Rip Hunter

"I've said to myself time and time again that there is nothing that I wouldn't do to save my wife and son, but now I know that there is. My reticence to kill you, Per Degaton, is not weakness. It is goodness"

- Rip Hunter refusing to kill Per Degaton

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

Early life
Michael lived in poverty on the streets, becoming a cutpurse by his fifth birthday before he got recruited as a Time Master and sent to the Refuge. There he was cared for by the orphanage's supervisor, Mary Xavier, whom he'd later regard as his real mother.

At some point during his childhood, his older self brought the younger versions of his team to stay there to protect them from The Pilgrim. As part of a ploy by his older self, knowing his childhood disposition, Michael was used as bait in a prisoner exchange, where he stabbed the Pilgrim in the leg with a knife, giving his adult self's team the opportunity they needed to defeat her. Michael was presumably given an amnesia pill so he'd forget the event, thereby keeping his own future actions intact.

Eventually Michael joined the Time Masters but as per their code had his named changed to "Rip Hunter", to avoid any enemies from targeting Michael's ancestors thus erasing his existence. He trained under watch of Time Master "Zaman Druce" and became one of his favorite students. While training with them he reached the rank of lieutenant against the Time Masters code' Rip fell in love with another candidate, "Miranda Coburn". Eventually Time Master "Declan" discovered their affair and they were both threatened to be expelled from the academy. Though Rip planned to hand in his resignation so Miranda could remain in service, Declan informed Rip that Miranda had already done the same thing. Though Rip was annoyed as he considered Miranda the better Time Master she had grown disillusioned with the cause, but knew Rip could commit more than she ever could. Rip served as a Time Master for over a decade and developed a feared reputation among Time Pirates. He traveled to numerous points across the timeline and claims to traveled centuries into the future.

While on a mission for the Time Masters Rip was sent to Calvert, Oklahoma in 1868 but after completing his mission Rip was unable to leave, consumed by the heroic opportunities the era offered. He also met bounty hunter Jonah Hex and the two became close friends. Jonah even gave Rip one of his coats. The two of them opposed outlaw Quentin Turnbull but Rip, fearing he'd never see Miranda again if he let himself be sucked in anymore, tore himself away from the era, one day before Turnbull destroyed Calvert, something Rip was aware would happen.

At some point Rip and Miranda has a child together named Jonas, who Rip named in honor of his friend Jonah Hex.

Rouge Time Master
By 2166 the most of the world fell under subjugation of the immortal dictator Vandal Savage with London being the last land untouched by Vandal's tyranny. One day Miranda and Jonas were killed by Savage and Rip found their bodies later, much to his heartache. Seeking vengeance Rip addressed the Time Council in the Vanishing Point and requested that Savage be removed from the timeline. However the council reminded Rip that since Savage was not exploiting time travel to achieve his goals, they weren't permitted to intervene. Unwavered by the council's decision Rip stole the Waverider and traveled back to Ancient Egypt in 1700 B.C. before Savage, or Hath-Set as he was known back then, became immortal. Sneaking into the royal palace Rip confronted Savage but as he had the upper hand he hesitated to kill him, and Savage's bodyguards restrained him. However Rip refused to tell Savage his name, resulting in Savage calling him "Gareeb", and Rip was held in the dungeon. After weeks of being deliberately starved Savage asked Rip again who he was and why he tried to kill him, but Rip simply told him he was saving the world from his evil. Rip eventually made his escape by tricking the guard with a novelty pen from the 1970s.

After failing to remove Savage from history altogether Rip returned to 2166 and found Miranda and Jonas before Savage killed them but as they ran back to the Waverider, they encountered Savage's shocktroopers and Miranda and Jonas were gunned down. After this Rip tried numerous other times to save them only to have similar end results. Realizing that Miranda and Jonas couldn't be spared from their fates Rip instead opt to kill Savage sometime during his immortal life. To do this Rip decided to recruit a team of 8 individuals from 21st century whose actions had minimal impact on the timeline, thereby keeping the future of the 22nd century intact.

Rip traveled to January 2016 to Star City to recruit Dr. Ray Palmer/The Atom, a member of Team Arrow. Arriving moments after Atom had engaged some of H.I.V.E.'s Ghosts Atom initially held Rip at gunpoint, but assured him he wasn't an adversary and used a device with a flashing light that rendered Atom unconscious. Next Rip traveled to Tibet to recruit Sara Lance/The Canary, a formerly deceased member of the League of Assassins and member of Team Arrow. After Sara fought several men harassing a young woman Rip appeared and rendered her unconscious. Rip recruited Sara specifically because in 4 months Sara was fated to aid Team Arrow against Damien Darhk but would die along with her sister Laurel Lance/Black Canary as well as their father Quentin.

Next Rip traveled to Pittsburgh to recruit Firestorm, the merged superhero form of Jefferson Jackson and Professor Martin Stein. After Firestorm stopped a terrorist at a nuclear plant Rip appeared as Jax and Stein argued, and rendered them unconscious also. Next Rip went to St. Roch to recruit Kendra Saunders/Hawkgirl and Carter Hall/Hawkman, the 21st century reincarnations of Savage's enemies Prince Khufu and Priestess Chay-Ara and the only ones who could physically kill Savage. Rip found them arguing about a botched rescue mission and suggested they seek marriage counseling before rendering them unconscious. Next, much to Gideon's confusion, Rip traveled to Central City to recruit criminals Leonard Snart/Captain Cold and Mick Rory/Heat Wave. Finding them chased by the police amidst a heist Rip rendered them unconscious.

Bringing the 8 individuals to Star City atop a rooftop, tampering with their weapons in case of hostilities, Rip introduced himself and explained that he had assembled them to help him destroy Vandal Savage. Hearing this came as shock to Carter and Kendra as they had destroyed him months before with Green Arrow and The Flash's aid. However Rip revealed to the couple that unless they deliver the death blow Savage will restore from a single cell. Snart and Mick however were uninterested in being heroes but Rip claimed that the 8 of them in his time are legends, stating each of them are destined for greatness. However this was a lie as the 8 of them are considered unimportant to the timeline. After showing the 8 of them video footage of the dystopian era of 2166 he handed them and address to assemble in 36 hours.

The next day Rip was pleased to see everyone decided to come and showed them around the ship. To obtain more information on Savage himself Rip plotted a course for St. Roch 1975 to visit Professor Aldus Boardman, an expert on the story of Savage. Rip explained that the date of their arrival is the day Aldus will die so the timeline will remain unaffected. After arriving in 1975 Rip asked Ray, Stein, Kendra and Carter to accompany him but asked Sara, Leonard and Mick to remain behind, believing the mission didn't require their skill set. The team found Aldus in his office where they were shocked to learn that he was in fact the son of Carter and Kendra from a past life, who saw Savage kill them and had studied him since then trying to achieve vengeance. After Aldus provided them several notebooks on Savage, Martin sensed something was wrong and Rip ordered everyone back to the ship. However Kendra and Carter insisted Aldus come with them and Rip, reluctantly, agreed. Returning to the ship Rip was shocked to see Chronos attacking the ship. After holding him off long enough to escape Rip brought the team to the temporal zone to hide out, though Aldus was shot by Chronos before they could leave.

While there Kendra angrily attacked Rip for getting Aldus killed and Rip finally revealed that he was a former Time Master, who has against orders assembled them to kill Savage and Chronos has been sent to stop him. He also revealed to the 8 individuals that they are not legends rather forgotten by history and when Ray realized Rip's actions were more personal than he led on, Rip confessed his true motives. However he respected if anyone wished to leave and gave them time to think while he repaired the ship. Surprisingly everyone, moved by Rip's true motives and realizing this is their chance to change their fates, decided to remain.

Losing a team 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 spraed 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 technology. When Ray reveals that the suit is powered by Alpha Particles Stein suggest they track down his younger self who had created an 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 into 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.

Carter's body was taken by Vandal Savage as a "Vessel" for a mystic ritual that would appease Savage's cult followers, giving them longevity and even eternal life. Among such servants was Mr. Blake, a banker of the Bruemberg Group, who met Rip Hunter and Sara Lance in his bank in Leipzig, while they were on a spying mission. Blake caught their bluff and attempted to slay "Gareeb", but was unsuccessful. Taken prisoner by Rip Hunter, Blake served as the team's "pass" into Savage's cult gathering. Although Rip Hunter's team took Carter's body back from Savage, Blake and other servants still consumed Carter's blood, giving them longevity.

These early failures were later revealed to be part of Time Master Druce's plan to manipulate history through the use of Oculus, assisting Vandal Savage and giving him an advantage in form of the army of long-lived follower, as well as knowledge of futuristic technology, such as the A.T.O.M. Exosuit, and meta-humans, like Firestorm.

USSR in 1985
Then, he took 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 planted the bomb which temporarily kills Vandal Savage.

Return to the Vanishing Point
Rip and the team traveled to the vanishing point after capturing Savage and holding him hostage on the Waverider. Once they arrived there, Rip handed Savage over to the time masters only for them to release him, allowing him to go back to 2166. Time master Druce then captured Rip and the rest of the team, with the exception of Snart and Sara, and put them in holding cells. Savage then had a conversation with Rip telling him he's been waiting to meet his family for a while, hinting that he was going to kill them leaving Rip screaming in anger.

Finding Out the Truth
Druce let Rip out of his cell to show him the Oculus. Druce told Rip that the time masters had been controlling the team's actions and that free will didn't exist outside of the vanishing point. Rip saw the future and saw Ray die trying to destroy the Oculus. Druce then proceeded to tell Rip that they knew he was going to go rogue and had Vandal Savage kill his family to make sure he turned his back on the time masters. When Rip returned to his cell the other members thought he had been tortured, but he revealed to them that he saw the truth.

Later once the rest of the team was freed by Snart, Rip decided to destroy the Oculus so they could have a chance to defeat Savage once and for all.

Defeating Savage
Without the Oculus controlling the team's actions, they came up with a plan to finally stop Savage. Realizing his goal was to destroy the timeline, bringing him back to Ancient Egypt in 1700 B.C. To stop him they had to travel to three different places throughout history splitting up into teams of two. They went to the three places in time where the meteors giving Savage his immortality were. Ray and Mick were in 1958 Harmony Falls, Sarah and firestorm were in 1975 Norway, and Rip, Kendra, and Carter were in St. Roch 2021. If they all attacked each Savage at the exact time near the meteors he would lose his immortality so they could kill him. After successfully killing Savage in each time period, the third meteor was still set to go off causing the world to be destroyed.

Rip's plan was to fly the meteor into the sun destroying it, but also destroying the Waverider and killing him. He flew it to the sun before passing out and seeing a vision of his wife and son. After waking up and the meteor destroyed, the Waverider had one last time jump and Rip used it to return to 2021 to get the rest of the team.

Protecting the Timeline
After defeating the time masters and Savage respectively, Rip decided to protect the timeline with the help of any of the team members that wanted to help. With Kendra and Carter leaving to live their life without Savage in the way, Jax and Stein, Mick, Ray, and Sara all decided to protect the timeline with Rip. As they were boarding the Waverider, another broken and worn down Waverider came crashing down with a man named Rex Tyler appearing warning the team not to board the ship or they will all die.

Future
At some point in the future, Rip was the first person to build a Time Sphere. Eobard Thawne implies that he met Rip at some point in the future referring to him as an "interesting man". Eobard also used Rip's Time Sphere as inspiration for building a 21st-century version with Cisco Ramon as a means to return to his own time.

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 noble. While he does want to save his family, he also does want to see a better future where Vandal is not a threat. However, his love for his family trumped everything else, as he does not regret breaking his loyalty to the Time Masters.

It is revealed that even as a child, Rip was fearless, cunning, and even ruthless, willing to perform brutal and criminal acts to survive due to him living on the street and starving more than he ate. He was also very tough for someone of his age, standing up to more powerful foes without any hesitation. This is evident when his child self pretended to be an normal and innocent child, ignorant of the Pilgrim's intentions to kill him, only to stab her when she was distracted and gloating at the team. Rip's knowledge of what his younger self was would do if someone tried to harm him is what led to him including the child in his plan to defeat The Pilgrim and ultimately led to her death.

When Rip discovers that the Time Masters are in league with Vandal, as well as the fact that they have been manipulating history and are responsible for the death of his family; he becomes disgusted by their actions and completely turns against the very organization he once had respect for.

As he attempted to take the Nth metal meteorite into the Sun to keep it from destroying Earth, Rip underwent a near-death experience where he had a vision of his wife and son. This vision allowed him to finally come to terms with their deaths and let go of his obsession with saving them from Savage in the future. In this experience, he was shown to be extremely emotional, hugging his son tightly and holding onto his wife with the same emotions. Now having gained closure, Rip has become a far more stable individual, no longer allowing his passion or hatred for Vandal to overcome him, having made it full circle as an individual and as a leader.

Abilities

 * 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.
 * Genius-level intellect: Rip is very intelligent as he is the creator of the first time sphere. He also knows a lot about the flow of the timeline, able to calculate every changements and his consequences.
 * Master marksman/Firearms: Rip has shown high levels of skill in the use of his sidearm. As seen in a showdown in 1871, Rip is a very skilled quick-draw and sharpshooter, able to beat Jeb Stillwater with ease.
 * Skilled 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 in 1975. However, he has been shown to easily be outmatched, shown when he struggled to handle a member of the Russian Bratva.
 * Skilled 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, but fires blue bolts. The energy rounds can easily cause damage to solid materials or even stun foes wearing advanced body-armor such as Chronos. The gun's energy shots seem less harmful to those wearing future clothing, as Jon Valor was unharmed when shot. With such clothing, a shot from the gun is the equivalent of being struck. Rip owns at least two versions of this gun, the other gun glows green and fires green bolts.
 * Waverider: Rip holds one of the most powerful ships of all-time, the Waverider, which he and his team use to jump through time and find Vandal Savage. The ship was stolen from the Time Masters.

DC's Legends of Tomorrow
{{Scroll|1 = ====Season 1====
 * {{Ep|Pilot, Part 1}}
 * {{Ep|Pilot, Part 2}}
 * {{Ep|Blood Ties}}
 * {{Ep|White Knights}}
 * {{Ep|Fail-Safe}}
 * {{Ep|Star City 2046}}
 * {{Ep|Marooned}}
 * {{Ep|Night of the Hawk}}
 * {{Ep|Left Behind|page=Left Behind (DC's Legends of Tomorrow)}}
 * {{Ep|Progeny}}
 * {{Ep|The Magnificent Eight}}
 * {{Ep|Last Refuge}}
 * {{Ep|Leviathan}}
 * {{Ep|River of Time}}
 * {{Ep|Destiny}}
 * {{Ep|Legendary}}

Season 2

 * }}

Trivia

 * After Rip's first attack on Savage/Hath-Set, he and his followers began to call Rip "gareeb", which is Arabic for "stranger".
 * The coat he wears used to belong to Jonah Hex.

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 whose real name is a mystery. 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 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".
 * Rip Hunter's real name, Michael, may be a reference to his father from the comics, Booster Gold, whose real name is Michael Jon Carter.