The 52 in 52 – Part V: The return of the Red Tornado

So far in our coverage of the 52 in 52 (parts 1, 2, 3, 4) there have been several Red Tornado references, but nobody knows where the majority of his body is. It turns up in Week #17 when its discovered by a ground of Aboriginal Australians in the outback. He’s been badly damaged and keeps repeating the number “52.” For the next month the Tornado’s remains are in the possession of Johnny Warrawa, a small town mechanic/artist who found the Tornado whilst he was on a “walkabout.” He’s rebuilt the Tornado’s body with random junk. By week #28 Warrawa has got the Tornado working by remote control and tries to use him to save his home, Tornado Country, from heavy handed uranium miners. The Tornado is still saying “52″ when the miners beat his ramshackle new body to pieces and his parts end up being taken away by Tolson’s Reliable Salvage.

More hints about the true nature of events are dropped in a conversation between the scientists on Oolong island in Week #39. The Clock King is missing 52 seconds of time and Dr Sivana shows him suspendium, “artificial time in particle form.” Morrow, knowing that Sivana had been experimenting on Mister Mind, pretends to absent mindedly ask him about the worm.

“I’d forgotten all about him. We’re talking about an alien mutant caterpillar trapped in a larval stage, denied his full potential. I just wanted to see what would happen if I bombarded the slimy little creep with sunspendium radiation, without his consent. I have no idead where he wound up after they brought me here, but the suspendium’s been active very strangely…”

Something is very wrong with time at a subtle level, that’s become more and more obvious. In the same sequence Will Magnus spots a news report about the wrecked Red Tornado in Australia and Morrow rushes off to investigate.

In week #44 things start to go down hill on Earth as Intergang’s plans to destroy Black Adam and unleash the horrors created on Oolog Island eventually lead to World War III. Most of these events don’t play into the 52 subplot so I’ll ignore them. What is more important to our story is Morrow’s pursuit of the Red Tornado’s remains, which by week #46 are up for sale on an Australian internet auction site as a modern art installation.

Morrow wins the auction by using money from the hacked bank account of the seller. He follows the bidding all through Black Adam’s assault on Oolong Island. Morrow’s convinced that whatever happened to Red Tornado in deep space has left the “secret of the cosmos locked inside that android head”. The heroes eventually invade Oolong Island in Week #49, but out of loyalty to his old teacher Will Magnus helps Morrow escape .

As the smoke clears from Black Adam’s war against the world, Morrow’s escape robot arrives at his lab in the Rocky Mountains (for those paying attention this is the same lab featured in the opening arc of Brad Meltzer’s Justice League run). Morrow starts examining the Red Tornado’s head and hears the repeated number 52. He initially assumes that its just a corrupt language file, but he soon realises that there is something far more fundamental wrong with the Tornado.

Next – what the android saw.