Veronica Lodge
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Veronica "Ronnie" Lodge ("born" April 1942) is an adolescent fictional character in the Archie Comics books series. Since the Archie characters are ageless, Lodge remains a high-school teenager after 64 years.
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[edit] History and character
She is called both by her name Veronica and her nickname Ronnie (sometimes shortened further to Ron).
Bob Montana, creator of the original Archie characters, knew the Massachusetts Brahmin political family, the Lodges, because he had once painted a mural for them. Montana combined that name with actress Veronica Lake (at the peak of her popularity in 1942) to create the character of Veronica Lodge.
Veronica is the beautiful, stylish daughter of Hiram Lodge, the richest man in the fictional city of Riverdale, and his wife Hermione Lodge. In the more recent comics, it has been mentioned that their family moved to Riverdale so that Mr. Lodge could avoid Veronica becoming spoiled, like many of the children he knew and grew up with. Veronica often sports what seems to be a heavy, affected Southern accent. Her character was added to the mix of Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, and Jughead Jones just months after these characters debuted, and her features and personality have changed perhaps less than any other character in the series.
At one point in Tales from Riverdale, Veronica became Powerteen- a comic book character created by Chuck Clayton.
[edit] Lifestyle and relationships
Veronica enjoys a very posh lifestyle, but chooses to hang out with her less affluent friends, in part to try to win the love of Archie Andrews.
Sometimes she shows a great deal of interest in Archie, sometimes he must work to earn her interest, and sometimes she is not interested at all. By the 1960s, Veronica, along with her best friend and love rival Betty Cooper, joined Archie's band The Archies; Betty plays the tambourine, while Veronica plays the organ, and both girls sing accompaniment. Veronica frequently bounces back and forth between Reggie Mantle and Archie Andrews when she dates, since she feels strongly about Archie, but Reggie has the wealth and possessions that she craves, as well as an ego and love of himself that rivals hers.
Her relationship with Jughead Jones is very complex. Veronica constantly argues and banters with Jughead. She hates Jughead's laid back attitude and witty comments towards her and he always pulls small pranks and smart comments. One storyline put them together in a school play and she had to kiss Jughead, which both of them did reluctantly. Surprisingly, Jughead is a good kisser, and Veronica was caught in the moment and declared her love for Jughead. For a while, she was obsessed with Jughead, to everyone's chagrin including Archie and Ethel. She finally got over her crush with Jughead.
Although Betty is her main rival for Archie's affection, Cheryl Blossom is the only girl she can't stand, especially because of their constant battle over Archie. The fact that Betty has befriended Cheryl also infuriates her. It hurts her ego that even Jason Blossom seems more interested in Betty than in her.
Veronica is very popular among guys in Riverdale High School, a fact she knows very well. She always throws extravagant parties to keep her on the 'A' list.
Sometimes good-hearted, sometimes spoiled and vain, the fashion-conscious Lodge is the star, alongside Betty, of 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: she has no talent for cooking and other feminine skills are usually lacking, although she is the classic impulse, hard-core shopper and often addicted to gossip. Her sports abilities vary from "total klutz" to superstar. In one story, in which Ronnie showed considerable talent as a mechanic, Mr. Lodge--already startled to see Archie deftly preparing a meal in the kitchen of the mansion--comes outside to see his daughter slide out from under one of his cars she has been working on.
Veronica has a friend named Renèe Lyon who occasionally tries to convince her that Betty is a gold-digger and trying to ruin Veronica's social life so Betty can be the most popular girl in school. Renèe met Betty in a comic and decided she was nice, but had "no sense of style". Renèe later moved to Tahiti and has only been seen occasionally since.
Veronica has a cousin, Leroy, aged perhaps 8-12, whose tree house, complete with an elevator, was built for him by a contracting company. Leroy has a mean-spirited, juvenile delinquent-like personality and is a constant thorn in Archie's side whenever Archie and Veronica get together during Leroy's visits. Veronica also has a cousin named Marcy, who is very different from Veronica. Marcy enjoys science fiction and other things that Veronica finds "geeky". Every time Veronica runs into her, she has to make a point to call her "my annoying cousin Marcy." Most of the time when Marcy appears she helps out Veronica, and in turn Veronica discovers that her cousin isn't so geeky after all.
In another story, a cousin of Veronica's, a teenage girl named "Prudence," visits. She wears glasses, a grimy shirt, faded red overalls, and heavy boots, and has her hair braided in the back of her head. And she carries a toolbox and a large canvas bag containing her clothes and things. Worse yet, Mr. Lodge orders his daughter to take Prudence to a picnic she'll be attending with Archie and the others. Prudence seems to be a plain-spoken, practical person, with none of Veronica's ego or interest in glamour. She cleans up and changes, and goes to the picnic by herself. She turns out to be a real knockout--and, to Ronnie's dismay, gets the attention of Archie, Reggie, and just about all of the other boys!
[edit] The Veronicas
The Veronicas are an Australian Pop/Rock - singer/songwriter duo composed of identical twin sisters Lisa Marie and Jessica Louise Origliasso. Their name came from Archie Comics character Veronica Lodge. The group was featured prominently in an issue of their namesake Veronica's comic book as a result of their cross-promotion deal with Archie Comics. A few months later, Archie and Friends #100 featured The Archies meeting The Veronicas.
