Vandal Savage - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

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 took 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 (builder of 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. He also terrorized Victorian era London as Jack the Ripper. He realised that his prominence could cause him to be killed accidentally, so he 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 (whom he advised to invade England under the name Sir Von Savage), Napoleon Bonaparte as Marshal Savage, Ra's al Ghul, Otto von Bismarck (whom he helped to invade France as Baron Von Savage), 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. He is eventually thought to be a traitor. However, Vandal ends up betraying Mordru in turn in order to pillage the supplies of the Horde. He rejoins the rest of the Demon Knights saying that he planned this all along. It is unknown whether or not he is telling the truth. This behavior is more inline with the present-day Vandal Savage.

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, 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. 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 re-installation 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."