Tornado Tyrant… or Cyclone Champion?

The superhero known as the Red Tornado was not always such... originally he, or rather it, was spawned on the planet Rann as a sentient wind storm that went by the alias Ulthoon the Tornado Tyrant. Ulthoon terrorized that world until a native from Earth-One named Adam Strange did what he often would do while visiting Rann, save it from its latest threat. However, despite his best efforts Adam failed to destroy Ulthoon... instead he caused something to happen to his former enemy that had a far more profound effect. The Tyrant became a Champion as he gained a conscience.

After observing Strange alongside the Justice League of America defeating space dictator Kanjar Ro, and doing so nobly, the now Tornado Champion decided he needed to turn over a new leaf by mirroring the heroism he had just witnessed. In fact, creating a visual imitation of the Justice League on another world, it seemed he would be more successful as a hero than a villain. That was, until his alter ego the Tornado Tyrant split off from him and seemingly defeated his League. Seeking out the real League, he learned from observing them how to beat his split persona and absorb the Tyrant back into himself... although this evil entity rears his ugly head once more much later.

He realized he needed to start over, not on Rann nor Earth-One where the League were operating, but by journeying to Earth-Two. There, he encountered another individual from his home dimension, evil scientist T.O. Morrow who was in developing an android to destroy that world's Justice Society. And coincidentally, the android Morrow created was to be known as the Red Tornado, harnessing the powers of wind much as the Champion himself had possessed.

Since this occurred on Earth-Two twenty years prior to when the winsome wind had just left Earth-One, due to the slower vibratory rate between universes, Red Tornado had actually preceded the birth of the Tyrant! In any event, when the Champion entered the android's body, its formerly malevolent programming was then altered by the combination of two minds into the benevolent Red Tornado that would ultimately choose good over evil. And, in fact, this is what he had done after first being manipulated into seemingly slaying the Justice Society and Justice League in two separate but related incidents. 

Having revived the assembled heroes, Tornado aided in the defeat of the android's creator... although Morrow would return. Now as new being merging the Earth-One Tornado Champion and the Earth-Two Red Tornado, who would endure tragedy again and again. Years later, both Earth’s Supermen merged to defeat a near unstoppable foe. However, this melding proved too much for the Men of Steel, as their psyches were overwhelmed with the flood of thoughts and emotions each experienced. It is worth noting that the Tornados had a stronger mental fortitude that allowed them to become a better person due to the melding of each entity into the other. This would be borne out in the weeks, months and years to follow.

Over the next several years, having been made a member of the Justice Society, it seemed that Red Tornado's career on Earth-Two was as much as failure as was his pseudo-League earlier. In his next recorded case with the team, he was shunted aside by his allies during a battle with Aquarius, then sent to Earth-One to recruit the League to aid their counterparts. On his next adventure, Reddy ended up used as a pawn by another alien known as Creator2, who was trying to merge both Earths together within the same physical space. Years later, when the evil Iron Hand had Earth-Two imprisoned within a gigantic Nebulon hand, it was the Tornado who delivered the special rod weapon necessary to destroy this hand, although at the cost of his own life. However, as would often be the case with this scarlet clad hero, reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated.

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In fact, he was merely thrust into Earth-One* instead, where a recently escaped convict known as T.O. Morrow found his former creation. As with his past caper, the villain was obsessed with eliminating his adversaries. Once more, Morrow failed, failing to account for the x-factor within the android, the melded personality of computer and sentient wind. Now stranded on Earth-One, Red Tornado joined the Justice League. However, the reason behind his being stranded wasn't readily determined, since he previously had the ability in both his forms to travel between universes. This time he decided to adopt a human alias, John Smith, rather than relying on a false alter ego like he tried to use on Earth-Two as the original Red Tornado, Ma Hunkel. Building a life for himself which included a girlfriend in Kathy Sutton and soon after a step-daughter in the war orphan known as Traya, John had finally seemed to succeed as a true champion among his powerful peers. 

The original android eventually encountered two Red Tornado androids built by a revitalized T.O. Morrow, with the goal of finally defeating the Justice League and determining the true nature of his first automaton creation. He noticed that the two Tornado replicas, despite having similar cyclonic powers and sentience, lacked the spark of life which the first Red Tornado manifested during their brief operational existence. These faux-Tornados mirrored a few of Morrow's Earth-Two androids who also spinned above Atlantis.

A young lad inspired by the Ma Hunkle Red Tornado was a boy inventor  named Little Arthur who created the alter ego of Tornado Tot. This childhood associate of Sugar and Spike was the Earth-Two counterpart of the orphan girl whom John Smith adopted, Traya.

Without realizing that an outside influence originating from planet Rann that spawned this combined cyclonic creature, Morrow inadvertently unleashed both the Tornado Tyrant and the Tornado Champion, destroying Reddie’s cybernetic body. Thanks to Firestorm, this Red Tornado was reconstituted into a merged entity… as had happened years earlier when the aforementioned Construct restored the android’s body to house its mind for a time. The original Earth-Two Red Tornado android was the doppelgänger of the Construct Red Tornado replica, with the Construct's mind based on previous Constructs just as Tornado's mind was based on Morrow's predictive computer of the future which he replicated in the 20th century. 

Eventually, a final confrontation between Red Tornado and the Construct led to the latter's permanent erasure prior to the Crisis on Infinite Earths. And it was during the Crisis when the Anti-Monitor stripped away Tornado Champion/Tyrant from Red Tornado's body and used him as a weapon to devastate Earth-One... just as he had with the Tornado Tyrant's counterpart in Jonni Thunder's Thunderbolt which he unleashed upon Earth-Two at the same time. Neither elemental entity, both former heroes succumbing to their base evil natures, succeeded in their tasks thanks to the interventions of both Earths' superheroes.

* One interesting aside as to how the cosmos balances itself... the Earth-One heroine known as Zatanna who had control over weather would not have existed had not her father Zatara moved from his native Earth-Two to her home world and met her mother. Similarly, the wind-powered  heroic Red Tornado would not have existed on Earth-Two had not the Tornado Champion traveled to Earth-Two and altered the androids programming from the sinister computer that mirrored the Tornado Tyrant to the artificial man that would join the Society. And, in fact, both Zatanna and Red Tornado would be teammates in the League, and on one occasion journeyed to Earth-Two's past in a case together showing how the two characters were linked.