RIP HUNTER

Real Name: Unrevealed, alias Richard 'Rip' Hunter

Class: Human technology-user

Occupation: Time traveler

Group Affiliation: Time Masters, Forgotten Heroes

Known Relatives: Daniel Carter (ancestor), Ellen Carter (grandmother, deceased), Jonar Jon Carter (grandfather), Michael Jon Carter (Booster Gold, father), Michelle Carter (Goldstar, aunt), Dan Hunter (cousin), Rose Levin (ancestor), unnamed mother

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Time Lab, Arizona

First Appearance: Showcase #20 (May, 1959)

Powers: Rip Hunter had genius-level intellect and was a renowned expert in time travel, using a time sphere as his primary means of traveling space and time.

History: (DC Comics Presents #37 (fb)) -  Brilliant students Rip Hunter and Jeff Smith met in college, and while they were working on their doctorates they pursued time travel research. Together they completed a prototype time sphere, but found that no power element could withstand the heat the sphere generated. Smith and Hunter were competing with fellow student John Charles James for a generous grant, and James taunted them, telling them he d surely win because his rocket engine was near complete. Later that day Rip and Jeff discovered a slagheap with a mysterious element that had survived the disaster. They used it to make their time sphere functional, and won the grant.

(DC Comics Presents #37) -  Rip s former classmate John Charles James broke into his New England lab, knocked out Jeff Smith, and stole the back-up time sphere. James still resented the fact that he lost his grant to Rip, and wanted revenge. James clearly didn t know how to operate the time sphere, and was traveling randomly through the time stream. Rip assembled his crew, Jeff, Corky and Bonnie, and tracked James' chronal energy to the year 4784. They were taken prisoner by futuristic humans, until they convinced them they were not friends of James, who d stolen one of the nexus-gems that powered their city. The team made amends by diving into the ocean to find a new gem for the future humans. The ocean was blood-red, and Rip chose not to speculate on what happened to the water supply. Following the chronal trail they ended up in  New Mexico, 3709 BC, where James had terrorized a group of native Americans. James appeared, pulled a gun, and took Jeff hostage, so he could learn how to operate the time sphere. James returned to their college days, and tried to wreck the prototype time sphere. Rip and company followed, warning James that if he changed history there would never have been an operational time sphere and they d be trapped in the past. James was fueled by revenge, and didn't care, but the team forced him to flee. Rip rammed his time-sphere into the back-up, knocking it out of commission, and knocking out James. Returning to the present he realized the back-up crashed and burned, leaving behind the nexus-gem James used to fuel it. The wreckage had been discovered by his college self, as had the nexus gem. Instead of destroying Rip s career, James had actually left behind the element that would make the prototype time sphere functional.

(Action Comics I #553) - Immortal Man gathered Rip and a number of other heroes and asked them to aid him in combating Vandal Savage. He told them they were Forgotten Heroes, but they could still make a difference. Immortal Man told them Vandal Savage infected Superman with time-seeds from the time pyramids. As the seeds dropped in Metropolis Park they turned it into a prehistoric jungle, which quickly spread to the heart of Metropolis. Rip investigated the original time pyramid created during the Big band, but the trip aged him into an old man. He returned to the Big Bang with Superman, who destroyed the pyramid. The pyramids to disappear from the present, and Rip regained his original age, but Superman was lost in the timestream, and Rip Hunter returned to the present without him.

(JSA #66 (fb), JSA #68 (fb, BTS)) - Rip Hunter recruited J.J. Thunder and Johnny Thunderbolt to help him battle Per Degaton, who was erasing Time Masters from the timestream by going back in time and killing them as infants. They went into the timestream with him, but couldn-t beat Degaton.

(JSA #66) - Rip Hunter appeared to Atom-Smasher, and brought him into the timestream to battle Per Degaton.

(JSA #68 (fb, BTS)) - Rip Hunter prevented Chronos from traveling back in time to kill an infant Ray Palmer. He also stopped Time Commander from trying the same scheme against Hal Jordan. Hunter was reminded why he never used his real name, and why no one could ever know when and where he was born.

(JSA #68, 69, 72) - Rip Hunter gathered the JSA and brought them in his Time Sphere to the year 1951. Per Degaton was going to do something on October 30, 1951 and blame it on the disbanded Justice Society, thus altering history. As a result they would be tried for treason and the JSA would never again reform. Rip Hunter had brought the JSA to convince the Justice Society to get back together to oppose Degaton. After detailing their mission he vanished back into the timestream. When the JSA and Justice Society foiled Degaton Rip Hunter appeared to ferry the JSA back to the present. He ran into a time storm passing through 1985, the year the Crisis on Infinite Earths took place. Power Girl was shaken by the storm because she was a holdover from pre-Crisis continuity.

Comments: Created by Jack Miller & Ruben Moreira.

Rip Hunter received a profile in Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #19. He received profiles in Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #8 and Who's Who in the DC Universe #8 under the Forgotten Heroes entry.