Mick Rory was obsessed with fire from his childhood He would stare at flames, and try to hold them He even set his house on fire and couldn’t take his eyes of the flames long enough to run to a neighbor for help.

His uncle raised him after that

On a school field trip to a slaughterhouse, a friend locked him in a walk-in freezer as a joke. Mick escaped, and was compelled to lock his friend in his house, and set it on fire.Mick often cited this freezer incident (leaving his friend’s part out of it) as a trauma that left him with an intense fear of cold.

He ran away from home, eventually joining a circus as a fire-eater. He thought he had his obsession under control, but it broke loose again, and he burned down the circus.

Rory was inspired by the Rogues to channel his obsession into a new identity.

He invented a handgun-sized flamethrower and wore an asbestos suit and committed crimes under the identity of Heat Wave

Heat Wave eventually decided to be good. He began working as a firefighting consultant, using his knowledge of heat and flames from his former criminal career.

Still struggling with his pyromania, he began working for the F.B.I. alongside other reformed rogues

The F.B.I. project failed. On the group’s first mission, the Top returned to undo the programming that had caused most of them to reform. Heat Wave rejoined the Rogues. He then joins the society.

One Year Later
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 He is next seen being recuited by Inertia to team up against Bart Allen. He is one of the rogues the deliver the killing blow to Bart. He freaks out about what he and the rogues have done and flees only to be captured by Captain Boomerang along side Weather Wizard. He is sent to "hell planet" with the other rogues. When the conflict starts he sides with Luthor. When the beat J"onn he's worried about killing another hero Bane calms his nervs. He returns to earth with the villains still alive. Later he hears Libra's offer and (off-panel) rejects it.  When he hears Inertia free he decides with his fellow rogues to kill him for their troubles. He and the other rogues find Paul Gambi seriously injured by a group of Libra's men called the "new" rogues. He recieves a new improved costume from Gambi. He then defeats his "new" rogue counterpart.


Other versions
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Tanget Comics/Earth-9 he is mentioned as a weather-manipulating villain defeated by that earth's superman.

In Superman beyond a version of Heat Wave appears.

In Other Media
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He briefly appears in JLU

He appears in DC Universe Online.