Joshua Clay

Superherobox|

caption= Tempest in flight, art by James Fry
character_name= Tempest
publisher=DC Comics
debut="Showcase" #94 (August 1977)
creators=Paul Kupperberg (writer)
Joe Staton (artist)
alter_ego = Joshua Clay
species =
homeworld =
alliances = Doom Patrol
aliases = Jonathan Carmichael
supports=
powers = kinetic energy blasts, flight

Joshua Clay (Tempest) is a fictional character, a member of the superhero team Doom Patrol in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Paul Kupperberg and Joe Staton, he first appears as the hero Tempest in "Showcase" #94 (August 1977).Citation | last = Jimenez | first = Phil | author-link = Phil Jimenez | contribution = Clay, Joshua | editor-last = Dougall | editor-first = Alastair | title = The DC Comics Encyclopedia | pages = 84 | publisher = Dorling Kindersley | place = New York | year = 2008 | ISBN = 0-7566-4119-5 | oclc = 213309017]

Fictional character biography

Early years

A member of the second Doom Patrol, Joshua Clay is the first DC Comics hero to use the name Tempest. Along with Captain Comet, he is one of the few DC Comics heroes initially identified as a mutant.

Joshua Clay was born in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York, the youngest of five children. His parents struggled to keep their family together in the middle of what was at that time one of the worst slums in the country. At sixteen, Joshua joined a street gang called the Stompers, and eventually, as a result, wound up being given a choice between prison and service in the United States military. Joshua chose the army and was trained as a combat medic and shipped off to Vietnam.

Less than a month before the end of his tour, Joshua witnessed the attempted massacre of an entire village of Vietnamese non-combatants by his sergeant. Horrified, Joshua unconsciously triggered his powers, blasting the noncom, apparently killing the man. The stress of this discovery led Clay to go AWOL and fled the country, eventually returning to the U.S. Clay spent the next ten years living as a fugitive. ["Secret Origins Annual" #1] The sergeant eventually becomes Reactron, a repeated foe of the Doom Patrol.

Hero

Arani Caulder tracks down Joshua Clay and enlists him as a member of the new Doom Patrol. Clay stays active within this incarnation of the Doom Patrol for a year before it disbands due to internal dissent. Swearing off superheroics, Clay uses his underworld connections secure a new identity for himself as Jonathan Carmichael, M.D. Due to years of private study and his previous military training, he easily passes his New York medical board examination. As Carmichael, using funds borrowed from a local loan shark, he purchases a small Park Avenue medical practice and lives a quiet, respectable life treating rich hypochondriacs. Robotman tracks Clay down. Due to Steele's threat to reveal Clay's true identity to the medical board, he reluctantly returns to superheroics. He again retires from active service during the Grant Morrison scripted period to become the team's physician.Citation | last = Irvine | first = Alex | author-link = Alexander C. Irvine | contribution = Doom Patrol | editor-last = Dougall | editor-first = Alastair | title = The Vertigo Encyclopedia | pages = 61-63 | publisher = Dorling Kindersley | place = New York | year = 2008 | ISBN = 0-7566-4122-5 | oclc = 213309015]

Joshua Clay is murdered by a temporarily deranged Niles Caulder (The Chief) in "Doom Patrol" (vol. 2) #55 (May 1992). [ [http://www.rpi.edu/~bulloj/Doom_Patrol/issue55.html Review of "Doom Patrol" (vol. 2) #55] ] Whether his death has been undone by the events of "Infinite Crisis" like the deaths of other Doom Patrol members ["JLA" #94-99 and "Infinite Crisis Secret Files 2006" p. 17] is unknown.

Note

*Two years after Joshua Clay's death, a man named Martin Ellis, who looks like the Steve Lightle rendition of Joshua Clay, wakes from a seven year coma with an active metagene. In combat with Captain Atom, Ellis exhibits the same powers as Joshua Clay. Ellis reunites with his wife Yvonne at the end of the story. This was his only appearance "Justice League Quarterly" #17 (Winter 1994), "The Sleeper Awakens", written by Charlie Bracey, drawn by Carlos Franco] .

Powers and abilities

*Joshua Clay can generate and radiate powerful blasts from his hands, able to melt steel.
*Tempest can control his blasts' volume and intensity to the extent that he can ignite the head of a match from twenty feet away.
*Properly focused and controlled, his energies allow Tempest to propel himself through the air at 90 miles per hour .
*Trained as a combat medic by the U.S. Army, he later becomes a licensed physician.

Bibliography

* "Showcase" #94-96
* "Superman Family" #191-193
* "DC Comics Presents" #52
* "Daring New Adventures of Supergirl" #7-10
* "Crisis on Infinite Earths" #9-12
* "Secret Origins Annual" #1
* "Doom Patrol" (vol. 2) #1-27, 31, 55
* "Invasion" #2-3

Notes

References

*comicbookdb|type=character|id=2783|title=Tempest (Joshua Clay)

Resources

* [http://www.mykey3000.com/cosmicteams/cosmic/d.html Cosmic Teams: Doom Patrol]
* [http://www.dcuguide.com/who.php?name=tempest DCU guide Tempest Biography]
* [http://www.dcuguide.com/JLQ/JLQ_017.php DCU Guide: Justice League Quarterly #17]
* [http://www.fanzing.com/mag/fanzing32/feature1.shtml Fanzing #32: Diversity In The DC Universe: 1961-1979]
* [http://www.sequart.com/columns/?col=22 Sequential Art review of Doom Patrol #31]