Rip Hunter

**Rip Hunter** is a fictional character and hero in comic books published by the American company DC Comics. He first appeared in *Showcase* #20 (June 1959), but his first appearance in *Swamp Thing* comics was in *Swamp Thing* Vol. 2, #86 (May 1989). He was created by Jack Miller and Ruben Moreira.

## History

Rip Hunter is a time traveler. He is the guardian of the Timestream and leader of the Time Masters.

Rip Hunter spent his entire adult life preparing for enemies a time traveler would face. Fearing that someone might try to travel back in time and kill him as a child, he hid his true name, birthplace, and other details from the public. "Rip Hunter" is, in fact, an alias, and his real father is the time-traveler Booster Gold, a fact that not even Booster knows.

As the inventor of time travel technology in the Post-Crisis universe, Hunter aided heroes Booster Gold and Animal Man in their own time-traveling adventures before taking on the vast Illuminati conspiracy. Hunter was eventually stranded in the prehistoric past.

Returning to the present by unknown means, Hunter began protecting Earth's heroes from time-traveling villains. In one of his most notable adventures, he took members of the modern day Justice Society back in time to fight the villainous Per Degaton.

### 52 and Booster Gold

Hunter was one of the witnesses to the birth of the new Multiverse and was instrumental in defeating Mr. Mind and his attempt to destroy the multiple Universes. Mr. Mind had evolved into a nigh-omnipotent *hyperfly* feeding on universes. Hunter then revealed to Booster Gold and Booster's ancestor Daniel Carter that the Multiverse was restored as 52 individual universes as a result of Alex Luthor's actions after he escaped his "heaven" dimension. Mr. Mind sought to eat them all.

Hunter combined suspendium with Blue Beetle's scarab and Skeets' damaged, discarded shell into a trap to contain Mr. Mind's new form. Booster Gold and Supernova then hurled Skeets into the timestream, sealing the time-rift behind the little droid to trap the worm in a time-loop, saving the 52 universes. Hunter warned the others to keep the Multiverse a secret for the time being as he eagerly prepared to explore it.

Two months later, Rip invaded Daniel's home, scolding Booster for attempting to win public favor. He asked Booster to help him in repairing the damage done to the time stream by Mr. Mind and Superboy-Prime. Initially, Booster refused, but eventually changed his mind, on the condition that Rip will help him break the rules of time travel and allow him to save the one person who always believed in him, his best friend, Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle. In their first mission, an unknown party was changing the circumstances of the origins of the members of the current Justice League lineup, starting with Green Lantern, then Superman and then the Flash along with Kid Flash. Rip and Booster successfully thwarted the first two plots and then it was revealed that the mystery foe was revealed to be Booster's father Jon Carter wearing Daniel's stolen Supernova suit and former Time Master trainee Rex Hunter. Their plan was to eliminate different superheroes and use their knowledge of the future, take the heroes' places and advert every crisis and disaster and become the greatest heroes the world will ever know. They seemed to wipe out Flash and Kid Flash by placing a lightning rod on top of Barry's lab but after a big fight, Booster pulled it down and the Flashes' timelines were restored. The ending result was that Rex was captured and Jon was hit by a bolt of lightning and his suit's chronal energy was damaged, stranding him in an unknown timeline.

Some time later, Rip Hunter and Booster Gold joined Superman and Green Lantern on a quest in time to find Batman, who was sent to the past by Darkseid's Omega Sanction. On this journey they travelled to the paleolithic era and then to the Vanishing Point, where they witnessed the end of times before returning to the 21st century.

### Convergence

Rip encounters the Prime Earth Version of his father and teams up with him to save his dad and aunt from Deimos. While they succeed in saving them, New Earth Booster Gold's chronal sickness teleports them to Pre-Zero Hour 31st century Metropolis. New Earth Booster then disappears, while Rip, Michelle and Prime Earth Booster are confronted by the Pre-Zero Hour Legion of Superheroes.

## Powers and Abilities

### Abilities

* **Temporal Mechanics:** Rip Hunter is an expert in the field of temporal mechanics, quantum theory and the relationship between energy and matter as it pertains to space / time continuum.
* **Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic):** Although Rip prefers the solitude of a laboratory, he has also trained himself in the martial combat lessons from societies and cultures from BC to the end of time. Rip demonstrated his ability to hold his own in a fight when he fought against renegade time traveler Rex Hunter.

## Paraphernalia

### Transportation

* **Time Sphere**
* **Time Pack**

### Weapons

* **Laser Gun:** Intellect in the fields of time travel

## In other media

*Main article: Rip Hunter in other media*