Pre-Crisis.

There were two tornado entities that originated from the planet Rann in the Earth-One universe - the Tornado Champion and the Tornado Tyrant combined as one entity. This being, originally one entity, confronted Rann's adopted champion, Adam Strange, and was defeated. After that defeat, the being contemplated the nature of good and evil and decided that good was the superior force. The good side called itself the Tornado Champion; the evil side, the Tornado Tyrant. Confronting the Tyrant, the Tornado Champion was easily defeated. Disappointed, the Tornado Champion lured the Tyrant to Earth-One, where the Tyrant was defeated by the real JLA. The Tornado Champion decided that there was no pleasure in being an imitation, and went to Earth-Two in to find a new identity. The Tornado Champion came upon the criminal T. O. Morrow, who was making an android with which T.O. was hoping to infiltrate and defeat the Justice Society of America. The Tornado Champion decided to assume control of the robotic form. The merging had an unexpected side effect, and the Tornado Champion's memory was erased. Red Tornado thus seemed to be a new life-form.

Joining the League.

T.O. sent the android in to destroy the JSA from the inside, having Red Tornado pose as a member. The JSA did not recognize him, but allowed him to accompany them to help with a museum theft. Through a series of mishaps perfectly performed by Morrow, Red Tornado seemingly murdered the JSA members. Red Tornado then found Morrow in his lair and seemingly defeated him. When the remaining JSA members came to investigate, a trap weapon defeated them all. Morrow then went to Earth-1, where he defeated the JLA also. Red Tornado, who was now revived from his previous injuries, went after Morrow and revived the JLA. The JLA and the android then finally defeated Morrow, and discovered a method to revive the JSA back on Earth-2. Morrow confessed that Red Tornado was an android made by him, but the JSA still admitted him as a member in good standing.

When the mad Star-God Aquarius attacked Earth-2, many JSA members were captured and sealed in a magical bubble as Aquarius phased Earth-2 out of existence. Red Tornado escaped, reaching Earth-1 and contacting the JLA. The JLA disregarded the android to tend to their own affairs, ultimately hearing him out two weeks later. When they realized the JSA's dilemma, the JLA members quickly journeyed to the Earth-2 universe, defeating Aquarius and returning Earth-2 to normal.

Red Tornado many times felt that he was an outsider in the JSA. When he stumbled across the Creators monitoring Earth-2, in a wish to impress his colleagues by defeating the aliens single-handedly he began a fight against them. Instead, Red Tornado was captured and used as a conduit to bring Earth-1 and Earth-2 together. The JSA came after Red Tornado, beat the Creators and rescued him. But despite their victory Red Tornado's easy defeat and manipulation made Red Tornado more depressed and dejected than ever.

During the 100th meeting of the Justice League of America, the JLA was summoned to Earth-2 to assist the JSA in defeating the Iron Hand, a sworn foe of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. The Iron Hand had created an orbiting weapon in the shape of a hand that was a major threat to Earth-2. Doctor Fate summoned a being known as the Oracle. The Oracle informed them of the Iron Hand's last defeat, which cost the life of one of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. The JLA and JSA split into teams and rescued the members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory, who had been scattered throughout time, and with their help made a weapon that would destroy the Iron Hand's device.

To get the device to its destination was a suicide mission, and while the heroes were arguing over who would go to do it, Red Tornado secretly went all by himself. In the resulting explosion, Red Tornado was believed to be destroyed. Red Tornado survived, however, and was catapulted to the Earth-1 universe, where he ultimately became a member of the Justice League of America. In the JLA, Red Tornado finally found the acceptance he longed for so much.

Alter ego.

After becoming a member of the Justice League, his adventures with them caused the android to be destroyed several times. After a decent amount of time, Red Tornado actually managed to form a human alter ego, he called John Smith. He also somehow grew emotionally attached to Kathy Sutton and they adopted a child from the middle eastern nation of Bialya named Traya, and they formed a makeshift family. He also became good friends with a few of the League's members, such as Hawkwoman and Firestorm.

Post Crisis.

Split and return.

During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Tornado Champion was separated from his android body and became a spirit of air. Anti-Monitor used the Tornado Champion as a weapon against the Justice League and the Society. After the Crisis, Red Tornado reunited with the Tornado Champion and became a force of nature along with Firestorm(fire) and Swamp Thing(earth). Using his new force of nature abilities, Red Tornado became a protector of nature.

War of the Elements.

because of air pollution, the Red Tornado had been driven somewhat mad and gotten himself into a conflict against Firestorm and Swamp Thing in the Elemental War. Eventually, Firestorm managed to calm Red Tornado down and even made a new body shell for him, but it appeared that this new body was imperfect, as the Red Tornado began to experience serious malfunctions. His humanity was almost lost, and his physical appearance became more and more damaged, dirty and clearly not right. During a period of near-total malfunction, Red Tornado had been a member of the Leymen. During this period, he would experience odd jerks and spasms as he moved, and malfunctioning gears and mechanisms clanging together could be heard coming from within the android's body. He also could only speak in a halting, emotionless, mechanical monotone. During the course of his association with the Leymen, the original Red Tornado personality began to re-emerge, and slowly, his emotions and humanity as well.

Powers.

Red Tornado is an air elemental, can create powerful air currents that can level huge skyscrapers in seconds. He channels air and wind forces through his arms and legs to produce bursts of cyclone-force winds and high speed forward velocity. He is super strong and very durable, strong enough to take on a missile straight on and coming out unharmed. A few times, Red Tornado actually managed to become invisible to the human eye due to his high velocity movement.