Joshua Clay (New Earth)

A member of the second Doom Patrol, Joshua Clay is the first hero to use the name Tempest. He is one of the few heroes initially identified as a mutant, and can shoot blasts of kinetic energy from his hands.

History

Origin

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, Clay 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. Clay chose the army and was trained as a combat medic and shipped off to combat.

Less than a month before the end of his tour, Clay witnessed the attempted massacre of an entire village of non-combatants by his sergeant, Ben Krullen. Horrified, Clay unconsciously triggered his powers, blasting Krullen, apparently killing him. 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.

Tempest

Arani Caulder tracked down Clay and enlisted him as a member of the new Doom Patrol. Clay stayed active within this incarnation of the Doom Patrol for a year before it disbanded due to internal dissent. Swearing off superheroics, Clay used his underworld connections to secure a new identity for himself as Jonathan Carmichael, M.D. Due to years of private study and his previous military training, he easily passed his New York medical board examination. As Carmichael, using funds borrowed from a local loan shark, he purchased a small Park Avenue medical practice and lived a quiet, respectable life treating rich hypochondriacs. Robotman tracked Clay down. Due to Steele's threat to reveal Clay's true identity to the medical board, he reluctantly returned to superheroics. He again retired from active service to become the team's physician.

Reforming the Doom Patrol

When the Doom Patrol's original leader, Niles Caulder, returned he tried to persuaded Clay to join the newly reformed Doom Patrol. Clay accepted but only on the condition that he helped the team strictly in a medical capacity, and continued to stay away from field mission. As part of the team, Clay spent a great amount of time looking after the psychic teenager Dorothy Spinner, and helped her gain more control over her powers.^[1] He would also grow increasingly distrustful of Caulder's decision making and secrecy. Clay's suspicions would be justified when he ran to Caulder for help during a seizure of Dorothy's. Upon seeing him, Clay was shot dead by Caulder who was convinced that Clay was attempting to sabotage his experiments.^[2]

Blackest Night

Clay was resurrected and became a member of the Black Lantern Corps.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Kinetic Energy Projection: Clay can generate and radiate powerful blasts from his hands which are 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.
Flight: Properly focused and controlled, his energies allow Tempest to propel himself through the air at 90 miles per hour.

Abilities

Military Protocol: Trained as a combat medic by the U.S. Army.
Medicine: He becomes a licensed physician before becoming a superhero.
Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic): With both his military training and experience he's learned to fight well enough to keep toe-to-toe with most minor thugs and criminals.

Notes

Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.
Two years after Clay's death, a man named Martin Ellis, who looked like the Steve Lightle rendition of Clay, woke from a seven year coma with an active metagene. In combat with Captain Atom, Ellis exhibited the same powers as Clay. Ellis reunited with his wife Yvonne at the end of the story. This was his only appearance.^[3]

Doom Patrol member
This character was at some point primarily a member of the Doom Patrol. A long-running team of rag-tag misfit heroes who work together for the common good, fighting evil against all odds. This template will categorize any article that includes it into the Doom Patrol members category.

Black Lantern Corps member
This character is or was a member of the Black Lantern Corps. Those who have died may wield the Black Power Ring, symbolizing their lack of both life and emotion.
This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Black Lantern Corps members category."

[1] Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #23

[2] Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #55

[3] Justice League Quarterly Vol 1 17

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