Air Wave is the name of three superheroes appearing in American comic books published by

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

. The first two were active in the Golden Age of Comic Books (albeit the second Air Wave had only one appearance). The third appears in comics in the 21st century.

Publication history

The original Air Wave (Larry Jordan) debuted during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. His first appearance was in ''Detective Comics'' #60 (December 1942) by artist

Harris Levey Harris Levey (August 13, 1921 – August 18, 1984), whose pseudonyms included Lee Harris, Leland Harris, and Harris Levy, was a comic book artist for DC Comics primarily in the 1940s. He co-created the Golden Age of Comic Books, Golden Age super ...

, who signed his work under the pen name " Lee Harris", and a writer tentatively identified as either

Mort Weisinger Mortimer Weisinger (; April 25, 1915 – May 7, 1978) was an American magazine and comic book editor best known for editing DC Comics' ''Superman'' during the mid-1950s to 1960s, in the Silver Age of comic books. He also co-created such features a ...

Murray Boltinoff Murray Boltinoff (January 3, 1911 – May 6, 1994 in Pompano Beach, Florida) was a writer and editor of comic books, who worked for DC Comics from the 1940s to the 1980s, in which role he edited over 50 different comic book series. Biograph ...

.Air Wave (1942)
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on March 15, 2012]

(aka Lee Harris) drew the character's seven- to eight-page adventures from ''Detective Comics'' #60 (February 1942) to at least #74 (April 1943), and then following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

in ''Detective Comics'' #114-137 (August 1946 - July 1948). In September 1942, Levey (aka Lee Harris) left the series to join the US Army Airforce (UAAF) as a Photographer for the 15th Tactical Reconnaissance Photo Unit, turning the artwork over to his friend

George Roussos George Roussos (; August 20, 1915 – February 19, 2000), also known under the pseudonym George Bell, was an American comic book artist best known as one of Jack Kirby's Silver Age inkers, including on landmark early issues of Marvel Comics' ''Fa ...

for the 1943-46 issues. Levey returned to DC and resumed illustrating the Air Wave (July 1946, #113) and left DC and his Air Wave drawing duties in 1948 to pursue a career in advertising.

Fictional character biographies

Larry Jordan

Law clerk Lawrence "Larry" Jordan had recently graduated from law school and was an

intern An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gove ...

at the

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

District Attorney office. Noticing the rise of crime, Jordan decided to become a costumed crimefighter using technology, and used his interests in

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

and

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

to create his equipment, including a cowl radio system that allowed him to listen in on police reports and special skates that enabled him to travel along telephone lines. He was accompanied by an outspoken

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoide ...

named Static the Proverb Parrot, who occasionally aided him in battle (and, for narrative purposes, gave him someone with whom he could converse in order to provide exposition to the reader). His superhero activities were noticeable enough for a fictionalized President Franklin Roosevelt to request his participation in the

All-Star Squadron The All-Star Squadron is a DC Comics superhero team that debuted in ''Justice League of America'' #193 (August 1981) and was created by Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler and Jerry Ordway. Although the team was introduced in the 1980s, its self-titled serie ...

. Larry Jordan retired from his career as Air Wave in 1948 and married Helen soon afterward. Their son, Harold (Hal), was born as Jordan continued his research into radio wave conversion. In ''

DC Comics Presents ''DC Comics Presents'' is a comic book series published by DC Comics from 1978 to 1986 which ran for 97 issues and four ''Annual''s. It featured team-ups between Superman and a wide variety of other characters in the DC Universe. A recurring bac ...

'' #40 (December 1981), it was revealed that Larry was killed by a man he had once prosecuted as a district attorney. Joe Parsons was an escaped convict who took revenge by breaking into Jordan's home. Larry's costume malfunctioned as he tried to protect his family and he died from a shotgun wound to the chest. His enemies were mostly Nazis and criminals, but he also fought some sound-based supervillains: the Talker, the Parrot, and Dr. Silence. During the " Dark Nights: Death Metal" storyline, Air Wave is among the superheroes that were revived by Batman using a Black Lantern ring.

Helen Jordan

Helen Jordan was the wife of Larry Jordan, the original Air Wave. After Larry's death, Helen donned the Air Wave costume and brought the killer Joe Parsons to justice, but never wore the suit again. When her son Harold entered

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, Helen sent the boy to live with his cousins in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

as she slowly succumbed to mental illness.

Harold Jordan

At a young age, Harold was found to exhibit the power to transmute into energy. Just as his father had modified his helmet and was preparing to train him to use his powers, Larry was killed. Eventually, Harold decided to follow in the footsteps of his father's career and took up the mantle of Air Wave. When his character was introduced, it was also revealed that he was a cousin of the

Green Lantern Green Lantern is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. They fight evil with the aid of rings that grant them a variety of extraordinary powers, all of which come from imagination, fearlessness, ...

Hal Jordan, with whom he shares the name. Air Wave continued as a supporting character, though not in every issue, of Green Lantern and his co-stars of the time, Green Arrow and Black Canary, showing young Harold how to be a superhero. Starting in ''

Action Comics ''Action Comics'' is an American comic book/ magazine series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters. The publisher was originally known as National Allied Publications, and later as National Comics Publications ...

'' #488, Hal was featured in adventures of his own. For the next couple of years, he appeared in the secondary stories of ''

'' (the cover story almost always starred Superman), often alternating with the

Atom Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons. Every solid, liquid, gas, ...

. At some point, he became able to control his transmutation to energy without relying upon his father's equipment. When Air Wave was recruited by the Institute for Metahuman Studies to join a group of highly capitalist superheroes called the Captains of Industry, he used the code name Maser after undergoing extreme gene-modification at the hands of Doctor Moon. This group was relatively short-lived and he soon resumed using Air Wave as his moniker. His next major appearance was in the JSA story arc involving super-villain Kobra's plot to seize control of the world's media resources. When freed by the JSA, the seriously weakened hero destroyed Kobra's satellites, which were targeted to annihilate many of Earth's cities. Later, Air Wave joined the JSA reserve in battle during the

Imperiex Imperiex () is a supervillain character that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. He was initially introduced as an adversary to the superhero Superman before becoming a main antagonist for DC Comics' the "Our Worlds at War" crossover. ...

War as well as against the triumvirate of

Mordru Mordru (also known as Mordru the Merciless) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Jim Shooter and artist Curt Swan, Mordru first appeared in ''Adventure Comics'' #369 (June 1968). Considered ...

, Obsidian, and Eclipso. During the ''

Infinite Crisis "Infinite Crisis" is a 2005–2006 comic book storyline published by DC Comics, consisting of an eponymous, seven-issue comic book limited series written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Phil Jimenez, George Pérez, Ivan Reis, and Jerry Ordway, ...

'' company-crossover storyline, Air Wave joins a team of superheroes, including Animal Man,

Cyborg A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.

, and others that travel into space to help investigate a destructive spatial warp. Air Wave almost instantly detects the cries for help coming from the ships being affected. These cries overwhelm him, and he splits into millions of radio waves that fly off in different directions. During the event known as the ''

Blackest Night "Blackest Night" is a 2009–10 American comic book crossover storyline published by DC Comics, consisting of an eponymous central miniseries, written by Geoff Johns and penciled by Ivan Reis, along with a number of tie-in issues. ''Blackest Ni ...

'', the Harold Jordan Air Wave is reanimated as a member of the Black Lantern Corps. He is one of the billions of Black Lanterns transported by the Black Lantern planet Xanshi to Earth for the final battle. Air Wave uses his powers to redirect all of John Stewart's distress calls to the radio of an old lady in Omaha. Air Wave is then destroyed by the combined efforts of the various Lanterns corps, who had just arrived to battle the Black Lanterns. In 2016, DC Comics implemented another relaunch of its books called "

DC Rebirth DC Rebirth is a 2016 relaunch by the American comic book publisher DC Comics of its entire line of ongoing monthly superhero comic book titles. Using the end of The New 52 initiative in May 2016 as its launching point, DC Rebirth restored the DC ...

" which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to "

The New 52 The New 52 is the 2011 revamp and relaunch by DC Comics of its entire line of ongoing monthly superhero comic books. Following the conclusion of the " Flashpoint" crossover storyline, DC canceled all its existing titles and debuted 52 new serie ...

". Hal is again presented alive and as a neophyte superhero. In the same issue, it is hinted that Harold may not be straight. While Green Lantern was not up for Air Wave being his sidekick, he later gave him some approval after seeing how he defeated the Radio People of Kwyzz. During " The New Golden Age" miniseries "Stargirl: The Lost Children", Air Wave found himself displaced on Childminder's island as he tries to warn Stargirl and Red Arrow to stay away. When both of them wash up on the island and Red Arrow is abducted by the egg-like Child Collectors, Stargirl is saved by Air Wave,

Cherry Bomb A cherry bomb (also known as a globe salute or kraft salute) is an approximately spherical exploding firework, roughly resembling a cherry in size and shape (with the fuse resembling the cherry's stem). Cherry bombs range in size from in diamet ...

Wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is e ...

, and Robotman's Robbie the Robot Dog. After dodging the Child Collectors, Air Wave assisted Cherry Bomb, Wing, and Robbie into taking Stargirl to where the other Lost Children are.''Stargirl: The Lost Children'' #3. DC Comics.

Powers and abilities

* Larry – Antennae in helmet and circuitry in belt allowed him to eavesdrop on police band frequencies or intercept telephone calls, and travelled at the speed of electricity along telephone lines on collapsible skates built into his boots. Magnetic energies enabled him to climb walls or relieve criminals of their guns. * Helen – Helmet allows her to change her molecular structure, can transform into energy and travel along television airwaves and can fly at superhuman speeds. * Harold – Able to ride and transmute into energy, and fly at superhuman speeds. He inherited his powers and initially used his father's suit and helmet to better control his abilities. He can use his abilities to perform radiotherapy on cancer patients.''The Green Lantern'' Annual #1 (2019)

Notes

References

External links

at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on March 15, 2012.
Info from DCUGuide.com
* {{GoldenAge Characters created by Dennis O'Neil Characters created by Mort Weisinger Comics characters introduced in 1942 Comics characters introduced in 1978 Comics characters introduced in 1981 DC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds DC Comics American superheroes DC Comics male superheroes DC Comics metahumans Golden Age superheroes Fictional characters with energy-manipulation abilities Fictional characters with elemental transmutation abilities