The following contains spoilers for Young Justice: Phantoms Episode 17, “Leviathan Wakes,” now available on HBO Max.
Young Justice: Phantoms provided shocking insight into Vandal Savage as the season progressed. Initially, it seemed he was jostling for power via dark alliances with the Light and Darkseid. But the show revealed he was actually playing a cosmic chess game over millennia with the Lords of Chaos and Order.
Vandal wanted to help Earth become stronger, so it could survive as the last planet in the galaxy, ergo why he destroyed Atlantis to kickstart the birth of metahumans. He simply wanted to make humanity a more evolved species, deserving of the cosmos. However, the latest episode shockingly revealed Vandal’s frail side with his newest project failing and breaking him.
Vandal’s always been cool, calm and collected — 10 steps ahead of the field, ergo why the Justice League could never stop him. He’s mixed science and magic, smartly playing heroes and villains against each other to get the ultimate army. Unfortunately, he can’t use Atlantis as a puppet anymore, and it’s all due to the Lords of Order being tired of his shenanigans.
In the past, they empowered him and his family. His son, Nabu, became Doctor Fate and the official emissary of Order, while grandson, Arion, was blessed with immense power with his crown. However, Arion didn’t want to destroy Atlantis to cause the Homo Magi species to form, which led to a war where Klarion the Witch Boy razed the place to enact Vandal’s plan. Many thought Arion was dead, but he returned recently to save Atlantis from a couple terrorist attacks from a resurrected Orm.
Surprisingly, Vandal used all these tragic events for Project Thrinos. He cloned Orm, using tech from Psimon and the Ultra-Humanite to warp an old copy of Ocean Master’s mind and place it into this Orm. He took all agency away and used him to get Atlantis hooked on a prophecy that would get Orin (the former Aquaman) voted out and Arion, another clone that resurfaced, installed as the “rightful savior.” Vandal predicted Kaldur and Co. would find his crown in Xebel and once he put it on, Arion would rule and make Atlantis a secret pawn. The kicker was, this was another copy of Orm’s mind but one that wanted to rule over Orin, and make his family pay for casting him aside.
Vandal didn’t foresee the crown’s power being sucked back up by the Lords of Order, however, incinerating his clone, and rendering the relic useless gold. Atlantis then went under Mera’s rule, totally ruining Vandal’s scheme. To rub salt in the wounds, Nabu visited his dad’s lair, as Zatanna in Fate’s form, gloating. Order didn’t want any more meddling, so they delivered the message how the future had already moved past the villain.
It left Vandal a rare sight as Fate departed: wide-eyed, angry and emotional. He broke the flute he got Arion’s DNA from, upset he was no longer seen as a power player. However, this could doom the planet, because with a base full of weapons, an unhinged Vandal may opt to wage one last war to punish Earth due to his bruised ego.
See how Vandal rebounds after this incident, with new episodes of Young Justice: Phantoms debuting Thursdays on HBO Max.
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