Veronica Cale is a fictional character appearing in DC Comics publications and related media, commonly as a recurring adversary of the superhero Wonder Woman.
A genius pharmaceutical tycoon and ruthless criminal mastermind, she was created by comic book writer Greg Rucka and first appeared in 2003's Wonder Woman (volume 2) #196.
[1] After the DC Comics' 2016 continuity-reboot known as Rebirth, Veronica Cale has featured prominently in the reformulated origins of several of Wonder Woman's foes, including the Silver Swan and Doctor Cyber.
Her plots against Wonder Woman have also brought her into league (and conflict) with several other members of the hero's rogues gallery, such as the Cheetah, Circe, Doctor Psycho, and Deimos and Phobos.
Cale resurfaces in Week 26 of 52 as one of the abducted scientists on Oolong Island (and the only female among the group)[11] and suffers a breakdown after unleashing the Four Horsemen upon the Black Marvel family.
[16] This time around, she was more than willing to ignore the exploits of one she disregarded as "that bubble-busted supermodel" whose edicts of peace through love Cale wrote off as a lie, thinking affection only made things worse instead of the other way around.
As part of the Rebirth reboot, Wonder Woman realizes she does not know the location of Themyscira; it was taken from her precisely to prevent minions of Ares from learning it to either free their master or kill him and take his station.
In her first attempt, Adrianna Anderson; her best and closest associate is killed, and Cale creates an artificial intelligence based on her brain patterns which renames itself Dr.
She provided the archaeologist with funding and encouragement for her expedition at the behest of her own cruel patrons while Cyber engineered localized catastrophes to prevent Wonder Woman from learning when her friend was in danger, needing the power of another deity's avatar to breach the barrier cordoning paradise from the rest of the world; thus giving birth to the Cheetah.
[18] Realizing that Ares's sons would not keep their end of the bargain, Cale struck a pact with the ancient witch Circe to bind the two and make them subservient to her, first tricking Wonder Woman into a false flag operation, so the enchantress could siphon enough power to cast said terror gods into the forms of two Doberman Pinschers.
As her nemesis came to her in search of answers, Veronica simply replied that she enjoyed the joust, in spite of this Wonder Woman knew full well that these attacks across Washington were all a covert means of shoring lucrative defense contracts while also pursuing a personal vendetta against the Amazon.
[26] It was when the evil deities' presence could be felt by the more religious or supremacy-sensitive individuals in the world that Cheetah would escape her confinement by Cale's technical specialists, while seeking to destroy her would-be owner, but was saved by Wonder Woman at the last second just before Veronica could be thrown from her own office building.
After the cataclysm caused by the War God, Ares had enraptured the mythical plane, while Veronica found herself employing the Greek deity of vengeance Nemesis, using her both as an employee of Empire Industries and a new means of discrediting Wonder Woman by filing lawsuit for superpowers to be registered as typical citizens working 9 to 5 citizenship.
[29] The Rebirth version of Veronica Cale is a far more competent character than her pre-Flashpoint counterpart, manipulating Wonder Woman and her allies for years, finding ways of triumphing over gods and better at mixing business with criminal endeavor.
Her progressive characterization would grow more callous and vindictive, using both her resources and intellect to further personal gain by arming potential adversaries to the demigoddess to secure even greater profit at her hated enemy's expense, both financially and in a misotheistic sense.
While not intellectually on par with the likes of Niles Caulder or Brainiac, Cale is an able-bodied scientist and historian who earned more than 3 PhD's in her youth while attending Harvard University.
Cale would eventually put such intellect to exceptional use by rediscovering the location of her deadbeat father after he had moved out of country, only to blackmail him for a generous sum to maintain her silence.
Having created a number of subsidiaries with which to bankroll her sizable fortune invested in selling software to Wayne Tech, showing credible business sense, as well as knowledge of psychology and sociology.