The Robot JLAer in his own series!
This series is a six issue one that focuses on the Red Tornado, a character created in 1968 by Gardner Fox and Dick Dillin.
For those not familiar with the character, I will provide a little background. Tornado was created by the criminal scientist T.O. Morrow in a plot to destroy not only the Justice Society of America, but also the Justice League. After Morrow’s plan failed, Reddy became first a member of the Society for a short time and then he served a much longer stint with the League. Later on it was revealed that he is the Air elemental of earth and that still seems to be the case in this issue. He later found his way on to teams like Primal Force and Young Justice. He is currently once again a member of the J.L.A. when this issue begins. Now, on to the review…
To be honest, I only got this book to see where they (D.C.) are going to take this hero. I have a passing interest in the Tornado, but he is not even close to being a favorite of mine. Like a lot of characters, in the hands of a skilled writer, he could become so much more than he is.
The issue had a lot of action in it with the introduction of some new “siblings” for Reddy and there was some neat little quirks added to his personally. Something was missing to make this a really good book. The story kind of jumped around a little and some of the story seemed to be missing. There just was too many pages given to the Red Volcano and not enough given to the Red Tornado looking for his sister. It’s like the creators of the book were doing everything they could to convince the readers what kind of of a badass he is. I hate to tell them their jobs, but sometimes more of something does not make it better, especially when it feels forced.
This book is written by Kevin Van Hook and penciled by Jose Luis. This is not a team that I’m very familiar with. Luis art was not bad at all and shows a lot of talent. The writing dialogue wasn’t bad either but they just didn’t hit it out of the park with this issue.
In this business, you have to do something to stand out from other books, especially a first-issue. I hope that the next issue is better, but I’m afraid that this issue might keep causal readers from sampling the additional 5 issues left in the mini.
2.5 out of 5
