Heat Wave (original) (raw)

[[Heat Wave]](bigimages/heatwave.jpg)

Real Name: Mick Rory
Other Aliases: Rory Calhoun
Known Relatives: Unnamed parents, brother, grandmother (all deceased), unnamed uncle.
Past Occupations: Thief, fire-eater, firefighter, Cadmus agent
Group Affiliation: The Rogues
Past Group Affiliation: The Project
Base of Operations: Central City, Missouri
First Appearance: Flash v.1 #140 (November 1963)

Mick Rory was fascinated with fire from his childhood on a farm outside Central City. He would stare at flames, and try to hold them—even if holding the flame got him burnt. His obsession came to a head one night when he set his family’s 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, though he continued to be obsessed with heat. One day, 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. While Mick Rory recognized himself as a pyromaniac—an actual, obsessive-compulsive pyromaniac, not the neighbor kid who just likes fire—he often cited this freezer incident (leaving his friend’s part out of it) as a trauma that left him cryophobic (with an intense fear of cold).

Knowing he couldn’t stay, 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.

Going Rogue

Desperate to fight what he had become, Rory was inspired by news footage of Central City’s Rogues to channel his obsession into a new identity. He invented a handgun-sized flamethrower, put on an asbestos suit, and began committing crimes as Heat Wave. Naturally, he became a regular combatant of the Flash. He also developed a rivalry with Captain Cold, who introduced him to the rest of the Rogues.

In and out of jail, Heat Wave constantly struggled with his illness. He also struggled with crime, eventually deciding (under the influence of the Top’s mental powers) to go straight. He even became good friends with Barry Allen, having unmasked the unconscious hero some time earlier. He began working as a firefighting consultant, using his knowledge of heat and flames from his former criminal career.

To Hell and Back

Even Rory succumbed to temptation when Abra Kadabra brought him and four other Rogues an offer that would bring them respect. An offer that would “guarantee that they would be remembered forever not as has-beens...but as the most infamous villains of their age.” What Kadabra did not tell them was that it would cost them their lives. The five died, and unleashed the demon Neron upon Earth (Underworld Unleashed #1, 1995).

Neron was not finished with them, however. As part of a convoluted plot to force the Flash into a deal, he sent the Rogues’ bodies to Earth without their souls. The bank robbers who had so enjoyed matching wits with the Flash were now soulless killers, in command of vastly enhanced powers, with even more powerful avatars that caused enormous damage and killed thousands before the Flash was able to turn the deal around and force Neron to halt the destruction and return the Rogues’ souls to their bodies (Flash #127–129, 1997).

Reformation

Heat Wave returned briefly to crime before abandoning it to study among Zhutanian monks (New Year’s Evil: The Rogues, 1998). He worked for a time as a backup agent for Project Cadmus in Metropolis (Superboy #65) before leaving for the Quad Cities, Illinois area. Still struggling with his pyromania, he began working for the F.B.I. alongside other reformed rogues.

The F.B.I. project, however, failed spectacularly. 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.

Relapse

Heat Wave was one of the three Rogues who delivered the killing blow to Flash 4: Bart Allen (Flash: TFMA #10–13: Full Throttle & All-Flash #1, 2007). He was captured and sent with the rest to the alien prison planet, Salvation (Salvation Run, 2007–2008).

Text by Kelson Vibber. Do not copy without permission.

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Origin Tales

Rogue Profile: Flash #218
Rogue Profile Covers

Profiles

Significant Silver-Age Flash Appearances

Significant Legacy-Era Appearances

Significant One-Year-Later Flash Appearances