VALERIA
VALERIA
Real Name: Valeria
Identity/Class: Alternate Reality (Earth-6212, aka the "Earth of the 5th Dimension" or Earth-5D) human
Occupation: Unrevealed (I don't know that her father is royalty, as opposed to just a ruler);
former rebel
Group Membership: Perhaps some position in her father's ruling party
Affiliations: Fantastic Four (Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Girl/Sue Storm (now Invisible Woman), Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, Thing/Ben Grimm), Quicksilver-616 (Pietro Maximoff), Reed Richards of Earth-A (although DeVoor made him appear to be an enemy)
Enemies: Andrones of Earth-712 (aka Earth A), Arkon of Polemachus, Albert DeVoor-616, Zemu (aka Xemu);
formerly soldiers serving Zemu
Known Relatives: Phineas (father), Theos (brother; see comments)
Aliases: "Val," "Little Girl Blue" (from the Human Torch)
Base of Operations: The capital city of Gornath, somewhere on Earth-6212 (the Fifth Dimension)
First Appearance: Strange Tales I#103 (December, 1962)
Powers/Abilities:
Proud and beautiful, Valeria is willing to risk her life to save others
or further the revolution, although she did not act futilely against
overwhelming forces.
She wielded a hypno-ring, which she could use to send those who stared at it into a hypnotic sleep.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'4 (she was about nose-height to the 5'10" Johnny Storm)
Weight: Unrevealed (at her height and build, with human density, I would estimate 120 lbs.)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Dark brown (sometimes appearing black or dark blue)
Skin: Blue (green in original appearance; see comments)
History:
(Strange Tales I#103 (fb) - BTS) - Valeria is the daughter of Phineas on Earth-6212, commonly known as the Fifth Dimension (as described by natives of their own realm), which was ruled by the tyrannical warlord, Zemu (or at least he ruled their land). While Zemu sought to invade and takeover Earth-616, to which a portal (in a wooded region of Long Island, New York) had been discovered, Valeria, Phineas, and many others opposed this. However, Zemu had the support of the army, while the resistance was too weak and unorganized to stop him.
(Strange Tales I#103 (fb) - BTS) - One of Zemu's soldiers/guards observed Valeria from a distance, feeling she would never be interested in him.
(Strange Tales I#103 - BTS) - Zemu's soldiers efforts to prevent a housing development from building in the area of the portal attracted the attention of the Human Torch (Johnny Storm), who was captured and brought before Zemu in the Fifth Dimension, in the capital city of Gornath.
(Strange Tales I#103) - Valeria
watched as Zemu ordered the Torch to be imprisoned, and her sympathy
for his plight was noticed by the Torch. After the Torch was outfitted
with a breathing apparatus and submerged in a tank filled with a liquid
chemical that prevented him from flaming on, Valeria approached
the guard, who was astonished that the proud and beautiful
daughter of Phineas was interested in her. She asked him how she could
resist one as handsome as him, but then she held up her hypno-ring,
telling him to look at it and watch it glisten. Though he tried to
resist, the guard was soon in a deep, hypnotic sleep. 
As her brother, Theos, entered the tank and freed the Torch, Valeria urged haste. Valeria thanked "Heavens" that the Torch was alright, and he acknowledged that it was because of her. Valeria, Phineas, and Theos subsequently took the Torch back to their home where they discussed how they opposed Zemu but could not challenge his army. At Valeria's request, the Torch agreed to help them, and Phineas directed him to Zemu's arsenal, into which the Torch burned a tunnel before melting its foundation and causing its floor to collapse.
Meanwhile, however, Zemu's soldiers discovered Valeria, Phineas, and Theos, and they used a giant magnet to pull the "traitors" to it, threatening to slay the Torch's co-conspirators unless he surrendered. Instead, the Torch generated a smokescreen and melted the magnet before flying Valeria to the ground; Valeria told the Torch he was wonderful.
Zemu then summoned tanks bearing asbestos-coated ammunition, but the Torch created a super-tornado that destroyed the tanks while sparing his allies. As Zemu rallied his thousands of troops, Phineas advised that only a general uprising could topple Zemu's regime, but he acknowledged that Zemu controlled all the communication systems. After the Torch wrote a fiery message in the sky urging the people to arise against tyranny and defeat Zemu, a revolt ensued. The Torch captured Zemu himself, and Phineas announced that the invasion of the Torch's world was cancelled.
Valeria then told the Torch that she would like to visit his world and him. When he nervously told her "sometime," she urged him not to go yet, telling him there was so much she wanted to ask and tell him, and she further told him that she had never met anyone as wonderful as him. Johnny thanked her, but told her he wished he could stay there, but he had to go home to his sister and friends. As he bade everyone farewell, Valeria begged him to come back, and Phineas tried to comfort her, telling her maybe he would return some day.
(Strange Tales I#103 - BTS) - The next couple weeks in school, he found himself daydreaming about Valeria, considering how beautiful she was and that he'd never be able to get her out of his head.
(Fantastic Four I#158 (fb) - BTS) - The Fifth Dimension's populace appointed Phineas to succeed Zemu.
(Fantastic Four I#159 (fb) - BTS) - The Torch never returned to the Fifth Dimension.
(Fantastic Four I#163 (fb) - BTS / Marvel Blockbusters: The I.T. Plot) - The extradimensional realm Polemachus had long been plagued by an unstable light/heat source, threatening their existence.
The scientists of Arkon, Polemachus’ Imperion, learned a nuclear war between the Earths of three realities -- Earth-616, Earth-721 (aka Earth-A, in which Reed Richards had become the Thing), and Earth-6212 (the Fifth Dimension, aka Earth-5D) -- would generate enough atomic power,shunted through a nexus (hole in space/time), to sustain Polemachus for millennia.
Having learned of interdimensional theories
developed by men working under Earth-616 scientist Albert DeVoor, Arkon
met with and convinced him to facilitate just such a war, for research
and/or profit.
(Fantastic Four I#162 (fb) / Marvel Blockbusters: The I.T. Plot) - Posing as the head of the corporation Inter-Politan Thermo-Dynamics, Unlimited, DeVoor traveled to Earth-5D and purchased the rights to its Phineas’ thermal weaponry, funding Phineas’ research in return. See comments.
(Fantastic Four I#163 (fb) - BTS / Marvel Blockbusters: The I.T. Plot) - On Earth-A, as the head of Inter-Related Technocracies, Unlimited, DeVoor convinced the lonely Thing/Reed Richards, who needed money to continue his work, to sell him the rights to Reed Richards Robotics, Inc.
(Fantastic Four I#159 (fb) - BTS / Fantastic Four I#161 (fb) - BTS) - Eventually Zemu grew strong enough to retake control of the Fifth Dimension again, apparently interrupting DeVoor's plots as he wished to avoid conflict with Zemu.
(
Fantastic Four I#158 (fb) - BTS) - Renewing his plans to take over Earth,
Zemu led a contingent of his army into Attilan (then in the Himalayas), the home of the
Inhumans, and succeeded in overpowering and capturing the Royal
Family, thus taking control of the entire city.
Zemu wished to force Black Bolt to power his Thunder Horn in order to use its devastating power to facilitate the surrender of Earth's governments to him.
(Fantastic Four I#159 (fb) - BTS) - Zemu brought Valeria and Phineas to Attilan to mock them with his impending triumph. Valeria and Phineas had hoped that the Fantastic Four could defeat him.
(Fantastic Four I#159) - After the Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, and Quicksilver traveled to Attilan, they were captured by Zemu and his forces and brought in chains into Phineas and Valeria's cell.
(Fantastic Four I#161 - BTS) - Frustrated with recent decisions by Reed Richards, the Torch sought out a sympathetic solider and traveled to the Fifth Dimension via the original Long Island portal. Upon his arrival, he was initially assumed to be another attacking Androne, and he was subdued and taken away for intended dismantling.
(Fantastic Four I#161) - Learning of this, Phineas intervened, instructing the warriors the release the Torch. Greeting Valeria and Phineas, the Torch insisted on an explanation, and Phineas told him that they were at war, and the enemy was Reed Richards. After further discussion, the Torch realized that this Richards and his Andrones were from an another alternate Earth, and after finding the Andrones to be vulnerable to his heat, the Torch agreed to lead the forces of the Fifth Dimension in an assault on Earth-A.
(Fantastic Four I#161-163 (fb) - BTS / Marvel Blockbusters: The I.T. Plot) - Meanwhile, DeVoor used Phineas’ thermal weapons to cause intense cold on Earth-616, rapidly expanding Arctic glaciers, and he also used Reed-616’s time machine to send warriors and dinosaurs from various time periods to assault Earth-A.
(Fantastic Four I#161) - Sensing that the energies causing the glacier expansion were from the Fifth Dimension, Reed looked in on the world and saw the Torch stand alongside Valeria and Phineas and prepared to invade Earth-A.
(Fantastic Four I#162 - BTS) - Greybeard of Polemachus showed his leader, Arkon, an image of the Torch leading the Fifth Dimension's army (with Phineas visible in the background) in its planned assault on Earth-A. He continued, showing how Earth-616's military was rallying to assault the Fifth Dimension.
Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby.
The people of the Fifth Dimension were originally green-skinned in
Strange Tales I#103 (and pink/Caucasian on the cover). I had forgotten
that, as I was working from a reprint in the 1970s Human Torch series.
When David Zuckerman sent me the digital versions, I was puzzled by the
green skin until I went back and checked the originals. I don't recall
any explanation for this color change, but they were blue in the 1974
reprint in Human Torch I#3 as well as in 1975's Fantastic Four
I#158-159 and 161-162...
Anyway, thanks to David for the scans!
I had assumed that the flashback in Fantastic Four I#162 was just colored oddly (as flashbacks sometimes are), showing everyone with blue skin. However, in reading Proto-Man's Albert DeVoor profile and discussing the matter with him, it is clear that there are many colors in the panel, such as a brown cigar and Valeria's red dress, as well as Phineas' white beard, paper, and DeVoor's shirt. I think he is right in his assessment that DeVoor took on blue skin in his travels to the Fifth Dimension, presumably so as to appear as a native.
I thought Valeria wore some weird lettuce-leaf headdress in her original appearance, although her Fantastic Four appearance made it look more like it was part of her head. Fortunately, #161 showed Valeria with a different headdress that confirmed her full head of hair.
Valeria originally had a sub-profile in the Fifth Dimension profile that I first published WAY back 9/6/2001 in the early days of the Appendix.
In that
originally profile, I had mistakenly believed that Theos was the guard
that Valeria had hypnotized, after which she forced him to free the
Torch. Re-reading the original story, it is clear to me that the guard
was asleep, while Theos was the guy who freed the Torch and subsequently
participated in the rebellion. Further, the text says the Torch was
taken back to the home of his liberators, and Phineas, Valeria, and
Theos were all there. The guy didn't show any objection to the
Valeria's interest in the Torch, and it seems likely that he was a
relative, possibly Phineas' son, or a cousin...although he could have
just been a fellow rebel living with them...or not...
...and then I just read that Theos was confirmed as Phineas' son in the
Zemu profile...so, that's the end of that confusion...
The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z hardcover#14 entry
on Zemu noted that the Fifth Dimension had been designated by some
sources as an alternate Earth and further speculated: "whose
blue-skinned inhabitants may be descended from Kree colonizers or a
land-dwelling Homo mermani offshoot."
It would be
interesting if the Fifth Dimensions mentioned in the clarifications
turned out to all be the same realm.
Valeria reminds me of Pearla and Daydra, alien women who first appeared at a young age and later returned in more of a leadership role.
This profile was completed 9/26/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Valeria of the Fifth Dimension has no known connection to:
 Valeria wielded a hypno-ring, which she could use to send those who stared at it into a hypnotic sleep. After the Torch was outfitted with a breathing apparatus and submerged in a tank filled with a liquid chemical that prevented him from flaming on, Valeria approached the guard, who was astonished that the proud and beautiful daughter of Phineas was interested in her. She asked him how she could resist one as handsome as him, but then she held up her hypno-ring, telling him to look at it and watch it glisten. Though he tried to resist, the guard was soon in a deep, hypnotic sleep, allowing Valeria's brother, Theos, to free the Torch. -- Strange Tales I#103 |
Appearances:
Strange Tales I#103 (December, 1962) - Stan Lee & Larry Lieber
(writer), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayer (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Fantastic Four I#158-159 (May-June, 1975) - Roy Thomas (writer/editor), Rich Buckler (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)
Fantastic Four I#161-163 (August-October, 1975) - Roy Thomas (writer/editor), Rich Buckler (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)
First posted: 09/29/2021
Last updated: 09/26/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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