One of the most powerful people in theMCUis just a regular person:Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, or Val, as her friends say to save time. Valentina has shown up a lot in Phase 4, never as a central character, but just in little cameos, slowly working behind the scenes to accomplish something that almost everyone knows can’t be good. She’s already recruited U.S. Agent and Yelena Belova. And inBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever, we find out she’s been promoted from sneaky thug for Wilson Fisk to Director of the CIA. Whatever she’s up to, it can’t be good.
Valentina Allegra de Fontaine seems to be theevil version of Nick Fury. She’s some kind of pseudo-government agent whose motives may not be entirely clear, but priorities are always certain: accumulate as much power and control as humanly possible. At the moment, she seems hell-bent on ensuring the United States' military supremacy through the control of vibranium. But by the next Marvel movie, her goal may change. You can never tell which direction these spy types are going.
One thing is for certain: it is frightening just how much power and influence Val gained over such a short period, and it seems her plan to keep getting more. In the comics, she’s thoroughly dangerous. So, let’s explore Ms. Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
The Snake of the MCU
If there’s anything certain about Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, she’s not to be trusted. She’s made it clear on several occasions that she’ll do whatever she can to achieve her goals and that her moral compass might be a bit less stalwart than others. InWakanda Forever,Agent Everett Ross confronted her about what she might do with the samevibranium resourcesthat the Wakandans had, as if to tell her that it was right that the US didn’t have vibranium weapons. Agent Ross said we would be creating all kinds of weapons of mass destruction. Val responded, almost salivating, that she dreams of doing something like that every night.
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Director de Fontaine, as she’s now referred to in the MCU, first appeared inThe Falcon and the Winter Soldiermostly to sink her claws into the U.S. Agent. There she was only an agent for the CIA or operating under some type of vague government authority. In the post-credits scene ofBlack Widow,she was there, hiring the Black Widow Yelena Belova, most assume to go after Hawkeye in his following Disney+ series. These are already two members of the infamousantihero team Thunderbolts, which should appear in their self-titled movie sometime in 2024, or possibly before that inCaptain America: New World Order.
Right now, it seems that Director de Fontaine is moving in that direction to assemble and control the Thunderbolts. Where most thought it would be Gen. Thunderbolt Ross leading them or their original comic book mastermind Baron Zemo, the MCU seems to be making it increasingly likely that Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is the one assembling the team. Of course, she could always be working for someone else. It is her MO to act on behalf of greater authority.
The MCU seems to surround her with a vague air of evil, despite having her work for the United States or possibly S.H.E.I.L.D. At the moment, she seems to be on the side of the good guys, but she is slowly becoming more evil, if she hasn’t been all along.
Who Is Val Really Working For?
Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is, of course, the Director of the CIA in the MCU, but fans of the comics will know that she is much more than that. Her reputation in the comics is a long and sordid one. She had a very long tenure working for S.H.I.E.L.D. as a field agent. She got the job by besting Nick Fury in hand-to-hand combat. Once she was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., she had a drama-filled time working there. She flirted with both Nick Fury and Captain America, leading to all manner of terrible high school-like shenanigans with world-ending sized consequences.
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But Val wasn’t always working for S.H.I.E.L.D; she was never working for them. Yes, at one point, she didturn out to be a Skrull, but even the real Val had been lying. Who she really was and where she comes from is one of the most dangerous underground organizations in the Marvel universe. Val even infiltrated Hydra in an attempt to control them for who she was working for. That’s right, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, before anyone else on the planet,works for Leviathan.
Leviathan is a dangerous underground espionage and advanced scientific agency that was created during the Soviet era. It now exists as a secret organization that is continuously trying to take over the world. When Val’s parents were killed when she was a child, she was adopted by the agency and raised as a spy. She has been a deep cover agent ever since. In the MCU, we can all tell she’s evil, but it’s only a matter of time before they reveal just how evil.
Leviathan is one of the most dangerous organizations in the Marvel universe, and they haven’t even been shown in the MCU yet. The closest look we got was a short cameo inAvengers: Age of Ultron. But don’t worry, this secret evil society is sure to make itself known soon.
