Thor Poses A Big Problem For Val’s Dark Avengers Team

Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) is busy assembling her own Dark Avengers team, but she has a big problem when it comes to recruiting its Thor (Chris Hemsworth) counterpart. Making her surprise debut in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the Contessa has only appeared in two MCU projects thus far, with the other one being Black Widow. While there are still a lot of questions regarding her identity, it’s become increasingly clear that she’s building her own squad. 

In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Val directly recruited disgraced Captain America, John Walker (Wyatt Russell). On the heels of his public rampage in Europe, the U.S. government, which awarded him the role of being the next Star-Spangled Avenger, quickly turned on him. He was stripped of his status, but the Contessa took this as an opportunity to bring him into her own team. Through Black Widow, it’s revealed that she was also able to hire Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) as the new Black Widow. Given this, it’s safe to say that she’s also out to find Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and Thor’s counterparts. 

Val has yet to complete her team, but she has clear prospects when it comes to replacing the rest, except for the God of Thunder. Abomination (Tim Roth) and Echo (Alaqua Cox) could be the Contessa’s Hulk and Hawkeye. Meanwhile,  Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), who’s rumored to return to the MCU via Armor Wars, can be Dark Avengers’ Iron Man. Yet, there’s no clear possible candidate to be Thor’s counterpart, and, unfortunately for her, it would be quite difficult to find one. As an Asgardian prince, the elder Odinson was an anomaly within the MCU’s original Avengers line-up. He’s the only one who’s not Earth-based. Had Loki (Tom Hiddleston) not been the one to lead the attack in New York, chances are that he wouldn’t even be involved in Nick Fury’s (Samuel L. Jackson) initiative. Because of this special circumstance that brought Thor into the Avengers, Val cannot simply go around looking for someone similar, because that’s quite improbable. 

There’s always the possibility of Val personally traveling to New Asgard in the hopes of finding someone similar to the God of Thunder. Even so, there’s a slim chance that she won’t find anyone who’s even nearly as powerful as Thor is. While Marvel Studios is introducing Jane Foster’s Mighty Thor (Natalie Portman), it’s highly unlikely that she would join Dark Avengers. If anything, one particular trait that separates the Contessa’s team from the original Avengers is that its members are more morally malleable, effectively disqualifying Jane from being part of the new squad. If anything, she’s more principled than Thor — at least based on the last time the pair was together in the franchise. Aside from her, there’s really no other potential candidate for Dark Avengers’ version of Thor. 

Ultimately, Val team could also move forward without its God of Thunder counterpart. Perhaps, she might not even be looking to have an Asgardian in her Dark Avengers roster. Instead, she might be looking at other magic wielders who can still function the way Thor did in the original Avengers roster. 

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