ROCKET RACCOON

 

ROCKET RACCOON

Real Name: Rocket Raccoon

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk (Vol. 1) #271, May 1982

Powers: Rocket Raccoon hails from an extraterrestrial colony known as Halfworld. He and other animals like him were artificially evolved to possess human-like intelligence and reasoning skills. He has fully opposable hands, and maintains animal-like senses that give him better-than-human night vision and sense of smell. Rocket's genetic acceleration gave him a heightened intuitive grasp, allowing him to process information and learn new skills at a highly advanced rate. This made him an excellent pilot, capable of flying even interstellar vehicles like an expert, and allowed him to quickly master any new weapon he came across. Rocket originally carried a laser pistol and used jet skates which gave him the power of limited flight. His companion, Groot, sometimes serves as his mobile weapons platform when Rocket employs larger guns. More recently, however, he adopted the use of demolitions equipment and heavy munitions ordinance as his weapons of choice.

GROOT

 

GROOT

Real Name: Groot

First Appearance: Tales to Astonish (Vol. 1) #13, November 1960

Powers: Groot is a Floral Colossus, and the monarch of Planet X (Tahlunia) Groot has a massive body composed of dense wood with a tough bark hide and branch-like protrusions, giving Groot extraordinary strength and durability. Groot can absorb water and other nutrients through Groot's flesh in order to survive, heal, and grow to even greater heights. Groot can also absorb inanimate sources of wood into Groot's body to increase Groot's mass, or mentally animate trees from a distance, directing them to move according to Groot's will. A small sprig or branch of Groot's body can broken off and restructure itself into a fully animated duplicate of Groot's main form. Groot uses this ability to survive fatal injuries, detaching a portion of Groot to continue living even after Groot's original body is destroyed. Groot has so far not demonstrated the ability to animate several bodies simultaneously, only consecutively, abandoning one body in favor of another. Depending on the size of the sprig, Groot's new body is often quite small until Groot absorbs enough water and nutrients to accelerate Groot's growth.

Groot is highly intelligent and has a tremendous grasp of quasi-dimensional super-positional engineering. Despite his intelligence, Groot's robust and heavyweight physiology causes the organs of his acoustic generation to become stiff and inflexible, rendering the limits of his speech to the simple phrase, "I am Groot.”