Get to Know a Hero: Rip Hunter

Did you all see new Legends of Tomorrow trailer during #Flarrow? Me too. And the more I see, the more excited I get. I figured I’d use the next couple of months to fill in the background on our major players.

Real Name: Unknown

  My real name isn’t Rip Hunter. As a time traveler, I can’t let anyone know what my own past is. What’s to stop my enemies from suffocating me in my crib? Or doing the same to my father?

(holy crap, a hero with an actual brain)

Property of DC Comics

Aliases: Rip Hunter, Richard Hunter, Time Master

Born: Unknown

Died: Apparently not

First Appearance: Showcase #20 (1959)

Abilities: expert in temporal mechanics/quantum theory/relationship between energy and matter, hand to hand combat

Affiliations: The Time Masters, The Forgotten Heroes, The Linear Men, and Booster Gold International

Story:

Time travel abounds in this one (as is probably obvious from Hunter’s title of “Time Master”) kids, so prepare to be confused, confounded, and otherwise twisted around.

Rip Hunter is Michael John Carter’s (aka: Booster Gold) son and spends a great deal of his time acting as Booster Gold’s companion and boss. In order to preserve his own life (and good deeds) in a universe where time travel is not only possible but sort of like falling off the sidewalk, Hunter maneuvers Booster into remaining an epic jack hole, appearing to be in the hero biz solely for the fame and fortune. Hunter’s intention is to make his father’s legacy an historical joke and render Hunter, and his actions, invisible to evil-doers.

Property of DC Comics

Scratching your head yet? I’m pounding mine against the wall.

Hunter is an ordinary man who prefers brains to fists and uses his knowledge of quantum mechanics to tackle adversaries rather than anything-arangs.

The majority of Hunter’s appearances are as a device that allows other characters to time travel. He has assisted the likes of the JLA, Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Booster Gold, Animal Man, and the JSA. Once engaged in the mission, however, it isn’t unusually for Hunter to lend a hand vis a vis the destruction/salvation/collection/disposal of the thing. In one arc, Hunter himself goes back in time to stop the Illuminati, led by Vandal Savage, from ever coming into existence and destroying Atlantis (sound familiar-ish? This may be the arc they’re pulling some of the Legends stuff from).

At one point, there’s some sort of horrible lab accident and Hunter ends up cosmic dust that continually tries to re-synchronize. *Shudder*

Property of DC Comics

Later, there’s a time locked blackboard, a Venusian Worm, Red Tornado’s head, and a journey to explore the Multiverse.

He survived Flashpoint and tried to stop his father from warning his newly created counterpart that the Superman-Wonder Woman baum chika baum baum was going to destroy the universe.

And there you have it.

Next up: White Canary

Sources: DC Wikia, Wikipedia