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Quote1 I am not a caveman. I am a visionary. A veteran and orchestrator of every significant war mankind has ever had. And I will continue to shape the world for the war of tomorrow. My tomorrow. Quote2
Vandal Savage src

Vandal Savage is an immortal caveman. Alive for over 50,000 years, he has been an influential figure in world history, aiding emperors and conquerors.

Origins

Vandar Adg was a caveman and leader of the Blood Tribe who was born 50,000 years ago. When he was a teenager, a mysterious man killed his father, who was named Vandar Adg (the men from his tribe had the custom of inherit the name of their fathers after their deaths)[9]. When Adg grew to manhood, a mysterious meteor crashed to the ground, bathing him in radiation, and granting 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.

He took the name Vandal Savage but he was banned from the Blood Tribe after losing a fight to Bruce Wayne, who was lost in time.[10] His first mark on history 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, then and ever since.

In 2578 BC, Nabu, a Lord of Order, created the Scarab (of Kha-Ef-Re?) with the help of a time traveler from the 20th Century. This was an attempt to overthrow Savage, who was at that time the pharaoh called Khafre; an impostor instead was killed in his place.[11]

Around 1000 AD, a prophecy by a soothsayer told him he one day meet "The Hanged Man" who will meddle with the pair of Black Lanterns he discovered. He decided to create the city of Sapristi in Bohemia along with a fortress to trap the "Hanged Man"[12]

In 1358 AD, Savage returned on hunt for the hanged man. Every time he returned he used the spheres in his possession to emit an emotional aura which pleasantly enrages him, and causes the city of Sapristi to erupt into rage and chaos. He toured the city over the centuries in hunt for his future rival[13]

In 1718 AD, Savage adopted the name of Edward Thatch, also known as the pirate Blackbeard and became a prominent figure in the criminal world. Using this name, Savage started looking for the treasure of the Miagani and defeated "The Black Pirate" in his quest. However, he came across Bruce Wayne once again and Savage was tricked after reaching the mysterious cave. After losing most of his crew, Savage was forced to retreat from Gotham and months later, rumors about Blackbeard's death began to spread across the land.[14] However, the man who was killed was one of Savage's own crew. Savage survived and let everyone believe that Blackbeard was dead.[1]

Once again in the 19th century, Savage adopted a new identity under the name of Monsieur Savage. He settled in Gotham City after he stole gold from Napoleon Bonaparte and learned of a secret box that held the secret to eternal life. As he had been diagnosed with a cancer, he sought the box to extend his already long-lived existence with help from bounty hunter Jonah Hex and a man called Thomas Wayne. However, his efforts were once again thwarted by Bruce Wayne, who retrieved the box from him and left him unconscious after another confrontation.[15]

Over the centuries, Savage's name appeared over and over again in Western history, as advisor to kings and pharaohs in Sumer, Egypt, and Europe. He claimed to have ruled hundreds of civilizations under hundreds of names: Cheops,[16] Alexander the Great,[citation needed] Julius Caesar,[16] Genghis Khan,[16] and Vlad the Impaler,[citation needed] to name a few. He had also worked as close friends and advisers to the likes of Erik the Red,[citation needed] Napoleon Bonaparte,[17] Ra's al Ghul,[citation needed] Otto von Bismarck[17] and Adolf Hitler.[citation needed] He was the court physician in France, and even used the royal family for syphilis experiments.[18]

Modern Age

Beginning in the 1940s, Savage frequently battled the Justice Society of America. One attempt to capture the members of the Justice Society out of revenge was thwarted by two Flashes, Jay Garrick and Barry Allen.

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, took over as Savage's nemesis. However, Savage's list of foes is not limited to those two individuals. Having lived so long, Savage has butted heads with possibly every single hero in past, present, and future, most notably the Justice Society of America and the Justice League of America. At present, Savage is about 52,000 years old.

Over time, Savage forgot many of his special powers, and never exhibited them to Barry Allen. However, he later began a quest to recharge them by killing. His first intended victim was Wally West, who by then had taken over the mantle of the Flash. 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 the private eye knew too much.[2] 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.[3]

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.[19] 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 easily.

Savage wished to use the heroin distribution network headed by 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.[20] 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.[18]

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, which led him to Barry Allen's grave, where Rosie was being kept. However, throughout all of this, Savage never showed his face.

Originally Savage was a member of Alexander Luthor's Secret Society of Super-Villains, but he quit and told Lex not to contact him for any reason. This was likely because his daughter Scandal was working against the Society as part of the Secret Six.[21] When the Society lodged a final ambush against the Six, Vandal threatened to kill Luthor if he did not call off the attack, saying that he could not allow anyone to harm his daughter. Whether this was a case of fatherly concern or Vandal has ulterior motives for his daughter remained to be seen.

One Year Later

During the wake of the Infinite Crisis, Savage took a drastic turn his own ways on taking over the world in which he decided to restart human civilization by destroying Earth by pulling an asteroid into the planet. While leading a doomsday cult to help accomplish his plan, Savage's plot was foiled by the Flash (Wally West) and the asteroid was sent back into space, along with Savage. Eventually the asteroid fell back to Earth with Savage, who then discovered his immortality was declining and would therefore lead to his own demise. Savage chose to preserve his life by stealing the DNA of Green Lantern Alan Scott.[22] Using a deformed clone of the original Sandman, Wesley Dodds, Vandal Savage's plans of capturing Scott failed. However, Savage found himself surviving by inhumane means when consuming a clone of himself, preserving his life a year longer.[1][23]

Savage would later form a group of super-powered Neo-Nazis called the Fourth Reich to murder 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. His victims included Minute-Man, Mister America, and General Glory, along with their families.[24][25][26] Savage took the liberty of personally eliminating Wildcat and his son Tom Bronson himself, but only to be underestimated by Bronson's transformation into a cat-like creature who was able to overcome Savage. Ultimately, Savage's slaughter ended with his temporary defeat by Wildcat and his son, and the Fourth Reich was defeated by the Justice Society.[27]

Salvation Run

Savage was captured by American government authorities and was among many villains that were secretly deported to the hell planet called "Salvation," which unknown to the deportees and their handlers that the planet was a training ground for the Parademons of Apokolips. Surviving the planet's deadly flora and fauna, Savage used his knowledge to locate a "safe zone" freed from any predators. He led a group of all-female villains to this safe zone with intentions of mating them and to build his own civilization.[28] However, the women turned against him once they learned that he had been manipulating them to turn against each other. Ultimately, Savage escaped back to Earth along with the villains following an attack by Parademons sent by Desaad.[29]

Final Crisis

 Main article: Final Crisis: Revelations

Vandal Savage FC 01

Savage as Cain.

After returning to Earth, Savage became a member of the Society's second incarnation underneath Libra, serving as one of his inner cabinet members, during the Final Crisis. He also became involved with the Religion of Crime and was revealed to be actually the man the Religion of Crime worships as "Cain", the original murderer and sinner. Savage was reborn as Cain after cultists of the Religion of Crime plunged the Spear of Destiny into him. As Cain, he went on a path of revenge against the Spectre for punishing Cain in the past.[30]

Managing to defeat the Spectre, Cain used the Spear of Destiny to separate the Spirit of Vengeance from his human host, Crispus Allen, and made him his slave.[31] Though he almost had his revenge, Cain's plan was undone by The Question, who managed to steal the Spear and reunite the Spectre with Crispus Allen. The Spectre spared from killing Cain as forbidden by God and instead had him branded by the Mark of Cain, being forever reviled and persecuted by the world until God feels that this punishment was justified.[32]

Savage walked the Earth after his devastating defeat before coming across and assisting his colleague Ra's al Ghul and the Outsiders on defeating Savage's former tribesmen called the Insiders, who were exposed to the same meteor that granted Savage immortality.[33] Savage would later on encounter the Huntress and The Question, managing through threats against the both of their lives to get The Question to take the Mark of Cain from him and carry it herself.[34]

Powers

Abilities

Weaknesses

  • Blood Sacrifice: Savage renews these powers through the consumption of his enemies' blood. Savage must also harvest the organs of his blood descendants to sustain his immortal life.


  • Savage will possibly meet his end in the year 85,271 A.D., when he is sent back in time to 20th century Montevideo, Uruguay, seconds before it is decimated by a nuclear weapon, an action that was, ironically, ordered by Savage himself. This is, however, only one possible future for Savage.[38]
  • Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-Two era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and no longer apply.
  • Nothing is known about Vandar Adg's mother, except she ate human flesh and had a necklace made of baby fingers bones[5].
  • Archaeological evidence has suggested that Vandal Savage is actually the inventor of Cannibalism.[21]
  • Vandal Savage has been alive for centuries. As such he has influenced a few notable people in history, he was influenced by a few others and he actually was a few people in history. These people include Licinius, Khafre, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar[16], Genghis Khan[16], Vlad the Impaler and Jack the Ripper.
  • Savage has been known to lie or exaggerate about his past. In his first appearence, he claimed to have been Cheops, Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan. While the latter two are possible, well-established Hawkman backstory shows that Savage was definitely not Cheops.
  • On New Earth (and Earth-Two), Vandal Savage was Blackbeard the pirate, and Edward Teach/Thatch (the man who was Blackbeard in real life) apparently did not exist. However, in the other pre-Crisis realities (Earth-One, Earth-S, etc.), Edward Teach did exist and was Blackbeard.
  • According to Savage, 34,000 years ago he invented the carving knife, 3,200 years ago he fought alongside Moses to lead the Isrealites out of Egypt from the Pharoah's rule, and 1,600 years he survived the destruction of the library of Alexandria.[39]
  • In his first appearance, Vandal Savage claimed to be 1 million years-old. It would be retconned later to 50,000 years-old. Obviously, archaeological research in later years would indicate that human race is not such old.

Related

Footnotes


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