3787. Veronica Lodge

Veronica Lodge (first appearance April 1942) is a fictional character in the Archie Comics books series. She is called both by her name Veronica and her nickname Ronnie. Bob Montana, creator of the original Archie characters, knew the Lodges, because he had once painted a mural for them. Montana combined that name with actress Veronica Lake to create the character of Veronica Lodge. Her character was added just months after Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones debuted. Veronica is the only child of Hiram Lodge, the richest man in Riverdale, and his wife Hermione Lodge. She is tall, slender and attractive with long black hair. Veronica favors expensive, up-to-the-minute fashion. In some comics, Mr. Lodge claimed that he moved his family to Riverdale in order to avoid Veronica becoming spoiled, like many of the children he knew and grew up with. His plan did not succeed as well as he had hoped. Veronica is often seen going on spending sprees and pretty much shopping until she drops and burning major credit cards in the process. At times, Veronica's vain and conceited attitude infuriates her father to the point that he has to somehow "teach her a lesson" and Veronica is forced to get a job of some kind or loses access to Archie. On several occasions, she has received a well deserved spanking from her father for her arrogant and stuck-up attitude. In the earliest Archie Comics, Archie wrote to her asking her to a dance in Riverdale. He accidentally sent the letter; he really wanted to ask Betty Cooper, and was only daydreaming. Even after he realized he had sent the letter, he did not think she would really come. Veronica accepted the invitation, thinking that a dance would be fun. At the time, she lived in a much bigger city and begged her parents to go. Archie struggled trying to keep his dates with both girls, thus beginning their love triangle. Veronica was ranked 87th in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list. Sometimes good-hearted, sometimes spoiled and vain, the fashion-conscious Lodge stars the Archie spin-offs Betty And Veronica Magazine and Betty and Veronica Spectacular, as well as her own title, Veronica. Her foibles are commonly featured in stories. When upset, she has a furious temper, which it is unwise to arouse. She is an impulsive shopper who cannot go long without buying clothes, and is often addicted to gossip, which sometimes angers Betty. Though commonly a cheerleader, her sports abilities vary from superior to nonexistent, and she lacks domestic talents and many other skills that Betty has mastered. In fact, her cooking skills are so notoriously poor that the other characters literally fear for their lives when she tries to prepare a meal. Veronica is a scuba diver, wearing a red shorty wetsuit, breathing with a scuba tank she carries on her back, and wears red fins on her feet, but swims underwater. Several stories also portray Veronica as an expert at billiards, the reason being that her family owns a pool table, and she's been playing since she was a child. At various times, she will take an ordinarily common situation (for example being Most Popular in the yearbook) and make it into a full blown out situation aimed at increasing her ego, or to shame or humiliate her target (most often that target being Betty). In the aforementioned Most Popular storyline (shown in Betty and Veronica Double Digest #180, the story being called, "Buddy, Can You Spare a Buddy?"), she pulls out all the stops to outdo Betty, even going so far as to try to buy off the students; throwing mud at her, which was misaimed at Mr. Weatherbee, who gives her a week's detention, and outright slandering and lying about Betty with Reggie's aid (she bought him a car he wanted as a bribe for him to vote her most popular). At one point, she even hires a trio called Dewey Trashem and Howe, in an attempt to destroy Betty's character. In the end, Betty pulls her name out of consideration for Most Popular as she saw the situation having gone way too far; and Veronica losing to Ethel Muggs, the person she scorned in the first part of the story. Infuriated (she only got one vote, her own!) she ordered a tow truck to drive Reggie's car, with Reggie trussed up in it, to the dump. A similar situation involved her wanting to be Homecoming Queen. In Betty and Veronica Double digest #185, (the story being called Crowning Achievement) She declares that she will be Homecoming Queen, her reason being that because she is wealthy, she should be treated as royalty. She went so far as to get a custom made $500 gown in the school's colors to show the town that she was worthy of being the queen. She spurns any attempts to help her friends to build the float and decorate the gym, except in annoying everyone with ridiculous suggestions to build herself up and make herself the star, to the exclusion of everyone else. Her overbearing snobby behavior outrages her friends. When the votes were finally cast, it was Betty, who practically did more than her fair share in decorating and building, who won the vote and was named Queen. Once again, angry that she didn't get what she thought she deserved, Veronica smashed the queen's crown on Archie and then promptly stormed off. Her best school subject is economics, and it is implied that she will eventually take over her father's business. She also takes every chance to work as a fashion model. By the 1960s, Betty and Veronica, joined Archie's band, The Archies. Betty plays the tambourine, Veronica plays the organ, and both sing accompaniment. In the 2000s, Veronica appeared a few times as Powerteen — a comic book character created by Chuck Clayton. She also enjoys traveling to exotic places, which was the basis for Veronica's Passport.