‘Agent Carter’ a cool addition to Marvel’s TV universe

Gosh, “Marvel’s Agent Carter” is a heck of a lot of fun.

If that statement feels a bit old-fashioned, well, it fits the sprightly period piece about a female secret agent fighting bad guys and sexism just after World War II.

The show’s premiere episode, which debuts at 7 p.m. Tuesday on ABC, finds agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) twiddling her well-manicured thumbs after the war has ended and the men are home from the front, resuming the jobs they left to go fight for freedom.

Peggy, who lost the love of her life in the war, works for the super-secret organization called the Strategic Scientific Reserve, but although she’s a highly intelligent and capable agent, she’s pretty much reduced to making coffee for “the boys.”

Peggy isn’t about to be marginalized because of her gender and comes to the aid of her old pal, rich, eccentric playboy Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper).

Stark is accused of selling arms to the enemy during the war. Did he do it knowingly? No, he answers. Well, then, did he do it unknowingly?

He wouldn’t know, he cracks wise.

All kidding aside, Stark is in trouble and needs Peggy to find out who the real traitors are. As far as her roommate knows, Peggy works at the phone company. But one night, Peggy dons a slinky gold lame dress, pops a Veronica Lake wig on her head and worms her way into the office of the suspected middleman. She plants a wet one on his kisser, knocking him on his considerable assets — because she has slapped on a coat of Mickey Finn lipstick before smacking him.

Atwell is terrific in the title role, as capable in the efficient, unflappable skin of Peggy as she is when pretending to be a blond American floozy in a smoky gin joint.

Cooper oozes ’40’s authenticity as Stark, to the point where you’ll almost believe you’re watching a black-and-white period film instead of a full-color TV show.

The cast also includes Chad Michael Murray as a fellow agent with little apparent tolerance for women in the SSR, and Enver Gjokaj as an agent who lost a leg in the war and gained a lot more tolerance than his male colleagues. James Landry Hebert plays evil to the hilt as an icy Green Suit.

Many of these characters relate to characters in other Marvel films and TV shows. Howard Stark is the father of “Iron Man’s” Tony Stark, conceived by Stan Lee in the image of Howard Hughes.

Small world? Not really. It’s a Marvel universe, and it’s growing.

This story was originally published January 5, 2015 at 2:42 PM with the headline "‘Agent Carter’ a cool addition to Marvel’s TV universe."