Red Tornado And More Coming To Supergirl

Today at the Television Critics' Association, Supergirl producers confirmed a number of characters would be headed to the series, including DC superhero Red Tornado.

In the comics, Red Tornado is an android imbued with a human intelligence and personality and created by the villain T.O. Morrow, whose sometime rival/sometime partner Anthony Ivo appeared on Arrow's second season.

There are a number of similarities between Red Tornado and The Vision, who was just introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Series producers Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti have also recently introduced The Atom into The Flash and DC's Legends of Tomorrow, mirroring Marvel's Ant-Man. It had been widely speculated that Ray Palmer's Arrow Season Three appearance as an armored, tech-driven hero was intended to steer clear of the similarities, but apparently someone has decided that there are too many similar superheroes out there to worry about ever using one.

Besides being a longtime member of the Justice League, Red Tornado served as a mentor to Young Justice when that team first assembled under the pen of longtime Supergirl writer Peter David.

In addition to Red Tornado and the previously-announced Livewire and Reactron, the Supergirl Twitter account confirmed that General Sam Lane will appear on the series, along with the Kryptonian villain Non:

CONFIRMED at #TCA15: These @DCComics characters are coming to #Supergirl! Livewire, Reactron, Red Tornado, Non, and General Lane.

— Supergirl (@supergirlcbs) August 10, 2015

The presence of both Non and General Lane will likely lead many fans to the conclusion that Lucy Lane, recently cast in the series, will indeed take up the mantle of Superwoman. In the comics, she was briefly given artificial "Kryptonian" powers by one of her father's military projects.

It's likely also worth noting that the Earth-2 version of Red Tornado, who has had a significant presence in The New 52: Futures End and Earth 2: Society, houses the personality of Lois Lane, Lucy's sister and Sam's daughter.

Non was a brilliant scientific mind and soldier on Krypton before he was lobotomized to make him a more perfect weapon. He first appeared in Richard Donner's Superman II before being adapted by Donner and DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns into the comics during their short-lived Action Comics run. That same run, collected as Superman: Last Son, featured the Kryptonian Phantom Zone prison which will be introduced in the series' pilot.