Red Tornado Is Building a New Body (Will It Be as Powerful as His Old One?)

The Justice League is having something of a renaissance lately. The team decided to take a breather after Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths, allowing the Titans to take their place. The League would return after Absolute Power, rebuilding their Watchtower satellite in DC All-In #1. Since then, they’ve created a new system, one that brings together basically every hero on Earth into the Justice League. Red Tornado is playing a big role in this new League, acting as a computer system for the League. Red Tornado is a character with a very interesting history, a robot created by T.O. Morrow to destroy the League. He’s basically the Vision of the DC Multiverse, possessed by the Tornado Entity, joining the team and becoming one of their most stalwart members. He’s been without a body for a while now, but Justice League Red #1 changes all of that.

Justice League Red #1 begins a new era in the Justice League’s history. There have been many different Justice League teams over the years, and Justice League Red gives the League what amounts to a black ops team. Tornado realizes that the League’s return puts the Earth in jeopardy, so he brings together a team to deal with threats that the rest of the League can’t. However, he also begins rebuilding his body, which is very interesting. Red Tornado’s body is one of the most interesting aspects of the character, but can he rebuild it as powerful as it was before?

Red Tornado Has Always Been One of the Justice League’s Most Formidable Members

Red Tornado began as a Earth-Two villain, created by the robotics specialist T.O. Morrow to destroy the Justice League and the Justice Society. The robot was possessed by the Tornado Entity, and ended up fighting alongside the League. Red Tornado basically had a soul, for lack of a better term. Every time his robot body was broken, he would end up possessing it again after it was repaired, with the same memories, personality, and powers as before. Morrow built Red Tornado to last and it only took the most devastating damage to destroy it. It never really seemed like his body was all that powerful, but all of that changed with “The Tornado’s Path”, one of the best ’00s Justice League stories. As Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman were putting together a roster for the new Justice League, Batman voted on Reddy joining the group. He brought up that Reddy was a nearly unstoppable tank and that his body was way tougher than anyone ever thought. Reddy would get drawn into a plan by Solomon Grundy, who was resurrected with intelligence. Grundy didn’t want to die ever again, so he could remain intelligent, and was able to trick Red Tornado to transfer into a human body instead of his robot one. Grundy took the body for his own purposes, taking it to Professor Ivo, another DC villain who happens to be a robotics specialist, to be made into armor.

Read Next

Why the Justice League Doesn’t Matter Anymore (and That’s a Problem)

Reddy’s body was given Amazo properties, and battled the League before Grundy took it over. While this did make the body more powerful than usual — Amazo has all of the powers of the Justice League — it was still basically Reddy’s body at a structural level. The only reason the League was able to win the fight was Vixen stealing the powers of Superman (I know, I know Vixen’s powers usually mean she can only copy animals, but read Justice League of America (Vol. 2) #0-12 to learn why; you’ll be happy that you did, believe me) and divebombing it. The thing about Reddy’s body is that it was never completely destroyed. Instead, Will Magnus (yet another DC robot specialist, this one a hero) would always put it back together. It was basically indestructible; sure it could be torn apart, but the pieces would still be there and were able to be reattached. Reddy was involved in the battle against Amanda Waller in Absolute Power, where he was nearly destroyed in battle with the Suicide Squad. His old body was seemingly rendered irreparable, and he’s since been relegated to the Justice League’s computer system.

Red Tornado Was One of the Justice League’s Best Tanks, but Can He Be Again?

Justice League Red #1 opens with Reddy using a predictive algorithm to look at the consequences of the Justice League’s return. While he’s doing this, it’s revealed that he’s building a new body, one that seems to incorporate technological and biological parts. We don’t know yet if any parts of this body are from his old one, but it looks to be completely new, since his old body never had any biological components.

While Reddy will still have the same powers — his tornado powers are a part of the Tornado Entity — it might not be as tough as it used to be. Morrow is the best of the best when it comes to robots, and even someone as intelligent Will Magnus can’t replicate all of his work. Reddy may be able to, but at this point, it’s safe to assume that his new body won’t be as tough as the old one.

Justice League Red #1 is on sale now.