Red Cloud (DC)
Red Cloud is a female comic supervillain who features in DC Comics.
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Biography
Robinson Goode was a female human who was born in the modern age on Earth. Her father was noted to had run security at Iron Heights with Robinson herself becoming a journalist by the time she was an adult. She eventually got a job as a reporter at the Star Sentinel situated in Star City. (Action Comics v1 #1018)
Around 6 months, she was investigating a case involving missing people and the S.T.A.R. Labs at Star City. She decided to question one of the research teams who panicked and knocked her out. It was then that it was learnt that the team was responsible for the lab tech disappearances. In desperation, the corrupt scientists decided to kill Goode by putting her into an interdimensional rift that they were studying. Robinson managed to regain consciousness and attempted to flee but was dragged into the experiment where she joined a red cloud of matter. However, rather than dying, her body was transformed into the substance and she became a superpowered being composed of the seemingly gaseous material. In anger, she lashed out at the scientists and killed them all whereupon she quickly departed the scene. The authorities never discovered the missing scientists with Robinson's part of the event not being known and the lab was eventually shut down. (Action Comics v1 #1018)
During her first week, she began investigating a story involving a series of mysterious fires being made on buildings in Metropolis. Her initial findings though claimed that several eye witness accounts claiming that Superman was the cause of the fires. In reality, the fires were being created by some of the lower ranking members of the Invisible Mafia looking to distract Superman. This led to Mr. Strong calling a secret meeting of the crime organization where he had Red Cloud kill the person responsible for threatening the mafia. (Action Comics v1 #1001) The low ranking thug named John Bender had his body dropped in midtown where afterwards Ms. Goode as a reporter claimed she had eye witness accounts of Superman dropping the body. Perry White though disproved of Robinson's investigation and had Clark Kent assigned to the story to provide another account of it. Later on, she assumed her Red Cloud identity when she went to check on Boss Moxie who came under attack from the Guardian. Moxie was killed whilst Guardian was rendered comatose from the encounter but he was rescued by the police where he revealed that his attacker was called the Red Cloud. (Action Comics v1 #1002)
Robinson was then sent to the Dragon's club to meet with Candy who provided her a box of Kryptonite. Meanwhile, in her civilian persona, she attempted to lead the story at the Daily Planet over the death of boss Moxie. However, Perry White felt it was not a front page story as the details over the crime figure's demise were not fully known. At this time, Clark Kent had fallen ill and nearly passed out with Goode offering to get an intern to call an ambulance. Upon leaving the building, she was accosted by Batman who fished out the box of Kryptonite from her purse. He questioned her on the Kryptonite which Robinson Goode claimed was for a story. The Dark Knight then took the box of Kryptonite with him and left Goode by herself. With the vigilante taking her acquisition, Goode believed that Candy from the Dragon's club had a leak in her organization who had informed Batman. This led to Robinson confronting Candy at the club who told her that the rules were not to say aloud words such as 'Kryptonite' as it risked bringing attention to the Man of Steel. Breaking this rule and the accusation led to Candy nearly looking to stab Goode. It was then that Candy was killed by the Red Cloud in front of Robinson Goode with Superman arriving at the scene. Everyone present had only seen a red smoke but no source of it with Robinson seemingly grateful at Superman coming to save her from the mysterious murderer. (Action Comics v1 #1003)
Goode returned to work the next day where she continued her story with her claiming that she had half a story in relation to the Red Cloud murders. (Action Comics v1 #1004) Multiple figures by this point were looking to find the identity of the Red Cloud. Among them included the Question who was striking various criminal hideouts for clues on the supervillain murderer killing mobsters in Metropolis. Robinson Goode was heading the Daily Planet's story on the person where she had some assistance from Clark Kent on writing the article. On that night, a gathering of the Invisible Mafia came about when one of them wanted the Red Cloud to be dispatched to kill the Question after her hit her operations. However, the Red Cloud instead decided to attack Superman himself where she nearly suffocated him but escaped her with the villain leaving the scene to return to her true form as Robinson Goode. She came to be impressed at her ability to fight the Man of Steel making her more confident in her ability at fighting Metropolis's champion. (Action Comics v1 #1005)
She was looking for a new hideout for her villainous identity when she discovered an abandoned building. Once inside, she was confronted by Lex Luthor and Leviathan with the two proposing an alliance as they intended to strike Superman together now that the hero had revealed his true identity to the world. At first, Robinson refused but the pair managed to convince her that she could deal the killing blow after he was weakened by their attack. This saw the Red Cloud participate in the attack on Metropolis alongside the Legion of Doom as they targeted the Man of Steel. (Action Comics v1 #1019) The Red Cloud managed to capture Superman after he was attacked by the Legion of Doom and held him within her mercy. However, she turned against the villains to help the heroes when Leviathan similarly tuned against Luthor to prove that his own way was a means of bringing peace to the world. With Luthor defeated, Red Cloud departed the scene and continued on her own schemes alongside her ally Ms. Leone. (Action Comics v1 #1021)
Afterwards, she returned to Ms. Leone's side where the leader of the Invisible Mafia considered killing Lois Lane for her exposing the existence of the hidden criminal organisation. However, Robinson did not believe this was a good idea and shared an admiration of Lois Lane. Despite this, she and Leone agreed that a message needed to be sent that showed the Invisible Mafia were still a force to be reckoned with in the criminal underworld. (Action Comics v1 #1022) Afterwards, the second-in-commands of the Invisible Mafia were killed with their bodies being stored at a pipe in a mansion outside of Metropolis. Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen were investigating the mansion where they uncovered the dead bodies with the Red Cloud attacking them. She, however, had no intention of killing Lois Lane as she felt that this would make Superman full of grief and that he could react violently in response but intended to murder Olsen as a message to the Man of Steel to back away. Before she could do so, Superman arrived at the scene along with two Superboy's namely Kon-El and Jon Kent. The three heroes struggled to fight the Red Cloud but she became distracted when Jimmy Olsen guessed that she was Robinson Goode. This allowed the three Kryptonians to use their super-breath to disperse the Red Cloud's body into the cityscape though she vowed to kill the Man of Steel's family. She then briefly attacked Jon Kent where she used her cloud-matter to choke him before warning the Kent's to stay away from their investigation. Robinson then returned to Ms. Leone where she was infuriated at the secret of the Kent family and believed that they needed to strike at Superman to force him to back away from their operations. Leone was then informed that the Invisible Mafia's Black Label Club had been struck by Superman whose son had shrunk the building after emptying out the clientele thus leaving it worthless to the organisation. (Action Comics v1 #1023)
As the Superman Family targeted the Invisible Mafia, Leone had Robinson accompany Doctor Glory to her old S.T.A.R. Labs facility. Upon making sure it was safe, the two entered into her lab where Glory activated a machine that summoned a being from another universe. This entity was like the Parasite where in his world he had killed his Superman and taken his powers. Doctor Glory had been in contact with the entity and intended to use him as a secret weapon against superheroes that opposed her. She asked Robinson to remain powered down whilst she summoned the Parasite who was then dispatched to deal with the Superman Family. (Action Comics v1 #1025) This alternate version of Raymond Maxwell Jensen battled the heroes but they managed to defeat him by draining him of his stolen energies and reducing him in size allowing them to contain him in a bottle. Superman himself then fought Red Cloud as he was furious at her for killing his friend Melody Moore. Robinson stated that this was the price for him disrupting the Invisible Mafia's operations leading her to fight him alongside the rest of the Superman Family. (Action Comics v1 #1026) The Super Family then attempted to spin around the Red Cloud to contain her in a hurricane that delayed her long enough so that they could send her to the Phantom Zone. Briefly trapped, Superman gave her a chance to surrender and repent for her crimes. This saw her surrendering to the Superman Family and standing trial for murder alongside other crimes where she was sent to Stryker's Island with equipment designed to contain her abilities. Once there, she received a letter from Ms. Leone where she learnt that her partner was actually native to another Earth and chastised Robinson in her failure as well as destroying their plans. Despite the Invisible Mafia's defeat, Ms. Leone was never caught as she fled to anther Earth in the Multiverse. (Action Comics v1 #1027)
Overview
Personality and attributes
As a superpowered mob enforcer, she came to take the name of Red Cloud for herself. (Action Comics v1 #1001)
She considered herself a big fan of Lois Lane. (Action Comics v1 #1021) Robinson had said that she had read all of Clark Kent and Lois's Lane work with the two inspiring her to become a reporter. (Action Comics v1 #1023)
The Red Cloud believed that the real reason that Metropolis was always in chaos was because of Superman and that the alien should go back to outer space where he belonged. Upon learning Superman was Clark Kent, she came to no longer admire the reporter of the Daily Planet but instead saw him as an alien that was in her way. In fact, she came to see Superman as someone condescending once she got to know him. (Action Comics v1 #1023)
Robinson was not above murdering innocents if pushed into a corner as she murdered Melody Moore to teach Superman a lesson for messing with their operations. She said that people never thought that she was capable of such acts and that she was tired of them not taking her threats seriously. (Action Comics v1 #1026)
Powers and abilities
Originally, Robinson was an ordinary human being though one that had a talent as a journalist. It was during one case where she was exposed to an interdimensional event and her body evolved in response. This resulted in a full interdimensional bonding to her body where her form could transform into a cloud of red gaseous substance. She could change from her human form into the Red Cloud where she could dissipate her body into the gas to form or reform at will for quick transportation. Offensively, she could use the gaseous form to flood the lungs of a person and cause them to suffocate to death. (Action Comics v1 #1018) It was shown that even the likes of Kryptonians could be suffocated using this ability. (Action Comics v1 #1005)
She came to serve as a superpowered enforcer for the Invisible Mafia that was a criminal organization operating in Metropolis. In this role, she kept the thugs and street bosses of the crime organization in line. She mainly intimidated her allies and enemies through brutal executions using her power set. (Action Comics v1 #1001)
Notes
- The Red Cloud was created by Brian Michael Bendis and José Luis García-López where she made her first appearance in DC Nation v2 #0 (July, 2018).
- Her true identity as Robinson Goode was revealed in Action Comics v1 #1005 (2019).
- In an interview, Bendis noted, "This is a very different kind of crime story. We know so little about where the Red Cloud came from and what she wants. She's part of this organization in Metropolis now, but we haven't met the person who brought her here. We'll see - to even her surprise - that the Red Cloud can go up against Superman. We have an enforcer on the streets of Metropolis who is a challenge to him."
Appearance
- DC Nation v2: (2018)
- The Man of Steel v2:
- Action Comics v1:
- Superman v5:
- Superman: Leviathan Rising Special v1:
External Links
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