With Fall TV having belonged to DC and all their new television projects it felt like Marvel was beset on all sides by comic book competition. Regardless, Marvel's chosen to remain modest with its second mainstream TV outing -- sticking to its SHIELD-connected guns -- with a new show centered around Hayley Atwell's breakout Peggy Carter character.

Marvel's Agent Carter , which like Agents of SHIELD has the benefit of being tied into the overall MCU, is specifically about SHIELD's beginnings (though that won't happen for a few seasons still), and not its demise as we've seen in both The Winter Soldier and on Agents of SHIELD. The fact that its first season is only eight episodes (two of which will take up the two-hour premiere) may make it more accessible for viewers not looking to get locked into another long-form network series, though its throwback 1946 setting may not appeal to those looking for something more modern.

Marvel's Agent Carter Review

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And so the show certainly comes with advantages and challenges, along with the hope that this "event series" will return for a Season 2 next year if it does well in its role as the bridge between Agents of SHIELD half-seasons. It's probably a good thing that Atwell's Peggy, like Clark Gregg's Phil Coulson, has quickly risen through the ranks as a fan-favorite despite having only been a supporting character in other projects. And let's not leave out the landmark fact that this is the first major MCU project to be headlined by a woman.Crank up the big band swing music and learn all about Marvel's Agent Carter!Picking up a year or so after the events in Captain America: The First Avenger, Peggy (Atwell) is a covert agent for the Strategic Scientific Reserve who goes on her own top secret missions at night. One of her missions winds up directly involving Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) who Peggy worked with closely with during World War II, when Captain America and the Howling Commandos were targeting Hydra.Living a double life in a male-dominated society, and looking for an important mission that will make the most use of her skill set, Peggy learns to use the fact that people underestimate her as a tactical advantage on her adventures. When Stark is framed for selling deadly weapons to the highest bidders, Carter teams with Stark's rigid butler, Edwin Jarvis (James D'Arcy), to find those responsible for the scheme. And as she delves deeper into her investigation, she finds that those she works for may not be who they seem, and even begins to question whether Stark is as innocent as he claims.It's also known that Anton Vanko (father of Iron Man 2's Ivan Vanko) will appear as an old colleague of Stark's. And we all know how that turned out. At least on paper. Plus, Hydra never died out like everyone thought they did at the end of the war, though we may not see the evil organization flare up again until later down the line.Agent Carter comes to us from MCU screenwriting duo Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (both Captain America films, Thor: The Dark World) with Reaper's Tara Butters, Michele Fazekas as showrunners.Check out the video below and to hear from Markus, McFeely, Butters, Fazekas, EP Louis D'Esposito, and star Hayley Atwell and get their take on the serialized aspect of the series and how the intent here is to make a "8-part movie" and not just a mission-of-the-week show.

More about Agent Carter on Page 2, including our opinions on it.