1. Peggy Carter
Peggy was always underestimated.
By the soldiers at the training camp, by her fellow agents in the SSR after the war was over.
She practically built her career on being underestimated.
It wasn't that she liked being underestimated - she simply was.
She did, however, know how to use it to her advantage.
There are very few people Peggy can say with confident that they never underestimated her. Most are women, but that is a completely different story.
Howard Stark underestimated her at first.
That is, until she corrected him on something science related - Peggy always found the science behind things quite fascinating.
Stark continued being an annoying jerk, but he never underestimated her again.
You can say many things about Howard Stark, fool isn't one of them.
The Howling Commandos did, too.
Until she saved their arses more than a few times - both with them at the front lines, and from HQ.
They quickly learned to respect and trust the woman - even turn to her for advise whenever Captain Rogers wasn't around.
Because they are smart.
They recognize that Peggy is good - better than them, in some instances (they all have their own strengths, they ain't the Howling Commandos for nothing) - and they didn't mind that she is a woman. Only that she is a capable one.
Steve Rogers was the exception - he always was.
A real gentleman, for one.
He never thought any less of her because of her gender, and only judged her based on her own actions.
Still, he was clueless when it came to women.
And even though he never did truly underestimated her, there was this one time he really did get on her nerves.
So she shot him.
Well, technically, it was his vibranium shield which she shot, and the bullets were cut in half when they met the strongest metal on Earth.
Still, she shot him nontheless.
And she was damn satisfied, too.
But Steve, the Commandos, the soldiers in the training camp - it was all in different times.
Sure, the Commandos still turned to her for guidance on the mission in Russia, and it felt like the old days again. She knew that they always have her back, if she ever needed, and that she would be welcomed to rejoin them in the front lines.
Yet she decided to go back to the States.
It was simply unbearable to go back to the front lines. With them. Without Steve to have her back.
So it was just a reminder. Reminder of the old days, when Steve was still alive, by her side, the two of them doing everything they can to stop Hydra and end the war.
Those days are over now.
It is time she move on.
Peggy Carter was always underestimated.
Even after they returned from Russia, and Agent Thompson saw, at least a part, of what she is capable of.
Even after that, he still underestimated her.
It would have probably continued that way, too, only Agent Sousa discovered that she helped Howard Stark, and they sent out at least five male agents, including Thompson and Sousa, after her.
She defeated them all.
Really, it was to be expected - it was as if they knew nothing about her.
In that moment, Chief Dooley starts to figure out exactly just what it means to have Peggy Carter as an enemy.
Still, when they interrogate her, trying different tactics in order to catch her off guard, she stares at them back cooly.
She is unimpressed, and for good reasons.
She tells them: "You think you know me, but I have never been more than what each of you is creating. To you, it is a mystery kitten, left on your doorstep. The secretary turned damsel in distress. The girl on the pedestal, transformed into some daft whore."
They still underestimates her.
Dooley. Thompson. Sousa.
Even after she agrees to tell them the truth, giving them Steve's blood.
At least now they are skeptical of her honesty.
Still, even then.
They can't understand how she managed to run her own investigation underneath their very noses.
Peggy has a simple answer to that, too.
"I conducted my own investigation because no one listens to me. I got away with it because no one looks at me. Because unless I have your reports, your coffee, or your lunch, I am invisible."
Instead of getting angry at her peers for their stupidity and narrow minds, Peggy uses it to her advantage.
Even after she saved the day, and everyone else in the New York SSR office admits and acknowledges it, clapping and cheering as she going through the office, it is still the newly promoted Chief Thompson who gets the credit.
And Peggy Carter is okay with that, too.
Truly, Agent Sousa. She is.
Because Peggy knows that the most important thing, is getting the job done.
And her job, is protecting people.
Even if they have no idea that they need protection. Or that she is the one protecting them.