Board Thread:Site-Related Tasks/@comment-61022-20160927205025/@comment-61022-20170213190956

About the Contessa... that's an interesting tid-bit. In her first appearance in she is depicted as a new recruit joining SHIELD. That story takes place in the modern age. In addition to this, in, it has a flashback a young Contessa (I'd say late teens early 20s) witnessing her parents getting blown up in a bomb blast. That same sequence shows her being recruited by both Leviathan and SHIELD. Secret Warriors #15 was published in 2010, placing the "present day" portions of that story during "year thirteen" of the modern age, per the Sliding Timescale (So about a year ago in Marvel time compared to stories that are being published now, it'll be about two years come November when the timescale rolls over)

That would place Valentina as being in her late teens/early 20s about 2 years prior to the start of the modern age. Now, doing the math, something doesn't really add up. According to Iron Man Vol 5 (published in 2013, putting it a "year" after Secret Warriors) it states Tony is somewhere between in his early 30s at the time of this story. We'll say 35 on the outside. Rewinding that to the start of the modern age, Tony would have been 21 at the start of the Modern Age. Making him 19 when that flashback from Secret Warriors happened.

To be clear on that flashback... This isn't just a story that Valentina is explaining to someone else, this is her making a private recollection of those events. From a narrative perspective, it explains to the reader the secret as to why Valentina is betraying SHIELD to Leviathan.

So something isn't really adding up. Given the fact that Valentina has a history of deception and obfuscating the truth, I think until we see proof of this we shouldn't necessarily take her words at face value. The statement itself conflicts with pre-established information. Until they explain the conflicting information we shouldn't just accept it.

I think with individual SHIELD agents you really need to explore their personal histories at greater detail to figure out what matches up and what doesn't.

Which is not to say this information is useless. We should mention it, but we should also point out that it contradicts previously stated facts.