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    Cyclone

    Character » Cyclone appears in 182 issues.

    Maxine Hunkel is the granddaughter of the original Red Tornado and with her powers is a member of the Justice Society of America as the superhero Cyclone.

    Short summary describing this character.

    Cyclone last edited by Belmonte3 on 09/15/22 08:30AM View full history

    History

    Maxine Hunkel is incredibly intelligent. With an SAT score of 1300 she's a 4.0 student of Harvard University. This intelligence alongside her naturally bubbly nature has made her somewhat of an outcast due to her unintentional seemingly oblivious know-it-all nature. Except she's not completely oblivious. At the age of six, she was kidnapped by T.O. Morrow and infected by nanobots. These nanobots are the apparent source of her powers, but luckily the kidnapping didn´t cause her psychological damage or negative effects, as Red Tornado says.

    Maxine Flying
    Maxine Flying

    She is fully aware of her isolation and has shown signs of depression. Things began to change when she started developing her powers. A sneeze demolished her grandmother (honorary member and caretaker of the JSA's headquarters) Abigail "Ma" Hunkel's home, and a few days after that she woke up on top of a roaring tornado.

    Her family history, powers, and untapped potential has made her a prime candidate for a reformed Justice Society of America. Her college major is theater, and she has a flair for fashion, as shown when Stargirl takes her to design a costume.

    She decides to take the name of Cyclone in honor of her grandma´s sidekicks, the Cyclone Kids. On her first mission with the JSA, she protects Pat Dugan and his son Mike from the Fourth Reich. During the lightning saga, she becomes friends with the Red Tornado.

    During the appearance of Kingdom Come Superman, she sewed up his costume. She was one of the JSA members who opposed Gog and helped to fight him. During this story she gets Frankie, her pet monkey who wore a costume based on the monkeys of The Wizard of Oz and created by Thunderbolt (Jakeem says that she now has her own flying Monkey), but Maxine believes this is animal cruelty and she tries to put it off. The monkey seems to love the costume. She becomes attracted to Damage when his face is healed.

    She was one of the heroes gathered by Alan Scott to fight against Darkseid during Final Crisis.

    During the incident of the Prophecy Sphere, she was one of the few members who got lost. First she cheers up the current Mr. America telling him a story about the first time that her grandma and the original Mr. America met. Later she traveled in time and helps Power Girl and Wildcat defeat Icicle. After the sphere was destroyed, everything goes back to normal.

    After the events of the split of the JSA in two teams, Maxine joins the team led by Magog. During the teams training she develops a crush on King Chimera.

    When Stargirl was kidnapped by Johnny Sorrow in the Realm of Subtles alongside Atom Smasher, Cyclone and Roxy helped Anna Fortune to build a device to bring Stargirl back but it backfired, bringing the All-Stars to Sorrow´s dimension and freed the King of Tears. Maxine battled the creature alongside the rest of her team until Stargirl killed it.

    Some weeks after the funeral of Damage, she wanted to continue her relationship with King Chimera, but he was still in mourning over his deceased lover Namita. When the All-stars traveled to Parador, Maxine was attacked and got hurt. King Chimera, thanks to a teleport spell of Anna Fortune, traveled with Maxine to a hospital and she was saved. She recovered at an incredible speed but her powers returned out of control, causing the collapse of the hospital where she was recovering. She was able to use this power upgrade to help the All-Stars, helping to defeat the gods of Parador by destroying their temple in L.A.

    After the battle her powers began to disappear. King Chimera apologized to Maxine, explaining his mourning and allowing them to begin their relationship anew. Two weeks after, Maxine lost her powers and quit the All-stars, deciding to find a way to recover them. The team is teleported to a mission in space, leaving a confused Roxy behind.

    Meanwhile, in Harvard, Maxine tried to reactivate the nanobots again without success. Tim, a classmate of Maxine, asked her to date, but she rejected him, still unsure about her feelings towards King Chimera. When she came back to her room, Maxine found a girl who looked exactly like her and with her powers. Both Maxines tried to investigate what was going on and who was the real Maxine. Tim was able to recreate Maxine's Nanobots and injected them on himself, giving himself superpowers, but these powers proved to be unstable. When the two Cyclones tried to calm him, a third Maxine appeared on scene. The three of them took down Tim, but he flew away. The trio then decided to fly to the ranch in search of help about Tim and the situation of the clones, only to discover nine additional Maxine clones, all with identical memories and abilities. Roxy arrived to the conclusion that the depowered Cyclone was the original and the rest were women infected by Maxine nanobots when she was dying in the battle of Parador. When the nanobots infected the women, they attempted to repair the women according to Maxine's genetic mold, transforming them into exact copies of Maxine, including her personality and abilities. The only way to distinguish between the clones was through analysis of their bones. Roxy told them that the only way to revert the process was with the original nanobots, which were destroyed after the battle of Parador. Then one of the clones remembered that Tim was in possession of the nanobots, so the Cyclones flew to find him. They found that Tim had mastered his new powers and he was using them to destory a town. Once Maxine recovered her nanobots from Tim, the twelve Cyclones combined their powers to destory the remains of Tim's powers, leaving him depowered. The girls came back to the ranch and Roxy was able to revert the transformation of the Cyclones. None of the girls remembered anything after the infection. The All- Stars came back seconds later shocked to see the scene. They were able to return the girls from where they were. Roxy revealed to Power Girl that someone is living with Maxine's bones and that Maxine has the bones of one of the other girls. Kara decided not to say anything. Meanwhile at Harvard, King Chimera and Maxine kissed for the first time.

    She has currently developed the ability of super hearing via the sound transmitted by wind and send sound anywhere. She used these abilities to find and stop a student contemplating suicide at Harvard.

    After the events of Doomsday Clock, Cyclone returned alongside the rest of the Justice Society of America.

    ALTERNATE VERSIONS

    In the alternate world of Earth-22, Maxine appears as the Red Tornado III. Instead of her Wizard of Oz themed costume, she wears a purple costume with tassels on it. It is unknown if she survives the final battle. In supplementary material, she is described as the protege of the Tornado, the future version of the Red Tornado II. Her short bio from the card set and collected edition reads "fire-haired, wind manipulating successor to the mantle."

    In the reality warped world of Trinity, Maxine appears as a member of the JSI. She is killed in action.

    POWERS AND ABILITIES

    Aerokinesis: Maxine possesses the power of wind manipulation. She is able to mentally summon cyclones and whirlwinds, project powerful bursts of air, and glide through the air on wind currents.

    • Flight
    • Air Blasts
    • Cyclone Creation
    • Deflection: Also is able to deflect approaching objects with ease.
    • Maxine has discovered that she can control sound currents as well, gathering and sending sound waves (JSA 80 page giant 2010).

    IN OTHER MEDIA

    Cyclone's concept art
    Cyclone's concept art

    Cyclone will make her movie debut in the upcoming Black Adam movie. She will be a member of the JSA alongside Hawkman, Doctor Fate and Atom Smasher. She'll be played by Quintessa Swindell.

    Like in the comics, Maxine grew up idolizing the Justice Society of America, especially Hawkman. The origins of her powers are similar to the comics, as she was kidnapped and experimented with nanobots.

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