That alone changes a large portion of the context of Secret Invasion, and it makes the upcoming adaptation a big mystery.ĭebuting the character of the Contessa at this stage, so close to that show, seems significant, but is the expectation that she’ll play the same role? It’s hard to say.
I mentioned when I wrote about Vision that part of the fun and fascination of these adaptations is the ways in which comic elements are remixed and reused, and that’s especially true here - unlike their comic-book counterparts, the Skrulls of the MCU aren’t a species of conquerors but refugees fleeing the Kree Empire, as depicted in 2019’s Captain Marvel and alluded to in one of the final scenes of WandaVision. The Skrull impostor of Contessa de Fontaine just prior to her reveal, from 2007’s The Mighty Avengers.
#Valentina marvel series
Secret Invasion will itself be adapted into a Disney+ series in December of this year. In fact, the Contessa impostor was one of the early reveals during the Secret Invasion event, the first Skrull Nick Fury found out about, and the one that tipped him off to the invasion itself. The other big fact of Contessa de Fontaine’s history is that during the 2000s, prior to her villainous reveal, the Contessa was impersonated by Skrulls as part of a long-term plan to invade Earth. Of course, superhero comics being what they are, a run-of-the-mill secret spy is only the tip of the iceberg. While the switch-up may have spoiled what is likely meant to be a surprise reveal in the film, it’s a good bet that we’ll see some of her more classic double-agent iteration there as well. Reports are that Julia Louis-Dreyfus was originally set to debut the role in the Black Widow movie, but since that was delayed, the Contessa’s first onscreen appearance is here in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. She spent much of her history romantically entangled with Nick Fury as an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and was generally written as a heroine and love interest until Secret Warriors revealed that she’d been a Russian double agent the entire time! It was the kind of dramatic trick that comics are known for here was a character that had been around for 42 years at that point suddenly revealed to have been a villain the entire time! In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, though, the years of deception have been sidestepped the character is immediately introduced as a villain, stepping in to support John Walker, the new Captain America, after his very public execution of a Flag-Smasher. 168, the series in which she first appearedĭespite being the second holder of the title, however, Contessa de Fontaine has actually been around longer than Viper, having first appeared in Strange Tales No. 172 and 173.Ĭontessa de Fontaine on the cover of Strange Tales No. Rights issues at the time meant they couldn’t call her “Madame Hydra,” but the story as a whole is loosely adapted from the 1982 Wolverine miniseries, which was later followed up by Uncanny X-Men Nos. We’ve seen an incarnation of that character on film before, in the 2013 film The Wolverine. The mantle of Madame Hydra has belonged to a few women over the course of Marvel Comics’ publication the first and longest reigning is a character named Ophelia Sarkissian, also known as Viper, who held the title from her appearance in 1969’s Captain America No. The reveal of Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine was a satisfying, intriguing twist in this week’s episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, not just because of the decision to cast the great Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a long-standing Hydra-related character, but also because of which version of that character the show decided to use. You can call her Val, but don’t call her Val, just keep it in your head.
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