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Santo Vaccarro (Earth-616)

From Marvel Database

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Real Name
Santo Vaccarro
Current Alias

Aliases
Santo

Identity

Affiliation

Universe


Characteristics
Gender

Height


Eyes

Hair

Skin

Unusual Features
No visible pupils, rock body.

Status
Citizenship

Marital Status

Occupation
Student

Origin
Origin
Santo is a mutant, born with his amazing abilities that developed during puberty, it was later revealed that Santo is also a Psionic Entity, and does not require a body at all times.

Place of Birth


History

Contents

Rockslide

Santo was sent to the Xavier Institute where he befriended Hellion and the would-be Hellions Training Squad. He was originally advised by Iceman, but was selected by Emma Frost to be part of her prized Hellions squad. Santo and the rest of the Hellions went on to win the Field Tournament and were declared the best squad at the end of the school year.

During the summer vacation, Julian, from a well-to-do background, invited his friends to his home. The Hellions ran into trouble quickly, as his and Mercury's appearances along with Dust's dress disturbed people at the airport. After a brief struggle, the group was allowed to board, and made their way to California, where Julian originates. Soon, the team encountered the 'Kingmaker', from whom they each received a trial wish. Santo's wish was to become a World-class Champion in superhuman wrestling. However, when the Hellions eventually refused a permanent deal with the Kingmaker, the Kingmaker shattered Santo with a laser blast. Julian used his telekinesis to piece Rockslide back together, and together the Hellions defeated the Kingmaker.

Soon after returning to the school after the vacation, the events of the House of M storyline transpired. In this reality, Santo was once again a champion superhuman wrestler. After the effects of M-Day, he was one of the few students who didn't lose their powers. The depowered students and staff were sent to their homes. One bus was bombed by anti-mutant religious zealot Reverend William Stryker, and Santo's former teammate and friend Tag was among those killed. The X-Men held a funeral for those students whose parents would not accept them, and Santo reflected upon how he had "failed" by not being able to save those killed.

Rockslide's new form

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.

William Stryker continued his terror attacks against the school. Santo's teammate Elixir ended Stryker's plans by killing him. The New X-Men, with the help of Prodigy, then made the connection between Stryker and Nimrod. The team leader, Surge, then decided that the team would find and destroy the robot. When the team confronted Nimrod, Rockslide was obliterated in the battle. Hellion and Mercury tried desperately to awaken and to piece him back together, but Rockslide's remains were initially unresponsive. Thankfully, even in his shattered form, he was able to survive, and was finally put back together, only to become larger and more rugged than his previous form. Rockslide is later seen talking to Match and Anole about their abilities and how useful or unuseful they would be if they joined the New X-Men team, indicating Match and Anole may be possible candidates for admission onto the team. He was at the memorial service for all the students lost at Strykers attack on the institute.

Rockslide while in Limbo

Recently, Rockslide saw the Young Avengers on television, learning about them for the first time, to his fellow students' surprise. He decided that the New X-Men should beat them up, with himself fighting Hulkling. Fellow students Loa and Anole told him that Hulkling would win.

Rockslide accompanied the X-Men when they jumped from the Blackbird to save Mercury 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.

Santo and the other students were captured by Belasco, and taken to Limbo. While hiding from Belasco, along with Blindfold, Match, Loa, Anole, Wolf Cub, Pixie, and Gentle, Santo was unsure what to do. As demons approached the group, Santo fought them off, but then seemingly exploded when he tried to shoot his fists at them. Santo then seems to reconstitute himself in a magma rock form that is also impervious to magic and beats the badness out of Illyana who then helps them to rescue their fellow students and kill Belasco. Back home Rockslide threatens to quit if Pixie and Anole aren't made part of the new X-Men.

Rockslide is one of the students that goes up against the Hulk in World War Hulk: X-Men. He knocks over the Hulk so the other students can hold him down, but is knocked away when Hulk regains his strength. When Rocklide attacks him alone, it appears that Hulk knows who he is and what he can do. He rips off both his 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. Ironically, Santo has stated that as a kid he pretended he was the Hulk.

Although a part of the Young X-men series, he is mentioned in the X-men Limited Series of Secret Invasion, assisting Angel.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Santo with Beast

Santo is a Gamma-level mutant.

Geokinetic Psychic Entity In New X-Men #42, Beast determines that given Santo's two experiences reforming his body after being destroyed, Santo is actually a non-physical psychic entity that can form and control a stone "golem". Santo has, however, lost the ability to fire "granite projectiles", and now has the power explode on command and reform himself from any surrounding rock.

Santo's body is composed completely of granite. His body is inorganic. In the Hellions mini-series, he was shattered by the Kingmaker and put back together by Julian, much like how Emma Frost was reanimated by Jean Grey in the first New X-Men series. Given that Julian's power is obviously much less developed than Jean's, it would make sense that Santo's body is designed to be pieced back together should it be broken. This is supported by the recent incident in which Santo's body was obliterated by Nimrod, only to eventually put itself partially back together (Santo needed Julian's help again to fully reform). This time his appearance is larger and more rugged. In the Quest for Magik arc, this process was undergone again. Santo being blown up again in Limbo, this time returning as a large lava/magma elemental type creature. This seems to suggest that Santo's body is capable of taking on the properties of the Earth he is in contact with. It is unknown whether this is able to be controlled or if it is a passive regenerative ability that occurs when Rockslide's body is destroyed.

  • Superhuman Strength: Rockslide has continuously been shown performing great feats of strength. Rockslide possesses superhuman strength. He is capable of lifting 75 tons.
  • Superhuman Stamina: Rockslide's musculature generates less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of an ordinary human. He can exert himself at peak capacity for at least several hours before fatigue begins to impair him.
  • Superhuman Durability: Rockslide's extremely dense bodily tissue is considerably harder and more resistant to injury than the body of an ordinary human. He can withstand great impact forces, high caliber bullets, temperature and pressure extremes, and falls from great heights without sustaining injury.
  • Rock Explosion: He can also detach parts of his body, flinging them as heavy rock projectiles. He has no control over these body parts until he reattaches them manually. Though now no longer capable of that he can only fully explode.

    Abilities

Combatant: Rockslide is a good hand to hand combatant.

Strength level

Rockslide is capable of lifting within the class 75 range.

Weaknesses

Energy Blasts: He can be split into pieces by powerful energy blasts from enemies such as Nimrod.

Rock Seperation: If parts of his body are ripped off and thrown very far away they will not come back.

Paraphernalia

Transportation

Sometimes the X-men Blackbird.

Trivia

  • Santo is Italian-American.
  • He is a fan of Dance Dance Revolution[1].
  • Santo is considered the school bully.
  • The idea of Santo desiring to be a world-class superhuman wrestler has reoccurred twice now—once in the Hellions mini-series and again in the House of M series.
  • Santo is a fan of the television program Medium starring Patricia Arquette. In the same issue, he also mentions Murder She Wrote.[2]
  • He respected the Hulk and even pretended to be him until the Hulk attacked the X-men.

Links

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