Marvel Just Killed Off a Fan-Favorite X-Men Mutant

Spoiler warning for X-Factor and X of Swords!

The X-Men have combined their mutant powers to become immortal, but even immortality has its limits. Since Dawn of X started a new age of mutants living on the island paradise of Krakoa, most mutants have enjoyed freedom from the worries of the human world: hunger, poverty, monogamy, and the grave. But the first big event of Dawn of X, titled X of Swords, is putting all that in danger as mutants from other worlds seek to take Krakoa for themselves. In the new issue X-Factor #4, the X-Men have suffered their first casualty of this interdimensional war… and it’s a young X-Men hero with a lot of potential cut permanently short.

On Krakoa, a group of heroic mutants called the Five can work together to return dead X-Men to life, combining backup memories stored in Cerebro with cloned bodies. Sometimes a mutant’s powers interfere with the process, but it’s reliable enough that death is now an inconvenience for mutants, or, for Storm, an ethical choice. Killing mutants in battle is frowned upon, but acceptable, which made Wolverine even more lethal.

In the opening chapter X of Swords: Creation, those healers became sorely needed. During a summit between Krakoa and the mutants of the alien world Arakko in the neutral ground of Otherworld, Arakko betrayed the X-Men, putting several of the heroes in critical condition. Some of the fallen were taken back to Krakoa, but one wasn’t so lucky. On Arakko’s signal, their agent Summoner took out a blade and cut Santo Vaccaro, aka Rockslide, in half, killing him instantly.

Rockslide is one of the teen mutants who enrolled at Xavier’s school in the 2000s. His mutant power is a body made of hunks of granite that he can fire as projectiles. He reforms when he takes damage and can explode on command; once, to fight the Juggernaut, Gambit charged him with energy, turning him into a massive frag grenade. when in the hellish realm of Limbo, he was able to form a body made of the terrain there and become temporarily immune to magic. Rockslide is (or was) a brash but caring young mutant who was slow to trust but made deep, strong friendships with his classmates, especially the reptilian Anole.

In an earlier issue of X-Men, the Summoner and Rockslide tried to gauge each other’s weaknesses. The Summoner figured out that Rockslide’s body is just a stone vessel being piloted by Rockslide’s true self, an intangible spirit. His later attack severed that spirit, ending Rockslide’s life.

In X-Factor #4, the X-Men made a terrible discovery: Rockslide was the only mutant so far to die on Otherworld, a sort of hub zone of the multiverse, and its atmospheric magic does something to a mutant’s backup data when they die. The record of Rockslide’s memory was overwritten by alternate-universe versions of himself, and when the Five tried to bring him back, the result was a corrupted data error that nearly destroyed Cerebro entirely and produced a strange, confused version of Rockslide made up of scattered thoughts. This had an impact on all mutants: it means that dying in Otherworld is permanent. But Rockslide’s old teacher Emma Frost took it more personally because it also meant that a cherished young man has been cut down too soon.

X of Swords: Creation is written by Jonathan Hickman and Tini Howard with art by Pepe Larraz, color by Marte Gracia, and lettering by Clayton Cowles. X-Factor #4 is written by Leah Williams with art by Carlos Gomez, color by Israel Silva, and lettering by Joe Caramagna. Both are available now.

About The Author