Tornado

This article is about the Marvel UK Decepticon. For the Decepticon Skyscorcher released as "Tornado" in Europe, see Windrazor (G2).

Tornado is a Decepticon from the Generation 1 continuity family.

DAMN YOU JACK SPARROOOOOWWW!

Tornado makes a living by betraying people, apparently. Once a professional saboteur, then a Decepticon rebel. Then dead.

It would take little effort for me to unleash the power necessary to level this pitiful city. Why do we cloak ourselves in darkness like common criminals? Why?Tornado, "State Games"

Fiction

Marvel The Transformers comics

Tornado appeared exclusively in the UK portion of the Marvel Comics continuity.

Tornado, before the Great War, was a saboteur working for the city of Vos. He intended to bomb Tarn's power plant during the Games, when it would be running on a skeleton crew, and pin it on Iacon, which would result in a war after which Vos would grab all the power.

Unfortunately, this was not to be. A lowly second engineer in the power plant spotted the saboteurs and informed his superiors of their plan. While Tornado killed him before he could give the requested confirmation, when the bomb went off Vos was blamed instead, beginning a devastating war between Vos and Tarn which would end in the complete destruction of both. After this, he was amongst the survivors recruited by Megatron into his new faction of Decepticons. State Games

He would not last long. After trying to rebel against the Decepticons, he opted for Trial By Combat, where he faced his former comrade Earthquake. Though boastful of his superior speed, he didn't make it out alive. In fact, neither of them did.

Watching this on a tape millions of years later, Megatron thought that this would be a good way to rid himself of Starscream. The Enemy Within!

IDW Generation 1 continuity

Tornado was a member of Squadron X, a team of Decepticons which served as a brutal counterpart to the Autobots' Wreckers. Tornado was especially notable for having the highest killcount and being Macabre's right-hand man. This led to Starscream promising him a position within Decepticon High Command "come the revolution". Tornado's Squadron X profile

The rivalry between the Wreckers and Squadron X came to a head on Pova, and victory seemed within their grasp when Springer was trapped under rubble. Tornado, Earthquake and Macabre advanced on the Autobots' position, but Impactor fired through Springer's torso at them, and this surprise tactic turned the tide against them. Tornado and the others were put in inhibitor harnesses and contained, ready for justice.

According to Fisitron's Wreckers: Declassified datalogs, Tornado and the rest of Squadron X were able to somehow escape their harnesses, forcing the Wreckers to execute rather than imprison them. Last Stand of the Wreckers #4

Except that they didn't actually break out. Impactor shot them all in cold blood instead. Last Stand of the Wreckers #5

Wings Universe

Wings Universe is based on the Generation 1 cartoon, but deviates from it in cosmetic ways and continuity points.

Despite transforming into one, Tornado wasn’t built to be a gun. His biology predisposed him to be a jet, but he went ahead and scanned a gun out of ambition. He subsequently found himself unable to scan a new alt mode, and relied on Ferak to either fix his gun mode or find a means to take on a new alternate mode.

Tornado and Ferak were once members of Squadron X, but were left to join the Star Seeker pirates after the rest of the Squadron died on Torax Prime. They came upon the Tidal Wave while being pursued by Autobots. The Star Seekers rescued them, leaving Tornado to feel indebted towards his rescuers.

Upon first joining Cannonball’s pirate crew, Tornado and Ferak were tasked with building a few things for Captain Cannonball. They readily accepted, even suggesting they could throw in a few surprises of their own, given they were provided the necessary parts.

At some point, Tornado sabotaged Captain Cannonball’s alarm clock in the hopes of advancing in rank above the filthy organic Squirm. Someone learned about this, and scribbled a quick cartoon of it on the ship’s wall.

Ferak had Tornado once help test out a batch of fragmentation foam, in an incident that turned into a sour memory for the little 'bot.

The strain that Tornado was under due to being pursued by the law on a constant basis edged him into recording a personal journal to remain sane.

On an Energon-pillaging mission on a planet populated by bipedal reptiles, Tornado was tasked with breaking into a special vault. He was unable to crack it, and so the Star Seekers resorted to simply blasting the vault. Tornado expressed confusion when the content of the vault was revealed: a single reptile holding a piece of paper. The Captain was nonetheless pleased. Becoming overly curious on what the captain was planning, Tornado decided to hack into Cannonball's logs. This led to him plundering much of the personal logs of many other crew members.

When the Tidal Wave entered the “Demon's Maw” in anticipation for what Cannonball assured his crew to be their biggest score, Tornado spent much of his time lamenting on the day-to-day activities of his fellow cremates to kill boredom. When the creature of Demon's Maw neared the ship, Tornado remained mostly silent in anticipation to the creature’s attack. Only after the attack did he update his journal on how Cannonball thwarted the creature.

When Tornado grew tired of Thunderclap and Rolling Thunder's races and the noises they produced, he went to Ferak in the hopes that he could design some sort of sound dampeners for the ship. Unfortunately, Ferak misheard him and later presented him with a Sonic Destabilizer instead of the requested dampeners.

Tornado once entered Ferak’s workshop, only to be surprised that his fellow ex-Squadron-X member wanted to talk about their days on Frellus IV. Tornado recounted their adventures against the Wreckers there, only to find out afterwards that Ferak only wanted to hear the tale in order to jog his memory about a weapon he had been mentally constructing at the time.

Tornado tested the effectiveness of Cutback's black-market system aboard the Tidal Wave by asking for a Sky Seer. He eventually did get what he asked for, though the creature broke free of its case and his quarters. He pursued the creature, but lost it in the ship’s engine rooms.

Tornado found himself bothered by an infestation of Trepdillian Lava Fleas, and consulted Izzerkilod on the matter. Discovering that the bugs most likely came from Squirm, Tornado begun plotting revenge against the organic. In the meantime, he was given a green salve to counter the pests. Tornado complained that the substance made him look like Vector Oracle.

In preparation for Cannonball’s great heist, Tornado was tasked with infiltrating Ventax II and disabling the planetary defense systems. He was partnered up with Skyduster for the task. The two of them successfully entered the planet’s atmosphere unnoticed. As they neared the planet’s capital, the two pirates parted ways and Tornado continued on foot. Tornado fulfilled his part of the plan mostly without incident, and begun to make his way back to Skyduster. En route, he encountered one of the Arms Minicons built by Ferak. The mechanimal broadcast a message from Cannonball; Tornado’s task was not yet done, and he was to follow the mechanimal to specified coordinates for some looting.

Though Tornado made his way to the raid, he didn’t have time to participate before Cannonball sounded a retreat, having procured what he was after. Scrambling to get a ride back to the ship, Tornado encountered a group of natives obstructing his path. He attempted to take them on, only to be dog-piled and restrained. Thankfully, Ferak and his Sonic Destabilizer came to Tornado’s rescue, and the pair returned to the Tidal Wave.

There, Tornado was surprised to find that Cannonball had with him the Sky Seer that had previously escaped him. Tornado denied knowledge of the bird’s existence to save his hide, though the captain had taken a liking to it.

He was later confronted by Cutback and Lockpick for his indiscretion with the procurement they had provided him. Tornado was able to change their tone when he offered to pay triple for his next request: a Lukythian Warp Star. With what was essentially a self-firing bullet, Tornado hoped to remedy the uselessness of his constantly-jamming alternate mode. Though the deal went through smoothly, Ferak stumbled upon the Warp Star's hiding place, and decided to wear it on a chain around his neck. Tornado decided not to speak up, figuring that since Ferak was the one who most often fired him in his weapon mode, the Warp Star being in Ferak’s possession suited his needs.

Right before Cannonball announced his plan for his heist, Tornado took advantage of Squirm being called away from his quarters for an extended period of time to take his revenge upon the organic. He sprinkled borillium metal dust all over the creature’s apparel, knowing it would cause the Hunter to pursue Squirm all over the ship.

When the Tidal Wave entered transwarp, Tornado went to check on Ferak to kill time. He was pleased to learn that Ferak had found a way to repair Tornado's gun mode.

As the Tidal Wave continued to travel through transwarp, Tornado noticed several strange behaviors from the rest of the crew. He also begun hearing disembodied voices, and noticed strange log entries appearing inside the ship’s computers. Poking about, he discovered Brimstone’s camera network hidden across the ship. Hacking into it, he opted to let Brimstone keep his toys, unless of course Brimstone dared to spy on him. Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur

After Cannonball’s plan to raid Cybertron in the far future failed, Tornado found himself imprisoned in close proximity to Flamewar. The two of them collaborated to free themselves of their prison, then Tornado freed the rest of the captured crew and return to the Tidal Wave. On his way out, Tornado managed to copy some files from the prison’s computers. Now on the run from the Cybertronian Knights, Cannonball’s crew headed for their next adventure: finding Starscream’s immortal spark!

Though the Star Seekers came close to oblivion on their subsequent journey, they nonetheless managed to reach their goal: a small, nameless planetoid inhabiting a “safe zone” between several black holes. Tornado, alongside Ferak, Flamewar, Thunderclap and Neurotoxin went down to investigate with Captain Cannonball.

On the planetoid, the group found an ancient stronghold. There, Tornado was allowed to cut loose and incinerate several walls with his gun alternate mode. The group discovered an ancient Quintesson within the stronghold, who offered them the last known location of Starscream’s spark in exchange for being taken aboard the Tidal Wave. On their journey back to the ship, Tornado felt some kind of presence ensuring that they would make it back to their ship safely.

"I need an adult!"

Later, strange happenings begun going on the Tidal Wave once more, and Tornado was assigned to investigate them. Using Brimstone’s camera surveillance system, Tornado happened to observe Flamewar and Lockpick having an inaudible conversation, which he found odd. Notably, Flamewar was holding the spark containment unit that Ferak had previously been working on. As the Tidal Wave prepared to leave the black hole-ridden area, Tornado was shocked to see Flamewar once more, this time on the bridge, accompanied by a strange glowing orb… Starscream’s spark! The two mutineers proceeded to knock out most of the crew before Starscream took over the Captain’s body. With Starscream now in control, and Cannonball’s spark contained within the very container he had hoped to capture Starscream with, Flamewar ordered Tornado to head back towards the planetoid where they had found the Quintesson. There, Captain Cannonball and his loyalist were left stranded, while Tornado, Ferak, and the rest of the Star Seekers who had no qualms about following the new management blasted off into space.

Tornado proved his worth to his new captain by providing her with more files he had snatched back when they had been captured by the Cybertronian Knights. Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur

Toys

Timelines

More like Strong Breeze.

• Pirates vs Knights (BotCon 2014 box set)

Tornado is a redeco of Universe Nightstick. He transforms into a gun mode that can be held in Ferak's right hand, mounted on his vehicle mode back, or—in an undocumented feature—plugged into the "wrist socket" created by leaving Ferak's fists in their vehicle-mode position. His gun handle can also act as a Powerlinx port for a Mini-Con. Tornado comes in a box set with fellow pirates Cannonball, Ferak, Scorponok, and Olin Zarak, plus knights Ginrai and Devcon.

This mold was also used to make Rocketbot, Shattered Glass Krunix and Nebulon, Vector Oracle, and United Nightstick.

• More information on Tornado (with Ferak) at TFU.info

Notes

• The pages with Tornado and Earthquake were originally printed in black and white in The Transformers (UK) #15. They were colourised for inclusion in Transformers Collected Comics 4.
• The wiki may be inadvertently responsible, in a similar way to what happened with Macabre's colours, for Tornado's yellow crest in Last Stand of the Wreckers, owing to a faded mainpic which had been cut out from its background. The IDW The Transformers Classics UK Volume 1 reprint of the Collected Comics 4 colourised version shows no trace of yellow on his head!

External links

• Tornado's Facebook page