Richard Tyler (Earth 2)

The son of expert chemist Rex Tyler, Rick felt cheated when his father's greatest invention, a super-stimulant called Miraclo, was taken by Thomas Wayne to give the out-of-shape sexagenarian the physical stamina to fight crime as Batman. Whatever Rick's initial feelings on the matter, after Thomas Wayne died fighting to save the world, Rick was recruited into an alliance of anti-establishment Wonders led by Doctor Impossible, dedicated to the goal of a fairer world than the one the World Army and its allies, the Wonders of the World, would "allow" them.

Rick staked out the Wayne Corporation building in New Gotham, eventually breaking through its security to steal Thomas Wayne's utility belt from a display case - along with the Miraclo pills it contained.

Using Doctor Impossible's resources to reverse-engineer the drug, Rick gained superhuman physical prowess, one hour per pill, and took the name "Hourman". He served Doctor Impossible alongside Anarky and Johnny Sorrow, but was ultimately defeated by the Wonders of the World.

Adrift now that his patron and their industrial resources were gone, Hourman was recruited by Kyle Nimbus, the head of the energy corporation Nimbus Solutions, to act as a bodyguard. Nimbus laced the Miraclo he supplied Rick with with a drug that made him more willing to follow Nimbus' orders. Hourman fought Dick Grayson, the third Batman, but Grayson was eventually able to supply Rick with a counter-agent to the will-suppressing impurity in his drug. Pointing out that Rick had valid complaints but a terrible taste in paymasters, Grayson offered to hire Hourman to make the world better. Initailly distrustful, Rick accepted, and subsequently helped the Wonders of the World fight the Ultra-Humanite.