Red Tornado (android)
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- This article is about the Silver Age version of Red Tornado. For the Golden Age version, see Red Tornado (Ma Hunkel).
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Red Tornado is a fictional superhero in the DC Universe.
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[edit] Silver Age character history
The Silver Age Red Tornado's first appearance was in Justice League of America #64 (August 1968), written by Gardner Fox. He is an android created by the supervillain T. O. Morrow for the purpose of infiltrating the Justice Society of America (part of the plan involved giving the android a false memory indicating that it was the Red Tornado who had attended the first JSA meeting.) After the android was complete, it was merged with two other entities: Ulthoon the Tornado Tyrant of Rann and Tornado Champion.
[edit] Tornado Tyrant and Tornado Champion background
These two tornado entities originated from the planet Rann in the Earth-1 universe. This being, originally one entity, confronted Rann's adopted champion, Adam Strange, and was defeated. Following that defeat, the being contemplated the nature of good and evil and decided that good was the superior force. The good side called itself the Tornado Champion; the evil side, the Tornado Tyrant. Confronting the Tyrant, the Tornado Champion was easily defeated. Disheartened, the Tornado Champion lured the Tyrant to Earth-1, where the Tyrant was defeated by the real JLA. The Tornado Champion decided that there was little satisfaction in being an imitation, and journeyed to Earth-2 in an attempt to find a new identity. The Tornado Champion came upon the criminal T. O. Morrow, who was creating an android with which to infiltrate and defeat the Justice Society of America. The Tornado Champion decided to assume control of the robotic form. The merging had an unexpected side effect, however: The Tornado Champion's memory was erased. Red Tornado then seemed to be a new life-form. This leads to a bit of controversy relating to Red Tornado's origins. Although his body is from Earth 2, his original being (Tornado Champion) is from Earth One. Thus he is one of the few uniquely torn between both worlds. His loss of the android body however, makes him ore likely an Earth-One character, if one can apply such criteria to characters after Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis.
[edit] As Red Tornado
Believing itself to be the original JSA associate, Red Tornado visited JSA headquarters and announced its return to active duty. The JSA, not recognizing the android, was incredulous but allowed the Tornado to accompany them to defeat a theft at a nearby museum. Through a series of mishaps choreographed by Morrow, Red Tornado seemingly killed the JSA members. Red Tornado then tracked Morrow to his lair and seemingly defeated him. When the remaining JSAers arrived to investigate, a booby-trapped weapon felled them all. Morrow then traveled to Earth-1, where he defeated the JLA as he had the JSA before them. Red Tornado, recovered from his previous injuries, followed Morrow and revived the JLA. The JLA and the android then defeated Morrow, uncovering a method to revive the JSA back on Earth-2. Morrow confessed that Red Tornado was his android construct, but the JSA still admitted him as a member in good standing.
When the mad Star-God Aquarius attacked Earth-2, many JSA members were captured and sealed in a magical bubble as Aquarius phased Earth-2 out of existence. Red Tornado escaped, reaching Earth-1 and contacting the JLA. The JLA disregarded the android to tend to their own affairs, ultimately hearing him out two weeks later. When they realized the JSA's dilemma, the JLA members quickly journeyed to the Earth-2 universe, defeating Aquarius and returning Earth-2 to normal.
Red Tornado often felt he was an outsider in the JSA, and that he was not appreciated as a sentient, independent organism. When he stumbled across the Creators monitoring Earth-2, he sought to impress his colleagues by defeating the aliens single-handedly. Instead, Red Tornado was captured and used as a conduit to bring Earth-1 and Earth-2 together. The JSA defeated the Creators and rescued Red Tornado; however, his easy defeat and manipulation left Red Tornado more dejected than ever.
During the 100th meeting of the Justice League of America, the JLA was summoned to Earth-2 to assist the JSA in defeating the Iron Hand, a sworn foe of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. The Iron Hand had created an orbiting weapon, shaped like a hand, that threatened Earth-2. Doctor Fate summoned a being known as the Oracle, who informed them of the Iron Hand's last defeat, which cost the life of one of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. The JLA and JSA split into teams and rescued the members of the SSV, who had been scattered throughout time, and with their help created a weapon that would destroy the Iron Hand's device. The delivery of the device to its necessary location was a suicide mission, one which Red Tornado secretly took while the other heroes were engaged in dealing with the Iron Hand and debating over who would go. In the resulting explosion, Red Tornado was believed to be destroyed. Red Tornado survived, however, and was catapulted to the Earth-1 universe, where he ultimately became a member of the Justice League of America. In the JLA, Red Tornado finally found a measure of acceptance.
However, the Tornado's adventures with the League caused him to repeatedly be destroyed, such as when he sacrificed himself to help defeat the alien villain Nekron, and was later reassembled once more under the control of the Construct in a plot against the League, which the android managed to overcome. While a member of the Justice League, the Red Tornado developed a human alter ego appearance, that of John Smith, and formed an attachment with a woman named Kathy Sutton. In addition, he adopted an orphan from the middle eastern nation of Bialya named Traya, and they formed a makeshift family. He formed friendships with his teammates, particularly new recruit Firestorm.
Eventually, T.O. Morrow returned as two individual personas, the Future Man (with a hyper-advanced brain providing him with psionic abilities) and a replica of the original T.O. Morrow body, this one equipped with an advanced battle suit. It is unknown how there were two T.O. Morrows except perhaps the original Morrow from Earth-2 and the one later found on Earth-1 (when Red Tornado reappeared) may have merged when they both ceased to exist following their confrontations with their two superhero team enemies. A conflict with the latter Morrow caused the Tornado's android shell to rupture, and at this point the above origin of the Tornado Champion/Tyrant's merging with the android body was revealed. Red Tornado soon regained his body and gained renewed confidence in now knowing he was truly a sentient being. This would not last for long, as tragedy would soon strike once more.
[edit] Adventures
During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, The Tornado Champion was again separated from his android host body, becoming an air elemental due to the Anti-Monitor utilizing him as a weapon against the combined might of both the Justice League and Society.
After the Crisis, the Red Tornado/Tornado Champion retained his air elemental status, and became the personification of a force of nature along with Swamp Thing (as an earth elemental) and Firestorm (as a fire elemental). The Red Tornado, like the Swamp Thing, used his new found responsibilties to act as a protector and advocate of nature.
Air pollution had an adverse effect on the Red Tornado/Tornado Champion, driving him half-mad and into conflict with Firestorm in The Elemental War. Eventually, Captain Atom and Firestorm calmed him, and Firestorm manufactured a new body shell for Red Tornado. It appears this new body was imperfect, as the Red Tornado began to experience serious malfunctions. His humanity was almost lost, and his physical appeance became more and more damaged, dirty and clearly not right. During a period of near-total malfunction, Red Tornado had been a member of the Leymen. During this period, he would experience odd jerks and spasms as he moved, and malfuctioning gears and mechanisms clanging together could be heard coming from within the android's body. He also could only speak in a halting, emotionless, mechanical monotone. During the course of his association with the Leymen, the original Red Tornado personality began to re-emerge, and slowly, his emotions and humanity as well.
Upon re-establishing his abilities to move properly and communicate, the Red Tornado re-established his connections with the Justice League and the regular super hero community. He served as an advisor for Young Justice, and as an auxiliary member of the JLA. During this period, he attempted to renew his relationship with his former girlfriend Kathy Sutton and Traya. While he did not succeed in fully reuniting with Sutton, his adopted daughter, Traya, has readily accepted the Red Tornado into her life, regardless of his appearance or state of repair. Because of Traya's attachment for the Red Tornado, Sutton allows Red Tornado regular visitations and contact. He has not, however, returned to his John Smith identity, instead acting as Traya's adoptive father in his superheroic/robotic identity.
[edit] Infinite Crisis and 52
Red Tornado was one of the heroes recruited by Donna Troy to fight against the menace in space during Infinite Crisis. According to a conversation between Doc Magnus and his creator T.O. Morrow in 52, The Red Tornado sacrificed himself during the Crisis (in fact he was utterly destroyed, hit by a stray Zeta beam signal). Morrow's response to this news is to question how many times the Tornado has actually died now, clearly indicating he expects the Red Tornado to return to active status eventually. Morrow also alludes to another android he created, called the Red Inferno. No other data is given on this possible sibling to the Red Tornado.
During the fifth week of the 52 event, after the other heroes were beamed back down to Earth at Uluru, the Tornado's speaker embedded in Mal Duncan's chest replayed a warning message for his comrades, "It's coming! 52! 52!", implying that shortly before his destruction he may have seen something pivotal to the DC Universe future.
Twelve weeks later, in 52 #17, it was revealed that the Red Tornado, now largely in pieces, was beamed back down to the Earth with the other heroes but apparently missed by the search team. Conscious but unable to say anything other than "52," the Tornado was discovered by a group of young Aborigines in the Australian outback. At the end of 52 #21 he was shown to have been reassembled with car parts by an Australian mechanic. Malfunctioning, but at least able to access his aereokinetic powers, in week 28 he was set against a group of Intergang enforcers evicting a tribe of Aborigins from their shanty town. Defeated, he was disassembled and trashed. His condition is yet to be seen.
[edit] One Year Later
In the latest Justice League series, the Red Tornado was revealed as reassembled, but still inactive. His soul, however, has been contacted by Felix Faust posing as Deadman, and offered one of Multiplex's dead bodies as a new host body, so that he can be human for his daughter and girlfriend. He has been called as a reserve member for the new Justice League of America. His new human body exhibits all of the powers and abilities of his old robotic bodies, possibly due to his soul being that of an elemental spirit.
His android body was stolen from Will Magnus's lab by Dr. Impossible. Magnus later notified Tornado, who left to find his stolen body. The android body is being reconstructed, and has been fitted with a variation of a Red Tornado/Amazo head. Meanwhile Arsenal, Black Canary and Green Lantern used a beacon that Will Magnus had installed in the body to trace it to T. O. Morrow's old headquarters. There, Professor Ivo had activated dozens (possibly hundreds) of duplicate androids of red, yellow, green,blue and black varieties. However some of these variettes posessed different powers such as lighting, strength and other elemental powers.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Red Tornado's true form was a powerful entity composed purely of violent wind forces. His android form channeled these forces through his arms and legs to produce bursts of cyclone-force winds and high speed forward velocity. On occasion, Red Tornado used his high-velocity movement to render himself invisible to unaided human vision. His android body facilitated aerokinesis, superhuman strength and resilience sufficient to withstand a direct hit from a missile, as demonstrated during the World War Three story line of the JLA series.
His current human body has all the powers related to his Air manipulation, albeit is not supposed to have the same resilience, stamina and self-repair/healing factor abilities.
[edit] Other media
In Justice League Unlimited, Red Tornado has made a number of cameo appearances. The Tornado first appears briefly at the end of Initiation. He has one line ("Sioouuuueee!") in the episode This Little Piggy in which he helps search for the cursed Wonder Woman. He then appeared in The Return, where he is destroyed by Amazo, but is rebuilt (with no on-screen explanation) by the time of Panic in the Sky, in which he helps repel an attack on the Watchtower by multiple clones of the Ultimen. The Red Tornado appeared in The Great Brain Robbery as one of the featured heroes of the episode. He was voiced by Powers Boothe.[1] The Red Tornado's final appearance was in Destroyer, the series finale, when he races out of the Justice League's headquarters with almost every other hero.
