Vandal Savage

Vandal Savage, formerly known as Hath-Set, was an ancient Egyptian priest who gained immortality by consuming the souls of the Egyptian priestess, Chay-Ara, and the Egyptian prince, Khufu.

Ancient Egypt
Hath-Set was born in the Middle Kingdom of Egypt around 2000 B.C. and became a priest and adviser to Ramesses II. Hath-Set despised the pharaoh and secretly wished him dead. As the priest it was his job to make offers to the Egyptian God Horus, along with the Priestess Chay-Ara, and spare the land of his wrath from the celestial rocks (meteors). Hath-Set fell in love with Chay-Ara, but she was in love with the pharaoh's son Prince Khufu. One day, Hath-Set saw them kissing and became consumed with rage towards both. The following day, Hath-Set walked into Chay-Ara's bed chambers where he saw her and Khufu together and attacked them. He fatally stabbed Khufu before stabbing Chay-Ara. As both lay dying, another storm of meteors fell from the sky and begun laying waste to the kingdom. Hath-Set prayed to the gods for Khufu and Chay-Ara to suffer, whilst Chay-Ara prayed for Horus' protection. Their prayers were both fulfilled as the meteors possessed a special radiation, which affected the three of them. Hath-Set was granted immortality while Khufu and Chay-Ara's souls were reincarnated into new lives. For Hath-Set to retain his immortality, he would be forced to kill every incarnation of Khufu and Chay-Ara and absorb their life-force. However if Hath-Set were to be killed by either Khufu or Chay-Ara, the effects would be reversed and they would remain immortal and Hath-Set would reincarnate.

Next 4000 years
For 4000 years Hath-Set hunted down Khufu and Chay-Ara, killing them in all of their reincarnations and by the 21st century would achieve this 206 times. At some point Hath-Set abandoned his original name and adopted the new identity "Vandal Savage". Vandal also grew ambitious and desired dominion over the entire planet but knew the current resources of his time were insufficient to achieve such a goal, and secretly begun influencing various powerful figures of authority into war to further the development of weapons and scientific technologies and prime the world for his eventual rule.

In his quest Vandal became associated with Julius Caesar and guided him through the Gallic Wars which he most likely had a hand in causing, and later met Genghis Khan's and Savage served him as his most trusted adviser. Vandal was also taught how to resist pain by Robin of Locksley while in turn Vandal taught Robin the skills of archery.

Vandal was also apparently used the aliases Niccolò Machiavelli and Nostradamus.

In 1887 while hunting down the current incarnations of Khufu and Chay-Ara, Vandal traveled to China but for reasons unclear encountered difficulty and instead caused the Yellow River to flood to kill Khufu and Chay-Ara and succeeded, whilst also killing 2 million other civilians to lose their lives also. A few years later Vandal once met Harry Houdini and taught him how to get out of locked handcuffs.

In 1914 Vandal met and manipulated Gavrilo Princip into assassinating Franz Ferdinand which lead to World War I.

In 1928 Vandal hunted the latest incarnations of Khufu and Chay-Ara, Joe and Edith Boardman, who had already spent years running from Vandal, and had hidden in North Carolina. Vandal found them in the middle of the night and murdered them in the hotel they were staying in unaware they had a son, Aldus, who saw the whole thing and who would spend his whole life studying the story of Khufu, Chay-Ara and Hath-Set in the hopes of one day achieving vengeance for his parents.

Vandal was also present in World War II where he was a member of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party.

In 1963 Vandal was present the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated which he possibly played a role in causing.

In 1975 Vandal was located in Norway where he stole a prototype rocket.

21st Century
In 2015, Vandal stowed aboard a ship bound for Central City in his search of Chay-ara's latest reincarnation. When he was captured and about to handed over to the CCPD, Vandal slipped his cuffs onto the ship captain before killing him, his crew and the arresting police officer.

Vandal found Chay-ara, going by Kendra Saunders, and Cisco Ramon at CC Jitters. However, Cisco summoned the Flash, who quickly knocked Vandal down. Vandal recovered and threw a knife at Cisco. The Flash distracted himself to catch the knife, enabling Vandal to escape.

As the Flash and Cisco took Kendra to Star City to seek the aid of Team Arrow, Vandal gave pursuit. He stormed Thea Queen's loft as both teams were celebrating. He threw a flurry of knifes at all, but as Barry attempted to catch them all, he throw an extra knife, managing to knock Barry down. He then caught the arrows shot at him and engaged Oliver in close combat. He knocked him down and threw a knife which Barry caught. Oliver and Thea speed shot a barrage of arrows at him. He was able to block most with his fan. However he took three to the chest and fell off of the balcony.

Realizing he was outmatched, Vandal returned to Central City to find the Staff of Horus. He finds the staff before the Flash and Green Arrow arrive to stop him. Utilizing the staff, he was able to keep both heroes at bay. Acknowledging them as worthy opponents, Vandal was about to utilize the staff's full power when he sensed Kendra awakening her past lives. Regaining his bearings, he used the staff to destroy the church, although both of his foes managed to escape.

Malcolm Merlyn, the current Ra's al Ghul, organized a meeting with Vandal, along with Green Arrow and the Flash, in which he expressed his wish to have Carter Hall and Kendra Saunders, or he would destroy both Star City and Central City. They eventually agreed to hand them over, not knowing that they plan to use the exchange as a means to defeat him.

During the exchange, Green Arrow suddenly turned on him and attacked. Vandal incapicated Green Arrow and killed Carter with his knives. He then killed Kendra who was unable to use her wings, absorbing the life force of her and Carter and becoming so strong that the arrows shot at him by Green Arrow bounced off. Barry tried to use his staff against him, but Vandal used his magic and used the staff to kill Oliver and incinerate the city with everyone in it, including Team Arrow and Team Flash. However, Barry escaped and used time travel to go back a day and come up with a better plan.

Having the exchange again, they had learned from the alternate future failure. They handed him Khufu and Chay-Ara. However, before he could kill them, Green Arrow shot their bonds, freeing both Chay-Ara and Khufu. During the fight, Team Arrow managed to stall Vandal long enough for the Flash to take his staff. The Flash and Green Arrow used a glove of Nth metal to channel the power of the  Staff of Horus, in turn defeating Vandal Savage and turning him to dust. Malcolm later collected his remains and said that he would owe him one. Due to his end not being at the hands of Carter and Kendra, Vandal was able to somehow be restored from the ashes left in his wake and continued his plans.

22nd Century
By 2166 Vandal's plans for world domination succeeded and left billions dead, his reign was so significant that dictators such as Julius Caesar and Adolf Hitler were considered amateurs in comparison. Whilst in a killing spree of rebels Savage murdered a rebel woman and confronted her son Jonas Hunter, and after Vandal remarked how his father Rip Hunter was a fool and his mother brave Vandal murdered Jonas.

Personality
Vandal is cold, ruthless and brutal and obsessed with being immortal, even if it meant killing Chay-Ara and Khufu for the rest of his life even if it meant in different lifetimes.

Vandal took no restraint in avoiding the deaths of innocent people, he was totally amoral and capable of destroying two cities filled with innocent people simply to drove Chay-Ara and Khufu out of hiding. Vandal himself said that he assisted Julius Caeser in the Gaelic Wars and was advisor to Genghis Khan. Once Vandal even flooded a city that was inhabited with nearly two million people.

As he has killed Khufu and Chay-Ara 206 times in the past Vandal has become quite arrogant in the present, thinking that they were no longer a challenge for him and could believing that he could defeat the combined forces of the Flash and Green Arrow by himself.

Vandal appears to have a sort of attraction towards Chay-Ara, even in Ancient Egypt where he thought about raping her. And while confronting Kendra Saunders at Jitters comments "you are just as beautiful in this life as you are in the last". While seemingly handing over Kendra, Vandal even calls her "my love".

Powers

 * Immortality: Due to being exposed to the radiation of a meteor, Vandal gained Immortality. Every time he kills Khufu and Chay-Ara, he became more powerful. Vandal is at least 4,000 years old and remained physically unchanged in all this time, retaining his physical health, conditioning, and appearance, making him able to live on potentially indefinitely. In order for him to maintain this state, he has to repeatedly kill the reincarnations of Khufu and Chay-ara and absorb their life force. As he draws his immortality by absorbing bits of the energies of the meteor from their lifeforce, the only way to truly kill him is if the reincarnations of Khufu and Chay-ara deal the final blow, otherwise he could still be restored.
 * Regeneration: It was stated by Rip Hunter that Vandal is capable of regenerating from a single cell.
 * Enhanced speed: When a cop shot at Vandal at point blank range, he was able to dodge, disarm, and shoot him in seconds.
 * Enhanced reflexes: Vandal was able to effortlessly dodge and catch multiple arrows. He was even able to dodge bullets shot at him at point blank range.
 * Magic: Vandal is well-versed in magic, he was able to link his life-force to that of Khufu and Chay-Ara. Since he was linked to the reincarnations of Khufu and Chay-Ara, he could sense their presences to find them. He is also able to use displacement spells (or at least sleight-of-hand) to seamlessly slip out of handcuffs and instantly place them on a man several feet in front of him.

Abilities

 * Genius-level intellect/Master tactician: Vandal has 4,000 years of experience in tactics and tracking down Khufu and Chay-Ara. During this period he killed them 206 times. It was rumored that he was Genghis Khan's greatest adviser and had helped Julius Caesar during the Gallic Wars and even mentoring Harry Houdini in many of his magic tricks.  His tactical skills were so great he was able to raise an army in secret and conquer the entire planet.
 * Expert escape artist: Vandal has shown that he can effortlessly break free from hand cuffs, as well as use magic to make them appear on others several feet in front of him instead of himself. He says he taught Houdini escapism.
 * Multilingual: Vandal is shown able to fluently speak English, Arabic, and ancient Egyptian.
 * Master hand-to-hand combatant/Martial artist: Vandal is a highly skilled close-range and unarmed fighter, drawing from his millenniums of experience, as he was able to easily gain the upper hand in a fight against Green Arrow. He was able to fight Team Arrow simultaneously in close combat and win with ease. His skill in fighting allowed him to wield blades and other melee weapons with ease, as well as to allow him to disarm others and turn their weapons against them, as he did to overpower, disarm, and shoot a police officer in seconds.
 * Master knife-thrower: Vandal is highly skilled in throwing knives with deadly accuracy. His knife throwing is so fast that Khufu and Green Arrow were not able to react to it, even the Flash seemed to have a difficult time catching them. He was able to throw 5 knives in one motion and would have hit all his targets if the Flash had not intercepted them.
 * Master staff fighter: Vandal can wield the Staff of Horus like a melee weapon. While wielding the staff he was able to fight Spartan, Speedy and Black Canary simultaneously and come out on top.
 * High tolerance for pain: Vandal is able to ignore pain, unfazed by an arrow deeply penetrating his chest. This was taught to him by Robin of Locksley.
 * Master archer: In exchange for Robin of Locksley teaching him resistance to pain, Vandal claims to have taught Robin archery.
 * Occult knowledge: Vandal has knowledge of magic and mysticism, and has been shown to utilize magic. When sarcastically questioned if Houdini taught him magic, he claimed he taught Houdini.

Equipment

 * Knives: Vandal wears 32 knives on the inside of his coat, and has had thousands of years of experience wielding them. Some knives he has been shown to utilize are daggers and throwing knives.
 * Metal fan: Vandal wields a metal fighting fan that he used to deflect arrows.
 * Staff of Horus: The Staff of Horus is an Nth metal artifact that was used by Vandal as a melee weapon in close quarter combat, and as a mid-range weapon by shooting blue energy blasts and waves of mystical nature at his enemies. Contact with these waves meaning instant incineration. By knocking the butt of the staff onto the ground, Vandal could conjure up a magical energy blast which grows to the size of a metropolis, burning alive every human in its path. The weapon had an energy field that physically kept others from even touching the staff, sending those who tried flying through the air. Specialized gloves were made by Cisco Ramon to render this protection useless. While the user could touch the staff and even fire its energy, its energy aura was harmful to them and forced the user to release the staff before it could kill them. The staff would even resist the users ability to fire its energy, causing it to be unable to burn or harm what it was fired at. When the Flash went back in time, he revealed the failure of the gloves, allowing Cisco to create them better, allowing the Flash and Green Arrow to wield it and fire its energy without problems. This resulted in Vandal's death during the revised version of his battle with the Flash, Green Arrow, Hawkgirl and Carter Hall.

Trivia

 * In an erased timeline, Vandal succeeds in killing not only Carter and Kendra, but also almost every current member of Team Arrow and Team Flash, with the exception of Quentin Lance and Barry Allen, as well as everyone in Central City, making Vandal arguably the most powerful and dangerous supervillain the heroes/superheroes have ever come across, that they only managed to defeat with only the full support of both teams and Barry's ability to time travel.
 * Vandal's former name, Hath-Set, is roughly translated as "maker of evil".

Behind the scenes

 * Vandal Savage is one of DC Comics oldest super-villains, debuting in Green Lantern #10 in December 1944. In his origin story Savage was a fifty thousand year old cave man who gained immortality and genius level intellect after exposing himself to a radioactive meteorite.
 * This portrayal of Vandal Savage is an amalgamation of the DC Comics' Savage and of Hath-Set, the long time enemy and nemesis of Hawkman and Hawkgirl.
 * The conflict between Savage, Hawkman and Hawkgirl resembles the conflict between Gentleman Ghost and Hawkman in the pre-Flashpoint continuity. Jim Craddock was an English highwayman who was wrongly murdered by the American gunslinger Nighthawk, Prince Khufu's 19th century reincarnation. As a result, Craddock became the revenant Gentleman Ghost and sets out to murder Khufu's latest incarnation in order to put his soul to rest. Unfortunately, due to the endless cycle of reincarnation which affects Khufu's soul, Craddock is unable to accomplish this feat and is forced to remain undead. Though Savage was briefly Hawkman's archenemy post-Zero Hour until Hawkman was temporarily written out of the comics.
 * Aldus Boardman claimed that Savage was known under the names Machiavelli and Nostradamus. However, historically, these two had overlapping lives, so this claim is likely false.