Rockslide (character)

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Rockslide
Rockslide Art by Chris Bachalo
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	New Mutants vol. 2, #3 (September 2003)
Created by	Nunzio DeFilippis Christina Weir
In-story information
Alter ego	Santo Vaccarro
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	Hellions training squad New X-Men Xavier Institute X-Men-In-Training Young X-Men Jean Grey School Students
Abilities	Superhuman strength, durability and endurance Ability to transform into a "golem" form by assimilating surrounding rock and earth into a gestalt shell and explosively detonate the shell and reform at will

Rockslide (Santo Vaccarro) is a fictional mutant superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character has been depicted as a member of the X-Men, and a student in the Xavier Institute and a member of the former Hellions squad therein. After M-Day, he was one of only 28 students to retain his powers. He is best friends with Julian Keller (Hellion) and is extremely close to and protective of Cessily Kincaid (Mercury). Despite his earlier appearances as a stereotypical bully, he has evolved into a good-natured (though extremely boastful) and fiercely protective friend to most of the school's students.

Publication history

Rockslide first appeared in New Mutants vol. 2 #3 and was created by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir.^[1]

Fictional character biography

An

After the effects of

With the mutant population drastically decreased, the government sent the Sentinel O*N*E* Squad to watch over the school, which began housing as many remaining mutants as would take refuge. All of the remaining students were placed by Emma Frost into an all-out brawl, and the ones deemed to be the best were to be assigned to become a group of in-training X-Men. Santo made the team and began training to become an X-Man.^{[volume & issue needed]}

William Stryker continued his terror attacks against the school. Santo's teammate Josh (

Rockslide accompanied the X-Men when they jumped from the Blackbird to save Cessily from the Facility. He helped with great enthusiasm during the fight, and in the aftermath, made fun of Shadowcat and her powers, saying that being an X-Man must be "really hard". Kitty then jokingly threatened to kill him.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Quest for Magik

Santo and the other students were captured by

Rockslide is one of the students that goes up against the Hulk when he attacks the institute. He knocks over the Hulk so the other students can hold him down, but is knocked away when Hulk regains his strength. When Rockslide attacks him alone, it appears that Hulk knows who he is and what he can do. The Hulk rips off both of Rockslide's arms, steps on him, then tears off his legs. He then rids Rockslide of his limbs by throwing them a great distance, ridding Rockslide of his powers and the ability of ambulatory function. His limbs were eventually located after Hulk leaves.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Santo has stated that as a kid he pretended he was the Hulk.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Children of X-Men

Rockslide is seen playing pool with X-23 and Anole; he and X-23 try to convince Anole to let them cut his other arm off. After Santo calls Anole a sissy, Anole gets offended and pushes him out the window while Rockslide proclaims "I swear I didn't know! Don't be so sensitive!" After Rockslide refuses to blow himself up, Anole calls him a sissy to get him to do it. Anole then offers to try and blow up Santo himself.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Santo later agrees to stay up with Indra because he is worried that he is going to die and while having an indoor campfire, Santo points out that it doesn't matter how old they are, they are mutants and someone is going to come gunning for them, and when they do he wants to go down fighting. Later, he outs Anole as gay to some of the other students, though Loa was already aware and says that everyone already knew of his orientation.^[volume & issue needed]

Messiah Complex

Some of the New-X-Men decide to launch a pre-emptive strike against the

Santo meets up with Blindfold at a coffee shop and she tells him about her premonition of soon-to-be-formed Young X-Men squad, including the death of one of their future teammates, though he appears to take no heed. Just as predicted, Cyclops offers Santo the position, but claims that he was not planning on recruiting Blindfold. Santo demands that she be added to the team, stating that Blindfold's premonition included both him and her, and threatened to reject Cyclops' offer if she was not recruited as well.^[6]

It is later revealed that Cyclops is really Donald Pierce in disguise manipulating the Young X-Men to attack the original New Mutants, as Blindfold predicted, Wolf Cub is killed in the final confrontation with Pierce, which impacts Santo greatly.^[7]

X-Infernus

Santo and Mercury are watching a training session between Pixie and

Rockslide takes on Illyana, thinking he is still resistant to magic, forgetting that it was only when he was composed of Limbo's terrain. Illyana shocks him by easily defeating him. After he reforms, the gathered X-Men hold a meeting and he along with Mercury are put on a team of X-Men being sent to Limbo due to their resistance to magic, but only if he reforms from Limbo rock.[9]

In Limbo, Rockslide reforms out of Limbo's terrain as the team enters Belasco's castle to assist Pixie. Finding Illyana defeated by Witchfire and Pixie transformed into a demon, Rockslide and Mercury are forced to fight Colossus and Wolverine who become magically mind-controlled.^[10]

Utopia

Rockslide moves with the X-Men when they are forced out of U.S. soil by Norman Osborn. Still a student, Rockslide dreams of becoming a full-fledged X-member and goes on vigilante missions with Anole in the cover of darkness. He is on Utopia during the attacks of Selene's Transmutant slaves as well as Bastion's Nimrod Sentinels from the future. When Wolverine decides to re-open the school to give the kids a life without violence, Santo agrees to go back to the school.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Under new guides such as Chamber, Santo has settled down as a kid for the first time since House of M.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Wolverine's School

When Wolverine reopens the school, Santo is sent back to Westchester to study alongside his friends. His best friend is Anole and he has almost lost all contact with his former best friend Hellion, although they all reside in the school.^{[volume & issue needed]}

House of X

In the pages of "House of X and Powers of X," Rockslide became a resident of Krakoa when it was established as a mutant paradise.^[11]

During the "Empyre" storyline, Rockslide, Loa, and Anole go to Arrako Point on Krakoa and meet with the High Summoner of Arrako where he teaches them the game of weakness which gets interrupted when a Cotati fleet approaches Krakoa.^[12]

During the "

In his initial appearance, Santo's body was composed completely of granite; with a look very similar to that of the Thing. This granted him superhuman strength, endurance, durability and the ability to fire his hands as projectiles.

In the Hellions mini-series, he was shattered by the Kingmaker and put back together by Julian, much like how a disembodied Emma Frost was reanimated by Jean Grey in the first New X-Men series.^{[volume & issue needed]} Santo's body was later obliterated by Nimrod. Again with Julian's assistance, he was eventually able to put himself back together.^{[volume & issue needed]} This time his appearance is larger and more rugged.

In the Quest for Magik arc, Santo attempts to fire his fists off in Limbo but Blindfold reveals that aspect of his powers doesn't work anymore. Although he is blown up again, Santo returns as a large lava type "golem". His molten rock form, being from Limbo, is also resistant to magic. This is shown when Darkchild tried to stop him from attacking her and when Belasco tries to zap him with magical energy, but they both have no effect.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Beast's suspicion is that after Nimrod shattered Santo, Nimrod must have atomized most of his original body and dissolved him in some sort of disembodied psychic state. Santo, in theory, is able to re-form himself as a "golem" from some kind of ambient earth matter and obtain that earth matter's properties. The first time his body was destroyed, he was able to reform from solid rocks and obtained a larger and rugged rock body.^{[volume & issue needed]} The second time, he reformed from Limbo's molten rocks and obtained the ability to generate and maintain heat from within, and also some magic resistance.^{[volume & issue needed]} The third time, he reformed from the school's grounds after exploding himself. Santo's original ability to fire off his limbs is seemingly lost in his new reformed bodies. Instead, the energy used to propel his limbs is now explosively released from his entire body, obliterating his form, from which he can recover.^[17]

During Kuurth, Breaker of Stone's attack on Utopia, Gambit unlocked Rockslide's potential energy to create a "living bomb", making "one of the largest mutant-generated force blasts recorded".^[18]

Personality

Santo is typically depicted as superficially brash, oblivious, and inconsiderate. Originally, he was introduced as a stereotypical bully. However, he cares deeply for his friends, recalling the deaths of the depowered students, especially Tag, which usually motivates him to perform feats of incredible strength or bravery. He also has a strong sensitivity for his teammates, such as when Dust continued to "beat herself up" over the death of

In this reality, Santo was once again a champion superhuman wrestler.[19]

In other media

Rockslide makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in the Wolverine and the X-Men episode "Hindsight" as one of several mutants captured by the Mutant Response Division.^{[citation needed]}

References