SCALPHUNTER *updated 10/5/09*

Art by Ramon Villalobos



Name: Scalphunter
Secret Identity: Brian Savage/Ke-Woh-No-Tay
First DC2 Appearance: WEIRD WESTERN QUARTERLY #2
Status: Hero
Base of Operations: The American West, late 1800s
Occupation: Bounty Hunter
Known Relatives: Vandal Savage (ancestor), Tiberius Savage (great-great-great-grandfather, deceased), Matthew Savage (father, deceased), Laurie Savage (mother, deceased), Matt “Boss” Savage (brother), Samantha Savage (sister), Annie Savage (wife), Steven Henry Savage (son), Charles Savage (descendant)
Height: 6’1” Weight: 190 lbs.
Eyes: Blue Hair: Black

Powers and Abilities: Scalphunter is an expert tracker, rider, and frontiersman, and is highly skilled with both traditional Indian weaponry (tomahawks, knives, bow and arrow) and all manner of guns. Unarmed, he excels at hand-to-hand combat and can overpower many opponents with his above-average strength and stamina. In addition to English, he is fluent in various Indian languages spoken by the Kiowa, and knows some Spanish phrases.

History: Born on a ranch in rural Missouri, Brian Savage experienced a typical frontier childhood until 1842, when his home was attacked by a Kiowa raiding party. His mother and siblings escaped unharmed, but his father was killed fighting off the attackers, and three-year-old Brian was taken in by the tribe. Now called Ke-Woh-No-Tay (which roughly translates to “He Who Is Less Than Human”), Brian was raised in the Kiowa tradition, but was looked upon as a slave due to his race -- whether because of abuse or from the trauma of seeing his father die, he soon blocked out most memories of his former life, and served his new masters without question. After years of mistreatment, though, he finally rebelled at seventeen after encountering a group of runaway black slaves, who told him of their own struggles to gain their freedom. Proving to the chief that he was an equal to any Kiowa by defeating the tribe’s best warrior, Ke-Woh-No-Tay was released from slavery, though he kept his derogatory name as a reminder of how far he’d come.

A few years later, he was captured by Union soldiers after being spotted in the area where some local prospectors had been killed -- Ke-Woh-No-Tay had witnessed the murders, but the soldiers refused to listen to him, seeing only a troublemaking Indian. As they made ready to hang him, one of the men suddenly intervened: Matt Savage, Brian’s older brother, who recognized his long-lost sibling by an unusual birthmark on his neck. Unfortunately, the younger Savage had completely forgotten who he really was, and didn’t believe the white man’s claims. Despite his doubts, he was grateful to Matt for saving his life, and helped the cavalryman track down the real killers. During their time together, some memories of his childhood returned, but to Matt’s disappointment, he refused to turn his back on his life as a Kiowa brave, and made the man promise to not tell their younger sister Samantha that he was alive (their mother had died years earlier). When the Civil War began not long after, the brothers each defended the Union in their own way: Matt rode with the cavalry, and Brian fought in a more mercenary fashion, taking out small bands of Confederate soldiers and helping slaves find their way out of the South. There were times when one brother lent a hand to the other, and on more than one occasion, the younger Savage was assisted -- to use the term loosely -- by a fortune-seeking outlaw/gambler named Bat Lash (see Bat Lash). One Rebel troop who witnessed a solitary attack by the Kiowa warrior, and who lost half their number due to it, dubbed their seemingly-unstoppable adversary “Scalphunter", and the name spread like wildfire through the ranks. When he returned to the West after the War, he continued to operate under the name, knowing that it had gained a reputation all its own. Now acting as a gun-for-hire, he sometimes found himself working alongside his old partner Bat Lash and, ironically, former Confederate soldier Jonah Hex (see Jonah Hex), whom he'd met many years before the War.

Though most of Brian’s adventures after the War were not out the ordinary for one who lives by the gun, there are a few incidents that stand out due to their fantastic nature. In 1875, Brian traveled to Texas to visit Matt, who’d given up on military life to work as a cattle-drive trail boss. While there, the brothers were confronted by a man they later learned to be Vandal Savage, an immortal world-conqueror and ancestor of theirs (see Vandal Savage). Vandal had come to collect an artifact that had been stolen from him centuries before by Tiberius Savage, the great-great-great grandfather of Matt and Brian. Though the brothers were able to keep the artifact out of Vandal’s clutches, the ramifications of that incident would not be fully learned until six decades later, by another generation of the Savage line.

The strangest experience of all came in 1878, when Brian, along with his old friends Lash, Hex, and a female gunslinger named Cinnamon, helped four time-lost members of the Justice League stop the Lord of Time from destroying Arizona (see separate entries). Though he and the others came to the agreement to not mention the incident with anyone else, the knowledge of it lent credence to the story told to him a couple years after by Greg Saunders (see Vigilante I), who had become stranded in the 19th Century while battling the Nebula Man.

By the mid-1880s, Brian Savage slowly began to lay aside his Scalphunter persona and settle down into “civilized” white society, taking the position of sheriff in Opal City. He never completely left his old life behind, however: his friend Bat Lash would stop by on many occasions to take advantage of his old partner’s newfound position, and Greg Saunders would eventually become one of Brian’s most trusted deputies. In fact, Brian would be one of the last people to see Greg before the man was finally transported back to his proper time.

Further details about Brian’s twilight years have not been revealed at this time, though it is known that, by 1895, he had taken a wife, with whom he had a son called Steven Henry Savage (see Balloon Buster) -- it is presumed that Captain Charles Savage, a private airline pilot that works in modern times for Gotham millionaire Bruce Wayne (see Batman), is descended from Brian’s son.