Red Tornado

Red Tornado is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. As the second character to assume the identity of Red Tornado, he is the result of an android being merged with a sentient tornado by T.O. Morrow.
Red Tornado appears in the TV series Supergirl, portrayed by Iddo Goldberg. Additionally, Corey Burton, Jeff Bennett, and Jason J. Lewis have voiced the character in animation.

Creation

Fox was interviewed about the character's creation stating, "The Red Tornado was a takeoff on a character from way back in the early '40s but she was a woman and we thought we'd bring a new version of the character in to get a new angle on a plot. I am certain that this idea was Julie's."

Publication history

Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Dick Dillin, the sentient android Red Tornado first appeared in Justice League of America #64. The Red Tornado name had previously been used for comical superheroine Ma Hunkel, who was introduced in All-American Comics in 1939 as a supporting character in Scribbly the Boy Cartoonist. She started using the Red Tornado name in 1940.
The 1968 Red Tornado was a sentient android able to generate tornado-speed winds enabling it to fly and perform other wind-related feats. Originally a member of the Justice Society of America, it moved to another dimension and joined the Justice League of America. Red Tornado's body was characteristically damaged or destroyed. It was retconned in 1981, briefly programmed with Ma Hunkel's memory until an older alien supervillain inhabits the android body. In a 1984 retcon, the Tornado Champion never inhabited the android body. Instead, an elemental air occupied the android. A 2011 reboot of the DC Comics universe, The New 52, eliminated Red Tornado from DC Comics.

Fictional character biography

Silver Age Red Tornado

Ulthoon, the Tornado Tyrant, and the Tornado Champion

Red Tornado was formed with the merger of two entities: an android body created by supervillain T. O. Morrow and the Tornado Champion from the planet Rann. The Tornado Champion was the morally good part of a sentient tornado on Rann. Known as Ulthoon, the Tornado Tyrant of Rann, this being was defeated by Adam Strange and "contemplated the nature of good and evil and decided that good was the superior force". Ulthoon is aware of Strange's adventure with the Justice League of America, and in a 1963 story decides to move to an uninhabited replica of Earth. Ulthoon takes on the form of the Justice League. Its evil side, later known as the Tornado Tyrant, emerges and defeats Ulthoon-Justice League. Determined to understand its failure, the Tornado Champion goes to Earth. In a second attack, the Justice League banishes the Tornado Tyrant to an "anti-matter universe" and is destroyed. The Tornado Champion ends his experiment with a duplicate Earth and JLA, and decides to continue being a hero. This story is retconned in Justice League of America #193, where the Tornado Champion tells JLA member Firestorm that it alone traveled to Earth in 1963 to "recreate" its failed battle against the Tornado Tyrant. After learning how to defeat its evil half it returned to the replica Earth, defeated its evil half and banished it "forever".
The next step in Red Tornado's evolution came in summer 1968, although the story was not published until 1981. The Tornado Champion, seeking an Earth where no one recognizes it, goes to the alternate dimension known in the DC Comics universe as Earth-Two. It encounters T.O. Morrow, a supervillain from Earth-One who is creating an android to use against the Justice Society of America. Morrow, attempting to dupe the JSA, gives the android Ma Hunkel's memory. The Tornado Champion enters the android's body, causing a short circuit in Morrow's computer which erases its memory.

Justice Society of America adventures

In 1968, Red Tornado appears at JSA headquarters on Earth-Two claiming to be the "original" Red Tornado. Although the JSA is suspicious, Red Tornado has all of Hunkel's memories. Morrow has other robots attack a museum and vaporize relics, and the JSA responds. Red Tornado, programmed to appear inept, exposes the JSA to the dust created by the vaporization and all except Doctor Fate fall into a coma. It then returns to Morrow's lair as programmed. Morrow's computer predicts that keeping Red Tornado active will allow Morrow to continue his criminal activity. Doctor Fate awakens the remaining JSA members from their coma, and Red Tornado betrays his fellow JSA members by telling them to use Morrow's energy weapons. The devices, rigged to explode, put the JSA and Red Tornado into a coma and Morrow returns to Earth-One to attack the Justice League. He puts the JLA into comas twice: once with energy duplicates and a second time with energy duplicates of their deadliest enemies. Red Tornado travels to Earth-One and revives the JLA members, who capture Morrow. It returns to Earth-Two and revives the JSA, which admits Red Tornado to full membership in gratitude.
With no Justice Society comic book published at the time, Red Tornado's appearances were limited to JSA-JLA collaborations. These were popular, and DC Comics usually published one a year. Red Tornado appeared again in 1969, traveling alone to Earth-One with a warning. The JLA ignores him as they battle a gang and try to save Hawkman, who has been turned into a pillar of salt. As the JLA battles the demons responsible, Red Tornado unleashes a gas which restores Hawkman. It then delivers its message: Aquarius, a "living star", has wiped out the Earth-Two universe. Two weeks earlier, Doctor Fate protected the JSA and Black Canary's husband in a magic bubble. The JLA rush into the Earth-Two universe and finding themselves in Doctor Fate's bubble. Aquarius forces the mind-controlled JSA to do battle against the JLA, but his hold over them is broken when Larry Lance sacrifices himself to save Black Canary. The JLA tricks Aquarius into entering an antimatter universe, where he is destroyed.
In the next JLA-JSA collaboration, Red Tornado is captured by an alien known as Creator². Creator², who wants to merge Earth-One and Earth-Two into a paradise, uses Red Tornado to "anchor" this effort. Creator²'s servants incapacitate several JSA members, but the dimensions are already merging and several JLA members are rendered comatose. The Earth-One Green Lantern and the Atom realize that Red Tornado is controlled by Creator². With the help of Spectre, Doctor Fate, Johnny Thunder and Thunderbolt free Red Tornado and end the threat.
Red Tornado has a final mission with the JSA in 1972. The JLA is being visited by Elongated Man, Metamorpho, Zatanna and Wonder Woman when the JSA calls for help. The JLA discovers that Nebula Man has created a planet-sized magic metal fist which is crushing Earth-Two. The heroes contact Oracle, a super-being with vast knowledge, who tells them that only the Seven Soldiers of Victory can defeat Nebula Man. However, he scattered them through time and the JSA and JLA begin rescuing them. An old SSV opponent, Iron Hand, is behind Nebula Man's attack. When the last of the Seven Soldiers is retrieved, the JSA and JLA learn that Wing died saving the SSV from Nebula Man with a secret weapon. JLA's Wonder Woman defeats Iron Hand, but the device controlling Nebula Man is smashed and he cannot prevent Earth-Two's destruction. After the SSV recreate their weapon, Red Tornado takes the device into orbit; it detonates, killing him.

Early Justice League of America adventures

Red Tornado makes his first appearance on Earth-One in April 1973, a year after the character's apparent death. Elongated Man joins the JLA and leads the league in investigating a group of pliable, putty-like men who are assembling a super-weapon. Several JLA members are saved by a mysterious individual who turns out to be Red Tornado. Red Tornado did not die in the explosion, but was hurled into the Earth-One dimension. His face was damaged, and his memory temporarily lost. He believes that a blind hermit remolded his face, regained his memories after several months. He cannot return to the Earth-Two universe. The "blind hermit" turns out to be T.O. Morrow, who has implanted a device in Red Tornado which will kill the JLA when Red Tornado first uses his JLA signaling device. The JLA discovers the plot and deactivates the device, and Morrow fades away. Red Tornado tries to return to Earth-Two by stowing away in the JLA's Trans-Matter Cube, but his presence causes the JLA and JSA to go to Earth X: a world in which Nazi Germany won World War II. The two superhero teams meet a third: the Freedom Fighters. Learning that Nazi Germany rules the world with mind-control devices, they destroy one. Three more devices are located and destroyed, but a fourth cannot be found. As the JSA and JLA come under Nazi control and begin to attack the Freedom Fighters, Red Tornado finds and destroys the fourth device.
During the next few years, Red Tornado has a number of adventures with the Justice League; many end with the character damaged or destroyed. In February 1974, Red Tornado accidentally frees alien supervillain Eclipso from imprisonment inside Bruce Gordon and is damaged in the following explosion. In "The Man Who Murdered Santa Claus!", the JLA's old nemesis Key threatens to destroy St. Louis, Missouri. The JLA must run a gauntlet of traps to reach his bomb; although Red Tornado is apparently killed in one of the snares, the Phantom Stranger saves him. As a Christmas gift, the JLA gives Red Tornado a new, more colorful costume. He is again severely damaged when the Adaptoids mistake the JLA for tyrants.
Red Tornado is apparently killed again in 1976, when Nekron gives the JLA an extreme fear of death which causes it to disband. Nekron then threatens to destroy Midway City with a solar flare, ordering Hawkman to try to halt the flare. Red Tornado is destroyed stopping the flare, giving the real Hawkman and Wonder Woman—who is immune to Nekron's fear-inducing power—time to evacuate the city, and Nekron is defeated with an overdose of intense fear.
On Earth-One Red Tornado slowly becomes more human-like, develops a distinct personality and adopts the name John Smith. He becomes a teacher, meeting employment counselor Kathy Sutton.