), but they have all been side characters.

Finally – finally – we have something from Marvel that is named after a woman. You can’t imagine how excited that one, single fact makes me.

Equally exciting, but not surprising, is that Hayley Atwell is confirmed to be returning to the role she originated in The First Avenger – although would they really have gone ahead without her? A synopsis for the series has already been released by ABC:

“Marvel’s Agent Carter,” starring “Captain America’s” Hayley Atwell follows the story of Peggy Carter. It’s 1946, and peace has dealt Peggy Carter a serious blow as she finds herself marginalized when the men return home from fighting abroad. Working for the covert SSR (Strategic Scientific Reserve), Peggy must balance doing administrative work and going on secret missions for Howard Stark all while trying to navigate life as a single woman in America, in the wake of losing the love of her life – Steve Rogers.

So with my general excitement out of the way, what exactly does an Agent Carter spinoff bring to the Marvel Universe?

How does ‘Agent Carter’ fit into the Marvel Universe?

Peggy Carter is confirmed to appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron coming to cinemas in 2015, in a 1940s flashback with Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). And rumours are already flying that Agent Carter will air during the mid-season break Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2 will take between the fall and spring of next season.

That means that there is sure to be a connection between the events of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter and Age of Ultron. Let’s not forget that Peggy Carter was one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s founders, and there is every possibility that something happened in the 1940s that will affect our (ex-)S.H.I.E.L.D. team and the Avengers in the present day.

If Captain America: The Winter Soldier taught us anything, it is that we should not underestimate the impact that Marvel’s films can have on their television series – and vice versa. For this reason alone, Carter’s Ultron cameo might be a lot more than just another sweet scene between Carter and her superhero beau.

Television shows are costly and time consuming. If Marvel wants to do Agent Carter, it is for a very specific reason, and not just because Carter and Rogers had an epic romance. We didn’t know exactly why Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was so important until after The Winter Soldier, and likely we won’t know until much closer to its release exactly how Agent Carter will fit in. But we can be confident in the fact that it will.

What do we want to see in ‘Agent Carter’?

We have already had a taste of just what Agent Peggy Carter can do in Marvel one shot Agent Carter, included on the Iron Man 3 Blu-ray. In the short, which takes place a year after the events of The First Avenger, Carter is the only woman at a Strategic Scientific Reserve office. She is forced to deal with daily sexism, is called “Captain America’s old flame,” and when she does a job better than any of the men can, she is lambasted. It isn’t looking good for Peggy, until Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) calls up and offers her a promotion – helping him to run S.H.I.E.L.D.

Given the synopsis ABC has provided, it is likely that the events of the Agent Carter one shot will in a sense book-end the Agent Carter spinoff. We can’t see Carter immediately promoted, and anyway, I think we all want to see her secret, probably illegal, missions. But mostly, I want to see her dealing with the rampant sexism that was commonplace following World War 2. A woman like Carter, who held a great deal of responsibility during the war, would not deal well with the men who came home and promptly attempted to usher her back out again.

As we saw in the one shot, Carter’s problem is not that she is working in an office, or even that she is no longer in charge. It is that she is being continuously passed over for missions she is clearly qualified for based entirely on her gender. This is new territory for Marvel, and I hope they don’t shy away from it. We should see Carter celebrated as a complex, kick-ass, qualified woman, who also happens to be suffering from a heartbreak, rather than a Damsel In Distress masquerading as a Strong Female Character.

Agent Carter also provides ample opportunity for cameos from characters who we would otherwise not get to see again in the Marvel Universe – like Howard Stark. As Stark is giving Carter missions, I would be surprised if he didn’t appear at various points. And in a show about Peggy Carter, it would be remiss not to mention hopes for a Steve Rogers cameo (or several), which could easily occur in a flashback as Peggy reminisces about her lost love.

The Howling Commandos were recently referenced in a recent Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode, and they would fit into this timeline as well. And we might even catch a glimpse of what Hydra was up to immediately after the war – as we now know, they weren’t out for the count.

Agent Carter opens up countless possibilities for Marvel. It gives a woman a starring role – and maybe if this works, we will be one step closer to a Black Widow spinoff (don’t pretend like you don’t want one). It allows them to experiment with a different genre, the 1940s film noir spy thriller. And it provides the opportunity to establish the context and background for what will befall our heroes in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2. So let’s just hope they get it right.

Why are you excited for ‘Agent Carter’?