How Marvel Mapped Agent Carter's Life on Top of Steve's Life

Captain Steve Rogers and Agent Peggy Carter’s tragic love story is one for the ages. It played out across three Marvel Cinematic Universe films, Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), and Captain America: Civil War (2016), and has successfully driven the internet mad since its on-screen introduction. Their relationship, dubbed “Steggy” by shippers, is also more heartbreaking than we originally thought.

Inverse published the unofficial-yet-definitive map of the Marvel Universe in New York City, dubbed “Inverse’s Marvel NYC Map,” and while most of the information we found was exactly what we expected, we were utterly heartbroken to find out that Peggy and Steve’s lives intersected across decades, even when they were separated by supposed death.

After Steve’s untimely plunge into the arctic, upon which he was presumed dead, Peggy kind of rebuilt her entire life around him, proving how torn up she really must have been about his demise. They’d only just shared their first kiss right before Steve sacrificed himself for the greater good.

Steve grew up in Brooklyn Heights in the MCU alongside his long-time best friend Bucky Barnes. He was born at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, and Peggy’s favorite restaurant, L&L Automat, from the short-run Agent Carter television series, isn’t far from there. It’s actually a 14-minute walk from one spot to the other.

Peggy would probably get emotional while walking around Brooklyn Heights, which is also home to the Strategic Scientific Reserve laboratory where Howard Stark Captain America-fied Steve. There’s a lot history for both of them there.

Moving west to Manhattan, Peggy stayed at a hotel on 63rd Street for a while in Agent Carter, four blocks from the secret SHIELD headquarters that Steve broke out of at the end of The First Avenger. There’s no telling if this proximity was intentional on the part of the powers that be over at Marvel Studios, but it’s rather suspicious.

Steve and Peggy’s star-crossed relationship started at Camp Lehigh, New Jersey, in The First Avenger. Peggy liked Steve even before he shot up 2 feet and packed on his Cap muscle, and the two spent the entirety of The First Avenger dancing around each other until their first, doomed kiss.

In The Winter Soldier, Peggy is old and bedridden but incredibly happy to have Steve back in her life. She’d gotten married, had kids, and founded SHIELD, using Steve’s iconic shield as inspiration. Even when Peggy wasn’t in NYC, she always carried Steve’s memory in her work as she looked to protect the world.

Peggy’s eventual death in Civil War brings their love story full circle, with Steve acting as a pallbearer at Peggy’s funeral, shedding tears as he carried his first love to her grave. (We’re not crying, you’re crying.)

If anything, this information has got to be at least a little affirming for Steggy shippers out there. Archive of Our Own, one of the internet’s most popular sites for fanfiction and the like, has 2,942 works tagged “Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers,” proving the ongoing popularity of the pairing. Finding the right partner wasn’t an easy task for either Peggy or Steve, but at least they’ll always have the memory of each other.