After the events of Avengers: Endgame, Steve Rogers’ kiss with Sharon Carter is strange, but not incestuous. Captain America’s great love in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was his beloved Peggy Carter. Sadly, Steve Rogers destroyed his prospects of a happily-ever-after with Peggy by crashing the Red Skull’s plane into the Greenland ice cap at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger. Peggy was now an elderly woman in a nursing home when he awoke 70 years later.
However, it turns out that this was only the beginning of the story. Captain America decided it was time to retire from the superhero life at the end of Avengers: Endgame, and he did so in the most beautiful and emotional way possible. He utilized Pym Particles to fly back in time and claim the dance he had always wanted with Peggy. Cap first appeared in the MCU in 1948, according to authors Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and has remained a background presence ever since. Peggy had married and had two children, according to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the father of Peggy’s children was always Steve Rogers, according to Markus and McFeely. It explains why Peggy had only images of Steve at her bedside, and never of the purportedly different man she married.
One element, as charming and beautiful as it may sound, has piqued the interest of the viewers. Steve experienced a passionate kiss with Sharon Carter, Peggy’s great-niece, in Captain America: Civil War. It had always been odd and unpleasant, with Captain America plainly projecting his love for Peggy onto Sharon; in fact, the kiss occurred shortly after Peggy’s burial. However, Avengers: Endgame appears to exacerbate the problem. Captain America was technically kissing his own great-niece.
While Captain America’s fate makes the situation a touch uneasy, it isn’t technically incestuous. Sharon’s surname is “Carter,” which means she’s from the Carter side of the family rather than the Rogers; she’s Peggy’s niece or nephew. This isn’t incest because she isn’t Steve’s biological relative. Captain America’s return to the past was locked in from the very first draft of Avengers: Endgame, and Markus and McFeely had began work on that script while Captain America: Civil War was still in production, so this was most likely a purposeful move on Marvel’s behalf. Sharon is actually Peggy’s granddaughter in the comics, which would have been a lot more complicated.
It could have been a lot worse; instead of explaining away a single sweet kiss, a full-fledged relationship could have developed. Last year, Markus and McFeely stated in an interview with Collider that their original drafts for Avengers: Infinity War contained the return of Sharon Carter, who they’d planned to be in a real relationship with Steve, even living together. Thankfully, when they came up with the concept of focusing the plot of Avengers: Infinity War on Thanos, that was dropped. “The film doesn’t have time to catch up on ‘previously in the life of Steve Rogers,'” Markus pointed out.
The kiss is made even more cringe-worthy by Captain America’s ultimate destiny. People are drawn to members of the opposite sex who remind them of family members, a phenomenon known as “positive sexual imprinting,” according to psychologists. The closer a person is to a loved one, the more likely he or she is to be drawn to someone who shares the same or similar characteristics. Sharon was probably close to her uncle, and as a result, she was drawn to a man with a similar personality. She couldn’t realize that she was kissing her uncle due of time travel. This one would be perfect for a counselor.