Veronica Cale (New Earth)

I am the American success story, Kimberly, I am rags-to-riches, I am everything the Wonder Woman pretends to be. And the difference is that I earned all of it. Through my blood, sweat and tears, I earned it. I made myself who I am. If there is a Wonder Woman in this world, and I stress if... it's me.

— Veronica Cale ^src

Veronica Cale was a pharmaceutical tycoon, master manipulator and bio-engineer with a triple PHD from Harvard. She later became president of Oolong Island.

History

Early Life

Veronica Cale grew up in poverty in a bad part of Dallas. Her mother encouraged her to read, get her educated, so her daughter would live better than she did. And Veronica discovered she was smart. Very, very smart.

When she was 14, her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Veronica decided to confront her father, now a wealthy man living in Houston. He was coerced out of a sizable amount of money, but his marriage, career and reputation were not tarnished. Veronica's mother died two years later after a long and painful struggle.

Veronica used the money to enter Harvard University at the age of sixteen. When she was 21, she had three PhDs in medical sciences. Three years later, she made the foundation of her fortune when she sold a medical tracking program to WayneTech. After a short foray into video game production, which left her even richer, she set up Cale-Anderson Pharmaceuticals with her friend Leslie Anderson.^[1]

Wonder Woman

Considering herself the real woman wonder, she grew jealous of Wonder Woman, who, she felt, never had to work for her gifts. She disliked everything about the princess. She set out to tarnish her reputation, and was not too concerned about money to do so. With the publication of Diana's Reflections, a study of Amazon philosophy, Cale started her campaign from the shadows. Using companies and straw-men, she used selected quotations from the book to spin the media against her.

When one of her tools, the book's most outspoken critic, family values activist Darrel Hayes, lost a debate with Peter Garibaldi of the Themysciran Embassy, she arranged to have him killed at a demonstration, making it look like the book's proponents are responsible. She used Doctor Psycho to inflame both crowds.

Cale was subsequently bound, gagged, and locked in a closet by Psycho who impersonated her for a brief period, before she was rescued by Wonder Woman. This did not change her opinion of the super-heroine, but shelved plans to ruin her reputation.

She was later coerced by Circe into applying as legal guardian of Circe's daughter Lyta as a way of removing Lyta from the Amazon island of Themyscira. The process was stopped mid-way through once Ares kidnapped Lyta from the island, leaving Circe to abandon her scheme with Veronica Cale.

Oolong Island

She resurfaced six months later on Oolong Island, having been abducted by Intergang (and the only female among the group). She suffered a breakdown after unleashing the Four Horsemen of Apokolips upon the Black Marvel Family. When Black Adam started his world-wide crusade for vengeance, her conflicting feelings caused her to attempt to get close to the mentally unstable Dr. Will Magnus. When Black Adam actually arrives on the shores of Oolong Island, she attempts to take the blame for it, walking out to confront the maddened Adam. She was, however, entirely ignored.

When the dust settled, Cale led the remaining mad scientists to form an independent collective. Their first problem was the return of the Four Horsemen of Apokolips. Cale ingested a semi-organic containment unit, and used it to absorb the Horsemen's essences. She was later seen undergoing an operation to remove the unit and send the Horsemen "back to wherever they came from".^[2]

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

Notes

Veronica Cale was described by the writers on Wonder Woman as a Lex Luthor-type figure; as with Luthor, she considers herself 'superior' to her chosen superhuman adversary because she regards herself as a self-made individual where the other 'cheated' due to their natural powers and advantages.

Trivia

Veronica Cale is also known as President Cale.

Veronica Cale (New Earth)

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