The Virtue Of Vera Valiant #2

The Virtue Of Vera Valiant #2, by Stan Lee and Frank Springer

October, 1977  Signet Books

The second (and final) volume of The Virtue Of Vera Valiant is better than the first volume. This slim, 121 page paperback picks up directly after the preceding volume, which collected the strips from October 11, 1976 through January 15, 1977; The Virtue Of Vera Valiant #2 collects another three months: January 16, 1977 through April 17, 1977. 

Curiously, the last page states that a third volume would be released soon, but it was not to be – no doubt because The Virtue Of Vera Valiant had already been canceled by the time this paperback was published, the last strip having been published on August 28, 1977. My assumption is The Virtue Of Vera Valiant #2 went to press before the cancellation happened. 

But even then, another insallment could have been published; the April 18, 1977 through August 28, 1977 strips could have comprised a third and final paperback, thus completing the series for those few readers who were interested. But I guess that is the key point; it seems clear that The Virtue Of Vera Valiant was not a succes, neither in newspapers nor in paperback. And, as I mentioned in my review of the first volume, it has yet to garner any kind of interest, or even any cult fame – to this day the full strip has not been collected. 

The unfortunate thing is that The Virtue Of Vera Valiant #2 is much better than the first volume, and indicates that Stan Lee had figured out how to write the series. Whereas the first volume came off as tepid, given that Lee was spoofing soap opera melodrama and pathos without bothering to offer compelling storylines, in the strips collected here he has realized he needs to deliver a plot that pulls readers in, while still coming off as overly melodramatic. 

Again, though, Stan Lee has a tendency to jettison subplots without warning. The Virtue Of Vera Valiant ended with Vera Valiant being approached by elderly but dashing network CEO Martin C. Martin to be the star of a soap opera that would be real – in other words, reality TV before reality TV. The stories at the beginning of The Virtue Of Vera Valiant #2 sort of follow on from this…but the “reality TV” thing is dropped posthaste, Lee focusing more on Martin C. Martin’s abrupt love for Vera. 

The reality TV stuff is ignored, save for a staff writer who sporadically appears, “taking notes” on the goings-on of the Valiant family (as a refresher, in addition to Vera there’s air-headed Aunt Gladys and portly loser Herbert). But even here the focus is more on romance; Aunt Gladys develops feelings for the writer, leading to the crazy-for-a-newspaper-in-1977 revelation that the writer is gay. I was a little surprised this made it into a mainstream newspaper; as it is, “gay” is never specifically stated, but twice we are informed the writer “doesn’t go for women.” 

But really the main focus of the first half of The Virtue Of Vera Valiant #2 is Martin C. Martin pushing himself on Vera, who meanwhile pines for her boyfriend, Winthrop, who by the way has abruptly “disappeared.” It’s all very soapy and melodramatic, but done much better than such stuff was in the first book. Also, it gives artist Frank Springer a chance to do more than the threadbare, humdrum surroundings of the previous book; there’s a part where Vera and Martin C. Martin’s lothario son go to a disco, and there meet a femme fatale with the awesome name Ramona Rapture. 

This leads into a bizarre twist where a goon, who happens to be Ramona’s boyfriend, kidnaps Vera – but it turns out the goon works for Martin C. Martin, who moonlights as a crime kingpin! The whole “reality tv” angle is gone and forgotten and the second half of the book is all about crime boss Martin trying to blackmail Vera into being his woman. 

Herbert, the loser brother, has been talking about a new business deal he’s working on, and it turns out he’s been working with Martin C. Martin. But the crime boss opens an adult bookstore in Herbert’s name, and will only take Herbert’s name off of it if Vera agrees to be his woman – the adult bookstore, by the way, also being a bit more risque than what I would’ve expected from a 1977 newspaper strip, but the only thing we see of it is the marque out front with “Herbert’s Adult Books” in big letters. 

Stan Lee also opens up the storyline with the return of Winthrop, and also the brief “awakening” of his wife Melba, who has been in a coma for the past 14 years. Melba, whose face is never seen, starts talking in her sleep, providing oracles and whatnot, and her latest revelation is that Vera Valiant will soon die. When Vera claims that Melba never met her, thus throwing into question how accurate Melba’s predictions could be, Winthrop responds that Melba “didn’t know Jimmy Carter, either, but she predicted his election!” 

This brings a subtle but interesting supernatural bent to The Virtue Of Vera Valiant #2, as Vera is freaked out in the final strips collected here that Melba’s prophecy will be fulfilled. Again it’s played for laughs, and Stan Lee has a hard time being both serious and funny – for example, Martin C. Martin’s goons take Herbert into a back room to torture him for not paying on his loan, but in the next strip we see that all they’re doing is forcing him to watch three soap operas on three televisions. 

Still, though, I enjoyed The Virtue Of Vera Valiant #2 more than I thought I would, given that I didn’t enjoy the first one very much. Stan Lee has better found his footing and Frank Springer’s art is great as it was the first time, but it did seem as if some of the panels here were a little blurry. Not sure if it’s just my particular copy or if the reproduction process wasn’t done as well as it was for the first volume. 

Until the series is fully collected – that is, if it ever is – we’ll just have to wonder what else happened in the ensuing (and final) four months of The Virtue Of Vera Valiant. As mentioned the last page of The Virtue Of Vera Valiant #2 mentions what will happen in the never-published third volume, noting a stranger who comes into the life of Aunt Gladys.  This no doubt refers to her runaway husband – the one who ran off with “a defrocked television repair person.” Recently I came across an eBay listing for a few Virtue Of Vera Valiant strips, and the seller happened to have the final strip listed. Here it is: 

This is the August 28, 1977 strip, aka the final strip of the series, so not only did Aunt Gladys get a Happily Ever After, but it looks like Vera and Winthrop did as well – Melba herself being on the phone was a perfect way to end the series, as she’s remained off-page the entire series…sort of like Niles’s wife on Frasier, now that I think of it. 

It’s debatable if Lee and Springer knew that the series was cancelled at the time. I’m betting they did, as the “cliffhanger” climax is in keeping with the series, and also brings the storyline full circle, as Melba, Winthrop’s wife with “sleeping sickness,” was one of the first subplots. Also the final “Next” caption, which is in keeping with the overdone, “melodramatic” tone of all the preceding such captions, plays in on the joke: “Did he say Melba?” 

Despite knowing that it no doubt played out on a goofy angle, I still find myself interested in the mention of the “psychic spell” that Vera falls under on the last page of The Virtue Of Vera Valiant #2. I wonder what that refers to. And also it sounds like poor Herbert is sent to jail, but I bet all of that was lame; as I mentioned in my review of the first book, Herbert seems to have come out of another strip entirely. Thankfully he’s hardly in the series. 

Anyway, I’m glad I picked up these two books back in 2009, and I’m still surprised that the entire run of The Virtue Of Vera Valiant has yet to be collected. If it ever is someday, I will be sure to read it. And also, it’s only now occurred to me that the series title is strangely similar to one of the more famous newspaper strips in history: Prince Valiant. I wonder if Stan Lee did this on purpose?

Here are more random photos of the inside of the book, but same as last time: the binding is so tight I could barely get a good photo of the interior!