Veronica Lodge

Veronica Lodge ("created" April 1942) is a fictional character in the Archie Comics books series.

Fictional 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 "Boston Brahmin" political family, 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. At times, Veronica's vain and conceited attitude infuriates her father who resorts to giving her a spanking to "teach her a lesson!"

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.

Lifestyle and relationships

Veronica enjoys a very posh lifestyle, as her family is among the richest people in the world. She nevertheless chooses to hang out with her less affluent friends, in part to try to win the love of Archie Andrews, whom she nicknames "Archiekins". Her level of interest in him varies, however. Mr. Lodge often has nightmares that Veronica and Archie will marry. In 2009, Archie Comics published a storyline that followed this possible future.^[1]

Veronica's best friend is Betty Cooper, and the two enjoy countless activities and interests. However, they are also at constant competition for Archie's affections. Her other friends include Ethel Muggs, Midge Klump and Nancy Woods, and they all enjoy having slumber parties and shopping at the mall together. Aside from Archie, Veronica frequently dates Reggie Mantle, who has the wealth and possessions that she craves, as well as a narcissism that rivals hers.

In a five part story, she openly sides with Reggie, and (at least in this story) acts as thoroughly obnoxious as he. He began with framing Archie for breakage at her home; also causing some messes at school, all the while, framing Archie for the damage. One prank led to a tussle with Betty Cooper, who thrashed him for beating her up (she was helping Archie with cleaning a store room, and Reggie mistook her for Archie) which led Veronica to scold Betty for being unladylike and nearly ruining "Reggie's aristocratic profile". The prank war ultimately was topped off with Reggie dressing as Dracula and trying to scare his rival. Eventually, she finally realized that Reggie was going way too far and berated herself for having supported him. Archie eventually wound up getting the last laugh when Jughead takes the rotor out of Reggie's car, which stranded the two troublemakers.

Though a girl as popular as Veronica can have her choice of dates, she will drop any boy, including Reggie, if she sees Betty with Archie.

Her relationship with Jughead Jones is less friendly. They constantly argue and are critical of each others lifestyles. She cannot stand his laid-back attitude and witticisms, and he considers her an uncaring snob and enjoys arousing her temper. However, they usually manage to stand being around each other for Archie's sake.

Veronica's cousin, Leroy, in Elementary School, has a mean-spirited, juvenile delinquent-like personality. When Leroy visits, he antagonizes Archie even more than Reggie does. Veronica also has a cousin named Marcy, aged 14, who enjoys science fiction and other things that Veronica finds "geeky", so Veronica considers her annoying. Most of the time, however, Marcy is helpful to Veronica, who discovers that her cousin isn't so geeky after all.

Veronica has been in love with another man besides Archie and Reggie. In a deleted comic saga, Veronica has dated a boy by the name of Chip Jefferson. Chip was a son of Mr. Roger Jefferson, an enemy of Mr. Lodge. They secretly dated, but Veronica got caught by Reggie, who told Ron's father. Veronica wasn't able to see Chip again. At the end, Chip moved to Malibu. The comic was not deleted on purpose. It accidentally shredded and nobody realized until a month later.

Interests and personality

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.

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.

References

External links

• Veronica Lodge
• Archie Universe