Queer Comic Book Character: Scandal Savage (Oct 17th)

Scandal’s first appearance was in Villains United #1, and she was created by Gail Simone. She is the daughter of the immortal Vandal Savage. While she vows not to be like her father, Scandal is still a villain and an anti-hero. She sees the world as broken down between noble and ignoble actions.

Scandal Savage

Scandal Savage
Scandal Savage

Scandal was raised in Brazil by her human mother. However, Vandal came around to teach her combat skills and seemingly wanted her around as an heir. (How an immortal can have a true heir, I don’t know either.) He gave her a set of Lamentation Blades, which marked her as a Savage. Scandal also seemingly inherited some of his immortality, or at least, she has healing powers.

Lex Luthor blackmailed her and five other villains to form the Secret Six during Identity Crisis. The Secret Six were to take on the Secret Society of Super Villains, who were under the control of an alternative universe Lex Luthor. Scandal goes along with everything to save her mother.

However, Scandal falls in love with Knockout. When Scandal fights against Talia al Ghul, Knockout joins the fight and reveals herself to be a mole working with the Secret Six. Scandal finds that she has more reasons than just her mother’s welfare to stick with the Secret Six.

Scandal and Knockout kiss.
Scandal and Knockout kiss.

But the honeymoon doesn’t last. When Scandal and Knockout go on vacation to Bangkok, they’re attacked by a sniper. Knockout jumps in front of the explosive bullet meant for Scandal. She then throws herself into the ocean to avoid killing bystanders. However, when Scandal goes to find Knockout’s body, she finds her girlfriend alive, but badly burned.

Scandal hunts and tortures the sniper, Pistolera. However, she doesn’t really have the stomach for killing and instead has teammate Deadshot kill Pistolera. They find out that Vandal sent Pistolera to kill Knockout and did several other attacks on them to attempt to have Scandal date a man and produce him a grandchild.

When Scandal fights her father, the two are pretty matched in combat. It’s only when Deadshot shoots Vandal in the head that the fight is interrupted. Father and daughter fall over a wall, with Scandal hanging onto the wall and Vandal hanging onto her feet. Vandal is forced to admit that Scandal looks too much like her mother, the woman he loved, and that he wants to her live. So Vandal lets go and plunges to one of his many deaths.

The Secret Six go on several other missions, including having some fights and team-ups with the Birds of Prey. Scandal fights Hawkgirl, and her regeneration power is shown when Spy Smasher makes Deadshot shoot Scandal in order to end their fight.

Afterward, Scandal teases Knockout about her fight with Big Barda. When Knockout goes after Big Barda, she’s killed by the villain going around killing the New Gods. Scandal becomes extremely depressed and drinks a lot. In her drunkenness, Scandal’s kidnapped and thrown into Amanda Waller’s Salvation Run operation where she’s exiled to another planet with the rest of the world’s metacriminals.

However, being villains, they get out. Despite her drinking, Scandal remains with the Secret Six. In an effort to make her happy, the team hires a stripper dressed as Knockout to jump out of a cake. (Awe, villains, what they think will make you feel better.) While Scandal turns down the stripper’s advances, she seems to snap out of her major depression. Though she does steal a “Get Out of Hell Free” card created by Neron as she believes Knockout’s soul may be trapped in hell. Even if she does start going out on dates with other women.

Scandal also becomes friends with Bane. She helps him through his addiction to venom, and the two have a somewhat father-daughter relationship.

Bane is surprisingly sensitive to Scandal, and she responds with gratitude.
Bane is surprisingly sensitive to Scandal, and she responds with gratitude.

However, Bane takes the Secret Six out of Scandal’s leadership and kicks her off the team after Scandal takes venom to fight against her half-brother and some other villains. Scandal remains living at the Secret Six’s headquarters, but does not go on missions with them anymore. It seems that she might go to find Knockout’s soul and save her from hell.

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