There’s a lot you need to know about Madame Hydra and throughout this post, we’re gonna be breaking down the character’s origins in the comics and a Vanity Fayre article that teases where her character will be going in the future. We’re also gonna be giving our theories on why she could be forming the Thunderbolts and or Dark Avengers due to what we know about the Marvel Universe.
Full spoilers are ahead so if you haven’t seen episode 5 of Falcon And The Winter Soldier and don’t want anything ruined then I recommend that you turn it off now.
Who is Madame Hydra in the Comics?
There are actually two people who have adopted the Moniker Madame Hydra in the comics.
Ophelia Sarkissian
Firstly is Ophelia Sarkissian, who first appeared in Captain America 110.
A Hungarian Orphan, she was taken under Hydra’s wing and after being put through the organisation’s brutal training she rose through the ranks and gained a position as one of its top leaders.
However, she eventually left the group and joined the Serpent Society which is where she killed its leader and took his name Viper. Though she’s not been in the main MCU yet, it would be great to get the two facing off against each other at some point.
Contessa Valentina Allegra De La Fontaine
The other version of the character that we meet in the show is called Contessa Valentina Allegra De La Fontaine…or Val for short…just don’t tell her I even thought that. Both she and her family were sleeper agents placed for the group Leviathan and they were placed inside an Anti-Communism movement. Here they caught the eye of Dum Dum Dugan who was completely unaware that they were actually performing special operations for the group.
Valentina in SHIELD
Val ended up becoming a SHIELD agent and during her training, she came face to face with Nick Fury. Valentina actually bested him in hand-to-hand combat and he was like ‘well this is totally normal, let’s give her lots of power and authority.’
She ended up becoming a leading member of SHIELD, the kind of person who has clearance level 10 and stuff, and she was sent on several missions. The Contessa carried out several successful missions and she even ended up starting a relationship with Nick Fury.
Val drove a wedge between him and Captain America as she flirted with the latter off and on and this angered Nick. It even led to the two facing off against each other because if Cap is willing to travel through time just to get a girl then you know the man will do whatever he can to steal yours.
RIP Peggy’s husband.
The Contessa gained more and more power over the year and secretly joined Hydra which is where she took the Madame Mantle. Val was pretty much a triple agent at this point…is it? (show thinking meme) I dunno but she was working for a lot of people and she betrayed Hydra to Leviathan. The aforementioned Viper almost died during this and it led to an all-out war between several shadowy factions.
Eventually, she was discovered and unearthed as a sleeper agent within SHIELD and the character was sent to prison to spend the rest of her days behind bars.
Valentina in the Show
Now as for the show version, we know she’s out in the wild now and according to the Wiki for Black Widow, she will be appearing in that movie too. Shoutouts Super HeroNexus for sending me that bit of info and a Vanity Fayre article that opens up a lot about where the character could be going in the future. (You can read the whole thing here)
Now the article opens by saying it’s one of the better-kept secrets in Marvel history.
That’s definitely true and I spent the last week trying to narrow down who the actress could be and settled on it being a blond woman…which as we saw was completely right.
…but Paul..it was a…
completely…right.
Now Julia Louis Dreyfus is an 11-time Emmy-winning actress and she will be playing the Contessa going forward.
Veep Co-star Tony Hale has apparently known for a long time and he actually told Vanity Fayre
“Selina was so atrocious, but then you loved her at the same time. And I think that makes a really good Disney villain.”
We now know that they meant Marvel but ey, it all makes sense and as always…it’s all connected.
Is Val the Power Broker?
Now the article goes on to theorise that she might actually be the Power Broker in the finale. It’s definitely something that is a possibility and the show could be setting it up to make us think that Sharon Carter is when really it’s Val behind it all. Madame Hydra frequented Madripoor in the comics, and thus it could be her who is behind it all.
She clearly has a lot of things going on and could even be keeping her eyes on Walker as a way to get the highly coveted serum from him.
The article theorises that because she was originally a Russian Sleeper Agent that she may be part of Black Widow’s red room training program and that she may appear through that.
Recruitment Drive
However, it’s interesting that she’s going around recruiting people much like Nick Fury, especially because of their relationship in the comics. She’s very much an opposite to that in the latest entry and she could turn up at the end of Widow, potentially taking Yelena Belova.
In the comics, Val was also part of a group known as the Femme Force which had Sharon Carter as a leader so the pieces are definitely in place to tie everything together should they need to.
Either way, it seems like they are setting her up to be a very influential character going forward and that she will likely be someone I think who brings together either the thunderbolts and or Dark Avengers.
In the most recent episode, Zemo is sent to the raft which was a prison that we saw in Civil War.
Overseen by General Ross, he would go on to for the Thunderbolts which is sort of an Avengers group of Anti-heroes.
Kevin Feige has stated that the Abomination will too be coming back at some point and that he is currently situated at the raft too.
Thus it makes a lot of sense that he would bring the criminals together under that roof to form a brand new team.
Now, this is all just me theorising at the moment but I do feel that almost everything is adding up for us to see the formation of a new team. It seems weird that they would even bring a character and actor of this stature that was walking around recruiting people if it wasn’t for something bigger. Expect to see these blank cards dotted throughout the MCU and whilst the Avengers are out of action, there’s room for new people to come in and take control.
The Thunderbolt lineup is slowly starting to slot into place and when you have characters like US Agent, Zemo, Abomination, Taskmaster and Yelena Belova all waiting in the sides then you can bet that there are plans for them in the future. There’s also the possibility of her being a Skrull in secret invasion and ok I’ll stop before this gets too Mephisto-ey.
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