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How could they ever let anyone else be the Beauty-Glo girl? I was the first, the best, the perfect one!
„
~ Vera reminisces on her former popularity and how she was eventually replaced.
“
But why stop now? With Spider-Man in my control, I can accomplish anything!
„
~ Vera considers how far she can take blackmailing Spider-Man.
Vera Arlen is a major antagonist in Spider-Man's weekly The Amazing Spider-Man newspaper strip series, serving as the main antagonist of "Spider-Man Unmasked!", "Spider on a String!" (both parts), "The Answer and the Anguish!", "Hell Hath No Fury--!", "Spider in a Trap!", "The Web Draws Tighter!", "The Hunch and the Horror!", "Spider-Man-- or Slave?" and "When Strikes the Spider?", as well as the overarching antagonist of "The Dance of Death!"
She's a former model who vowed revenge after being replaced and "scarred" in an accident, and, upon discovering Spider-Man's true identity, blackmailed him and turned him into her pawn to exact her revenge.
Vera is a young or middle-aged blue-eyed woman with lustrous long ginger or brown hair covering half her face and with a slender frame and long pink fingernails. She's seen wearing many different types of clothing throughout the strip, but in most casual wear she has much of her cleavage exposed.
Underneath the hair that covers the right side of her face, there's a barely noticeable scar on her cheek, the source of much of her arrogant distress.
Personality[]
“
The accident that disfigured my face was Raymond Dexter's fault! Now I can never be a model again! I'll never forgive him! Never! But at last I have a way to make him pay! And pay he shall!
„
~ Vera reminisces about the past, and the accident caused by her vanity which only resulted in a barely noticeable scar.
Vera blackmailing Spider-Man.
Vera is a prideful and devious individual, beyond what her normal appearance would suggest. Though nowhere near the vilest or most resourceful enemy Spider-Man had faced, even up to that point, and more sympathetic than many who came before her, through her blackmailing she was still pretty arrogant and capable when using Spider-Man against her enemies.
Vera threatens a cab driver.
Above all else, Vera can be described to be petty, vain and unhinged, manipulating Spider-Man into doing her dirty work unless he wants everyone to know his true identity and forcing him to commit crimes, as well as threatening to kill people herself, all in spite of everything that happened to her being her fault, or ruining another person's career for breaking her heart or making her quit even though it was never their intent or truly did so.
Biography[]
Background[]
As shown in the story "Hell Hath No Fury--!", Vera was originally the face and main model for a beauty product called "Beauty-Glo". Over the course of six months, sales dropped and the public wanted a new face for the product, according to Vera's boss Raymond Dexter.
When a replacement known as Margo Turner arrived and Raymond told her that they wanted Vera to be their beauty assistant, Vera furiously ran away, unconsciously breaking open into a restricted lab and smashing against some chemicals which struck half her face, "disfiguring" it.
Discovering Spider-Man's True Identity[]
Vera discovers Spider-Man's true identity.
A few months later during midnight hours, Vera overheard a gunshot from her bed and woke up to see Spider-Man stopping a couple of robbers at a liquor store. She noticed clothes webbed to a nearby wall and went out to retrieve those, aware that this was the perfect chance to learn Spider-Man's secret identity.
Learning that Spider-Man is in fact Peter Parker through his ID, through which he also discovered his address and phone number, Vera began to make calls to Peter, referring to him by both Peter Parker and Spider-Man and threatening to reveal the truth to the world.
Blackmailing Spider-Man[]
Vera with Raymond.
The next morning, Vera arranged a meeting with Raymond Dexter, telling him she was quitting from Beauty-Glo Cosmetics. She left the place, telling Raymond a better opportunity had come along, and went to Peter Parker's home, leaving a note in his mail referring to him as 'Dear Spider-Man' and telling him that she's willing to keep his identity a secret on the condition that he crushed her greatest enemy.
Vera threatened Raymond with a muffled, hidden voice over a phone call, telling him that his days were numbered, and then instructed Peter into intimidating Raymond, pushing the latter's car off a cliff, and she once again called him to congratulate his efforts, as well as to taunt him that despite all his great power, he would never find out who she was.
Additionally, she advertised the potential reveal of Spider-Man's secret identity at Peter's campus, but this was interpreted by most as a gag, though Peter understood this was her taunting him.
Vera's next call instructed Spider-Man to enter the Dexter Estate and intimidate Raymond once again, following another cryptic but menacing call from Vera to Raymond. Spider-Man would leave a message at Raymond's home, telling him that even Raymond's ferocious dog Bruno wouldn't guard him from them.
Defeat[]
In Vera's last instruction, she ordered Spider-Man to enter Raymond's party at a luxury yacht, where they were planning to announce the next new skin cream from Beauty-Glo, retrieve the secret formula and leave it in a place where she could take it and escape.
Vera flees the scene, having completed her revenge.
Vera takes a taxi to go back home, unaware that Spider-Man hid a tracker inside the jar of cream to track her down. The taxi driver notes that Spider-Man is following them and Vera threatens him at gunpoint, ordering the driver to lose him or he loses his head. Spider-Man senses this and hides himself while still following them and surprises Vera once she gets home, and after hearing her talk about her story to herself and that she planned to sell the cream to Raymond's closest competitor and ruin him, Spider-Man now knows even more about Vera than she knows about him.
Vera's death.
Threateningly, she says he will take that knowledge to his grave and attacks him with a knife, Spider-Man easily dodges but she accidentally crashes against the window, Spider-Man unable to save her after having run out of webbing. She dies from the fall and her body is taken by Red Cross workers as bystanders and Spider-Man observe, revealing she was never disfigured in the first place.
“
She made her own Hell! It was all in her mind!
„
~ Spider-Man notices bystanders reveal there is barely a scar on her "disfigured" face.
Powers and Abilities[]
Vera was a physically average woman with no true powers or abilities of any kind. The most offensive tool at her disposal, beyond her own cunning, was a revolver she carried around everywhere.
Quotes[]
“
Spider-Man! In the liquor store! I thought I heard something! Those must be his clothes--webbed to the wall! It's a chance to learn his real identity! [Vera gets to the street to steal the clothes] Once I check his clothes, I'll have a clue to the Web-Swinter's real identity!
„
~ Vera steals Spider-Man's clothes.
“
Parker? I think it's time we met-- to discuss a mutual wall-crawling friend!
„
~ Vera calls Peter.
“
After today, Spider-Man will be my slave!
„
~ Vera thinking to herself, after quitting her job.
“
Worried, Raymond? Good! But, remember--I've only begun to torment you!
„
~ Vera calling Raymond Dexter with a disguised voice after Spider-Man's second assigment to intimidate him.
“
Spider-Man: At last I finally know who you are--and why you went off the deep end! Vera: And you'll take that knowledge too--your grave! That's it--hesitate! You're too weak to fight a female!
„
~ Vera tries to kill Spider-Man with a knife, shortly before falling off a window and dying.
Gallery[]
Vera's debut.
Vera's barely visible scar.
Original sketch of Vera by John Romita Sr.
Trivia[]
Vera is among the first villains and characters overall to discover Spider-Man's true identity, the third one to lack any powers and the first one to be a villainess:
Villains-wise, the first (not counting Doctor Octopus, who unmasked Spider-Man but didn't believe Peter was really him) was the Green Goblin in The Amazing Spider-Man #39, the second was Professor Spencer Smythe in The Amazing Spider-Man #105, the third was J. Jonah Jameson in The Amazing Spider-Man #169 (though he was quickly convinced otherwise), and following him Vera would've been the next to discover this.
Vera is also among the many villains to have pushed Peter Parker into (temporarily) giving up being Spider-Man.
It's unclear if Vera's unhingedness and desire to hide her "scar" is a direct reference to the real life body dysmorphic disorder or if it's purely arrogance and vanity.
In this regard, she shares a few characteristics with a later villain from the DCAU, Calendar Girl.
