HYDRA Was Agent Carter's Greatest Mistake

Marvel has revealed that a surprising figure had an inadvertent hand in allowing Hydra to rebuild within the shadows of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Agent Peggy Carter. A classic foe in the world of Marvel Comics, Hydra was first realized on-screen in Captain America: The First Avenger. Led by Johann Schmidt (a.k.a. Red Skull), the Nazi offshoot pursued world domination with the aid of the Tesseract. Fortunately, their plot was halted by Steve Rogers and his allies — albeit at the expense of Steve, a.k.a. Captain America, getting frozen and leaving his known world behind.

Less fortunately, Cap would learn that his sacrifice had been for naught during Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Investigating the seeming assassination of Nick Fury, he and Natasha Romanoff (a.k.a. Black Widow) encountered the digitized form of Hydra scientist, Armin Zola. From him, they learned that the organization had re-established itself over the decades and had thrived behind the scenes. With its infamous tentacles spread within every level of government and countless intelligence agencies, Hydra was once again on the verge of bringing the world to its knees. Thankfully, Cap once more succeeded in foiling them, however, this time aided by his chosen Captain America successor, Sam Wilson. Regardless, lingering remnants of Hydra featured in subsequent movies and played a prominent role across multiple seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

According to the book The Wakanda Files, Hydra's recovery can be directly traced back to Peggy Carter herself. The new book, written by Troy Benjamin, is comprised of notes, articles, papers, and more accumulated by Black Panther's Shuri. As such, it shed new light on the history and certain figures of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as hints at Shuri's scientific projects for the future. One of the reveals is that, along with transitioning the Strategic Scientific Reserve, or SSR, into S.H.I.E.L.D and becoming Director, she personally declared the Hydra threat to be over. As a result, she recommended the closing down of ongoing investigations.

The decision lines up not just with the MCU, but the events of the character's solo series, Agent Carter. In the wake of Hydra, new threats emerged to assume the limelight and her organization's focus. As such, it's somewhat understandable that she made the decision that she did. Besides, it would also be years after she closed the investigations before Hydra had fully started to regroup — with a brainwashed Bucky Barnes as their primary weapon. On that front, the decision might have actually saved her life. As Zola revealed, and was depicted in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra assassinated anybody that got close to stumbling upon them and exposing their activities. Therefore, as tragically as it retcons her tenure as a premier spy, it allowed her to live a long, full life and pass away naturally in old age. Equally, with the reveal of Hydra's continued existence not coming until after her Alzheimer's diagnosis, Carter was fortunately spared the immense guilt of that mistake.

Of course, depending on what school of thought one believes, it might not have been entirely a mistake. After Steve Rogers time-traveled back to live out the rest of his life with Peggy, the debate has raged as to whether or not he created a new timeline. If he didn't, shutting down the investigations might have been a difficult choice made to preserve the established timeline while also saving many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents' lives where they could. If Cap did create a new timeline, it would mean that Peggy's choice would remain an unfortunate error of judgment in the main Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, armed with Steve's knowledge from the future, both Cap and Peggy could've done things differently. That would mean there could be a timeline out there where Hydra was stopped in its tracks and maybe even Bucky Barnes was saved many decades earlier. As such, there would exist both a Peggy Carter that tragically overlooked a great threat and a parallel Peggy Carter that made up for it.

More: All 14 Characters Who Have Led Hydra In The MCU