The writing and editorial staff often use a narrative device within the comics, known as a crisis event, to explain dramatic changes to the appearance or personality of characters.

[6] The Forgotten Heroes are then seen in the 1985 series Crisis on Infinite Earths, a mini-series intended to change the fictional universe shared by DC characters.

With the help of Brainiac, they journey to Apokolips, where the tyrant Darkseid uses his advanced science to peer into the Anti-Matter universe and aid Alex Luthor, Superman, and Superboy-Prime in the ultimate destruction of the Anti-Monitor.

Unlike most other characters, Hunter continues with the same personality and memories that preceded this event, becoming a man out of time and without a home, with no one remembering his existence.

In this universe, Hunter aids heroes Booster Gold and Animal Man in their own time-traveling adventures, before taking on the vast Illuminati conspiracy during the eight-issue series Time Masters.

This more gritty and realistic (symbolized by jeans and a T-shirt rather than a costume) take on the character attempts to change the past to prevent the Illuminati, led by Vandal Savage, from coming into existence.

[9] To protect Hunter and the integrity of history, the Linear Men recruit him into their ranks and the writers altered the appearance of Rip, using the stress of time travel as an explanation for those changes.

In The Kingdom, Hunter turns on the other Linear Men, who believe that time follows a single course of events, and joins forces with Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

Rip also joins forces with young heroes from the future, to stop the time-traveling villain Gog in his efforts to destroy Kansas twenty years ahead of schedule.

As a result of this battle, Hunter finally breaks down the barrier to Hypertime, revealing that the Linear Men are wrong about the non-existence of alternate timelines in the post-Crisis universe.

This is explained as being part of an attempt by the character to hide all of the details of his history, lest an enemy travel back in time and kill him as a child.

These papers had references to facts and events like the mortality of Vandal Savage, the last Lazarus Pit of Nyssa Raatko, and the appearances of the mysterious Supernova.

As this series progresses, more and more time-traveling characters, such as Waverider are killed by a mysterious figure who is later revealed to be Booster Gold's robot companion Skeets.

To protect the timeline, Rip convinces Booster to turn down membership in the recently reformed Justice League and to continue to act like a self-absorbed goof to make sure that his father's legacy is one of failure and is ultimately forgotten by history.

[20] In Carl Draper's Checkmate blog, a reference is made to the Smith-Baxter Group, a time-travel consultancy whose founders were trained by Hunter.

[21] Rip, along with Booster Gold, Superman, and Hal Jordan starred in Time Masters: Vanishing Point (2010–11), a limited series that is a companion piece to Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne.

Through means that are yet to be revealed, Rip Hunter almost managed to prevent his father from frantically warning his newly created counterpart that the romance between Wonder Woman and Superman will erase the past of his future from existence.

[23] A Rip Hunter story by writer Damon Lindelof and artist Jeff Lemire appeared in Time Warp #1, published by Vertigo in May 2013.

Booster Gold and Blue Beetle’s troubles were compounded by the arrival of the Omnizon, an alien warrior claiming Earth as her own.

Rip Hunter revealed to Trixie that Booster Gold was his father, and that he did not want to embarrass her with a long story about time travel, before leaving.