gratefulness

Betty Cooper

Elizabeth "Betty" Cooper is a fictional character of Archie Comics, the blonde-haired daughter of Hal and Alice Cooper. Betty likes sports, and is also a cheerleader. Betty was created in December 1941. Her older brother Chic Cooper and older sister Polly Cooper have both moved out of Riverdale, their hometown, Chic in New York and Polly in Los Angeles but occasionally appear in flashbacks to her childhood. In addition, Polly visits Riverdale occasionally and stays with Betty and their parents. Chic Cooper primarily appeared in Little Archie, although he has come back home on occasion in the main continuity.

History and character

The quintessential 17-year-old girl next door, Betty's middle class upbringing is a world apart from the flashy lifestyle of her wealthy frenemy (combination of friend and enemy), Veronica Lodge. Nowhere is this more evident than when she and Veronica are competing for Archie Andrews's heart, and yet they remain best friends.

At times, Betty gets jealous or even angry at Cheryl Blossom for flirting with Archie, even though Cheryl Blossom is friends with Betty. However, Betty and Veronica often unite against Cheryl when she tries to lure Archie away.

Betty is a pretty girl, tall and slender with blonde hair. Although in the comic books, her eyes always appear black like everyone else's, on the Archie comic website it is posted that her eyes are blue.

Betty is interested in astrology, particularly the Zodiac. The official Archie Comics website lists her birthday as June 29 and her sign as Cancer. While Betty is a Cancer under the Tropical Zodiac, she is a Gemini under Sidereal astrology and astronomical observation. In at least one comic book story, Betty is identified as a Libra.

In the late 1960s, the two girls joined Archie's band, a garage band appropriately named The Archies. Both sang (usually backup), and Betty played tambourine, while Veronica played organ. This implies that Veronica is more musically talented, but this is not necessarily true. Some stories indicate that Betty is the better vocalist. Additionally, there is little consistency in the instruments she is able to play. Betty has played the tambourine, maracas, guitar, banjo, keyboard, saxophone, cello, and the bongos.

Betty enjoys writing and keeps a diary that is featured in the miniseries Betty's Diary. She wants to be a famous writer someday, an aspiration that her teacher Ms. Grundy approves of. She submits her work to writing magazines and has been published more than once.

She is very concerned with the environment and other social issues and encourages the rest of the gang to clean up after themselves. She keeps a small garden in her backyard which she tends to occasionally.

It has been noted that she was arrested at least twice in the newer series.One for breaking and entering and one for false information.

Betty's talents include sports, repairing cars (mostly that of her crush Archie Andrews, which is named "Betsy"), cooking, and making her own clothing. She also has a doll hospital in her garage. Betty has a talent with animals (she owns a cat, Caramel) and often operates small businesses concerning them no matter how troubling they turn out.

She does very well in school and is considered one of the smartest girls at Riverdale High. Unlike the stereotypical dumb blonde, she has a moderately high IQ, although is not quite as gifted as her friends Dilton Doiley and Jughead Jones. At one point she turned out to have ESP when an encyclopedia accidentally fell on her head and was unjustly accused of looking at Miss Grundy's test answers, not to mention she foresaw a "bleak" future (Archie asked her on a date but she wasn't excited because she knew Archie would dump her for Veronica). She lost her ESP power when she accidentally got hit by a ball kicked by Reggie; in her gratefulness she gave him a thankful kiss.

She loves children and sometimes babysits Jellybean with Jughead as well as other children in Riverdale. Occasionally, families hire Betty to keep their elderly members company.

In some issues of Archie Comics, Betty's sister, Polly, comes back and visits Riverdale, and stays with the Cooper family. Polly is in college.

Relationships

Betty is always involved in a love triangle with Archie and Veronica, and sometimes she becomes a second fiddle to Veronica. Archie cannot decide which girl that he prefers, but often chooses Veronica over Betty (although in the love showdown, he chose Cheryl Blossom). Archie says on many occasions that he considers Betty to be his best friend (often he stupidly claims she's like his sister), someone that he can confide in, and is more comfortable with her. That doesn't stop him from seeing Veronica or other girls. Deep down inside, Betty will always hope that, in the end, Archie will choose her. Betty at one point wanted to break up with Archie because she felt like she was being played as a spare fiddle to Veronica. However, she continues to fight with Veronica over dating him.

By far, Betty's best friend is Veronica Lodge. Although the two are constantly involved in disputes over Archie or something which evokes jealousy between the two, they are the best of friends. Once, the two even said that Jughead and Archie's friendship couldn't compare to theirs. In many stories, Betty and Veronica are found teaming up on something, or helping each other in any way they can. However, both are jealous of the other.

Frequently, Betty dated Reggie Mantle early on in the titles' runs and occasionally still, more often than not as a casual date when Veronica beat her to the punch to have Archie take her out. Sometimes Reggie and Betty seems flirting with each other; when Betty was feeling sad, Reggie always tells her that she won a date with the most handsome man in the world, which Betty only replied that she would even consider to date Reggie instead if he was free. Although Reggie never admits it, he genuinely likes Betty, but his self-image sometimes is more important as the most popular jock in school, and he's afraid to damage their friendship, so they date frequently but without any attachment.

Jason Blossom has genuine interest towards Betty instead of the popular Veronica, and both of them date occasionally, which makes Archie jealous. But Cheryl Blossom, being one of Betty's best friends tells her that sometimes her brother is not good for her. Betty, always seeing other people's good side, chooses to date Jason anyway.

Betty's relationship with Jughead Jones has mostly been that of close confidant and pal, as they normally discuss the issues they're respectively having more candidly with each other than anyone else, as Jughead will provide commentary on her feelings for Archie, and she will attempt to "better" Jughead, by getting rid of his slothful attitude and laziness. One time when she had a sprained ankle, being a good friend Veronica told both Archie and Jughead to visit her. The four of them were having dinner together, when guys from the school mistaken Jughead as Betty's boyfriend because he was carrying chocolates to her house (he ended up eating some of the chocolate on his way to Betty's house). In one story, Jughead even says that if the time ever comes that he would willingly kiss a girl, it would be Betty. A happy tear is seen sliding down Betty's face at this comment.

Currently, Betty has a 'relationship' going on with Adam, her new boyfriend, it is thought by some people that Betty has chosen Adam over Archie when in truth, she is still choosing. This event has made Archie jealous and concentrates his attention to Betty, ignoring Veronica most of the time.

Feminism

In the early years, Betty had mastery of the traditional feminine domestic skills that Veronica was hopeless at. With the rise of the influence of feminism, Betty has also been depicted with a wide variety of talents such as auto mechanics. In addition, she is typically depicted as calm and cool in the face of crisis and often has ready solutions for whatever problem comes up in her featured stories. Betty also is fond of children, since she is often featured in stories where she is babysitting or spending time with the kids in her neighborhood.

Betty appears in all of the current Riverdale-related titles that are published by Archie Comics. Specifically, Betty stars in Betty and stars in Betty and Veronica and Betty and Veronica Spectacular.

Interests and trivia

Betty's musical loves include Bruce Springsteen and Kiss. While Betty plays the tambourine in The Archies, she has also learned to play electric guitar and bangs on Jughead's drums to relieve tension.
She plays the Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit board games and loves playing computer and video games, even becoming the Super Nintendo Champ of Riverdale with her asciiPad controller.
Her movie interests include Cary Grant films and James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause.
She also likes to read comic books and Jane Eyre. She's also seen a few television adaptations of Jane Eyre.
Depicted as a sporty girl and also a cheerleader, she exercises by going on daily walks (and listening to her favorite tapes while doing so to make the walks less dull) and using a treadmill. She also dances (particularly the style featured in Flashdance) and plays sports such as basketball, tennis, skiing, water skiing, sledding, ice skating, volleyball, swimming, snowboarding, bicycling, beachball, running on the beach (at least 2 miles) to stay in shape for track, soccer, baseball, and lifting dumbbells.
She had a friendship with an elderly woman named Lydia Wyndham, whom she found when doing research about World War I. With this acquaintance Betty got to know an accomplished writer and poet with a sharp mind (and a sad past--Betty's research had turned up a beau of Ms. Wyndham's who was killed in combat), but after a while Ms. Wyndham herself died.
On the Ratman story, Betty portrayed the character Libby the Librarian.
Betty has a nephew named Orson. It is unknown if Orson is the son of either Polly or Chic.
Betty's favorite color is yellow.
When she was little, Betty's favorite historical figure was George Washington.