Rip Hunter

"The name's Rip Hunter. I'm from East London. Oh, and the future."

- Rip Hunter to his soon-to-be team

Captain "Rip Hunter", nicknamed "Gareeb" by Vandal Savage, is the alias of a former Time Master and the leader of a self-assembled team.

Biography
Rip is a former Time Master, and the first person to build a time sphere, which Eobard Thawne used for inspiration when he went back in time.

Against the Time Masters' code forbidding relationships, Rip had a wife and a son named Jonas, who were both killed by the immortal dictator Vandal Savage in the year 2166, a largely dystopian era. This motivated Rip to request his fellow Time Masters for action to undo Vandal's tyranny. When his pleas fell on deaf ears, he chose to go rogue, stealing the timeship, the Waverider, and its onboard AI, Gideon, and traveled back to the year 2016 to recruit a team of people considered unimportant to the timeline. He went on to recruit scientist and superhero Ray Palmer, the assassin Sara Lance, the Metahuman duo of Firestorm, Martin Stein and Jefferson Jackson,the reincarnations of Prince Khufu and Priestess Chay-Ara, and the criminal duo Leonard Snart and Mick Rory.

Gathering them up on a rooftop, Hunter explained to them the danger of Vandal Savage. To further convince them to help, Hunter lied and said that in his future they were regarded as Legends. He then proceeded to tell them that if they wanted to help to meet him at a specific location in thirty six hours. Much to his pleasure, they all arrived and Hunter welcomed them onboard his ship. He then explained to them that to track down and destroy Savage before he destroys humanity and time itself, they must go to the only one who is an expert on Savage: Aldus Boardman. Arriving in the year 1975, Hunter brought with him Ray, Stein, and Kendra and Carter, claiming he did not need the skill sets of Leonard, Mick, or Sara. Arriving at St. Roch University, the group confronted Boardman, who recognize Kendra and Carter as his reincarnated mother and father. Boardman then explained to them that Savage spent his years causing war and numerous others atrocities all over the world to keep his anominity and proceeded to give them a journal detailing all the information he had on Savage. Suddenly, Rip got an alert from Gideon that the Waverider was under attack. However, Kendra and Carter were unwilling to leave their son behind and demanded he come with them much to Hunter's protest. Arriving at the Waverider, Hunter found the ship under attack by Chronos. Working together, Rip and the team managed to fight Chronos off long enough to escape. Although ,in the process, Boardman was severely injured.

Escaping, Kendra demanded Rip tell them who Chronos was and the real reason he recruited them. Hunter revealed everything and told them he understood if they wanted to return home. The others then decided to take a moment to decide on what choice they would make. Later, everyone came together with Kendra telling him that Boardman passed away and blamed herself, Rip told her not to and proceeded to tell everyone that time itself alongside Chronos and Savage would be one of their enemies. The group decided to stay together to defeat Savage and earn their rightful place in history. Hunter then proceeded to take them to the lead he had learned from Boardman's journal.

Losing a member
While still in 1975, thanks to Aldus Boardman's journal, Rip and the team figured out where to locate Savage: At an illegal weapons auction. When Kendra and Carter ask why can’t they go back and save Aldus, Hunter explained that they can’t change things they’ve already been involved in. He then explains that he has a room in the Waverider that can give them any outfit for any era. When Snart and Palmer started arguing over who would take point in the mission Rip reminded them that he was in charge only for Palmer and Snart to blow him off still angry that he had lied to them. When the team returned from the auction having failed to capture Savage, Hunter angrily yelled at them for not listening and revealed that during the battle Ray had dropped a piece of his suit which Savage recovered and as a result sped his conquest of the world to the present year of 2016. Fortunately Hunter revealed that this was not yet permanent and that they had time to stop this by retrieving the the technology. When Ray reveals that the suit is powered by Alpha Particles Stein suggest they track down his younger self who had created a Alpha Particle tracker.When Kendra and Carter reveal that they have found an artifact that can kill Savage to the team, Snart volunteers to go steal it back with Heat Wave and Ray accompanies them to make sure they don't get in to trouble. Later when Ray, Snart, and Rory are captured by Savage Hunter and the rest of the team come to their aid and huge battle breaks out. In the ensuing conflict Carter is killed and Kendra is severely wounded by Savage with the group barely managing to escape. Once Kendra is stabilized, Hunter reveals to Stein who had accidentally recently just erased his marriage to his wife that he suggested to his younger self to go to the seminar where they see young Stein and Clarissa together saving Steins marriage. Later back on the ship Hunter attempts to lift the teams spirit up by pointing out that while they have not saved the future they have a least saved the present. He then gives the team the choice of finding another way to stop Savage or return to 2016 and live out the rest of their lives. Now determined to avenge Carter the team chose the former and proceeded to come up with a new plan.

USSR in 1985
Then, he takes his team to 1985 USSR, where he encounters an attack from the Time Masters along with Mick Rory, which injures Jefferson Jackson a.k.a Firestorm. Then, after Martin Stein, Ray, and Mick get caught, he sends Sara and Leonard to rescue them. He also tells Sara to assassinate Dr. Stein if they fail in their plan. While rescuing their team, Rip encounters Vandal Savage where Savage gives back the locket with Rip's wife's and child's photo. But Rip plants the bomb which temporarily kills Vandal Savage.

Personality
Rip is seen to be a highly compassionate man who deeply loves his wife Miranda Coburn, and his son Jonas, so much so that he broke his oath to the Time Masters to travel through time and save them from their demise. He also wants to save the future from an apocalyptic world caused by Vandal Savage. He does this by gathering a group of unknowns to aid him, realizing he is only one man. While his motivation to save his family and the future are honorable, his tactics to achieve his goal often bring him into conflict with not only his former employers but his own team; he mislead them on the roles they play in history by making it seem they are remembered as some of the greatest heroes, though later admits he chose them specifically because they actually have no real impact on the timeline. He also has little patience for anything that sidetracks him and the team from their pursuit, preferring to focus on the matters at hand.

Rip is shown to have a tendency to let his temper get the best of him, to the point that he ends up arguing with his own team. He can also be so absorbed in sticking to the mission to stop Vandal that he disregards the feelings of others. For instance, he harshly scolded Sara Lance for wanting to aid her home Star City in the year 2046, accusing her of having more concern for one potential future than she did the real one, and even threatened to leave her there if she did not return in an hour, either not understanding or not caring that it would certainly take longer for her to save Star City from Grant Wilson. On another occasion when frustrated after being taken prisoner by time pirates he bluntly told Mick Rory he had only been recruited to the team because of his partnership with Leonard Snart, with this revelation partially enforcing Rory's decision to betray the team.

Rip's decision to take a chance on changing the timeline can be seen as either noble or selfish. While he does want to see a better future where Vandal is not a threat, many accuse him of really just wanting to save his family. However, his love for his family trumped everything else, as he does not regret breaking his loyalty to the Time Masters.

Abilities

 * Genius-level intellect: Rip is very intelligent as he is the creator of the first time sphere.
 * Expert tactician/Leader: As a former Time Master, Rip has an immense understanding of the flow of time, able to calculate what events will affect the time-stream and by how small/large a margin.
 * Skilled marksman/Firearms: Rip has shown skill in the use of his sidearm.
 * Master hand-to-hand combatant: Rip is a very skilled hand-to-hand combatant, as he was able to go toe-to-toe with Vandal Savage in his earlier years, and even manage to overpower and slit his throat to temporarily kill him.
 * Master knife-fighter: Rip was able to skillfully use a knife in a fight against Vandal and slit his throat with it.

Equipment

 * Energy Gun: Rip carries an energy gun that resembles a six-shooter. The gun fires concentrated energy rounds that can cause damage to solid materials, or even stun foes wearing advanced body-armor such as Chronos. The gun's energy shots seem to not harm those wearing future clothing, as Jon Valor was unharmed by being shot by Rip, making the shot the equivalent of being struck.
 * Waverider: Rip holds one of the most powerful time ship of them all, him and his team use the Waverider to jump through time and to find Savage. The ship was originally stolen from the time masters.

Behind the scenes

 * In the DC comics, Rip Hunter is a time traveler who is frequently seen as a man out of time, with no real place in history. He is a member of the Challengers of the Unknown quartet, as well as the future son of fellow time traveler Booster Gold.
 * Arthur Darvill, who portrays Rip Hunter in the series, is best known for his role in the BBC series Doctor Who, where he portrayed of Rory Williams, a companion of the time traveling Eleventh Doctor. While the Doctor's race is called "Time Lords", Rip's group is called "Time Masters".
 * After his first attack on Vandal Savage, Savage and his followers called him "gareeb", which is Arabic for "stranger".