John Howard

* John Howard/Red Tornado
* DCIU Concept Art

**John Howard** is an android super-hero known as **Red Tornado** with wind-manipulation powers in addition to incredible strength and speed. His cybernetic body was created by the super-villain T.O. Morrow, although he is actually a sentient wind elemental named Ulthoon powering the robot.

## Character Origins

Dr. Thomas Morrow created the android which would come to be known as Red Tornado, but had originally called his creation 'Mr. Twister'. Morrow used the android to commit crime, usually robbing banks and armored convoys, to gain funds and materials needed to further his research into artificial intelligence. After the invasion of Brainiac, Mister Twister engaged in robberies of warehouses where the alien tech was being stored. So The Justice League of America was on alert but when they set up a trap to capture the bionic burglar, Mister Twister shifted tactics and attacked Titans Tower, intent on getting the parts used to create Cyborg. In an intense battle, the newly founded Titans managed to pull off a victory and destroyed Mister Twister through teamwork.

After the robot’s destruction, Mister Twister’s parts were sent to STAR Labs for study and there Dr. Adam Strange got approval to use the parts to construct a new android to house the artificial intelligence program he had developed based on Rannian technology, reasoning that Rannian code should be invulnerable to Earth-based methods of hacking or reprogramming. Confident with the end result, Adam Strange sent the finished product he had renamed “Red Tornado” to the Justice League of America. Though the JLA was skeptical about making a robot a member of their team, especially one that had attacked children, they agreed to give the mechanical lifeform a probationary role and disabled many of its personality features so that it operated in a form of 'safe mode'. After a few field tests, the JLA thought the machine would be best served as a guardian and chaperone for the Titans.

In that capacity, Red Tornado excelled. As time went by, Cyborg continued to test the machine and would enable more features, which in turn helped the android become more human-like. As a result, the first and second generations of Titans began to develop attachments to the machine as it did likewise for its charges, until Morrow sent new robots to reclaim his property.

When Dr. Morrow attacked the Titans’ Tower in a bid to reclaim his property, he sent in two of his other creations under the ruse that they had gained consciousness and had defected from their master and sought to ally themselves with their “brother”, Red Tornado. They couldn’t have picked a better time to hit us. With the death of Jason Todd and all that upheaval in the world of heroics, Red Tornado’s long lost relatives were sort of an afterthought and so Red Torpedo and Red Inferno infiltrated the ranks of Titans Tower at a time when it was more or less hemorrhaging members. When Morrow’s minions found a moment of vulnerability, they struck and struck hard; disabling Red Tornado and capturing most of the remaining Titans in one fell swoop. However, what they didn’t count on was Red Tornado’s ability to override its deactivation protocol through what can only be describe as an intense “desire” to protect its charges: the Titans. In the aftermath of the battle that followed, Red Torpedo and Red Inferno were reduced to scrap and Red Tornado was only barely more than that.

Cyborg was able to salvage most of Red Tornado’s memory files, storing them on his own internal hard drive due to the significant damage to the Tower. When Cyborg later relocated to the Secret Sanctuary inside Mt. Justice, he updated the computer hardware and network inside the old training facility and downloaded Red Tornado’s protocols to that system, enabling Red Tornado to function as the base’s A.I. program RT (or “Artie”). In RT’s downtime, it found itself able to more freely ponder the significance of life and what it meant to be human, thus developing its own unique personality and identity. In 2011, “Artie” decided that it was a she and created its own unique voice (literally). When Cyborg investigated the origin of the voice, he was shocked to find that RT hadn’t just used random algorithm to determine the voice, but that RT had actually based the voice off a “memory” from a corrupted file that RT referred to as a 'dream'. In 2013, after years of being without a body, Cyborg enlisted the help of S.T.A.R. Labs to create a new female chassis for his old friend.

## Powers, Abilities and Weaknesses

Red Tornado is an android and his creator, T.O. Morrow, designed him with strength, durability, and thought-processing powers many orders of magnitude greater than a human. In terms of raw physical strength, his artificial body has been depicted moving objects weighing 20 tons under optimal conditions, and his body has survived both extremes of space and deep-sea pressures. It additionally possesses the ability to self-repair anything less than catastrophic damage. His senses are similarly computerized, allowing him to hear and see events far exceeding human perception; in an extreme example he used his vision to observe Justice League teammates attempting a low orbit rescue of *Challenger* astronauts inside a damaged space shuttle from sea level, though the images were out of focus and at the limit of his range. Red Tornado also frequently monitors wireless communication frequencies for signs of distress, though he has likened this to listening to background chatter in a crowd, remaining indistinct until someone or something draws his attention to it.

### Powers

* **Aerokinesis**: 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.
	+ **Air Blasts**: Can project his whirlwinds at over 350 mph from each arm. His winds are said to level a building in seconds.
	+ **Deflection**: Also is able to deflect approaching objects with ease.
	+ **Flight**: By channeling these cyclone-force winds through the lower part of his body, he can fly at incredible speeds or hover in one place.
	+ **Force Field**: able to circulate the high force winds around himself or an extended area to protect himself and/or others from attacks and flying debris.
	+ **Invisibility**: On occasion, Red Tornado used his high-velocity movement to render himself invisible to unaided human vision.
	+ **Tornado Creation**: He can create tornadoes and twisters with destructive winds.
* **Android Body**: Red Tornado's body has been enhanced and improved upon over the years and serves to be made of the same material as other robots like Amazo.
	+ **Computerized Brain**: Tornado's brain processes at a rate as fast as multiple computers.
		- **Enhanced Senses**: One of his brain's processes allows him to enhanced his audio and visual sensors.
	+ **Resurrection**: If Tornado's body is somehow destroyed he can reinstate his 'soul' into a new body.
	+ **Self-Sustenance**: Tornado, as a robot, doesn't need to eat, sleep or even recharge. He can survive in space and underwater without an issue.
	+ **Superhuman Strength**: As a robot, Tornado is super-humanly strong.
	+ **Superhuman Durability**: Tornado has an incredibly durable body, he has survived multiple gunshots, tornado pressure and blows from superhuman opponents.
	+ **Regeneration**: Thanks to Cyborg's Prometheus nanites Red Tornado is now able to almost instantly regenerate any destroyed part of his body.
	+ **Metamorphosis**: After Cyborg's modifications to his body Red Tornado can now assume human appereance with a conscious act of will.

### Weaknesses

* **Vulnerability to Fail-Safe**: There is a fail-safe device in RT's heel. When struck there with enough force he will shut down.
* **Vulnerability to Reprogramming**: Red Tornado is susceptible to being mechanically reprogrammed as well as controlled. Numerous times he has been altered in order to destroy the JSA or the JLA.
* **Air Dependence:** Though Red Tornado can survive in a vacuum unaided, without air, his powers will not function as he can only control air in his vicinity, not create air from nothing.

## Notes and Trivia

### Notes

* Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series *Crisis on Infinite Earths* remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.
* One quarter of the Anti-Life Equation was stored somewhere within the shell of Red Tornado. The other quarters are apparently held by Earth's other three Elementals, Naiad, Swamp Thing, and Firestorm.

### Trivia

* Red Tornado is also known as *Tornado Tyrant of Rann*, *Tornado Man Dreaming*.
* Red Tornado may have an extremely resilient body, but it is in no way invulnerable. He has been broken many times before, and can no doubt be broken again.
* During the *Lightning Saga*, Wildfire of the Legion of Super-Heroes revealed that his containment suit was built out of the Red Tornado's robotic shell. Whether this is true or not has yet to be confirmed. Before returning to the future, Wildfire cryptically says to Red Tornado "Fight what's inside you, John. Fight it."