Veronica Cale
Veronica Cale is a female comic supervillain who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Veronica Cale was the daughter of a stripper and an older man by the name of Jeffrey Pratt. Her mother was a high school drop-out who came to Dallas with no money leading to her becoming a dancer. Among her customers were oil and business men where one day one of her customers was Jeffrey Pratt. He enjoyed being with a woman half his age where he showered her with attention and money. Despite knowing he was married, Cale's mother came to genuinely believed that Pratt loved her. He had written letters and made promises to be with her all of which she believed even when she became pregnant with his child. This was until the day he confronted her to tell her that he never wanted to see again as he hit her to make sure she understood that he was serious. After Veronica was born, her mother decided to care for her child and went on welfare. This saw her getting cleaning jobs and got a library card to read to her daughter everyday. However, Veronica's options came to be limited as she was poor with this only being further an issue when her mother fell ill. When she was 14 years old, her mother told her about her father and Cale went out to meet him. She came to blackmail him as she said she would disappear from his life if he gave her a sizeable pay cheque with Pratt doing so as he did not want to damage his marriage as his wife was unaware of his former infidelity. Pratt by this was wealthy and gave Veronica the money to keep her quiet but despite the sum it was too late to help her mother who died of cancer two years later. In the Fall, she started studying at Harvard where she applied her intelligence and worked hard. This saw her earning her first Ph.D. at 19, her second when she was 21 and her third when she was 22 years old. Around this time, she had also made a close friend in Leslie Anderson. By the time she was 24 years old, Veronica had made her first fortune when she sold a medical tracking program that she had created for WayneTech. Cale used those profits to found a software company called Reaction Four that published games with her using the money generated there to seed an initial investment. A year later, she came to found a company with her friend Leslie that was Cale-Anderson Pharmaceuticals (C.A.P.) with the two using their skills from their doctorates towards HIV and AID treatments. This resulted in her being worth one hundred million dollars by the time Veronica was 28 years old. (Wonder Woman v2 #206)
She came to manage Cale Anderson Pharmaceuticals (C.A.P.) that she headed with her friend and co-founder Leslie Anderson. (Wonder Woman v2 #197)
Veronica Cale became president of the newly sovereign nation of Oolong Island. She was instrumental in forming the Doom Patrol, who acted as Oolong's secret service, but she worried that their manipulative leader Chief had goals that did not coincide with hers. (Doom Patrol v5 #2) Cale was furious with the damage done to Oolong during the Blackest Night, and had a meeting with the Chief. He conceded that she was the one with the advantage, and acquiesced to having his current projects overseen, his future projects approved, and sharing any intel that could negatively impact Oolong. (Doom Patrol v5 #10) Thayer Jost, in the thrall of Mr. Somebody, announced a press conference to debut his super team the Front men. His true goal was to destroy the DP, so he painted them as villains, and cast Oolong as a haven for malcontent met humans. Veronica Cale was furious, especially since she’s allowed Jost to launder money through Oolong to founf the Front Men. He told her it was simply business, and asked that she deport the DP as a show of good faith. (Doom Patrol v5 #11) Mr. Somebody’s Front Men goaded the Doom patrol into fighting in Sacramento, California. Cale called up the Chief, and was furious at the collateral damage and associated bad press for Oolong, but Chief assured her it wasn’t part of one of his schemes. (Doom Patrol v5 #12) Veronica was angered when Chief drained all of Oolong’s power supply for an experiment that gave him Kryptonian powers. Chief went mad, disarming all of the world’s nations and threatening the U.N. Over the DP’s objections Veronica Cale nationalized them and set out after Chief, using contingency plans for dealing with Superman. The DP were taken apart until Millicent, Chief’s computer on Oolong, took control of Robotman and had him goad Chief, mocking his notion that he was the DP’s father when he was abusive and manipulative. She sent out rapid light pulse subliminals from Cliff’s eyes, shutting down Chief’s brain. Millicent said Chief had given her failsafes, and when he gave himself Kryptonian powers his mind had been altered by the Kryptonian template he used, driving him mad. Cale had Chief locked away on Oolong by the Science Squad. (Doom Patrol v5 #15)
IQ curried favor with President Veronica Cale by informing her that the newly leaderless Doom patrol left Oolong Island without her permission, and were creating a PR nightmare by battling evil alternate timeline versions of themselves in Delta City. When the DP returned to Oolong Cale had words with them about their level of freedom on Oolong. (Doom Patrol v5 #16) President Cale reminded the Doom Patrol that they were nationalized, and that they had act in the best interests of Oolong or be deported. Cliff bristled at their situation, but Rita was feeling too self-conscious to care, and Larry was too spaced out to understand. They accompanied Cale on a diplomatic meeting to North Korea, whose interests were important in keeping Oolong sovereign. The DP were greeted at the party by General Immortus, who warned them that Cale was targeted for death. He still wanted the DP and all their allies to die at his hands. Cale was kidnapped by a family of sociopath immortals named the Aristocrats, whom Cale had previously contracted for work. Duke Byron Boswick explained that the leader of North Korea was his client, and he saw Oolong as a threat to him. The Doom Patrol managed to free Cale, and were forced to flee Korea in a helicopter. (Doom Patrol v5 #18) The criminal organization C.R.U.S.H. hired the Secret Six to defeat the DP and overthrow Oolong so they could use it as their new headquarters. Veronica Cale had the Science Squad lock onto C.R.U.S.H.’s cloaked helicopter and aimed missles at it, convincing them Oolong wasn’t worth their lives. C.R.U.S.H. retreated, but the incident resulted in Oolong’s dormant volcano igniting and destroying a portion of the island. Cale blamed the DP and decided to deport them. She negotiated with Mr. Somebody to make the Front Men the new protectors of Oolong, and flew them into her country to kick the DP out. (Doom Patrol v5 #19)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Veronica Cale
Cale at some point had a daughter named Isadora Cale who she cared for deeply. By this point, she had established a global company named Empire Industries and had a close friendship with one of her scientists named Adrianna Anderson. She saw the news about the emergence of the superhero named Wonder Woman but Cale was but impressed at this figure. Around this time, the two gods Deimos and Phobos had stolen the soul of Isadora Cale. They used this as blackmail on the child's mother Veronica Cale to get her to attack Wonder Woman and find the location of the hidden isle of Themyscira. (Wonder Woman v5 #16)
To accomplish her goals, she required a demigod and intended to force Barbara-Ann Minerva to go through the process of becoming the Cheetah again. Her resources were used to strip Urzkartaga's influence from the serum and threatened to kill Diana's friends if Minerva did not agree. This resulted in Barbara-Ann reluctantly agreeing in order to save their lives with her transforming back into the Cheetah where this time she was subservient to Veronica Cale's commands. (Wonder Woman v5 #7)
Her scientists later detected an electromagnetic inversion occurring on the Earth whereupon the various Gods of Olympus began to manifest in the mortal world. This led to Veronica to conclude that the realm of the Greek gods had been destroyed whereupon she concluded that her own daughter had perished. As a result, Cale resented Wonder Woman and the world of Olympus for lying to her by promising that her daughter would be safe. This chain of events also fuelled her hatred of superheroes and the damage the caused to the world. Around this time, she came upon one of the fallen Greek gods which was Nemesis who she kept chained in her mansion to serve her. She dispatched Nemesis as part of a grudge against Wonder Woman but then framed the Amazon by claiming that she attacked her own super-powered employee in Nemesis with Cale campaigning for superheroes to be held accountable for their actions. (Wonder Woman v5 #64)
Overview
Personality and attributes
When she was young, her mother taught her to be smart and determined with her being able to achieve anything she put her mind towards doing. (Wonder Woman v2 #206)
Powers and abilities
Notes
- Veronica Cale was created by Greg Rucka and Drew Johnson where she made her first appearance in Wonder Woman v2 #196 (November, 2003).
Alternate Versions
In other media
Films
- In Wonder Woman: Bloodlines, Veronica Cale appeared in the setting of the animated film where she was voiced by actress Constance Zimmer. She was a business tycoon who headed Cale Pharmaceuticals who was the secret backer of Villainy, Inc.
Video games
- In DC Universe Online, Veronica Cale appeared in the setting of the MMORPG where she was voiced by actress Debra Cole.
Appearances
External Links
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
