WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Justice League #7 by Scott Snyder, Jim Cheung, Mark Morales, Walden Wong and Tomeu Morey, on sale now.


In the DC Universe, Vandal Savage may actually be the oldest human alive. As comic book lore says, he was given the gift of immortality from the radiation of a meteor. With this gift, he quickly came to power in his own time, rising as a leader among prehistoric cavemen. Vandal then went on to become the most influential person in human history, and has survived to the present day to become one of the greatest villains in the modern era. That all came to an end in Justice League #1.

RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Snyder Reveals His Justice League & Super Friends’ Secret Connection

At one time, Vandal may have been considered the world's oldest and darkest secret, but Scott Snyder, Jim Cheung and Jorge Jimenez's run on Justice League has established that there are far greater revelations to be learned about the history of the human race. Lex Luthor has put together his Legion of Doom to uncover the truth, and in order to do so he had to pass over the old world order; he had to kill Vandal Savage and embrace doom.

The ancient villain has been dead for several months now, but that hasn't stopped Snyder and company from adding a new wrinkle to the origin of Vandal Savage. Justice League #7 revises the secret origin of Savage to show just how connected he is to everything.

The Coming of the Totality

Following the destruction of the Source Wall at the end of Dark Nights: Metal, the key to all existence in the universe fell to Earth as the mysterious energy source referred to as the Totality. On the first page of the first issue of Justice League, we witnessed the coming of the Totality as it traveled from beyond the Source Wall and made planetfall. Over the course of its journey, it was witnessed by characters from all over the DCU timeline.

RELATED: Justice League: DC Just Low-Key Upgraded Two of Its Biggest B-List Villains

The event was seen by Justice Legion Alpha of the 853rd century, the Monitor thousands of years in the past and Kamandi in his apocalyptic wasteland of a future. As it turns out, Justice League #7 made a small clarification about the Totality's journey, and it changes everything. In a single panel, it is revealed that the Totality traveled to Earth and phased through time, as we previously saw. However, it also apparently left a fragment of itself behind on prehistoric Earth for Vandal Savage to discover.

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='The Vandal Savage Origin Story Gets An Overhaul']

For those who are familiar with the origin of Vandal Savage and, for that matter, the Immortal Man, it means that the meteor that created these evolved and immortal cavemen was actually a piece of the Totality itself. It means that whatever this power ends up being in the end, it has a clear ability to evolve life into superior beings, as previously seen during the title's opening storyline. The Totality designed the universe as we know it, and may even have the ability to grant people superpowers, for all we know.

RELATED: A Long-Missing Hero Returns in Justice League #7 – But What’s It Really Mean?

Savage has always been an evolutionary anomaly who split from the natural order of the world to become a powerful shaper of human history. However, now it appears that his origin is far more unnatural than we ever thought, as the supposed "blueprints" of the Multiverse had a hand in creating him. Also, if you trace events back far enough, it means that the Justice League itself had a hand in creating one of their greatest enemies of all time, and they don't even know it.

The Secret Origin of Vandal Savage

RELATED: Justice League’s Cosmic Doorknob May Hint At A New DC Secret Society

Justice League has been about more than just the world's greatest superheroes against its deadliest villains. Snyder has also played with the notion of fate. Will the human race embrace its own doom via chaos and evil, or can we overcome our baser instincts and change the tide of history? Can we instill the world with a sense of justice? Though he's been a bad guy since his introduction in 1943, according to Justice League #7, Vandal Savage was once on the side of justice.

Before his fateful encounter with the meteor that gave him immortality, Savage was a great leader among early mankind and held the title of "Vandaa," which meant "Judge, a bringer of justice." At one point, he championed the success of humanity, protecting them in the early years as they grew. Vandal Savage started off as the leader of the Wolf Tribe, one of the major clans of early human civilization. Back then, the man known as Vandaa was a force for good, but that all changed when he was forcefully evolved by the Totality.

Being gifted with the power of immortality allowed him to investigate the Totality and eventually come to understand the truth behind the universe. If the secrets of the universe were inherently evil, the man known as Vandal Savage would rise to become an enemy of humanity, steering them and willing them to avoid the truth. He would embrace injustice, become a villain from that day forth, but as it turns out, maybe Vandal had good intentions in the end.

RELATED: The Justice League Has Recruited the Galaxy’s Biggest Superhero

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to stop Lex Luthor from fully embracing doom and the terrible fate of humanity. With the truth revealed to him, Luthor only saw Savage as an outdated obstacle for mankind to learn the truth, and he needed to be eliminated to make way for the new world order. Vandal Savage's centuries-old mission to protect the world from its own dark secrets has come to an end, and now only the Justice League stands in the way of the Legion of Doom's quest to end the world.