This morning, Red Tornado, on a pile of...what is that, rocks? Hope it's rocks.

I had the rest of this series, but only recently found Red Tornado #3, "Eye of the Storm!" Written by Kurt Busiek, pencils by Carmine Infantino, inks by Frank McLaughlin. The android Justice Leaguer has decided humans are stupid and mean, and trying to be like them is also stupid, and accordingly has taken off. Meanwhile, the Construct fights the JLA, the Outsiders, and other heroes, in a battle it's already won: able to inhabit any electronic device, the Construct also takes over the minds of humanity easily. (In previous issues, the Construct made it seem as if humanity was turning on the Tornado, which drove him away from humanity.)


Red's creator, T.O. Morrow; and Red's love interest Kathy Sutton; are two of the only free minds left on earth. The Construct takes over Morrow, but leaves Sutton free to torment her. Showing more spine than other JLA girlfriends like Carol Ferris or Jean Loring, Kathy makes her way to the Tornado, to try and convince him to come back. (She's no Sue Dibney, though.)

There's a bit of continuity patching here, with Red's history as the Tornado Tyrant/Tornado Champion coming into play. Kathy brings back Red, who is far more cheerful and happy than is typical for your android heroes, and he plans to take down the Construct.

I don't know when this series was green-lighted, but this issue was cover-dated September 1985; same as Crisis on Infinite Earths #6. And Red's origin would get altered a bit there, and I'm pretty sure he blew up sometime then, to boot.