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Red Tornado

RedTornado-1

Real Name
John Smith
First Appearance
Mystery in Space #61(August, 1960) [Ulthoon], Justice League of America #64 (August, 1968) [Red Tornado]
Creators
Gardner Fox, Dick Dillin
Team Affliations
Justice League, Justice Society of America, Young Justice, Primal Force
Aliases
Tornado Tyrant of Rann, Ulthoon, Tornado Champion, John Smith, John Ulthoon
Base of Operations
Unspecified
Powers
Superhuman Strength & Durability, Air & Wind Manipulation, Unlimited Computer Access, Change From Android To Human Form At Will, Self-Repair, Speed
Skills and Abilities
Heightened Intelligence
Tools and Weapons
None

The Red Tornado is a superhero in the DC Universe.

Origin[]

A robot alien who was reprogrammed by the mad scientist T.O.Morrow, Red Tornado overcame programming intended to turn him against the superheroes he was programmed to betray and became a noble superhero on Earth with powers to control wind.

Biography[]

Creation[]

The entity that would later be known as the Red Tornado began life as two different entities from the reality known as Earth One on the distant planet Rann: the Tornado Champion and the Tornado Tyrant. The Tornado Tyrant named Ulthoon was a robot on the planet Rann who challenged the planet's hero, Adam Strange, but found himself defeated. This caused Ulthoon to reconsider his being and decided to split into two entities: the good Tornado Champion and the evil Tornado Tyrant, believing that the Tyrant would lose to the superior force of good. However, when the two actually battled, the Champion was quickly overwhelmed and feeling that he was wrong, he tricked the Tornado Tyrant to travel to the universe known as Earth One, where the Tyrant was defeated by the Justice League of America.

As for the Tornado Champion, he decided to travel to the Earth Two universe in hopes of being a hero. There, he met the scientist and criminal T.O. Morrow, who was already plotting to infiltrate and defeat the superhero team the Justice Society of America with an android sleeper agent. Deciding that this was his chance to become a true hero, the Tornado Champion merged with the android and the result was the android super-hero, the Red Tornado, at the cost of all of his previous memories.

Joining the Justice League[]

Believing himself to be the original Red Tornado, he soon arrived at the headquarters of the Justice Society of America in order to resume helping them fight evil. Though the Justice Society did not believe this was the original Red Tornado, his actions proved that he was indeed a hero after foiling a museum robbery.

Soon after joining the Justice Society, Earth 2 was threatened by Aquarius, a mad star-god who captured most member of the Justice Society and attempted to phase Earth 2 out of existence. Red Tornado escaped, reaching Earth-1 and contacting the JLA, who ignored the android's request for assistance for some time before realizing the danger that the JSA was in. When the JLA understood the depth of the threat, they rushed to Earth 2, freed the JSA, defeated Aquarius and returned to their home dimension.

Red Tornado many times felt that he was an outsider in the JSA. When he stumbled across the alien race k known as the Creators monitoring Earth-2, in an attempt to impress his colleagues by defeating the aliens single-handedly, he began a fight against them. Instead, Red Tornado was captured and used as a conduit to bring Earth-1 and Earth-2 together. The JSA arrived to find the Red Tornado, rescued him and defeated the Creators. But despite the team's victory Red Tornado's quick defeat and manipulation made Red Tornado more depressed and 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 in the shape of a hand that was threatening to destroy Earth-2. Doctor Fate summoned a being known as the Oracle and the Oracle informed them of the Iron Hand's last defeat at the hands of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. This defeat also scattered the team through time, stranding each member in a different era. The JLA and JSA split into teams and rescued the members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory, who had been scattered throughout time, and with their help made a weapon that would destroy the Iron Hand's device.

To get the device to its destination was a suicide mission, and while the heroes were arguing over who would go to do it, Red Tornado secretly went all by himself. 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 the acceptance he longed for so much.

Red Tornado helped fight alongside the Justice League of America until the day he was destroyed by the god-like supervillain Nekron.  Not long after, an evil entity known as the Construct rebuild Red Tornado as part of his plan to defeat the Justice League.  Tornado managed to fight Construct's control and managed to defeat him, so he could become a superhero once more.

Alter Ego[]

After rejoining the Justice League, Red Tornado actually managed to form a human alter ego, he called John Smith. He also somehow grew emotionally attached to Kathy Sutton and they adopted a child from the middle eastern nation of Bialya named Traya, and they formed a makeshift family. He also became good friends with a few of the League's members, such as Hawkwoman and Firestorm.

Split and Return[]

During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Tornado Champion was separated from his android body and became a spirit of air. Anti-Monitor used the Tornado Champion as a weapon against the Justice League and the Society. After the Crisis, Red Tornado reunited with the Tornado Champion and became a force of nature along with Firestorm (fire) and Swamp Thing (earth). Using his new force of nature abilities, Red Tornado became a protector of nature.

War of the Elements[]

Because of air pollution, the Red Tornado had been driven somewhat mad and gotten himself into a conflict against Firestorm and Swamp Thing in the Elemental War. Eventually, Firestorm managed to calm Red Tornado down and even made a new body shell for him, but it appeared that this new body was imperfect, as the Red Tornado began to experience serious malfunctions. His humanity was almost lost, and his physical appearance 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 malfunctioning 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.

Media[]

Appears in Justice League Unlimited, Batman: The brave and the bold, DC Super Hero Girls (web series) and Supergirl.

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