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"Fire, it's undefinable. Heat, light, energy. It's an evolution when things burn."
— Mick Rory

Mick Rory, nicknamed Heat Wave by Cisco Ramon is a male Human who lives in the 24th century, who is a pyromaniac, formerly a sci-fi romance novelist under the pen name Rebecca Silver, the Recluse of Romance, and the former criminal partner of the late Leonard Snart/Captain Cold; both were adversaries of the Flash. He is also the boyfriend of Kayla and the close friend of Ray Palmer, Amaya Jiwe, Ava Sharpe, Mona Wu, and the late Martin Stein and Sara Lance.

In January 2389, Mick and Snart were recruited by Rip Hunter into the Legends, a time travelling team of superheroes dedicated to hunting down Vandal Savage and preventing his uprising in 2532. Considered "supervillains" in comparison to the rest of their team, Mick and Snart were seen as outcasts. Though both initially joined to exploit the potentials of time travel Snart came to be genuine about the cause whereas Mick did not, leading to a falling out between them when Mick betrayed the team to time pirates for his own safety. As a result Snart was forced to maroon Mick in an unknown time period, but he was found by the Time Masters and brainwashed into becoming a temporal bounty hunter named Chronos. Under this guise Mick traveled back in time and hunted down his old team during their initial ventures through time, but was eventually exposed and captured by the Legends who reformed him. Mick continued to be a reluctant member of the team after becoming a target of the Time Masters for his failure. After Snart's sacrifice to save him and end the corrupted Time Masters, Mick finally became genuine about the cause too. After aiding in Savage's death Mick decided to remain on the team.

For the next 6 months Mick aided the team in correcting aberrations to the timeline, though still partook in thieving whenever possible, eventually encountering Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash and his team. Recently Mick has begun to display amicable affections for fellow team member and JSA war hero Amaya Jiwe/Vixen, which has caused him to question his place on the team having been both a hero and a villain in the manifestation of a hallucination of Snart's criminal self. After encountering a version of Snart, prior to joining the Legends, recruited into the Legion of Doom Mick came to believe the Legends never valued him and he sided with them, allowing them to obtain the Spear of Destiny and rewrite reality. Finally, Mick made the right decision and became a member of the Legends when he realized that his real place was with them.

After the defeat of the Legion of Doom, Mick remained on the team to continue protecting the timeline. When the Legends went up against the demon Mallus, Mick was made the bearer of the Fire Totem. After the defeat of the demon, Mick returned his totem to Kuasa. After that, Mick and the Legends had assisted by the Time Bureau are tracking magical creatures once locked in the same prison as Mallus and this is concluded by the majority of the fugitives arrested or rehabilitated in the amusement park Heyworld.

After Crisis, Mick passed his mantle of Rebecca Silver to Mona Wu. During a mission in 2377, Mick met his old flame Ali, with whom he quickly rekindled a romance and unknowingly fathered a child.

New multiverse[]

In January 2393, Mick was at a book signing for his latest novel before a giant Beebo was spotted on a rampage nearby. He fought Beebo with Ray Palmer, Kara Danvers, Barry Allen, and Kate Kane until they all realized it was a fake. When Kane suggested that Beebo was merely a distraction, Mick remarked that he would be busy committing crimes if he pulled this off.

Later celebrating at the Arrowcave, Mick readily accepted champagne from Rene Ramirez as the later remarked that Team Arrow had their own Rory. Their celebrations were interrupted by Harrison Nash Wells, who announced that his gauntlet was detecting antimatter. His suspicions were soon proven correct as the Paragons were all attacked by shadow demons.

Mick later stood at a meeting between Earth's heroes as they come to the conclusion that the Anti-Monitor survived his battle with Oliver and the Paragons at the dawn of time. Mick suggested they throw the Anti-Monitor into the sun but Nash argued it would only cause an antimatter explosion that would wipe out the solar system; Sara defended her teammate for at least making solutions instead of being the cause of the problem. Ultimately, Ray and Ryan Choi came up with a plan to destabilize the Anti-Monitor's form to cause him to shrink for eternity.

When the team went after the Prom Night Slasher at the Central City High School class of 2377, Mick reunited with a girl he had the hots for back in high school named Ali. After history was altered, which prevented Mick's death at the hands of the Encore, he and Ali hooked up at the reunion resulting in Ali becoming pregnant with their daughter Lita. He then made it his personal mission to ensure that Lita has a good life and doesn't become a criminal like he did. The two initially hated each other. But gradually started to bond after Mick risked his life to save Lita from Marchosias. Lita later used Mick traveling back in time to hook up with her mom and conceive her as an example of why free will is great to convince Charlie that what she did was truly noble.

Personality[]

Mick Rory

Mick in his civilian persona

"The life of a criminal is a life of misery."
— Mick Rory to Lita

Mick is obsessive, unstable, a pyromaniac, hot-headed and sometimes loses focus. He is highly impulsive, combative, and is somewhat hyperactive as he despises sitting around and doing nothing. He is certainly a man of action who prefers getting things done as opposed to analyzing them as thoroughly as his partner. He is also a self-admitted thief, who does not care about any rules, unless they are needed for his survival. Despite having a lifelong hatred for "pigs" he hates snitches and lawyers even more. He encouraged such carefree attitude towards laws and rules in others, such as Ray Palmer, whom he tried to mold into his partner in crime.

Despite his less than sophisticated demeanor, Mick is incredibly philosophical in his view of the nature of fire itself. He had poetically described it as being ever-changing, indefinable, and transformative. He views his burns as revealing the truth of who he really is, and as such, he has embraced this self-determined truth of who he is: A man who burns the world to reveal its own inner nature as it did to him. This is an unusual trait, but does show that he is much more than the image of the unstable pyromaniac that he projects himself as.

In spite of Mick's nature, he still has a code of honor, even though he initially claimed to Ray Palmer that his only loyalty is to Leonard Snart. During the rescue mission from the Russian gulag, Mick refused to abandon Ray, despite Leonard's insistence to leave him behind after Ray insulted the interrogator's mother and took a beating in order to keep Mick from being tortured further. However, it appears that any shred of loyalty and honor he has regarding Rip Hunter's team was gone when he learned that Rip only recruited him to the team to sway Leonard into joining and viewed him simply as a dumb psychopathic arsonist, causing Mick to betray Rip to the time pirates to give up the Waverider in exchange to be sent back to the present day.

Chronos

Mick as Chronos

"The whole time, I stayed focus on one thing. The one thing that kept me sane... vengeance. I focused on how much I hated all of you."
— Mick Rory
As he was left in an unknown time, he became wild, eating raw animals until the Time Masters found him, brought him to the Vanishing Point. As he lost himself from being in an alien time for too long, they manipulated and trained him as a bounty hunter and assassin over what he described as "lifetimes" and "being reborn". He returned with extensive knowledge of temporal physics, Time Master protocols and futuristic weapons and technology, on par with that of Rip Hunter. However, despite his knowledge, he was still bent on avenging himself against the team and Snart. He threatened to kill Lisa Snart over and over by time traveling, as well as forcing Leonard to watch each time. However, he later returned to his old self while back on the Waverider and became a member of the team once more. He also became more emotionally reflective, forgiving himself for accidentally setting fire to his house and killing his family. He also seemed to forgive Snart and the team, becoming more friendly towards them. Also, after Snart sacrificed his life for Mick, it appeared to have a profound affect on him; while still committing thefts, he began going about it more cautiously and tried to avoid killing innocent bystanders. His respect for Snart was great enough for him to head back to 2379, where he told past Snart he considered him his personal hero.

"Most people who've seen what you've seen would've succumbed to darkness, but you didn't. You chose to become a Legend. You may try and hide it, Mick, but you're a good man."
Amaya Jiwe to Mick

Once he rejoined the Legends, Mick largely seemed more mature, but retained his snarky, gruff demeanor. He ironically seemed to listen to Rip more than the others, as he left his Heat Gun behind when ordered, so to avoid damaging the timeline. During his time travels, he's developed a bond with his team, willing to save them as they would return the favor for him, to the extent that he assisted Nate Heywood in retrieving the rest of the team from across history after being discovered in stasis in 2389 when he could have easily just taken the Waverider and gone off on his own. Even his threats towards his teammates became more playful and less violent and more comical, such as threatening to shave Ray Palmer's head if he told anyone about his compassionate side, which is a far cry from his former tendency of threatening to kill people even if they were his allies. This subtle change marks this profound evolution in his personality. While he still identifies himself as a criminal when talking to the Justice Society of America, the rest of the Legends all acted in his defense when he was accused of killing Hourman, and Rory was even the one to voice the other heroes' refusal to allow the Flash to turn himself over to the Dominators to save the world despite admitting that he disliked the other man.

He developed a profound hatred for the Time Masters for brainwashing him, quoting that he only survived it due to focusing on his hatred. The second time was due to focusing on his team.

After being infected and turned into a zombie, Mick begged and trusted Ray to cure him, showing a deepening sense of camaraderie between the two. In the aftermath of his zombification, Mick assuaged Ray's fears that without his suit that he might no longer have a place on the team. Mick reminded him that being an outsider isn't so bad, and gave Ray the Cold Gun, Mick's only memento of Leonard Snart, his best friend. This was given with the claim that Mick was looking for a new partner, and trusted Ray enough to give him that chance. When Stein continued babying Jax, Mick bluntly told him to treat Jax like a partner rather than as a child; Stein only has a so many years left of life, so it's best to teach Jax all he can. He later showed some interest in Amaya Jiwe.

Following Snart's self-sacrifice, Rory struggles to honor his dead friend. Initially he believed staying part of the Legends is what Snart would want but his own self-doubt as a part of the team, being both hero and criminal and how much his friends truly valued him manifested in a hallucination of Snart's criminal life. His loneliness was such that Rory even tried to replace Snart by giving Ray the cold gun and making him act more like his dead friend until he passively accepts that Leonard was gone and Ray should be himself. However, when the Legends went to steal Christ's Blood to destroy the Spear of Destiny, the Legion of Doom plucked a time remnant of Snart from before joining the Legends. Mick's survival attitude strongly leads him to believe that caring for the rest of the team will eventually cause his death the same way it did Snart (perhaps a reaction due to losing his only family at a young age) and Leonard taunts that the Legends consider him an unchanged criminal and lapdog rather than an equal teammate. This was cause enough for Mick to eventually hand over the Spear of Destiny to the Legion of Doom so they can rewrite reality. However, in the "Doomworld" Rory begins to realize his mistake as things became increasingly different with reality and Snart, insinuating he respected the man Leonard became because of his loyalty and heroism which was reciprocated in the other Legends rather than who he was. Furthermore, he realizes his partner's hypocrisy that despite his previous claims about being a pet, Snart was similarly obedient to Thawne and Darhk and how he was treating Rory like a pet rather than a partner. Realizing that the Snart he knew was long dead, Mick has gained closure over realizing that the Legends made him and his friend a better person so he rejoins them. He has developed a new liking to Killer Frost.

Mick has various fears, obsessions and quirks that seem to border on the irrational. Aside from a fear of clowns and giant toads which he divulged to Martin Stein during the Legends' time in Hollywood. and a hatred of puppets. He's also implied to be afraid of clowns. Mick also possesses a fixation with vampires to the point where he's carried a wooden stake on his person for his entire life, as mentioned when the Legends traveled to 1895 London, seemingly dealing with a time-displaced vampire. On this mission, Mick was also shown wearing garlic around his neck as a means to repel vampires.

Much to the surprise of outsiders (some who even consider him illiterate) Mick has also been shown to have a liking towards writing, as he was recently revealed to be writing a sci-fi romance novel. He also seems to enjoy reading, as he was seen reading Dracula during one of the team's missions, insisting that no one spoil the ending for him, and watching Lord of the Rings on a later adventure.

Ironically, despite his pyromania Mick has an interest towards Killer Frost. Presumably he already showed an attraction to her alter-ego Caitlin Snow and this was simply amplified upon the realisation of her own dark side that he observed as she fought off the Nazis of Earth-X.

Another interesting trait of Mick is that despite initially being a criminal and wanted to stay to rule over one of the gang ruled futures, he doesn't seem to desire power or at least has no qualms about giving it up, as he did when he gave up the fire totem without reluctance. The fire totem being an artifact that allowed the pyromaniac Mick to do anything he wanted with fire. While initially hyperactive and more engaging in activities, after Snart's death, Mick become an alcoholic and was usually content to stay on the Waverider watching movies. During one of these moments, Mick displayed some surprising leadership skills when he assigned tasks to the other Legends, if only to get them to leave him watch TV in peace.

Since accidentally fathering Lita, Mick has taken it upon himself to esnure she turns out better than himself.

Powers and abilities[]

Powers[]

"The Time Masters. They took me to a place called the Vanishing Point. Time doesn't exist there the way it does on Earth. I've spent lifetimes being restored by them, training by them, fighting by them... being reborn."
— Mick Rory
  • Longevity: Mick Rory was experimented on by the Time Masters, heavily extending his lifespan into that of multiple lifetimes, which he spent training and fighting for the organization.

Former powers[]

"Like I need help lighting things on fire."
— Mick Rory
  • Immortality: After drinking from the Chalice of Dionysus, Mick gained immortality for 24 hours.
  • Abilities via Fire Totem: Mick's powers came from the Fire Totem, a totem that channels and harnesses the power of fire, but he gave it up after defeating Mallus.
    • Pyrokinesis: The Fire Totem granted Mick with the power to summon fire and manipulate flames, manipulating them in whichever way he desired, such as firing it from his hands in bursts, or simply creating an open flame in his palm. He is also able to control fire separate from him as demonstrated during his struggle with the Mallus-possessed Sara Lance.
      • Fire blasts: The Totem allows Mick to be capable of releasing offensive and defensive blasts of fire. Mick has great control over this power, as he is not only capable of channeling this power through his hands, but can also channel his flames from his anus, since Zari Tomaz implied to Amaya Jiwe that Mick entertains himself by igniting his own flatulence.
      • Thermokinesis: The Totem allows Mick to heat objects, such as hot dogs and popcorn.
    • Totem connection: The totem connects to other totems when in the presence of them or from a far and can also let the other users know if a totem bearer has died. This allowed him to sense Kuasa's death when Mallus killed Kuasa and ripped out the water totem from inside of her.

Abilities[]

  • Peak of human physical condition: Stemming from his violent nature, Mick is in top physical condition, shown to be very muscular. Ernest Hemingway stated that he is a fine specimen of male vitality. Mick's strength allowed him casually crush Time Master Declan's skull with a single stomp of his boot and withstand multiple shots from Eobard Thawne at superspeed without losing consciousness. During their second encounter, Mick easily broke Julius Caesar's nose with a single punch. Mick also has a high metabolism, as he once ate four consecutive meals for lunch during Zari Tomaz's observation of Ramadan.
  • Master hand-to-hand combatant: Despite Mick's unstable and hot-headed demeanor, he is a capable hand-to-hand combatant, when (seemingly) taken captive by a mafia boss, he and Snart quickly broke free and killed the man and most of his men with ease. Mick even proved to be at least on par with Sara Lance. After his training in the Vanishing Point and "conversion" to Chronos, Mick's combat skills appear to have improved significantly, as he is able to take out multiple members of the League of Assassins, an entire squad of ninjas in Feudal Japan, and defeat a younger Vandal Savage in unarmed combat, albeit it can be implied that he only did so after Savage was weakened upon being exposed to the meteor. Mick was also able to overpower Julius Caesar and easily knocked out the Roman emperor in their second encounter.
  • Expert marksman: Mick has the skill to hit multiple police officers, and enemies at a time. He also could handle regular weapons such as revolvers, as he did in the Old West and American Revolution.
    • Skilled knife welder/Knife thrower: Mick is capable at throwing knives.
  • Keen-level intellect/Skilled tactician: Despite his brutish behavior, Mick is actually quite intelligent. During Sara's absence on the mission to help a young Nora Darhk, Mick was intelligent enough to organize the remaining Legends for the duration of the mission to battle Mallus in order to avoid being bothered while watching a game of football. Ray Palmer even commented that Mick showed "management potential. Mick has also been shown to be skilled in laying out several lethal and nonlethal booby traps to protect his secret novel from the prying eyes of his teammates. Such traps include a literal bear trap, an electrocution device, and an ink bomb. After being trained by the Time Masters, Mick obtained a greater clarity and understanding of the manipulation of time. Like Rip, Mick now has full understanding of the time-space continuum, able to immediately comprehend how any changes in time will effect the rest of the timestream. Nevertheless, he often downplays his notion of time travel.
    • Skilled engineer: Like Snart, Mick is proficient at mechanical engineering, as he regularly repairs his Heat Gun and has memorized the entirety of its design and functionality, being more than capable of repairing the secondary internal fuel chamber without assistance.
    • Expert driver/Pilot: As a former thief, Mick is highly trained piloting shuttles to evade the SCIS. Also, due to his time as Chronos, he is proficient in piloting timeships, including the Waverider, although Martin Stein claims Mick's piloting is very rough.
    • Expert of deception: During the Time Masters' second brainwashing attempt, Mick feigned being successfully broken and fully consumed by his Chronos persona long enough to give him a prime opportunity to turn on his captors.
    • Writing: Mick has a hidden talent as a science-fiction erotica author under the pseudonym "Rebecca Silver," a sex-positive novelist reinventing feminism. He's written his own novels, Uncaged Desire and Heatwaves: An Erotic Space Odyssey, with the latter shown to be good, according to fellow Legend Zari and Ava Sharpe. Barry Allen stated his book Uncaged Desire is "surprisingly well-written". Heatwaves is Mona Wu's favorite book by Silver as the plot inspired her to pursue a life with the Kaupe demigod Konane, and was described as "a sexual epiphany" by one of Mick's fans. He also wrote the conspiracy thriller Body of Proof, which interested Nora Darhk and Gary Green, along with Raw Hides. Mick was offered $20,000 to reveal his identity at a romantic novel convention due to his wisdom and insight into human connection.
    • Acting: Mick also has a hidden talent in theatre. In the Legends' production of Romeo and Juliet, he portrayed characters such as the Chorus with enough passion to make the audience react verbally.
"The whole time, I stayed focus on one thing. The one thing that kept me sane... vengeance. I focused on how much I hated all of you."
— Mick Rory to the Legends
  • Indomitable will/High tolerance for pain: While at times seen as deranged or barbaric, Mick has a remarkable fortitude, unyielding to seemingly any form of torture, at times even seeming to revel in it. Mick was said to have survived severe burns from a heist with Snart that went wrong. Even the Time Masters admitting their brainwashing of Mick into Chronos the first time was only a partial success. The intensity of Mick's mind was shown to be able to overwhelm even the mind-control network the Legion of Doom was using in their new reality, freeing all of its victims. Mick has also grown accustomed to time jumps, often not feeling any of the side-effects (although as Rip has stated the larger the time jump, the more likely it is for side-effects to occur, even for experienced time travelers). Mick also has a high tolerance for alcohol, as he declared to Fredric that "No one out-drinks Mick Rory."
  • Intimidation: Mick is extremely intimidating. It was shown many times that mere threats can get him what he wants, and he can successfully intimidate even people who have been through awful things, including many of his fellow Legends (though he cannot intimidate Sara, an ex-member of League of Assassins).

Original multiverse[]

  • Heat Gun: Can generate a beam of absolute hot temperature. When fired, the heat gun increases the temperature of the air dramatically, like some sort of "extreme heat wave". This heat wave is capable of achieving "absolute hot", or Planck temperature. When activated, certain lights on it turn red, in contrast to the Cold Gun's blue. The weapon's flame blast projects to any location and burns anything in its path. It appears to have been upgraded over Mick travels with the Legends, as it can knock someone down without any major burns to them.
  • 'Brigid's diary': Mick wrote in this mystical diary to bring a character to life that could save Tokyo, Japan from Tagumo, a creature that the Japanese film director Ishirō Honda had brought to life using the very same book. After Mick's character saved the day, Ishirō insisted that Mick take the book with him, as he could see that the diary liked Mick. However, after he brought his warrior to life again on board the Waverider, Ava confiscated the diary, stating that it was too dangerous for Mick to keep it, fearing that he could go from writing science fiction to horror and have killer clowns loose on the ship as a result. She subsequently locked it up in the Time Bureau. Nonetheless, Mick managed to steal it back at some point afterwards. He subsequently loaned it to Nate so that the latter would be able to bring Heyworld to life over night.
  • Reading glasses: Mick is shown to be far-sighted, so he wears a pair of thick reading glasses whenever he is writing or reviewing his novels.

Former equipment[]

  • Goggles: Mick used to wear a pair of black wraparound goggles, which are designed to protect his eyes from the flashes given off by his heat gun. He has stopped using them, implying that the glare no longer bothers him.
  • Bounty hunter armor: When Mick joined the Time Masters he was trained to be a temporal bounty hunter, when his training ended he was given armor to conceal his identity and keep him protected from enemies. The armor's glove communicator was also used by Ray Palmer and Gideon to send commands to the Time Master HQ, outsmarting the Time Masters' defense systems.
  • Bounty hunter rifle: Mick was also armed with a powerful blaster rifle that was able to fire blasts of green energy.
  • Bounty hunter timeship: As Chronos, Mick traveled through time on a time ship, hunting temporal criminals and time pirates alike, eventually taking on the members of Rip Hunter's team, that at times included his past self.
  • Smith & Wesson Schofield Model 3: Mick used this revolver in the Old West.
  • Winchester Model 1873: Mick dual-wielded two of these rifles in the Old West.
  • M1928 Thompson: Mick used this submachine gun against Al Capone's soldiers.
  • Spencer 1860 Carbine: Mick used this rifle during the American Revolution.
  • Colt 1851 Navy: Mick used this revolver in the Old West.
  • Fire Totem: The Fire Totem allowed Mick to generate and control fire.

New multiverse[]

  • Heat gun: Mick utilizes a Heat gun.
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