The silver age Red Tornado made his debut in 1968's Justice League of America #64. Although he has long been in the wings of the comic book Justice League, it is only in the last few years that the storm generating Red has been thrust into the forefront onscreen.
In their first outing, the Justice League was forced to intervene in what looked like a war between banana men and lima beans, but they are really Crystal Men and Rock People. Everyone got a task to do, except Flash who did nothing but give the Atom a piggy back (and Aquaman who was AWOL). In the end, Green Lantern blew up Mercury's nuclear core, but managed to contain the blast and that was good enough for a treaty between the two factions. Suddenly, a giant starfish doesn't seem so lame.
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Episode Count: 0159
Series Count: (1 of 3)
First Appearance: The Justice League (of America)
THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, the combined might and power of the Man of Steel and the Cosmic Crusader, the Winged Avenger and the King of the Sea, the Tiny Titan and the Scarlet Streak, all working together for good against evil as THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA.
In theory uniting these heroes was a good idea, as for the execution, we shall see. The Justice League team was founded in 1960 in the comics and consisted of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and the Martian Manhunter. This Justice League was a slight variation, incorporating all of the solo Filmation heroes (except Superboy). Also strange was the absence of Aquaman who appeared in the title sequence but was not a part of the actual episodes.
Sorry for the shoddy quality, but here are today's first two official animated shorts from DC Nation including the second clay short from the stop motion series called DC's World's Funnest.
USA Today has a look at DC Nation including a look at Black Lightning who will star in a series of family centered shorts titled Thunder and Lightning.
Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive clip from the upcoming Ultimate Spider-Man animated series.I hate always being down on Marvel, especially on Spider-Man, but after the top notch Spectacular Spider-Man series this clip sort of breaks my heart. You know the feeling, "they cancelled Spectacular for THIS!?" But hey, at least that paved the way for Young Justice.
Sadly Hawkman stumbled a bit out of the gate back in '67 and hasn't had a chance since then to really redeem himself. At least he didn't completely strike out as the third episode had some sort of frenetic energy that at least made it interesting. Strangely, the Hawkman character had one of the richest back stories at this point its a shame that all Filmation gave us was a bird dude with a utility glove. One last complaint, I am really getting tired of all these episodes from Superboy to Superman to this ending with a character winking at the screen. I bring it up now because ending the first episode with a Skreal wink just put the whole gimmick over the top. Here is to hoping the JLA ends up being greater than the sum of its parts...
