Justice League of America: The Tornado's Path by Brad Meltzer and Ed Benes

The Red Tornado, an android superhero, has died again, leaving his wife and child behind. But John Smith, the spirit of the Tornado, is tired of his android body and seeks a human one so that he can have a real life with his wife, Kathy Sutton, and their daughter, Traya. Helped by Deadman, John's Spirit inhabits one of the duplicate bodies of Duplicate Man, now dead. His duplicates have a limited lifespan so when the original was killed, the others went on for a time and then keeled over. Now, by fusing his spirit with the human body, John can be human in truth, not just an android.

Or can he? Kathy and Traya accept him as a human, but someone steals his android body shortly after his spirit enters a human body. As Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman decide who to invite to the newly reconstituted Justice League, Arsenal, Black Canary and the New Green Lantern try to track down the Red Tornado's old body. Doing so brings them into conflict with several surprising enemies, including Anthony Ivo and Solomon Grundy.

Meanwhile, other thread bring in Black Lightning and Vixen. Vixen has the tattoo that allows her to call on the power of other animals stolen from her body, while Black Lightning, formerly deep undercover as a supporter of Lex Luthor, has taken to tracking down disappearing meta-criminals as well as those suddenly able to sneak past detectors that are supposed to detect their powers and keep people safe from them.

But the threads come together in a plan to remove the Red Tornado's Immortality and gift it to someone else. With his new human body not resistant to pain or injury, can John Smith stay alive and find a way to retain his new, fully human body? Or will he fail and finally die? Or can he find a way to survive even the death of his human body, and triumph over the foes who want to obliterate him from the world to once again return?

This was an interesting book. While Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman get a lot of book time, a lot of it is dedicated to their discussions over who should be a part of the newly revamped Justice League. Lots of past members make their appearance, from Oliver Queen, the former Green Arrow, to Captain Marvel, most of them are only in pictures as the Big Three discuss them. Not surprisingly, the new team is made up of the Big Three, along with the characters who actively appear in this book. Another nice nod to the past is the new HQ, which harkens back to the HQ that made its appearance in the old 70's cartoons. More than harkens, actually. "Identical" is a better word to use, although I'm not familliar enough with the old comics to know if there ever was an HQ like that in the comic books rather than the cartoon "Challenge of the Superfriends". At least they didn't throw in the "obligatory comic characters" or Zan, Jayna and Gleep, or Marvin, Wendy and Wonder Dog.

It was kind of sad to see how the Supervillains manipulated John Smith, but as the creators point out, this sort of story rarely ends well. It sort of reinforces a "be yourself" dynamic, as most of the grief comes from the fact that Red Tornado tried to be something he wasn't: human. But even so, he fought to the end and showed that even an artificial human can be a hero, and has a soul or spirit. Which rather confused me. An artifical being has a soul? How, exactly? Although it is pointed out as this is what makes him different from other creations like Platinum or Gold, or any of the other Metal Men. But how he came to have one... that isn't really spelled out.

Regardless, it's a well-told story. Don't sweat the strange parts, and you'll enjoy it more.