In Agent Carter Season 1, most of Peggy Carter’s enemies were original characters created for the MCU, but the main antagonist was eventually revealed as Johann Fenhoff, a.k.a. the master of hypnotism Doctor Faustus. Peggy was able to stop Fennhoff’s plan to attack Times Square in the Season 1 finale, but she’s not done facing off against adversaries from Marvel’s large library of characters. It was mentioned last month that Season 2 will include several villains from the comics, and now we know the identity of one of the evildoers: frequent Iron Man villain Madame Masque.
Writers Tara Butters and Chris Dingess told Slash Film that Madame Masque (real name: Betty Frost) will be one of the villains Peggy faces in Agent Carter’s sophomore season. The show has already found the actress playing her, but they didn’t divulge who this will be. Because Masque is a present-day enemy in the Marvel comics universe, they had to make some adjustments for her MCU counterpart. Here’s how Butters described this version of the character:
I think we’ve changed the look of her a bit obviously. We’ve made her an actress, which is very Hedy Lamar. She was a ‘40s siren actress who was also a scientific genius, so that’s part of what we’re mining with this character.
In the comics, Whitney Frost was the daughter of Count Nerfaria, leader of the criminal organization the Maggia. Because he didn’t want her connected to his illegal activities, the Count gave Whitney to his employee Bryon Frost. She grew up to be a wealthy debutante, but after her adoptive parents died, Nefaria came back into her life to reveal her true parentage and convince her to become the Maggia’s new leader. After she first refused, her politician fiancé left her, worrying that her background would hurt his career, so she decided to team up with Daddy. After Nefaria was sent to jail, she took over the organization, but while escaping from Iron Man during one of her early missions, the plane she was in crashed and her face was scarred. Just as her villainous identity suggests, Whitney covered her face with a golden, creepy-looking mask so no one would see her damaged visage.
Although we don’t know what precise role Madame Masque will play in Season 2, don’t be surprised if we get a similar scenario involving Whitney’s face being scarred, thus ruining her acting career and making her even more evil. When Agent Carter returns for its next 10 episodes, the eponymous protagonist will find herself in Hollywood for adventures among the movie stars. Other returning characters include Edwin Jarvis, Daniel Sousa and Howard Stark, while deals are also being worked out to bring back Jack Thompson, Dottie Underwood and Angie Martinelli
Agent Carter Season 2 will air sometime in 2016 on ABC during Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s hiatus.
