Air Wave II

AIR WAVE III

Real Name: Harold Lawrence Jordan

Class: Human technology-user

Occupation: Student, superhero

Group Affiliation: Captains of Industry

Known Relatives: Helen Jordan (Air Wave II, mother), Hal Jordan (Green Lantern II, cousin), Jack Jordan (cousin), Jan Jordan (cousin), Jason (cousin), Jennifer (cousin), Jim (cousin), Lawrence Jordan (Air Wave I, father, deceased), unnamed grandmother

Aliases: Maser

Base of Operations: Dallas, Texas

First Appearance: Green Lantern I #100 (January, 1978)

Powers: Air Wave wore a helmet that let him change his body into energy and ride along radio and television waves or fly at superspeed.

History: (DC Comics Presents #40) - Hal Jordan was the son of 1940s mystery man Air Wave. Air Wave thought his methods were becoming outdated, so he developed a suit that could convert his body to energy and allow him to rid radio waves. He prepared to test it out when he picked up on a police signal reporting a break in at his own house. He tried to activate the costume, but it turned itself to energy and left him as normal Larry Jordan. He couldn’t wait to figure out the problem, and rushed downstairs to find Joe Parsons, a criminal he convicted holding a gun on his wife and infant son. Parsons had broke out of jail, and had sworn revenge on Larry. Larry struggled with him to save his family, but the thug fatally shot him and fled. His wife grieved, but Hal was too young to understand what had happened. Helen decided to take the Air Wave suit and assume his identity to avenge his murder. She brought Parsons to justice, and put away his suit, but swore that his son Hal would carry on his legacy, and when he reached adulthood Hal Jordan became the new Air Wave, inheriting the hi-tech suit that was an improvement on his father's original.

Hal took on the mantle of Air Wave and was coached in his superhero career by Green Lantern II, Black Canry II and Green Arrow I.

Air Wave was recruited for the Captains of Industry and briefly took on the identity of Maser.

(JSA #11, 12) - Kobra kidnapped Maser and used stolen S.T.A.R. Labs technology to harness Maser’s powers to control anything within the electromagnetic spectrum. Kobra used Maser’s power to commit terrorist acts. The JSA came to Maser’s rescue and after being freed Maser prevented Kobra from blowing up NYC with antiballistic satellites.

(JSA: Our Worlds at War #1) - He went back to using the Air Wave identity. During the Imperiex War Air Wave was called in as a JSA reserve on a mission to disrupt Imperiex’s link to his ship’s power supply. The JSA not only cut off Imperiex from his power, but they managed to blow up his ship as well.

(JSA #49-51) - As a JSA reservist Air Wave sent out a worldwide S.O.S. after the Princes of Darkness knocked the moon from its orbit, and contacted a number of heroes to battle the Princes on several fronts. The chaos caused by the Princes inspired Kobra to declare that it was the end of the world and he sent his cultists to attack several cities around the world. Air Wave helped Flash Jay Garrick subdue the cultists, and later aided the JSA in defeating Mordru.

(JSA #77) - Air-Wave started receiving transmissions that made his powers overload. He couldn’t silence the boundless voices he heard, and crashed into the JSA hq. The JSA couldn't find anything wrong with him, and called in Green Lantern Hal Jordan. Jordan admitted he didn’t know if this had happened before to Air-Wave; he hadn’t seen his cousin in years. Air-Wave woke up and determined to find the source of the transmission overloading him, and flew into space, followed by Green Lantern I and Hal. He led them to New Cronus, where Troia met them. Troia told them the Titans of Myth prophesized the end of the universe, and she was looking for heroes to go on a space mission to find the source of the coming crisis. Air-Wave knew he could lead her to the source, which was the same place that was overloading him, and they took off.

(Firestorm II #20) - Troia’s team headed to the center of the universe, and they came across a Rannian ship sitting dead in space, and being attacked by Thanagarians. Air Wave couldn’t help his fellow heroes because the voices at the nexus-of-all-worlds was still crippling him. After some debate the others decided to intervene. Getting involved in the Rann-Thanagar war turned out to be a pointless endeavour, the Rannians had stolen a revered Thanagarian Ca’arra hawk and killed it, so the Thanagarians retaliated by blowing up their ship. The heroes were taken aback by the senselessness of war.

(Firestorm II #21) - After Firestorm apparently died in space Air Wave and Troia sent his father Alvin Rusch a television message to let him know his son died a hero.

Comments: Created by Denny O'Neil & Alex Saviuk.

In the pre-Crisis DC Universe Air Wave II was born on Earth-1, although his parents were from Earth-2.

Air Wave was named after his cousin Hal Jordan (Green Lantern II).

Air Wave received profiles in Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #1 and The DC Comics Encyclopedia.