| Vandal Savage | |
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Vandal Savage from Justice Society of America #3, Art by Dale Eaglesham |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Green Lantern vol. 1 #10 (Winter 1943) |
| Created by | Alfred Bester (writer) Martin Nodell (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Vandar Adg |
| Team affiliations | Illuminati Secret Society of Super Villains Injustice Society Tartarus |
| Notable aliases | Khafre, Julius Caesar, Blackbeard, Genghis Khan, Jack the Ripper, Cain, Dr. Curtis Knox, Kr'ull. |
| Abilities | Immortality, Superhuman physical attributes, Genius-level intellect, Excellent combat skills, Schooled in millennia of history, warfare and science. |
Vandal Savage is a fictional character, a supervillain published by DC Comics. He first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 1 #10 (Winter 1943), and was created by Alfred Bester and Martin Nodell.
Savage is immortal,[1] and has plagued the earth with crime and violence since before the beginning of recorded human history. He is a brilliant tactician with immense technological prowess. He is one of DC's most persistent villains and has fought hundreds of heroes throughout history. In 2009, Vandal Savage was ranked as IGN's 36th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.[2]
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In the days of prehistory, 50,000 BC, Savage was a caveman named Vandar Adg, leader of the Cro-Magnon Blood Tribe. He was bathed in the radiation of a mysterious meteorite, which gave him incredible intellect and immortality. An observer from the Bear Tribe would later approach that same meteorite and become Savage's eternal nemesis, the Immortal Man, possessing the power to resurrect as a new persona every time he is killed. According to Lex Luthor, there may be evidence to suggest that Savage was the first cannibal on record. Though the Calculator mistook this to be a joke, Luthor was apparently serious, and Savage has not shown much regard for human life. He is possibly based on a Bulletman foe who appeared in All-American Comics #3, Man of the Ages, who had lived for a million years and claimed he would exist as long as there was evil.
In the pre-Crisis universe, Savage was native to Earth-2, but as seen in Action Comics #516, thousands of years in the past a sorcerer revealed to him both the future existence of the Justice Society (even showing him a battle he would have with them, with Hourman in their ranks), and the existence of Earth-1.
Savage's first mark in the "history" of the DC Universe came when he and a select group of people successfully undermined and destroyed the lost city of Atlantis. That group of people became known as the Illuminati, with Savage serving as its leader.
He claims to have ruled hundreds of civilizations under hundreds of names: Khafre, Cheops where he built the pyramids, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar (though he has also claimed to have participated in the murder of Julius Caesar, but Pre-Crisis he claimed history was inaccurate and Brutus failed), Genghis Khan, Blackbeard, and Vlad the Impaler, to name a few and terrorized Victorian era London as Jack the Ripper. He realised that his prominence could cause him to be killed accidentally, so decided to work behind the scenes. He has also worked as close friends and advisers to the likes of Erik the Red, William I of England when he advised him to invade England under the name Sir Von Savage, Napoleon Bonaparte as Marshal Savage, Ra's al Ghul, Otto von Bismarck under the name Baron Von Savage when he helped him invade France, and Adolf Hitler. He also led the Spanish Armada in its attempted invasion of England. He was the court physician in France, and even used the royal family for syphilis experiments.
Post-Flashpoint, Vandal Savage is stated to have been a part of the Demon Knights, an informal band of medieval based characters operating in the Middle Ages of the DCU, opposing Mordru after the Fall of Camelot. However this incarnation of Vandal Savage is less a threatening, scheming villain and more a likeable, roguish thug, still a force to be reckoned with but bound to a deep-seated respect for his fellow immortals Etrigan and Madame Xanadu, even taking a place among the assembled heroes [3]
During the Golden Age, Savage battled the Justice Society of America after first meeting Green Lantern. He attempted to capture the members of the Justice Society out of revenge and place them in suspended animation using technology developed by the ISW member Brainwave (comics), but was thwarted by the Golden and Silver Age Flashes (Jay Garrick and Barry Allen), Barry travelling to Earth-2 after mysterious blackouts happened in cities where JSA members lived. He used a weapon to make them fight each other, captured Jay after the younger Barry beat him, and tried to capture Barry, trying to use an illusion to trap Barry in a suspended animation container. But Barry realised his trick and freed the heroes. This caused the JSA to revive.[4] Savage would continue to make various attacks on the Justice Society in later stories. He was also one of the founding members of the Injustice Society, who were each assigned to capture or kill a JSA member and engineer five jailbreaks to each attack a location in an attempt to conquer the USA. While leading an army of prison escapees from Gartmoor prison who he had incited to riot by dropping leaflets about the ISW from a plane, he attacked an airport where Federal planes were about to land, and captured Hawkman, before Green Lantern impersonated the Thinker during the 'trial' of the JSA and freed the JSA, who jailed the villains. He briefly formed a group of villains called Tartarus.
After the events of Final Crises, Savage found himself hardly affected by the event, aside from gaining more enemies. Knowing his developed hatred for the Justice Society, the reinstallation of a new team consisting superheroes within the modern time known as the Justice League, quickly gained Savage’s attention to where he didn’t hesitate on forming a group of villains to make an attack on this new team so that they wouldn’t pose any threat towards Savage’s future goals. Yet, none would gain any more hatred from Savage than the supposed new Immortal Man, which was the mysterious Resurrection Man. Over time, Savage forgot many of his special powers, and never exhibited them to Barry Allen. After his recent fallout with the Justice League, Vandal Savage decided to take care of each member individually, starting with the newest Flash (Wally West). During this time, he operated the Villers Gallery, an antique salon on Fifth Avenue in New York City. A private investigator by the name of Harold Halston from Thermopolis, Wyoming had been investigating one Varney Sack at the request of a local realtor. Sack turned out to be Savage, and the immortal man killed Halston once he figured the private eye knew too much. In a showdown at the Club Neon, Wally, with the help of Frances Kane, fought Savage. He fell out of a window, but he disappeared before he hit the ground.
Savage surfaced again later, this time selling Velocity 9, a highly addictive super-speed drug of his own creation, which interfered with much of the existing drug trade in New York. He put an ad in the paper that attracted successful yuppies, who he used to do his bidding by giving them Velocity 9 so they could perform high speed crimes. However, these junkies aged at magnificent rates and suffered strokes very easily.
Savage wished to use the heroin distribution network of mob boss Nick Bassaglia to distribute Velocity 9 to lawyers and stockbrokers, hoping to gain financial control of New York. However, Flash, who had gone looking for Bassaglia after he was kidnapped by Savage, was injected with Velocity 9. After giving him a short spurt of incredible speed, it took away his powers. Hoping that a second dose would make him another one of his junkies, Savage told Dr. Conrad Bortz to inject the Flash, who instead injected Savage, who ran away.
He reappeared later, wanting money to leave the country. This money he attempted to acquire by kidnapping Rosie, the daughter of Wally's landlord, Mr. Gilchrist, with a ransom of five million dollars. He set many traps for the Flash, who was looking for Rosie, that led him to Barry Allen's grave, where Rosie was being kept. However, throughout all of this, Savage never showed his face.
He is one of the main villains in the JLA: Year One storyline, working against the recently-formed JLA, and harboring a deep hatred towards superheroes and the invading alien Appelaxians. During one confrontation with the aliens, Savage claims to have designed Stonehenge itself, which the aliens have just partially demolished. Savage also mentions that he shut down the Justice Society with "a few well-placed senators."
Ultimately, Savage's enemy the Immortal Man erased himself from existence to save the world during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Mitch Shelley, the Resurrection Man, an amnesiac with similar powers which actually came from nanobots, took over as Savage's nemesis. However, Savage's list of foes is not limited to those two characters. Having lived so long, Savage has butted heads with possibly every single hero featured in the DC Universe, most notably the Justice Society of America and the Justice League of America. Original Green Lantern Alan Scott (in comics, his very first opponent) has been portrayed as one of Savage's main enemies, as well as the original Flash, Jay Garrick. It has been revealed that Savage refers to Hawkman – who has been reincarnated for a few millennia – as "the cockroach". At present, in DC universe, Savage is about 52,000 years old, although different numbers have been given in the past, from one million years in his first depiction, to 37,000 years in recent issues of JSA: Classified.
In this series, it is learned Savage has a base deep inside the Egyptian Sphinx. A confrontation with Martian Manhunter leaves him with a burnt out eye, which seemingly afflicts him far into the future.
Savage will possibly meet his end after he has lived to the year 85,271 A.D. (as seen in the DC One Million storyline), when he is sent back in time to 20th century Montevideo, Uruguay, by a pair of doctored time traveling gauntlets, seconds before it is obliterated by a Rocket Red armorsuit carrying a huge nuclear payload, an action that was, ironically, ordered by Savage himself (Savage was hoping to use the gauntlets to move only through space and arrive at the 853rd century Metropolis). At this point, the time traveling hero Chronos is heard in the background, gloating about having conned Savage in retaliation for a previous adventure when Savage had him stranded in time.
Much like his recent history for making his second attempt on those who foiled and defeated Savage, it was that he always returned for bloodthirsty revenge. This time he had his eye’s set on the Titans, the team he nearly defeated and which he possibly believed was the cause of his plans being ruined when trying to cause a nuclear assault. By attempting on fulfilling his goals, Savage wanted his very own team, which served as a anti-Titans team. In order to accomplish the task, Savage would kidnap the Titans member known as Omen and force her to create the perfect team for him using her mental powers. Even though Omen did what Savage commanded, she secretly selected a team that would find itself quickly falling apart. Recruiting Gorilla Grodd, Lady Vic, Cheshire, Siren, and Red Panzar, Savage found himself with a team that was known as Tartarus. Their first mission was to find the H.I.V.E Mistress known as Adeline Wilson. Savage wanted her for the purposes of using her blood for an immortality serum. After slitting her throat, Savage and his team would later find themselves going against the Titans which ended in a disaster. With Red Panzar dying in fight, Savage and his team managed to escape by shooting Cheshire and using her as a distraction, leaving her to be captured by the Titans. After learning the location of Omen, the Titans would quickly find her and and another fight with Tartarus that found itself quickly ending after Siren switched sides.
Vandal Savage was seen in the final two issues of Villains United. Originally Savage was a member of Lex Luthor's Society, but he quit the Society and told Lex not to contact him for any reason after Luthor blew him off to welcome some less than competent new recruits. It is also plausible that Vandal quit because his daughter Scandal Savage was working against the Society as part of the Secret Six.[5] When the Society lodged a final ambush against the Six, Savage threatened to kill Luthor if he didn't call off the attack, saying that he couldn't allow anyone to harm his daughter. This was shown to be due more to ulterior motives than fatherly love, as in issue three of the Secret Six miniseries it was revealed Savage wants his daughter to produce an heir with Catman, and he's been putting bounties on the Secret Six's heads as a warning of what will happen to her lover, Knockout, if she refuses him.[6]He has, however, been seen as a member of the Society's second incarnation underneath Libra during the Final Crisis. He actually even serves as one of his inner cabinet members.
Savage was seen as leader of a doomsday cult. He attempted to use a device to pull an asteroid into the Earth, but was thrown into space with the asteroid itself when the Flash reversed the polarity of the device.[7] Eventually the asteroid fell back on Earth with Savage, who found his power greatly diminished and having lived through what he called the worst year of his life. His immortality completely drained, he is still able to survive otherwise fatal wounds, but a brain tumor and a strong decay of his biological function are leading him to a fast death, with an estimated life span of eleven days. Savage tries to capture Alan Scott by baiting him with a grotesque (and disguised) Wesley Dodds clone, who, in fact, is his own clone. After a failed attempt to steal Scott's DNA, Savage is left alone in the rubble of his former secret base. Realizing that his clone could be considered his own offspring, and that the blood of his descendants has always renewed his strength, Savage cooks and eats his clone, renewing his energies at least for another year.[8]
Savage returns in the first story arc of the new Justice Society of America, the mastermind behind a group of Neonazi superpowered villains called the Fourth Reich targeting the heirs of several Golden Age superhero bloodlines, in the belief that eliminating the bloodlines will eliminate the heroes' legacies and allow him to continue his goal of reshaping the world according to his own desires. He kills Minute Man, General Glory and Mister America. In issue #4, after a battle with Wildcat and his newly-discovered son, Savage is defeated when hit by a fire truck. He later reappears in Atlantis where he is revealed to have been behind the atrocities in Sub Diego and Black Manta's occupation of the city.[9]
Vandal Savage was one of the villains imprisoned on the "Hell Planet" of Salvation Run. He claims to have puzzled out the mechanical workings of the planet and used this knowledge to locate a "safe zone" without any of the predators that roam the rest of the world.[10] He intends to mate with the female supervillains in his group, and produce an immortal progeny. He has placated some of the more willful of the females (like Phobia and Cheetah) by promising each of them that they will be his queen when he rules the planet. Ultimately, Savage escapes back to Earth along with the rest of the imprisoned villains following an attack by Parademons sent by Desaad (who used the planet as a training ground).
After returning to Earth, in Final Crisis Vandal Savage is placed on the new Society's inner circle by Libra. As he says to Lex Luthor, Vandal is willing to follow Libra in exchange for his heart's desire, an end to his boredom.
In Final Crisis: Revelations, the Order of the Stone (the followers of Cain) comes in possession of the Spear of Destiny. Later, a group of followers led by Sister Wrack enter Vandal Savage's tent. They plunge the Spear of Destiny into Vandal's body. Thus Cain is reborn in him, and agrees to lead the Followers into punishing the Spectre for branding him because of his ancient crime.[11] Using the Spear, Cain is able to separate the Spectre from his human host, and make him his slave.[12] Cain's plans are undone by Renee Montoya, who manages to steal the Spear and reunite the Spectre with his host. The Spectre, forbidden by God to kill Cain, instead sentences him to walk the Earth, unable to disguise himself, being forever reviled and persecuted by the rest of the human race and denied rest until God says otherwise (the Mark of Cain).[13]
The superhero team known as the Outsiders come into conflict with a mysterious group calling themselves the Insiders, who are tracking down the fragments of the meteorite that granted Savage his immortality. It is ultimately revealed that the Insiders were members of Savage's tribe who were also exposed to the meteorite and gained immortality. Savage (still possessing the Mark of Cain) forms a temporary alliance with fellow immortal Ra's al Ghul to thwart the group's plan.
Whether true or not, Vandal Savage has come to believe he literally is the Biblical Cain. The mark he still bears hampers his ability to do his business and thus he attempts to pass it off - to either the Question or the Huntress. He succeeds, imparting the mark to the Question, who accepts to be branded to spare the Huntress from the disfigurement and the pain [14] (despite The Question later proves how the brand could be suppressed by aknowledging the flaws, the shortcomics and the guilt of the bearer, a feat made seemingly impossible by Vandal Savage's mindset [15])
In the distant past, Bruce Wayne (apparently amnesiac) walks out of the cave where Anthro died in the prehistoric times and is discovered by a tribe of primitives led by Vandal Savage, who attempts to kill Wayne in the belief that he is a member of the 'Sky People'. He held him hostage until a younger member of the tribe freed him and aided in his subsequent fight against Savage's mob.[16]
In the 1800s, Vandal Savage- under the name of "Monsewer Sauvage" and currently weak from a cancer in his intenstines- wants Jonah Hex to eliminate the man who has been attacking his men, while Savage attempts to torture a woman whose family have been entrusted with a box, marked with the symbol of the bat, that they are to keep sealed until its owner comes to claim it. When he finds from the "doctor" torturing the girl how to open the box; Savage and the doctor escape in a carriage, with the girl and the box, while Batman is busy with Vandal's thugs. Batman catches up with the carriage which eventually falls into a nearby river. The doctor and Savage fall in but when they get out they come face to face with the Batman. Vandal, in an opium fueled delusion (due to the amount of opium he had consumed for the cancer), sees Batman as an actual bat, compared to the girl and Thomas Wayne (who had been on the way to kill himself when the carriage had careened into the river) who he sees as skeletons, and remembers that night thousands of years ago when a bat-man had appeared. He is then knocked out by Batman.[17]
Since exposure to an unusual radiation generated by a crashed meteor, Savage has been functionally immortal, remaining unaged for over fifty thousand years and possessing a degree of enhanced healing, although this ability is intermittently portrayed between allowing him to recover from any injuries sustained to just allowing him to survive anything that might kill him; he is even capable of getting drunk like any normal human. After discovering the meteor, the radiation surrounding the meteor not only gave Savage immortality, but slightly increased strength, stamina, and speed. Also the effects would change and alter Savage’s brain functioning into a unique state of development that instantly surpassed the Cro-Magnon stage. Because of this, Savage has a body that is mysteriously invulnerable to age, disease, and fatigue. Even though this form of immortality only causes Savage to be invulnerable with internal damage of bodily functions, Savage is still vulnerable to external damage. Meaning that is stabbed, burned, or loss of limbs, Savage’s body would be incapable of healing from the damage. Yet Savage has developed a strong adaptation to the feeling of pain and endurance after taking such damage. His long life span has allowed him to gain a broad range of knowledge in a variety of fields, as well as granting him a great deal of influence over the world in general and the villain community in particular. Since a recent experience when he was trapped on an asteroid, Savage's immortality has been weakened, forcing him to cannibalise his own children and clones to try and replenish his energy.
Recent stories have revealed that Savage was suffering from cancer when he acquired his immortality. As a result, while the cancerous cells in his body naturally cannot kill him, they cause him intermittent pain throughout his life, Savage being unable to have them removed as they are considered to be as much a part of his body as his healthy tissue.
Vandal Savage is stated to be Cain, the first murderer himself, and as such he may be as old as the entire human race. He briefly wore the Mark of Cain, a metaphysical scarring with a cross pattern disfiguring his face, until he passed it to Renee Montoya. Despite the mark can be suppressed by willpower and by the recognition of one's shortcomings and flaws, Vandal Savage never realized it, instead trying to force the mark on other people.
Being immortal has not stopped Vandal Savage from procreating. Scandal Savage is his daughter and the only one of his children he considers his heir. He has trained her in combat since she was a young child. Scandal is a member of the Secret Six and by her own admission is "damned hard to kill". The Demon Grendel is also one of Vandal Savage's children[18] claiming that Vandal Savage "mount the cave beast of my mother". He refers to Vandal as Cain, the first murderer.
Vandal Savage was the villain in the 1997 Elseworlds limited series Batman: Dark Knight Dynasty. In this story, Savage is obsessed with recovering the meteor that gave him his immortality, believing that it will reveal why he became what he has. Over the centuries, he finds himself opposing the members of the Wayne family throughout history, starting with medieval knight Sir Joshua of Wainwright, to contemporary Bruce Wayne (Vandal saved Bruce's parents from the mugging that killed them in 'real' history, but killed them when Bruce was an adult to ensure they did not stop him from reacquiring the meteor, only for him and Bruce to perish when they fell to Earth after a battle in space), to futuristic Vice President Brenda Wayne, admiring their spirit and strength of character even as he refuses to allow them to stop his efforts. At the conclusion of this last battle, Vandal was left drifting through space on the meteor, determined to learn the purpose of his life.
Another Elseworld story, Flashpoint, had Savage running a space-exploration corporation with the help of the crippled Barry Allen. He tried to use technology stolen from J'onn J'onzz to kill humanity (he wanted to commit suicide in the grandest manner possible), but was killed by Barry Allen, who sacrificed his life to stop the alien device.
In the limited series Kingdom Come, Vandal Savage is a member of Lex Luthor's Mankind Liberation Front, but is captured by Batman and his allies when he gets mauled by that timeline's version of Wildcat.
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