Yesterday, I posted artwork of Sharon Carter and it got me thinking about all the hate I have seen directed towards MCU Sharon Carter. I've seen where people will say they loved everything about Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War. That is except Sharon Carter. They call her useless, annoying and irrelevant which are words I often see aimed at female characters. I see where many have said that Sharon shouldn't have been in the movies at all. To be honest she was barely in the movies yet she's still memorable. They hate her for being Peggy Carter's niece and Steve Roger's love interest. I've even seen where many have said that Steve never showed any interest in her until Civil War or that she's standing in the way of their non-cannon ship, Steve and Bucky.
I know that there is no rule that says fans have to like every character (I wouldn't want there to be one) but the hate just seem so mean especially when some of it's directed at actress Emily VanCamp. I do wish Sharon had gotten more screen time but from her limited amount of time, you can see in The Winter Soldier that she's a dedicated S.H.I.E.L.D. agent (but perhaps not at the level she is in the comic books). She's loyal but doesn't go along blindly, she was the only one who spoke up asking why Steve Rogers was now being hunted down by S.H.I.E.L.D.. You can see that she doesn't agree with Alexander Pierce's explanation but her real test of strength came when she didn't back down when Brock Rumlow wanted those helicarriers launched.
Now in Civil War, you find out that she is related to Margaret "Peggy" Carter but she didn't want to build her career on her family connection. Her loyalty towards Steve is still there. She was willing to give Steve and Sam Wilson the information they needed to find James "Bucky" Barnes and not to mention giving them back their uniforms and equipment.
As for Steve showing no romantic interest in her until Civil War, well that's simply not true. The first scene they are in together in TWS shows Steve flirting with Sharon in the hallway of their apartment building. You can clearly see that there is a mutual attraction between them which is why he was a bit perturbed in that scene where he passed by her on his way to Pierce's office. He thought she was just his neighbor and not an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent assigned to keep an eye on him. He definitely liked her otherwise he wouldn't have been that bitter about the whole situation. However, at the end of the movie he was still interested in her, even if Natasha may have brought up the subject but he certainly didn't balk at the idea of giving Sharon a call. And in Civil War that attraction was still there.
Although the movies only gave viewers a glimpse of who she is, I will say that Emily VanCamp did a great job with the limited amount of material she had to work with. But in my opinion she was truly shortchanged in both movies especially in The Winter Soldier where her importance and personality was given to Black Widow (who is not even in the book Captain America: Winter Soldier written by Ed Brubaker).
On a side note, I think the MCU has done a great job with how Sam Wilson (played by Anthony Mackie) was introduced and continued to be used. He has been in two movies: CA: TWS and CA: CW and had cameos in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man giving his character a chance to grow. Which is why I've rarely seen any fan hate towards Sam and from what I have gathered, fans seem to really love him.
I'm still waiting on Sharon to get this same treatment, because she was so underutilized in both movies and deserved more screen time. I hope the fan hate will lessen towards her because she really is a great character.
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