Musing on Vandal Savage

[jeregenest]

Recently I read JSA: Savage Time which brought to mind Vandal Savage. Vandal Savage is one of those really cool ideas that I don't think the majority of DC writers and editors know how to handle right. Or at elast I'm usually disappointed by his use. It doesn't help that the stuff I love the most, the Rip Hunter stuff, is mostly out of continuity/crazy mess. But I'm told that there are promising developments on that front (almost enough for me to pick up an issue of 52, but not quite).

What interests me about Vandal Savage is the fact he's linear and immortal, operating in a world of timetravelling heroes from the now (other stuff interests me too, but I want to talk about this). This means that he could have knowledge of heroes that doesn't represent their timeline. So, for example, he meets the Justice Society of today in Ancient Egypt. In Ancient Rome he meets the Justice Society of the 1930s; he potentially has knowledge that could come in handy. Especially since Vandal Savage is supposed to be super smart (and no, I haven't been reading the current JSA Confidential). This is cool stuff. Its even cooler when his foe is a time travel. Vandal savage is linear through history, but his foe (say Rip Hunter) isn't so Savage has a very different viewpoint of Hunter than Hunter has of himself.

I can see using this in a time traveling game. The players are based in the now and time travel. Their foe is living linearly through time (and still exists in the modern day). Adventures happen scattered through time and through it a picture develops of the opposition. But that opposition also gets an interesting view of you. Some of the stuff in Continuity might help out here a lot.

Comments

[jeffwik.livejournal.com]

DC 1,000,000 was my favorite treatment of Vandal Savage -- set in the 853rd century, it boiled down to his eighty-thousand-year-old scheme against the Martian Manhunter's eighty-thousand-year-old scheme.

[ezrael.livejournal.com]

One of the best parts of that was his running feud with Mitch Shelley, who was an immortal who died and resurrected over and over again: that's another possible angle to consider. Different kinds of immortals.

[head58.livejournal.com]

There's a really good season 2 JL episode (comes out on Tuesday. Makes a great Father's Day gift!) where Superman gets thrown into the far future and has to work with Savage to get back home.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

The Immortal Man/Vandal Savage (with Resurrection Man coming later and being unfairly cancelled) is the other reason I like Vandal Savage so much.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately Tuesday is after Father's Day!

[bluegargantua]

But in many respects, Vandal Savage is no different than if, say, Batman had to fight time travellers (and given that it's comics, I can say without fear of contradiction that he has). Vandal's only real saving grace is that he's immortal and can thus plan to outlive all his foes -- even those jerks from the future who keep trying to screw him over.

And he can't be all that smart. With the advent of the modern age, he should be able to just deposit money in bank accounts and let compound interest work for him. Drop back in a few decades later for a swift and speedy withdrawl and he's livin' large. I feel like if you're the only immortal person in a world of dying humans, there's got to be something you want to do more than take over the world.

Plus. If he's so smart how come he doesn't have a time machine?

Tom

[ezrael.livejournal.com]

And he can't be all that smart. With the advent of the modern age, he should be able to just deposit money in bank accounts and let compound interest work for him.

Vandal Savage has been portrayed as obscenely wealthy, so maybe he did.

[my-tallest.livejournal.com]

can see using this in a time traveling game. The players are based in the now and time travel. Their foe is living linearly through time (and still exists in the modern day). Adventures happen scattered through time and through it a picture develops of the opposition. But that opposition also gets an interesting view of you. Some of the stuff in Continuity might help out here a lot.

Just be careful it doesn't become City of Death.

"No, not zat sweetch!"

[ivan23.livejournal.com]

I've loved Vandal Savage since his Adam Ant drug-dealin' days in the Flash!

Erm. And, you know, in JLA more recently. But still.