Black Widow's Dark Avengers Setup Outdoes Falcon & Winter Soldier

[Aquaboy]

Black Widow's end-credits scene features an appearance by Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) but her cameo is a stronger setup for the Dark Avengers than her more sizable role in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Valentina represents an unknown, shadowy organization that is obviously recruiting superheroes for its own team. Val's growing group could be the Marvel Cinematic Universe's version of either the Thunderbolts or the Dark Avengers.

Val is a powerful and fascinating new addition to the MCU and she's effectively a revamped incarnation of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), who handpicked the original six members of the Avengers in 2012. In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, de Fontaine appeared at John Walker's (Wyatt Russell) lowest point after he was stripped of the role of Captain America when he publicly murdered a member of the Flag-Smashers. Valentina both charmed and intimidated Walker into falling in line with her agenda, and the disgraced soldier was receptive to the idea of redemption. When Walker regained the public's trust by helping Captain America Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) defeat the Flag-Smashers, Val rewarded him with a new costume and superhero identity as the U.S. Agent.

It's not 100% certain whether Valentina de Fontaine is a villain (although she comes off that way) but while she had considerably less screen time in Black Widow, the prospect of Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) already working with Val is instantly more enticing than John Walker joining up in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Black Widow was as much Yelena's origin story as it was Natasha Romanoff's (Scarlett Johansson) long-awaited solo movie and Pugh arguably stole the show as Natasha's 'little sister'. Black Widow was set in 2016 before the final two Avengers movies and the end-credits scene jumped Yelena to the MCU Phase 4's 'present day' of 2024 after Natasha died on Vormir in Avengers: Endgame. As such, Yelena essentially inherits Natasha's role as Black Widow in the MCU, although she's decidedly not an Avenger.

Black Widow ends with Val giving Yelena specific marching orders to murder Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), who de Fontaine claimed is responsible for Natasha's death. This is a direct setup for Yelena to appear in Hawkeye on Disney+ and it's also exciting for fans who Yelena won over to know that she'll be back in the MCU later in 2021. By contrast, there was no actual tease for when John Walker would return as U.S. Agent, although the logical guess is his comeback will be in Captain America 4, which was announced soon after The Falcon and the Winter Soldier ended.

However, fans aren't exactly clamoring to see John Walker again, although U.S. Agent not being popular is kind of the point. Walker's role was to be the exact opposite of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) as Captain America in every way and he wasn't really supposed to win over MCU fans. Meanwhile, Yelena is arguably the best character in Black Widow and she's bursting with potential. Belova may be working for Valentina and purportedly targeting Clint Barton for assassination but fans believe her to be a hero after Black Widow whereas John Walker is seen as a bad guy no matter what.

Val putting a team together that includes Yelena Belova and John Walker as the first two known members is interesting because of the contrast of Yelena's perception as being good while Walker has a poor reputation. Yelena is instantly forgiven for the murders she committed because she was brainwashed by the Red Room's leader, Dreykov (Ray Winstone), and she had no choice. Meanwhile, Walker almost always made the worst choice in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, so it will be interesting to see how Yelena and Walker coexist as teammates in the Dark Avengers someday, but Belova came off as the better character in Black Widow than U.S. Agent did in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

[Silent Watcher]

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