Rip Hunter

Rip Hunter's History

Michael, known under the alias Rip Hunter, is a former Time Master from the 22nd century, the foster son of Mary Xavier, the husband of the late "Miranda Coburn", and the father of the late Jonas.

After his wife and son were murdered by Vandal Savage, Rip went rogue and recruited a team of 21st-century superheroes and supervillains, whose removal from the timeline had minimal effect on history, in a team known as the "Legends." Their goal was to travel through time and put an end to Savage, and prevent the deaths of his family before his rise to power could happen. However, his plan was opposed by the Time Masters, as Savage's uprising didn't endanger the timeline itself, and they sent various agents after him and his team to kill them and stop them from succeeding. Additionally, the flawed nature of the Legends' members often resulted in numerous timeline alterations in their quest, much to Rip's annoyance. Ultimately, Rip wasn't able to prevent Savage's uprising or save his family after learning the Time Masters were in league with Savage all along and orchestrated his family's death precisely to manipulate him. However, Rip still succeeded in killing Savage before he could fulfill a plot that would destroy time itself, and brought an end to the corrupt Time Masters. With the Time Masters no longer active, Rip decided to continue their mantle with the surviving/returning members of the Legends.

After 6 months of correcting aberrations caused by time pirates, the Legends encountered an aberration caused by Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash. After the Waverider took a critical hit, Rip used the time drive after securing a fragment of the Spear of Destiny to escape, but suffered amnesia, believing his life to be a figment of his imagination as he landed in 1967, and went to film school under a new identity as Phil Gasmer. Rip was later captured by Eobard's Legion of Doom and served the syndicate unwillingly, under mind alteration to retrieve the other spear pieces. After Sara and Jax ventured into his subconscious, they were able to restore his mind and he re-joined the Legends. After the Legion of Doom gained the Spear of Destiny and rewrote reality, The Waverider along with Rip was shrunken down by Thawne with Ray's exo-suit. After communicating with the Legends and unshrinking the ship they travel back to 1916 and break the cardinal rule of time travel to interact with their past selves, to prevent the Legion from getting the Spear of Destiny in the first place, eventually being successful. Rip decides to leave the team; to create an organization known as the Time Bureau. However, due to his obsession with the entity Mallus, which resulted in several Time Bureau agents dying at the hands of Damien Darhk, he was discharged, arrested, and later escaped custody.

After escaping custody, he re-joined the Legends with Wally. After Director Bennet of the Time Bureau dies, he was reinstated by the new director Ava Sharpe. Later, Rip sacrificed himself to buy the Legends time in their fight against Mallus by blowing himself up with one of the Waverider's time drives, in an attempt to stall the demon long enough so that the team could escape.