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| “ | Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Actually, it's Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. I know it's hard, but I don't like to repeat myself, so you can just call me Val. But don't call me Val. | „ |
| ~ Valentina introducing herself to John Walker. |
Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is a major antagonist of the Multiverse Saga in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She is a US government operative who became director of the CIA. However, it soon transpired that Valentina is secretly associated with a mysterious organization that specializes in using super powered individuals, with that being eventually revealed to be an organization called O.X.E., of which she is chairwoman.
This involved recruiting John Walker to the organization and making him become the U.S. Agent. Valentina is also the one who hired Yelena Belova to kill Clint Barton, whom she believed to be responsible for her death of her adoptive sister Natasha Romanoff - unaware that the latter had actually done it to herself. Valentina would continue to recruit more super powered individuals in her organization, including Ghost and Taskmaster and have them carry out black ops missions in secrecy.
The US government eventually suspected of her illegal activities and planned to have her impeached from her position in the CIA, forcing her to get rid of any traces of O.X.E., including her recruited agents and Project Sentry. However, when she learned that the test subject of Project Sentry, Robert Reynolds, turned out to be a success, she attempted to use him in her goal of reclaiming her position in power and get rid of her former agents for good.
In the end, this would backfire on her as well, as Sentry would be consumed by the Void and attempt to engulf all of New York in darkness, before being subdued by Valentina's former agents. In a desperate attempt to save her reputation, Valentina would use these turn of events by proclaiming her former agents to be the New Avengers to the public, becoming their official founder.
She is portrayed by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who also played Selina Meyer in Veep. As a child, she was portrayed by Chiara Stella.
Personality[]
| “ | Righteousness without power is just an opinion. | „ |
| ~ Valentina's outlook on life. |
Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is a very influential and manipulative figure. Her knowledge of how the United States government operates enabled her to convince John Walker to work for her. Additionally, de Fontaine was able to switch the narrative of Natasha Romanoff's sacrifice and frame it as a murder, convincing Yelena Belova that Clint Barton killed her, and sending her on a mission to kill him.
She was also able to manipulate the emotionally vulnerable Robert Reynolds to briefly become her superhuman pawn the Sentry, however, she underestimated his instability, leading to the emergence of the Void, which almost trapped all life in prisons of trauma, yet it is an event she felt no guilt nor remorse over enabling, thus reiterating her sociopathic nature.
Appearance[]
Valentina is a middle-aged woman with black hair and purple streaks — tied in a bun, and brown eyes. She wears a dark blue coat clasped by a belt, a dark red sweater, dark red leather gloves, a necklace, a pair of round earrings, and high heeled boots. She is also seen wearing a dark red coat and a pair of sunglasses.
Biography[]
Past[]
When she's touched by Sentry, it is shown that Valentina watched her father be shot dead by a criminal who he seemingly was indebted to and tried to talk things out with, but failed. It's implied that said criminal then adopted the young Valentina and turned into the woman she is. These factors likely shaped her present belief that one cannot be righteous without power. She grew up to be an American government operative and the chairwoman of O.X.E., an organisation interested in superpowered individuals. She conducted power-bestowing experiments on people in an attempt to replace the Avengers with heroes that she could use to usher in an era where she was in charge of how to "protect" (destroy) America. One of these was Project Sentry, which gave a person the power of a thousand exploding suns and made them stronger than all the Avengers combined, though not many could handle this power, and it would kill them. One subject, Robert "Bob" Reynolds, was a desperate drug addict, and survived the process and escaped, albeit with further damage to his already deteriorating mind.
Finding Recruits[]
Meeting with Yelena Belova[]
| “ | Maybe you'd like a shot at the man responsible for your sister's death. | „ |
| ~ Valentina to Yelena, assigning her to kill Clint Barton. |
During her time working for the organization, de Fontaine met Yelena Belova, a trained assassin and spy and the surrogate sister of Natasha Romanoff, recruiting Belova into her organization. Following Romanoff's death in late 2023, Belova visited her headstone in Ohio to mourn while on holiday leave. De Fontaine visited Romanoff's grave at the same time to meet Belova, making her presence known by blowing into a handkerchief, joking that she was "allergic to the Midwest".
Belova called de Fontaine desperate for coming to her while she was on holiday, asking for a raise. De Fontaine joked that she wanted one too, before telling Belova that she had a new mission for her. Handing her a tablet, de Fontaine informed Belova that her next target would be the man responsible for Romanoff's death, revealing an image of Clint Barton. As Belova stared at the tablet, which displayed an image of Barton, de Fontaine remarked that he was cute.
Meeting with John Walker[]
| “ | You did the right thing taking the serum. Yeah, of course I know about that. And I'll tell you something. It has made you very, very valuable to certain people. | „ |
| ~ Valentina to John Walker. |
In 2024, following John Walker, being stripped of his title as Captain America and military rank due to murdering Nico, a surrendering foreign national and member of the Flag Smashers, de Fontaine met with him and his wife, Olivia Walker, at a bench outside the main courtroom in the Capitol. She introduced herself to the two, then sat down and told Walker that she would have killed the Flag Smasher too, saying the only reason he was punished is because the government had to uphold their laws. She explained that she was aware Walker had taken the Super Soldier Serum, and that he no longer possessed his shield, and that taking the serum had made him very valuable to certain people. She then told him to pick up the phone when she called him. Handing him her business card, in actuality a blank piece of card, de Fontaine left a confused Walker.
Creating U.S. Agent[]
| “ | Things are about to get weird. So when they do, we're not gonna need a Captain America. We're gonna need...a U.S. Agent. | „ |
| ~ Valentina giving John Walker his new moniker, U.S. Agent. |
With the Flag Smashers defeated, de Fontaine reunited with John Walker and his wife, after he had helped in the fight. While Walker put on his uniform, de Fontaine talked with Olivia Walker about all but one of the remaining Flag Smashers being killed while being transported to the Raft, saying that Helmut Zemo, who intended to destroy all super soldiers, had gotten the last laugh after all. Walker then stepped into the room in a new version of his suit, now all-black. As de Fontaine complimented the suit, she told the Walkers that the world was changing and that people did not need a Captain America, giving Walker the new name of "U.S. Agent" before leaving.
Investigating Wakanda[]
The day after an event regarding Wakandans and the FBI, she went to Cambridge, Massachusetts and requested help from Everett Ross. Upon arriving, she observed a pair of Kimoyo Beads on the ground and secretly rigged it so she could know who was using it. When Ross arrived, she complimented him on his fitness and proceed to speak with the FBI agents. Afterwards, she asked Ross if he could give her a ride back to CIA Headquarters as she wanted to speak about their marriage.
Destroying Evidence and recruiting Sentry[]
Later, Valentina plan to destroy any evidence of her crimes, she had Yelena, John, Ava, and Taskmaster executed by burning incinerating them. With Antonia dead, Yelena, John, and Ava escape with a boy named Bob who was in a stasis pod. Valentina and her team travel to the based to destroy them but the group escape until Bob decided to surrender himself.
Valentina hastily reopened the Sentry Project in the former Avengers Tower - now her partially renovated Watchtower - using Bob as her chosen hero, despite the protests of her assistant Mel, who noted Bob's severe mental health issues, which Val ignored, which she should've taken seriously. Valentina greeted Bob, acting as a nurturing and encouraging figure as to manipulate him into willingly becoming her obedient "superhero" Sentry.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the comics, Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine is an alleged Italian noblewoman who joined S.H.I.E.L.D. and even ascended temporarily to the rank of Deputy Director, becoming Nick Fury's lover.
- In the comics, her last name is Allegra de la Fontaine, while here, it's just Allegra de Fontaine.
- She is a foil and evil counterpart to Nick Fury:
- They both are associates.
- They both work for an organization.
- They both recruited heroes.
- But while Fury recruited the Avengers to save people, Valentina recruited John Walker and Yelena Belova for an ambiguous cause.
- Fury believed in his team's potential, whereas Valentina initially viewed hers as incompatible and disposable.
- Fury does what's right and won't cross any lines, while Valentina does a lot of wrong and she has little to none standards.
- While the Avengers work for Fury, Valentina ends up working for the Thunderbolts/New Avengers under threat of her crimes being exposed.
- In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Fontaine shares similarities and covers a similar role to Valerie "Val" Cooper, a government advisor and liaison specialized in regulations of superhuman activities in the United States of America, who recruited and collaborated with John Walker for many years.
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