Vandal Savage
Vandal Savage is a comic book supervillain who features in DC Comics.
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Biography
Pre-Crisis
Before the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Vandal Savage was a native of Earth-2.
Post-Crisis
Vandal Savage was an immortal would-be world conqueror, over 30,000 years old, who has taken on hundreds of identities in his long life. Vandal Savage was originally Vandar Adg, a member of a Cro-Magnon tribe who (along with the man who would be known as the Immortal Man) was transformed by a meteor into a superior and extremely long-lived being. (He is not completely immortal, but his lifespan is so incredibly long that he merely had a few white streaks by the 853rd century.)
Twenty thousand years ago, Vandal Savage and his clan migrated out of Asia as they sought new lands. During this time, the four thousand strong clan followed him until they discovered a crashed space craft that contained a slain Oan. However, they were not alone as a Burning Martian had survived the crash and it began to kill scores of the Cro-Magnon tribe. It took Savage two months before he managed to kill it and it was only because the creature desired death. (JLA v1 #86) Among his people, the beast was known as the Dakath or the Burning but it was only twenty millennia later did he learn that the beast was a Martian. Vandal later kept the severed head of the creature sealed in one of his headquarters. (JLA v1 #85)
In the 15th century, Vandar Adg had gained the service of the Metamorph Ahk-Ton and acquired the Orb of Ra allowing the immortal to create an army of homunculi to serve him in attacking Prince Khufu Ma-at Kha-taar. (JSA v1 #43) In 2578 BC, Egypt had fallen under the rule of Vandal Savage who had taken on the identity of the Pharaoh Khafre. Around this time, Bonnie Baxter of the Time Masters had arrived from the 20th century where she was thrown into a prison cell by Khafre's guards. Nabu appeared before her and took her to safety with his magic and asked for her aid in overthrowing the immortal Khafre. He intended to combine magic with the science from the time traveller where she gave him her communicator. Upon combining the pair, he crafted the blue Scarab of Kha-ef-re which Bonnie used in overthrowing the Pharaoh who was encased in binging wrappings to contain him as his immortality would cause him to rise again. (Time Masters v1 #6)
Savage served in many militaries, playing the role of conqueror and king numerous times, frequently clashing with the Immortal Man in his various identities. (Vandal claimed to have been many historical conquerors, such as Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan, but it is likely he's exaggerating.) He also founded movements and groups to aid him, such as the Illuminati.
In the 1940s, Vandal saw an opportunity to gain power, which led him to battle with many heroes of the era, including Green Lantern and the Justice Society of America. He allied with the Injustice Society of the World, to increase his chances, but ultimately failed.
Years later, Vandal began to age again, and sought out the meteor that gave him his longevity; he was seemingly destroyed by it, but was actually revitalized. Vandal has since engaged in more Machiavellian plots, preferring less direct conflicts.
Whilst in Africa, he received a distress signal from his stronghold that contained the corpse of Dakath and went back. Once there, he found many of his men gripped in terror from a powerful telepathic onslaught. Trapped in the vault, he remained there and killed the few men he could reach as an act of mercy. Savage determined that the assailant was another Martian like the one he killed long ago who sought the corpse of its brethren but was unable to open the dimension lock. The Justice League came to the site where they took Vandal Savage into custody along with the dimension lock where they went to the Watchtower only to find the attacker had attacked their headquarters as well. (JLA v1 #85)
Many years ago, Savage was told by another immortal named Hassan-I-Sabbah of a means of curing him of the constant pain he received from the tumours in his body. In exchange for cybernetic upgrades to his Ghost Wolves, Khyber informed him that the secrets he sought lay with the Monks of Rama Kushna. However, he did not know the location of their mystical home of Nanda Parbat but stated that clues to its whereabouts may reside in the small nation of Bhutran. Under the guise of General Sheng Fan (Cannibal), he corrupted an entire Chinese battalion into serving him where he offered them riches in exchange for their aid. Thus, around 10 years ago, he along with this army sought to attack Bhutran so he could forcibly get the knowledge he wanted from the Rana Bhutra who was the small country’s spiritual leader. (Superman v1 #710)
In modern times, a plot of Savage's gone awry destroyed the city of Montevideo in Uruguay, and Savage lost an eye in battle with the Martian Manhunter, after which he went underground.
By the 853rd century, Vandal Savage was recognized as a major foe of the Justice Legion A, and allied with the mad stellar computer Solaris in an attempt to conquer the galaxy. He met his end when Chronos remotely tampered with his equipment, sending him back in time to Montevideo- just in time to be annihilated.
Among his newest plots was to extinguish the families of the Golden Age heroes of the Justice Society where he intended to personally execute the original members. To achieve that end, he manipulated the Nazi supervillain team known as the Fourth Reich into being his agents where they massacred several superhero families such as those of Commander Steel. (Justice Society of America v3 #3) Savage himself decided to kill Wildcast and his son where he nearly murdered the pair but was defeated by the Justice Society who had arrived in time after saving the other families from the Fourth Reich. (Justice Society of America v3 #4)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of history was created with a different series of events.
Around 46,000 years ago, Savage came to observe the sky and determined that an object whose fragment was heading towards Earth. To find where it would land, he brought together the finest minds in three continents to develop mathematics to determine to crash location. Once done, he killed the scientists thus preventing their discovery of algebra from going to the world whilst Vandal sought the fragment that came to Earth. At the site, he discovered a rock of golden metal that contained cosmic powers unknown to the world. Thus, he kept it in his safekeeping as he spent the centuries afterwards in studying the unknown object. In each era, he consulted minds of science and magic to study the object but never gave them a full picture behind its origins. Through this study, he determined that a primordial cosmic being known as Perpetua who predated the universe had been locked away with measures made to prevent her return. Savage later determined that in the centuries that would follow a second aspect of the comet would arrive in the form of a cosmic energy called the Totality that would come to the planet. Vandal continued his study of the rock where he established a special club consisting of scientists he had gathered for the task. By the modern age, one of the members who felt had potential to uncover the Totality's secrets was a young intelligent man named Lionel Luthor. Luthor proved intelligent and managed to discover the cosmic forces tied to creation where he went about examining them for Savage. He determined that mankind was destined for great cosmic power which had been taken from them when the universe was made and their strength was divided between humans and Martians. Thus, Lionel secretly conducted experiments on Martian xenoforms whilst looking to awaken Perptua even though this was at odds with Savage's goals. Upon learning of Lionel's actions, Savage had the man's research destroyed and his mind erased where he was left as a drunk with no memory of his past. In the meantime, Vandal prepared to ensure that the Totality could never come to Earth as he wanted to stop what he believed was the doom that would affect all creation if the events leading to Perpetua came to pass. (Justice League v4 #18)
A decade ago, he began living in an American suburb under the identity of Jon Savage where he had another daughter who came to be known as Kassidy Sage. During this time, he looked to commit a ritual in order to please his gods with the murders being regarded as the works of a serial killer by the police. They named the unknown perpetrator at the time as the Vandal with a profiler finally being able to crack the case and a squad capturing Savage though the person responsible was killed in the process. Afterwards, Savage was sent to prison for the murders with his daughter Kassidy becoming estranged from him and later joining the FBI to solve murders as a profiler. (DC Universe Presents v1 #10)
He later targeted Superman where he found a way to weaponise Hypertime and sought to trap the Man of Steel in the past. (Action Comics v1 #1000)
Savage later assembled a new incarnation of the Injustice Gang to achieve his goals and dispatched his Neoanderthals to take over the planet but they were stopped by the Justice League. At that time, Lex Luthor had arrived where he usurped control over Vandal's headquarters for his Legion of Doom and seemingly killed the immortal. (Justice League v4 #1)
Overview
Personality and attributes
At one time, he took on the name of Sheng Fan which translated to mean ‘Cannibal’ in Chinese and was when he corrupted a Chinese battalion to serve him. (Superman v1 #710) One time, he adopted the identity of Jon Savage and was responsible for a string of brutal murders where he was known to the media as the Vandal. (DC Universe Presents v1 #10)
He saw himself as a visionary who was a veteran and orchestrator of every significant war that mankind had ever fought with him stating that he would continue to shape the world for the war of tomorrow. This was all according to his own vision for the future and he often manipulated others to achieve his goals with him stating that fascists were the easiest to manipulate. (Justice Society of America v3 #3)
Powers and abilities
It was said that the immortality that was given to him also led to immortal cancer tumours to spawn in his body with these not killing him but leaving Vandal in constant pain. (Superman v1 #710)
Among his followers included the Neoanderthals that consisted of prehistoric Neanderthals that were saved from extinction and genetically altered to give them a variety of powers which intended to take control of the planet. (Justice League v4 #1)
He had in his possession a dimension lock that was a vault that only he could open with it being the only thing that kept its contents parallel to normal space-time. (DC Universe Presents v1 #10)
Notes
- Vandal Savage was created by Alfred Bester and Martin Nodell where he made his first appearance in Green Lantern v1 #10 (December, 1944).
Alternate Versions
- In The Multiversity: The Society of Super-Heroes: Conquerors of the Counter-World v1 #1 (2014), an alternate version of Vandal Savage was shown to reside on Earth-40 where he was the immortal leader of the Society of Super-Villains. They discovered the existence of the Multiverse with Savage leading them to invade the neighbouring universe of Earth-20 leading to a conflict with the Society of Super-Heroes.
In other media
Television
- In Justice League, Vandal Savage appeared in the animated television series set in the DC Animated Universe where he was voiced by actor Phil Morris.
- In Young Justice, the character appeared as the primary antagonist where he was voiced by actor Miguel Ferrer.
- In the Arrowverse, Vandal Savage made multiple appearances in the shared continuity setting.
- In The Flash, Vandal Savage appeared as a villain in his first appearance in the shared universe of Arrow with the character portrayed by actor Casper Crump.
- In Arrow, the villain retured as part of the cross-over episode with The Flash with actor Casper Crump returning to portray the role.
- In Legends of Tomorrow, the villain returned as part of the shared universe of Arrow where he was once more portrayd by actor Casper Crump.
Films
- In Justice League: Doom, the character appeared as the primary antagonist with actor Phil Morris reprising his role from the Justice League animated series.
- In Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, Vandal Savage appeared in the animated fil where he was voiced by actor Jim Pirri. He was shown as being made immortal from a meteorite that landed on Earth long ago where he adopted numerous guises over the years including Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan where over the years he sired thousands of children with one of them being Scandal Savage. By the modern age, he stated that he had more brushes with death than in centuries past due to the rise of superheroes and supervillains. Thus, he sought to secure his future in the event of his possible demise where he tasked his daughter and her lover to acquire the 'Get Out of Hell Free' Card along with Professor Pyg in order to perform an operation to have he item stitched into his body. This brought him into conflict with Amanda Waller and Zoom both of whom wanted the cards for themselves.
Video games
- In DC Universe Online, Vandal Savage appeared in the MMORPG video game setting where he was voiced by actor Brian Talbot.
Appearances
- Green Lantern v1: (1944)
- The Flash v1:
- JLA v1:
- Superman v1:
- Action Comics v1:
- Justice Society of America v3:
- Justice League v4:
