Made Men - Return Of The Red Tornado!

The Red Tornado began life as a member of the Justice Society of America and was featured in Gardner Fox's final story featuring that epic team-up event in Justice League of America #64. Not  unlike the Vision over at Marvel who debuted a few months later, the Red Tornado was a secret weapon, a false hero implanted into the team for the dire purposes of an enemy. In the case of the Vision it was Ultron, and in the case of the Red Tornado it was T.O. Morrow.

Also like the Vision the Red Tornado is a Silver Age revision of a Golden Age hero, this time a heroine actually from the humorous pages of Scribbly named Ma Hunkel most of the time. But what makes the Red Tornado one of my favorite artificial heroes is his loser lifestyle.

Few heroes have had as much hard luck as the Red Tornado, luck so bad it sees him destroyed more than a few times. But always despite the best efforts of the wrtiers, it seems he resurrects and is ready for more some number of issues later. Watching the Red Tornado try to scratch out something akin to a normal life during his Bronze Age heyday was compelling. The Vision's romance with the Scarlet Witch sometimes became maudlin, but the Red Tornado's attempts to find love always had a charm which felt real.

When he learned he was really an old League villain called the Tornado Tyrant it made him even more like the Vision in many ways. About the only thing he couldn't fend off was bad fashion advice, as his elegant original togs were spruced up more than once by some really gaudy affair. 

What he has become today I cannot say, though a cinematic version of the hero did show up on television's Supergirl. 

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The Gardner Francis Fox Library!

It's almost impossible for me to know when I read my first Gardner F. Fox story, but doubtless it was some DC yarn tucked away in a superhero comic or a science fiction comic. Gardner Fox is one of the true giants in comics lore.

He wrote for DC Comics for decades spearheading both the Justice Society of America and its Silver Age counterpart the Justice League of American among countless other comics. He did this until he was shuffled off with other veteran talents by the company when the talents dared ask for healthcare coverage. The bottom line has no provision for loyalty or even decency it seems. Part of me became quite suspicious of capitalism when I read that story about Fox and his colleagues and when some dolt espouses undying confidence in the invisible hand of the marketplace I think of  Gardner Fox and the hand which pushed him aside when his value in the future outweighed his value in the past. People as a commodity was what I saw and it burned in me deeply.

In addition to countless comics Gardner Fox also wrote pulp novels for the hungry racks of the 60's and 70's. Whatever was called for it seemed Fox could write, and write it at least well enough to do it again and again.

For sword and sorcery he created Kothar the Swordsman, for ERB pastiche he fashioned a Warrior of Llarn, and for the spy craze he came up with Lady from L.U.S.T. and more under various pen names. Gardner Fox was a writer who wrote for a living, and there is a now a website that celebrates his mighty talent.

The  Gardner Francis Fox Library has many of Fox's novels available for reading and even more for purchase. There's comics too in the form of Crom, a character in the sword and sorcery tradition. There's a ton of stuff there so check it out. 

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