In the 60s' Rip traveled with his friend,his girlfriend and his girlfriends' brother.They travled through time.

Rip Hunter and his pal Jeffrey Smith were at college working on their doctorate when they formulated a theory of time travel and began to work on their first time sphere. They were hoping for a grant to help them complete their work, but they had a brilliant rival in John Charles James, who was creating a new type of rocket engine.

The one thing that stood in the way of success for Rip and Jeff was the need for a power element that would not melt. Miraculously, they found it on a scrap heap. Years later, James stole their back up time sphere in an attempt to change the past so he could win the grant. Rip's team stopped him, but it appears a power element was lost from the stolen sphere - and was the very one Rip later found. Thus, James actually ensured his own defeat, rather than preventing it.

Having won the grant, Rip and Jeff continued working on the sphere. Just what they did while experimenting on the firat sphere remains between them, but after earning their doctorates, they found a way to duplicate the power element and built a second sphere. By this time the team had been increased by the addition of Bonnie Baxter, a recently graduated history major, and her brother Corky.

After a shakedown cruise to the Mesozoic Era - the Dinosaur Age - they set up business, making time journeys to clear up historic puzzles. The sphere contains their Encyclo-Matic, a computer filled with historical data they may need. Eventually they added uniforms with various devices they could use in emergencies. Most important are the speech transition disks that allow them to converse with people of every era and country.

The group appears to have been independently wealthy, as they usually charged nothing for quests in the interest of science. Finally, with new improvements, Rip Hunter began the ultimate journey - to the birth of the universe! But when he and his crew arrived, they found a strange temple. An unearthly noise struck their ears and they all passed out - to awaken back in their own time - incredibly aged!

Eventually they were contacted by Immortal Man who was recruiting for the Forgotten Heroes. It seems Vandal Savage had discovered the temple all these heroes had seen and was making use of them. Rip and his crew accompanied Superman to the past to destroy the first temple, which in turn destroyed the rest and Ripand the others were restored to their proper ages.