Mick Rory has been a pyromaniac since he set fire to his family home as a young teen. He spent most of his childhood bouncing around between foster homes and Juvie Halls and in his adult years, not much changed, simply exchanging Juvie Halls for jailhouses and prison incarcerations. During one particular incarceration in Iron Heights, Rory met a new cellmate named Leonard Snart. The two became quick friends in prison, watching each others' backs against the other inmates and during prison riots. Soon Len let Rory in on a little secret. It turned out that Snart's imprisonment in Iron Heights was actually part of a plan, apparently he allowed himself to be arrested because the warden carried something he was hired to steal. He handed Rory a lighter he had smuggled in and just told him to create some chaos. Rory obliged, and in the ensuing chaos Snart stole the package he was after and the two managed to make their daring escape from Iron Heights. They stuck together after that, Leonard making Rory a pair of flame-shooting guns and from then on Mick Rory was known as Heat Wave. Heat Wave and Captain Cold were like a villainous dynamic duo after that, Rory's more destructive nature being a natural compliment to Snart's more calculating nature. When his partner's sister was backstabbed and murdered by her own partner, Heat Wave was eager to help Cold get his revenge. But then Snart just... left after that. And to make matters worse, the next time he surfaced, Cold had even gone straight. But his joining the Justice League was the final nail in the coffin, the thing that finally made Heat Wave truly consider his former partner an enemy. He took Cold's turn to heroism as a personal betrayal, and is becoming increasingly eager to either pull him back to the "right" side or - failing that - watch him burn.