The mysterious Val shows up once again in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” and as always, she’s an enigma. And if you’re thinking to yourself “What do you mean she showed up ‘again?’” — no one could blame you. She’s been pretty minor so far, but that clearly is about to change, so let’s refresh.
Val is a new character in Phase Four, played by “Veep” and “Seinfeld” star (and Emmys record-setter) Julia Louis-Dreyfus. She’s sassy and sarcastic, and boasts an incredible stripe of purple in her hair (something particularly fitting, given the general color scheme of “Black Panther”). But how she fits into the puzzle at large is a bit baffling so far.
Of course, Val originated in Marvel Comics where, as in the MCU, her full name is Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. (Actually, there’s even a “Contessa” at the front of that, but we’ll stick with Val from here on out). Created by Jim Steranko in 1967, she started as an Italian jet setter who becomes an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and a love interest to Nick Fury, as well as several different and hard-to-explain varieties of traitor. It’s convoluted like almost everything from the comics, but you can read more about it here.
And though you might not remember her, this is actually Val’s third appearance in the MCU.
She first popped up twice in the Disney+ series, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” where she saves John Walker’s (Wyatt Russell) career after he was fired as the new Captain America for murdering someone in a super solider serum-induced rage.
Establishing that she has a rather loose definition of ethical or moral behavior, she tells John he was right to take the serum, that the murder was justified, and that the punishment he received was nonsense. Later in the series, we learn she has recruited him for… something, which comes with a new uniform and his new super hero code name: U.S. Agent.
Val next appeared in the post-credits scene of “Black Widow,” where she interrupted a very in-mourning Yelena (Florence Pugh) at the grave of her sister Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) via very, very sarcastic nose blowing. Some back and forth establishes that Yelena works for Val in some capacity, and that Val is there to offer Yelena a new job: “A shot at the man responsible for your sister’s death.”
That turns out to be Natasha’s best friend Clint Barton, and the scene mainly sets up Yelena’s appearance in Marvel’s “Hawkeye” Disney+ series. (And yes, there are a ton of reasons why this never made any sense; you can read why here.)
These brief appearances make it clear despite her obscurity that Val is already a major behind-the-scenes player in the MCU, and when we see her again in “Wakanda Forever,” she’s even more powerful: The new director of the CIA — and also, apparently, Everett Ross’ (Martin Freeman) ex-wife? It all feels a bit shoe-horned in, honestly, but we’ll roll with it.
Throughout the film she plays ignorant, pretending not to know that Ross is in active communication with the Wakandans and that he handed Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) over to them to help protect her from Namor (Tenoch Huerta). But in the end Val reveals that the whole time she had been snooping on every communication Ross had with the Wakandan royal family – and has him arrested for treason.
Turns out, what she’s really trying to do is secure U.S. control over the world’s supply of vibranium — and when Ross tries to talk her out of it with warnings about how terrible this would be, she admits menacingly that she actually “dreams” of that reality.
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ is the end of Marvel’s Phase 4, and looking back Val has been one of the only throughlines connecting various Phase Four projects. But unlike Nick Fury in Phase 1 it’s, uh, becoming pretty evident that she isn’t exactly a good guy here. The question is, what is her long game?
As announced last summer at San Diego Comic-Con, Val’s next confirmed appearance is in “Thunderbolts” in July, 2024. Details of that story remain unclear, but in the comics the team is basically Marvel’s version of “Suicide Squad” — a team of antiheroes conscripted to do missions for the U.S. government. Since the movie version’s team roster includes Yelena (Pugh) and Walker (Russell), both of whom already work directly for Val, we can assume she’ll play a large role there.
Which means barring any other appearances in Marvel projects before then, we’ll have a while to wait before we know just how many strings she’s pulling or even what side she’s even on. The best we can say now is, we can rule her out as the main villain of the current incarnation of Marvel. That slot belongs to cosmic villain Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors).
But clearly, she’s someone we’re meant to be paying attention to.
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is now in theaters.
