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| Veronica Cale | ||||
| Real name | Veronica Cale | |||
| Debut | Wonder Woman v2 #196 (November 2003) | |||
| Created by | Greg Rucka, Drew Johnson | |||
| Affiliations | Science Squad | |||
| Abilities | Chemist | |||
| Played by | see In other media | |||
Dr. Veronica Cale is a wealthy and influential business woman who owns her own company. She has often used her position to try and publicly discredit Wonder Woman as Cale believes the Amazon is unworthy of the title due to her status deriving from God-given, supernatural powers, as opposed to Cale's own self-earned prestige.
History[]
Post-Crisis[]
Dr. Veronica Cale sought to discredit Wonder Woman through Diana's controversial new book. Cale allied herself with some of Wonder Woman's deadliest enemies - using Dr. Psycho to create a riot outside of the embassy, up-grading the weaponry of the Silver Swan, helping Medusa in "man's world", and eventually teaming with Circe to help return Circe's daughter Lyta to her mother.
Cale's hatred of Wonder Woman seems to be founded in jealousy, as she believes if there is a Wonder Woman, it is her. Cale's father left before she was born, her mother died early of cancer. Cale, however, was able to gain a number of doctorate degrees and become a self-made millionaire and philanthropist. These accomplishments, Cale believes, have made her more worthy of revere than being born into fame and riches, as she believes Diana was.
Cale was a scientist who worked on the Four Horsemen project on Oolong Island. She became the President of the island when it attained sovereign nation status.
Rebirth[]
More recently Veronica Cale is re-established as a powerful businesswoman and scientist who runs Empire Industries with her close friend Adrianna Anderson. While dismissive of Wonder Woman's message of love, Cale initially had little quarrel with the superhero but was dragged into her affairs by the the twin sons of Ares Deimos and Phobos who stole the soul of Cale's only child Izzy Cale which left the young girl alive and healthy but faceless and unresponsive to the interactions of others. The twin gods blackmailed Cale into helping them learn the location of Themyscira from Wonder Woman so that they might free their father Ares, but Cale was unsuccessful and much to her dismay Adrianna died trying to scan Wonder Woman's mind with her experimental Cyberwalker tech. About a year later Cale managed to build an AI from the scraps of Adrianna Anderson's brain scans which was almost identical to the real Anderson save for a few eccentricities and named itself Doctor Cyber.
Deimosand Phobos later reached out again to Cale and persuaded her to fund an expedition of Wonder Woman's ally Dr Barbara Ann Minerva which they knew would turn her into the monster known as Cheetah. Cale reluctantly complied and with the help of Doctor Cyber managed to isolate Barbara Ann in a way that she would blame Wonder Woman for her transformation into Cheetah. When the gods failed to return with Izzy Cale's soul Cale decided that she would only rescue her daughter by force. Once more with Cyber's help she summoned the witch Circe who helped Cale bind the souls of the two gods into a pair of dogs which allowed her to keep control of them but Circe discovered that the brothers no longer had Issy Cale's soul as she believed and deduce that she was instead imprisoned with Ares on Themyscira. Cale offered to pay Circe for further help in rescuing her daughter but the witch refused to risk freeing Ares and left.
Ironically, despite swearing to no longer serve Phobos and Deimos, Cale ended up seeing out their plan by monitoring Wonder Woman in the hopes of finding Themyscira via the exiled Amazon. Over the next decade she infiltrated A.R.G.U.S. with aid of Doctor Cyber and the mercenary Marina Maru and manged to force Dr Barbara Ann Minerva into to taking up the Cheetah mantel a second time, after being previously cured by Wonder Woman, by threating to kill Etta Candy and Steve Trevor. With the aid of Cheetah, Cale and Doctor Cyber where able to bring Izzy's soulless body to Themyscira although they were shortly followed by Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor. There they met Ares in his prison who explained that he had saved Issy's soul from his sons and had kept her safe allowing her to be reunited with her body now that Cale had brought it to her. Deimos and Phobos then broke free of Cale's control and tried to either rescue or kill their father but were defeated and restrained by Wonder Woman. While Cale and Wonder Woman were successful in their respective goals it was revealed by Ares that Izzy Cale was still trapped on Themyscira, although now reunited with her soul she could join the Amazons and live a full life as one of them, furthermore neither Wonder Woman or Cale could enter the true realm of Themyscira meaning that despite all her efforts Cale was still robbed of her only family.
Returning to America heart broken at her failure to reunite with her daughter, Cale dismissed and denied her friendship with Doctor Cyber, refusing to recognize her as the real Adrianna Anderson. She was shortly attacked by Cheetah but saved by Wonder Woman although this did little to change her view of the woman she blamed for the death of her best friend and the loss of her only child. Over the years Cale would continue to harass Wonder Woman by sending destructive supervillains like the Blue Snowman to battle the superhero as well as further Cale's own business interests. She would also threaten to sue Wonder Woman but was later dissuaded when Wonder Woman showed Cale that she was being manipulated by the Vengeance Goddess Nemesis
When Wonder Woman finally did managed to regain entry to Themyscira after several years of trying, she immediately fetched Cale and brought her to visit her daughter Izzy. While Cale clarified that she and Wonder Woman were still enemies she was grateful for what Wonder Woman had done and stated that she was indebted to her, which she would later pay off by giving Wonder Woman a chemical to help her defeat Cheetah who was wielding the magic sword Godkiller.
In other media[]
