Who Is Val?

If you were like me, when I saw Julia Louis-Dreyfus appear in the fifth episode of The Falcon and Winter Soldier, I was elated!!! She's been our favorite Veep and of course our very favorite sassy Elaine Benes. A question, however, popped up when she popped up next to John Walker - who the heck is she? The answer: Contessa Valentina de Fontaine or Val for short. 

Fun Fact: she was supposed to first appear in Black Widow but since the movie kept getting pushed, she made her debut in The Falcon and Winter Soldier instead. 

Val, in short, is the foil to Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson - the black guy with the eye patch). If that's all you need to know, you don't need to read on. 

Val began her adventure as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D and was an awesome fighter - no special powers. She got a little sweet on Fury and they became (oooo la la) lovers. She then became jealous of Fury's former flame Laura Brown and decided to make Fury jealous by flirting with Cap (Captain America). (This is starting to sound like a daytime drama). But in the end Val apologized for her poor choice of... choices and everyone remained friends - which never happens in real life.  

When Fury went underground, she was reassigned to work as S.H.I.E.L.D's liaison in the UK - and possibly moved to less coffee and more tea. 

Then, I guess after saving England from terrorists, and other super humans she joined Hydra and became known as Madame Hydra. Turns out she was a sleeper agent, yeah, a RUSSIAN SLEEPER AGENT from the beginning! *shocker* Then she was so over Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D and led an army of Leviathans (who she was really BFFLs to begin with) against them and lost. She was then arrested for being a double... triple...agent? 

According to sources, she's going to play a large role in the next phase of the MCU (all those other Marvel super hero movies coming out) and is starting her little party with John Walker who we saw has major angst after losing his title as the new Captain America. But I think we'll see and learn more about her in the MCU in Black Widow since (as we learned earlier), she was a Russian sleeper agent.