Counter-Earth, also known as Halfworld, was an artificial planet located in the Keystone Quadrant. It was designed by High Evolutionary as a replication of Earth and was inhabited by Humanimals.
History[]
Created by High Evolutionary[]
High Evolutionary visited Earth in the 1980s,[1] where he became enamored with their civilization. While he admired humanity's art, culture and music, he found their violence and bigotry off-putting. Acquiring animals from Earth, High Evolutionary created a new planet intended to be the ideal Earth, which he named Counter-Earth. He then began to experiment on the Earth animals in an attempt to augment them into sentient creatures capable of thought. After succeeding, he formed the notion to create animal-human hybrids, known as Humanimals, to populate Counter-Earth.
One of his raccoon test subjects, 89P13, who chose the name Rocket for himself, successfully aided High Evolutionary in creating the Humanimals. Rocket believed that he and the rest of Batch 89 would be allowed to live in peace on the planet, although High Evolutionary wished to have them all killed. With his friends being murdered, Rocket attacked High Evolutionary before stealing a spaceship and fleeing the planet.[2] Counter-Earth's existence eventually became known to the intergalactic community, although they did not know its true name and referred to it as Halfworld.[3][4]
Visited by the Guardians[]
- "You must find Counter-Earth familiar."
- âHigh Evolutionary to Star-Lord[src]
Seeking to save Rocket, who had fallen into a comatose state from his injuries, the Guardians of the Galaxy entered Counter-Earth with their airship where they met the residents, which they had problems with while trying to prove peaceful. With the help of a bat family (mainly from the wife), Star-Lord, Nebula, and Groot managed to reach the High Evolutionary's main lair using a car, which Nebula struggled with, while Drax and Mantis stayed in the town.[2]
Destruction[]
Star-Lord and Groot entered the High Evolutionary's base and come face to face with him as he explained his past with Earth, Rocket, and his machinations of perfecting the universe. He then set his laboratory, in reality, a massive spaceship, to launch into space in search of a planet for his "new colony", causing Counter-Earth to be destroyed and the planet's entire population to be rendered extinct in the process.[2]
Trivia[]
- In the comics, Halfworld is a planet in the Keystone Quadrant where Rocket and Lylla, along with several other anthropomorphic animals, were genetically engineered.
- In the comics, Counter-Earth is a planet created by High Evolutionary to serve as a purer version of Earth. It was kept a micro-second out of dimensional sync to hide it from Earth and was populated by New Men, a race of mutagenetically altered humanoid animals created by High Evolutionary.
- In Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocket's home world is listed by the Nova Corps database as Halfworld. However, in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it is revealed to be Counter-Earth. James Gunn later clarified that within the Marvel Cinematic Universe they are the same planet and that Halfworld was the name Counter-Earth was intergalactically known as.[4]
- Counter-Earth's coordinates are K20H MW1748P2S + 5M5P0Z4.
- "Halfworld" can be derived from M2O 22A4834126 + 3O6CA12, the coordinates of Berhert in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, using the affine cipher.
