Air Wave
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Air Wave is the name of three fictional superheroes in the DC Comics universe. The first two were active in the Golden Age of Comic Books; the current Air Wave is a modern super-hero.
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[edit] Fictional character biographies
[edit] Larry Jordan
Law clerk Lawrence 'Larry' Jordan had recently graduated from law school and was an intern at the Brooklyn District Attorney office. Noticing the rise of crime, Jordan decided to become a costumed crimefighter using technology, using his interests in radio and electronics to create his equipment, including a cowl radio system that allowed him to listen in on police reports and special skates that enabled him to travel along telephone lines. He was accompanied by an outspoken parrot named Static, who occasionally aided him in battle (and, for narrative purposes, gave him someone with whom he could converse in order to provide extrapolative information to the reader; parrot sidekicks served a similar purpose for Quality Comics's Madame Fatal, Hillman Comics's Twilight, and others). His superhero activities were noticeable enough for President Franklin Roosevelt to request his participation in the All-Star Squadron. Prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths, Air Wave was one of the few heroes known to have been active during the "golden age" on both Earth-1 and Earth-2. Whether each Earth had its own Larry Jordan, or whether there was only one Larry Jordan who (not unlike Commander Steel) originated on Earth-2 (home of the All-Star Squadron) and later traveled to Earth-1 (where he once met Superboy (later Superman)) was never revealed, nor is the point likely to be clarified at this late date.
Larry Jordan retired from his career as Air-Wave in 1948 and married Helen soon afterward. Their son, Harold (Hal), was born as Jordan continued his research into radio wave conversion.
In DC Comics Presents #40, it was revealed that Larry was killed by a man he had once prosecuted as a district attorney. Joe Parsons was an escaped convict who took revenge by breaking into his home. Larry's costume malfunctioned as he tried to protect his family and he died from a shotgun wound to the chest.
[edit] Helen Jordan
Helen Jordan was the wife of Larry Jordan, the original Air Wave. After Larry's death, Helen donned the Air Wave costume and brought the killer, Joe Parsons, to justice, but never wore the suit again.
When her son Hal entered high school, Helen sent the boy to live with his cousins in Dallas as she slowly succumbed to mental illness.
[edit] Harold Jordan
At a young age, Hal was found to exhibit the power to transmute into energy. Just as his father had modified his helmet and was preparing to train him to use his powers, Larry was killed. Eventually, Hal decided to follow in the footsteps of his father's career and took up the mantle of Air Wave. When his character was introduced (Green Lantern v2 #100), it was also revealed that he was a cousin of the Green Lantern Hal Jordan. Air Wave continued as a supporting character, though not in every issue, of Green Lantern and his co-stars of the time, Green Arrow and Black Canary, showing young Hal how to be a superhero. In Action Comics #488, Hal was featured in adventures of his own. For the next couple of years, he appeared in the secondary stories of Action Comics (the cover story almost always starred Superman), often alternating with the Atom. At some point, he became able to control his transmutation to energy without relying upon his father's equipment.
When Air Wave was recruited by the Institute for Metahuman Studies to join a group of highly capitalist superheroes called the Captains of Industry (Firestorm #88), he used the code name Maser after undergoing extreme gene-modification at the hands of Doctor Moon. This group was relatively short-lived and he soon resumed using Air Wave as his moniker. His next major appearance was in the JSA story arc (JSA #11-12) involving super-villain Kobra's plot to seize control of the world's media resources. When freed by the JSA, the seriously weakened hero destroyed Kobra's satellites, which were targeted to annihilate many of Earth's cities.
Later, Air Wave joined the JSA reserve in battle during the Imperiex War (JSA: Our Worlds at War #1), as well as against the triumvirate of Mordru, Obsidian, and Eclipso.
Air Wave was "dispersed" during a battle in Infinite Crisis #4 and is presumed dead.
