RABBIT

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human technology user or cyborg (Chinese citizen)

Occupation: Government operative

Group Membership: China Force (Ox, Rat, Snake)

Affiliations: Formerly Dog, Gold (Zhao Thang), Horse, Jade Dragon (Dei Guan), Monkey, She-Devil, Silver (Jimon Tang)

Enemies: 3Peace (Collective Man, Jade Dragon, Nuwa), Alpha Flight (Box/Madison Jeffries, Sasquatch/Walter Langkowski, Shaman/Michael Twoyoungmen, Talisman/Elizabeth Twoyoungmen, Vindicator/Heather Hudson), Beta Flight (Laura Dean, Goblyn/Goblyn Dean, Purple Girl/Kara Killgrave), Dog, Dreamqueen, Gold, Horse, Monkey, Mutant Liberation Front (Feral/Maria Callasantos, Forearm/Michael McCain, Moonstar/Danielle Moonstar, Reignfire, Wildside/Richard Gill), She-Devil, Silver

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: China

First Appearance: (face visible, body in shadows - see comments) Alpha Flight I#64 (July 1988); (clearly seen) Alpha Flight I#66 (January 1989); (identified) Alpha Flight I#69 (April 1989)

Powers/Abilities: Rabbit can make superhuman leaps up to 40 feet across, or safely descend up to 60 feet. This ability was at least originally facilitated by cables that connected her shoulder blades to her lower legs (see comments). Using this ability, she was able to deliver flying kicks powerful enough to knock down even superhuman foes as strong and durable as Sasquatch. She was a capable strategist, commanding her teammates' actions in combat. She may or may not have been able to speak English (see comments).

Height: 5'4" (by approximation - see comments)
Weight: 125 lbs. (by estimation - see comments)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Unrevealed

History:
(X-Force Annual I#3 (fb) - BTS) - In response to the growing number of super-powered beings within their country's borders, the communist Chinese government formed the clandestine People's Protection Agency (PPA). China's version of America's Project: Wideawake, it was tasked with seeking out, removing, containing, and controlling Chinese superhumans. 

(Alpha Flight I#64/Alpha Flight I#65 (fb) - BTS) - To facilitate this, the PPA assembled China Force, a government-sanctioned team of artificially enhanced super-beings with powers and codenames taken from the animals of the Chinese calendar. The inaugural roster included the super-leaping Rabbit, stretchable-bodied Snake, super-strong Ox, poison-clawed Rat, ...

(Rick Mason: The Agent GN) - ...canine-like Dog, super-kicking Horse, and the super-agile Monkey. The group was mainly used for internal security work. The latter trio soon defected however, as did trainees Gold, Silver and She-Devil.

(Alpha Flight I#64 (fb) - BTS) - When another Chinese superhuman, Jade Dragon, vanished from China and was reported to have turned up in Canada, Rabbit, Snake, Ox and Rat were sent to Canada to learn whether he had been abducted or defected, and to extract him regardless.

(Alpha Flight I#64) - Believing Jade Dragon was being kept in a government building in Ottawa, the China Force members set up surveillance in a building across the street. Spotting Jade Dragon's distinctively reptilian silhouette in some blinds, Rabbit (see comments) confirmed to the others that she had found their errant colleague, and wondered aloud whether he was a hostage or traitor, then noted that they would soon ask him this directly. When Ox queried what they would do if Jade Dragon's answer was unsatisfactory, Rabbit replied that he would die.

(Alpha Flight I#65) - Slipping across the street, the China Force members witnessed Jade Dragon lose his temper at the soldiers guarding him and heard him shout that he wanted to be left alone until he decided whether he wanted to return to China or defect. At this Rabbit ordered her teammates to move in.

(Alpha Flight I#66) - As Jade Dragon was being escorted through the corridors, China Force destroyed a wall to gain entry and swiftly slaughtered all the witnesses around Jade Dragon, irrespective of whether they were soldiers, government agents or simply civilians unfortunate enough to be present at that moment. They then offered Jade Dragon a stark choice - join them or die.

(Alpha Flight I#69) - Angry at the unnecessary bloodshed, Jade Dragon demanded to know why China Force were there and why they had killed the bystanders, but Rabbit ignored him and instructed Ox and Snake to subdue their target. As they grappled with Jade Dragon, Rat rushed in and slashed the reptile with her toxin-laden claws, delivering a dose of inhibitor drug that forced Jade Dragon back into his human form. Rabbit then ordered her teammates to taken their captive to their getaway van.

(Alpha Flight I#69 - BTS) - Having ensured there were no witnesses to either their attack, the group headed to an airstrip and boarded a cargo plane, taking care to remain unnoticed. The plane then took off, heading for a rendezvous with a ship in Anchorage that was intended to return them to China.

(Alpha Flight I#69) - While on the plane arguing with their captive the members of China Force (and the unseen pilots) fell victim to the Dreamqueen's powers of illusion, and as the plane began to descend for a landing in Edmonton, Rabbit and the others were convinced they had reached Peking, ignoring Jade Dragon's attempts to correct them. Shortly after China Force had landed and gone into the West Edmonton Mall, still convinced they were home in China, the Dreamqueen lured Canadian superheroes Alpha Flight there too. Enraged at Alpha Flight for "invading" China, Rabbit and her fellows attacked them after the Canadians split up to search the mall. Seeing Ox losing his fight with Sasquatch, Rabbit knocked the Alphan down with a kick to the face, then as Ox moved in and Sasquatch began to climb to his feet, Rabbit delivered a second flying kick to Sasquatch's face, leaving him stunned long enough for Ox to begin mercilessly pound the downed hero. Confronting Shaman, Talisman and Laura Dean, Rabbit informed them they were under arrest, angrily telling them to surrender or die for invading her country. Confused, Shaman insisted it was his country, but Rabbit derided him for being stupid, pointing out that he was not Chinese. Before she could continue, Alphan team leader Vindicator flew up and dropped the defeated Snake at Rabbit's feet, and demanded Rabbit and her fellows identify themselves. Unlike China Force, the Alphans knew the Dreamqueen had been manipulating events recently, so when they heard Rabbit declare that her group was China Force and that they were defending their homeland from Alpha's "imperialistic aggressions," the Alphans realized the Chinese team had fallen under Dreamqueen's sway, but Rabbit refused to listen, even after the remaining Alphans returned with the now-defeated members of China Force in tow. Enraged at Rabbit's intransigent attitude and insistence that they were all in China, Laura Dean used her mutant power to open portals between places to generate a gateway to China, and Shaman quickly generated gale forces winds that blew China Force through it, with Rabbit screeching that they would get revenge as she was forcibly sent on her way. Before the portal closed, Jade Dragon voluntarily stepped through it too, determined to try and prove to the Chinese authorities that he was innocent of the charge of defection.

(X-Force Annual I#3 (fb) - BTS) - Jade Dragon failed to convince the Chinese government, and instead teamed up with other disaffected Chinese heroes the Collective Man and Nuwa to form rebel group 3Peace.

(X-Force Annual I#3) - Rabbit joined Ox and Rat at the PPA headquarters in Beijing as they listened to Snake detail his recent solo mission to the small village of T'ung-Ling, where he had confronted 3Peace but been overpowered when he tried to capture them by himself. Refusing to admit this last, Snake instead blamed his failure on the arrival of an unidentified foreign mutant (Reignfire of the Mutant Liberation Front, who had actually shown up after Snake had been beaten by 3Peace). Their PPA superiors tasked China Force with hunting down and eliminating the dissidents.

   China Force caught up with their targets, now working alongside the MLF, when the dissidents attacked a mutant tracking station. Finding only Nuwa and MLF member Feral inside, China Force attacked, but their foes' reinforcements arrived within seconds and China Force were almost immediately rendered unconscious. Only Rabbit remained, hidden from the intruders by banks of computers and trying to figure out what to do, when she was confronted by Reignfire. Despite knowing he could easily defeat the massively outnumbered Rabbit without needing to cause serious injury, Reignfire chose to make an example that would inspire fear in his foes going forward, and blasted Rabbit full power, apparently slaying her.

Comments: Created by Bill Mantlo, Jim Lee and Al Milgrom.

China Force debuted in Alpha Flight I#64, but only in shadow, with two semi-visible (Ox and Rabbit - perhaps), one only just barely visible (Rat, based on what look to be her large ears), and one member not shown at all (Snake). The one female character who speaks seems to be in charge, and is presumably Rabbit, but it's worth noting that even with only minimal visible details, she looks different from Rabbit - per the images to the right, we can see a distinctive choker that Rabbit doesn't have, and cables on the body like Rabbit's but not going from or to the same points. These differences are likely down to subsequent issues being drawn by different artists, but it's certainly possible if unlikely that there was another member of China Force present during the surveillance stage of the mission who then failed to take part in the extraction.

   Speaking of art differences with the different artists, in Alpha Flight I#65 and 66 Rabbit has some kind of backpack that her cables go into (see left), but this is missing by Alpha Flight I#69 (see image above where Rabbit is kicking Sasquatch).

   In Uncanny X-Force Annual I#3 it is noted that China Force were given "artificially enhanced powers," but enhanced suggests that for at least some of them the powers might have been innate to begin with. China Force had an entry in the Gamers Handbook of the Marvel Universe 1990 Character Update; while it doesn't add much by way of new information, it does confirm that Rabbit's powers are related to the cables on her back, and gives the 40 foot/60 foot limits mentioned in abilities above.

   In Alpha Flight I#69, Rabbit converses (shouts angrily, really) at Vindicator and others, and she's clearly speaking English since they all understand her. However, in Uncanny X-Force Annual I#3, she claims not to understand English (as shown above). As such, given that Rabbit's powers seem to be mechanical, it's possible that the Rabbit who Reignfire blasted was a different individual from the one who fought Alpha Flight.

   Estimating her height - she's not seen close to too many characters whose height has been established, but she does attack Sasquatch in a couple of panels that show her stretched out kicking alongside him; from these I very approximately estimate her to be around 5'4".

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Rabbit has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
X-Force Annual I#3, p16, pan4 (main image, second costume)
Alpha Flight I#66, p18, pan1 (original costume, back-pack visible))
Alpha Flight I#69, p19, pan2 (flying kick - no back-pack)
Alpha Flight I#69, p23, pan2 (clearer shot of face)
X-Force Annual I#3, p20, pan3-5 (death)
Alpha Flight I#65, p8, pan8 (backpack)
Alpha Flight I#64, p17, pan3-5 (Rabbit or not?)

Appearances:
Alpha Flight I#64 (July 1988) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Jim Lee (breakdown pencils), Al Milgrom (finisher), Carl Potts (editor)
Alpha Flight I#65 (December 1988) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Hugh Haynes (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Carl Potts (editor)
Alpha Flight I#66 (January 1989) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Hugh Haynes (pencils), Gerry Talaoc (inks), Carl Potts (editor)
Alpha Flight I#69 (April 1989) - James D. Hudnall (writer), John Calimee (pencils), Hilary Barta (inks), Carl Potts (editor)
X-Force Annual I#3 (October 1994) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Mike Wieringo (pencils), John Lowe (inks), Lisa Patrick (editor)

First Posted: 01/22/2023
Last updated: 01/22/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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