Betty and Veronica/Comic Books

Examples of the Betty and Veronica trope in Comic Books!

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• Pictured above AND on the main page: Archie Comics' Betty and Veronica, obviously. There have been storylines claiming to finally resolve the love triangle, but they never seem to actually fulfill this.
  • Well, two series of comics - one where Archie married Betty, the other where he married Veronica - were published to show potential resolutions of this.
• Not dwelled upon too much, but Kim Pine is Betty and Ramona Flowers is Veronica to Scott Pilgrim. In the movie, Knives Chau assumes Kim's Betty duties.
• John Romita, one of the artists on the Spider-Man comic book, deliberately made Gwen and Mary Jane into a Homage to the Archie Comics' Betty and Veronica respectively. Gwen seemed to have won...until she died. Later, the comic briefly had Mary Jane as the Betty and Black Cat as the Veronica. Then Spidey hitched up with MJ and spent the next twenty years of real time in marital bliss with an understanding supermodel nothing happened.
  • Spider-Man writers seem to be fond of this trope. Originally it was a choice between rich somewhat stuck-up ish Liz Allen (Veronica) and mature secretary Betty Brant (amusingly, the Betty). Then the choice was between sweet Gwen and frivolous party girl MJ. Then MJ swapped roles and became the Betty and Black Cat become the Veronica.
    • In recent issues it seems to be going towards Carlie = Betty and Black Cat = Veronica.
  • Ben Reily had the spoiled and sometimes selfish blonde fashion student and the twisted, down to earth gothic girl. She was also the daughter of uncle Ben's murderer. Which of the two is Betty and which is Veronica depends on your point of view.
  • The Ultimate Universe swaps them, making Mary Jane the Betty and Gwen the Veronica. Then Peter chooses Mary Jane and his relation with Gwen is Like Brother and Sister...until a recent issue where, post time skip, it's shown that he is dating Gwen.
    • Ultimate Kitty Pryde is the second Veronica of the post-Gwen Stacy I era (Black Cat was the first). The current Gwen (II) is a clone and rather Betty-esque.
      • As noted on it's page, USM seems to have these roles as balls. Since Gwen I both roles are always taken. The situation has recently been reversed with Gwen II hugging the Betty ball (in Peter's thoughts, anyway) and MJ finally catching the Veronica one.
• X-Men had a long-running Love Triangle with Jean Grey, Cyclops (Betty), and Wolverine (Veronica)...which was turned on its head during Grant Morrison's early 2000s run, which introduced a Betty and Veronica love triangle with Cyclops as the center figure, Jean as the Betty, and Emma Frost as the Veronica. Then Jean dies, with the writers claiming she won't be back, but absolutely no readers believe that since coming Back From the Dead is literally part of Jean's power set.
  • In the earlier days, the Jean Grey love triangle had Angel in place of Wolverine, as Wolverine hadn't been introduced yet.
  • Another example was the love triangle between Havok, Polaris, and Iceman with Havok as the Veronica and Iceman as the Betty. Havok and Polaris have been through hell and back together since the earliest days of the comic.
  • Taking Rogue as Archie, she has Joseph (Betty) and Gambit (Veronica), then she has Gambit as the Betty and Magneto as the Veronica.
• Flash Gordon does this several times: Flash must choose between Dale (the Betty) and Princess Aura (the Veronica); Princess Aura must choose between Flash (the Betty) and Prince Barin (the Veronica). The 2007 series confuses things by throwing Baylin (the Veronica) into the mix. And gets canceled before a resolution can happen.
  • Except that Baylin was more interested in Barrin than Flash in that series, and Dale and Barrin more or less hated each other. Aura did briefly fall in love with a sweet native of Mongo who could be the Betty to Flash's Veronica (seeing as Flash was an action guy from a different world), however that lasted exactly one episode, with Ming strangling the poor native love interest in front of Aura. And then it was sort of implied that Aura's long-lost brother had some... affections for her, which she didn't seem to return. 'Twas a bit screwy...
• In Silver Age Superman, Lois Lane was somewhat Veronica-ish compared to Clark's childhood sweetheart Lana Lang. In the early modern continuity, Lois, a brassy investigative journalist who wouldn't give Clark the time of day romantically, was the Veronica, while sensitive, feminine, openly-in-love-with-Clark Catherine "Cat" Grant was clearly the Betty.
  • In the modern continuity before the 2011 reboot, their roles were reversed: Lois was the Betty, with her sweet and caring personality and more conservative clothing, while Cat was the Veronica, having become more aggressive and flirtatious with her co-workers, including Clark. And let's not mention that Cat also underwent plastic surgery to obtain breast implants. This is understandable as Lois was married to Clark, while Cat had undergone a personality change to deal with her son's murder.
    • In fact, Lois and Cat were respectively the Betty and the Veronica in Superman: Secret Origin, which once again re-established Superman's origin in the post-Infinite Crisis continuity.
  • And later, after Lois fell in love with Clark and discovered his secret identity, she viewed Wonder Woman as the Veronica on several occasions. This was an unfounded worry on her part though, since Supes and Wondy are Like Brother and Sister (most of the time).
• Superman's clone Superboy had to choose between journalist Tana Moon (the Betty) and his agent's daughter Roxy Leech (the Veronica). Then his cellular matrix started to decay, and he was recreated with Roxy's genes, making them Like Brother and Sister. Then he fell in with Knockout (another Veronica) before realising she was evil. Then Tana went on sabbatical, and came back just to get killed.
• Tim Drake (3rd Robin) from the Batman series has had his own personal love triangle in the early run of his solo book. He was dating civilian Ariana Dzerchenko (Betty) but was attracted to vigilante Stephanie Brown (Veronica) at the same time. Ironic, because Ariana has Veronica's physical appearance and bitchiness, and Stephanie has Betty's physical appearance and tomboyishness. Ultimately, Stephanie wins the triangle, with her becoming his most high-profile (and longest) relationship in the series.
  • Even after Stephanie and Tim's breakup, her fake 'death', Tim dating a new girl called Zoanne and later Stephanie's subsequent return to Gotham—Stephanie was still the Veronica, this time to Zoanne's Betty. And again, Stephanie wins the triangle (technically), with Tim breaking up with Zoanne on the phone, and then calling up Stephanie to try and patch things up with her.
  • In Red Robin, Tam is the new Betty to Stephanie's Veronica. And Lynx is the Third Option Love Interest.
  • Any of Tim's civilian girlfriends will end up being the 'Betty' by default due to his working partnership/love-hate-on-off relationship with Stephanie (who is always the Veronica).
• Speaking of Superboy (Conner Kent) and Robin III (Tim Drake), both have dated Wondergirl. It wasn't much of a triangle to begin with, but Tim could be Betty/the nice guy and Conner Veronica/the bad boy. With the new Teen Titans reboot, it seems like there's a possibility this triangle might be happening soon.
• Comic strip Luann deals with this frequently, with main character Luann (the reasonably nice Betty) competing with vain cheerleader Tiffany (Veronica) for Aaron Hill (Archie).
  • Luann also had to choose between the nerdy Gunther (Betty) and the cooler Aaron (Veronica). At least until Aaron moved to Hawaii, making Gunther win by default.
  • Another example had a competition between Luann's brother Brad (Betty) and Dirk (Veronica) for the affections of Toni. Brad won.
• The comic adaptation of Captain N: The Game Master had Princess Lana as the Betty, while the Veronica was none other than Samus Aran.
• Sleeper has a version of this with the main character Holden Carver, his former government coworker Veronica (Betty), and supervillain Gretchen/Miss Misery (Veronica). The end result is a truly spectacular and accidental Murder the Hypotenuse, with Veronica shooting Gretchen, thinking she was about to kill Holden, and Holden reflexively shooting Veronica dead. He then had an experimental surgery to cure his condition that left him in a vegetative state, with his superior creating a little mental world for him where he lives on a beach with both Veronica and Gretchen, making this a rare canononical quasi-OT 3 solution.
• Lanfeust is a textbook example with the hero's fiancee Ci'an (the Betty) and her troublesome yet alluring twin sister Cixi (the Veronica). Note that the two are TWINS: gentle, proper Ci'an packs a mean right when angered, while sex-obsessed Cixi sometimes shows a softer heart than her sister, sometimes inverting their role. He ends up with Cixi after she becomes totally awesome. Well, even more totally awesome. Lanfeust and Ci'an actually split up before that due to Ci'an falling for the finally grown up Or-Azur while Lanfeust realized he couldn't provide her with the stable life she aspired to.
• Another X-Men example is Generation X, where Bald Black Leader Guy Everett's affections was one of many things spunky Jubilee (Betty) and beautiful, classy Monet (Veronica) butted heads over.
• Possibly in Thor's case, Sif could to be his "Betty" and Enchantress (Amora) his "Veronica" or Jane Foster is Betty and Sif is Veronica.
• In Donald Duck and Friends, arguably Daisy Duck is the Betty (in spite of her Tsundere tendencies) and Kay K/ Red Primerose the Veronica for Donald Duck/DoubleDuck.
• The Golden Age MAD romance spoof "Flob Was a Slob!" had everyday American girl Ramona Snarfle choosing between her childhood friend, Sheldon Flob, who'd rather be chasing butterflies, and handsome, adventurous Rackstraw Him, who happens to also be a drug pusher and philanderer.
• Sin City has Dwight as Archie with badass prostitute Gail as Veronica and sweetheart waitress Shellie as Betty.
• Incredible Hulk has Betty choosing between Bruce the Betty and Glenn the Veronica.
  • The Chaos War would also have Jarella as the Betty and Red She-Hulk aka Betty as the Veronica.
• The Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth mini-series had a literal Betty (Swanson, an A.I.M. Hot Scientist who is disgusted by him) and Veronica (Chase, an ESU professor who had the hots for him). Unfortunately, the latter ended up being zombified, so he's pretty much stuck with the hot blonde who hates his guts.
• British 1940's comic strip Buck Ryan had private investigator Buck's action secretary Zola (blond) as Betty, and his originally arch-nemesis Twilight (brunette, missing an ear) as Veronica.
• Zot Jenny is torn between Zot (Veronica) and Woody (Betty). Unusually, both acknowledge that it's Jenny's choice and they genuinely like each other. Also, Zot's blonde, while Woody's brown-haired.
• Spy Boy: Spygirl and Bombshell. Even their fake identities in Alex's high school parody this.
• Girl Next Door Cherry and Rich Bitch Lola from Cherry Comics (which is hardly surprising given it began life as an x-rated parody of Archie Comics).
• The Trope Namer example is deconstructed in Criminal: The Last of the Innocent, where after years of unhappy marriage to the shallow, adulterous and manipulative "Veronica" Expy, the "Archie" stand-in realizes he made the wrong choice and really should have stayed with the "Betty" Expy. Unfortunately, his solution to the problem... well, let's just say there's a reason the series is called 'Criminal'.