Avalanche (comics)

Publication history

Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist/co-writer John Byrne, he first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #141 (January 1981).

Fictional character biography

Avalanche's story before Mystique recruits him for the second Brotherhood of Evil Mutants is largely a mystery. It is known, however, that he is an immigrant from the Greek island of Crete. There, he lives a quiet life until Mystique invites him to join her new Brotherhood. During his first public appearance with the Brotherhood, the team unsuccessfully attempts to assassinate Senator Robert Kelly during his hearings and testimony on his belief that mutants pose a mortal threat to humanity. The X-Men arrive to stop the assassination and battle the new Brotherhood. After escaping the fray, Avalanche continues his support of Mutant supremacy via terrorist and criminal activities and battling the Avengers with the Brotherhood.

Avalanche briefly leaves the Brotherhood and attempts to blackmail the state of California into paying him an enormous sum to prevent him from using his power to generate an earthquake. Avalanche fights the Hulk alongside Landslide on this occasion and suffers broken arms when he attempts to use his powers against the Hulk. When he returns to the Brotherhood, together they encounter Rom and Hybrid. The team later battles the X-Men as the "Brotherhood of Evil Mutants" one final time.

After that, The Brotherhood's leader Mystique offered the group's services to the United States government. Their first mission under their new name of Freedom Force was to capture the mutant Magneto on behalf of the federal government. The government then sent Freedom Force to capture the Avengers. While seeking to arrest Rusty Collins, he clashed with X-Factor. Freedom Force then fought the X-Men in Dallas and was present at the X-Men's apparent demise, and battled the New Mutants in Dallas as well. Freedom Force then battled Cyclops and Marvel Girl. Freedom Force again tried to arrest Rusty Collins and battled the New Mutants, but were able to arrest Rusty and Skids as well. They were also dispatched to rescue Senator Robert Kelly from a South American drug syndicate that had kidnapped him, battling the syndicate's superhuman agents in the process. Freedom Force also had a costly battle with the Reavers on Muir Island where a number of members were killed or seriously injured. During the Acts of Vengeance, Avalanche teamed with Blob and Pyro against the Avengers. Avalanche then joined Freedom Force's effort to stop a prison breakout at the Vault. Avalanche then participated in Freedom Force's final mission in Kuwait. He abandoned Blob and Pyro during the battle with Desert Sword to save the seriously injured Crimson Commando.

When Freedom Force was disbanded after the botched mission in the Gulf War, Avalanche continued to work for the government as part of Project: Wideawake, but soon left when he found out that his friend Pyro had contracted the Legacy Virus.

By the time the X-Men establish themselves in San Francisco, Avalanche, going by the alias "Nick", establishes a bar in order to make a living away from crime. When the X-Men moved their headquarters to San Francisco, Petros was frightened that they would eventually come for him for his past crimes. As he was packing in hopes of leaving his new-found life, the X-Men popped in with a friendly warning that they have a truce but will be back if he ever decides to return to a life of crime. As they leave, with his place of business and apartment trashed, Petros looks around, mumbling to himself.

When Norman Osborn starts his war against Mutants in the heart of San Francisco, Gambit sees Avalanche during the riots with Erg and when Ares makes himself known, Avalanche attacks him by causing the earth to rise up under him. Ares then knocks him out by choking him. He is seen one more time, sitting drunk in his own bar together with other mutants. They are angry that humans are trying to prevent new mutant births and Avalanche participates in the riot. He has the unfortunate circumstance of being paired up against Daken, who easily dodges the worried Avalanche's tremor and was about to slice him. He is taken into custody along with several other mutants who participated in the riots. Eventually Avalanche and the other imprisoned mutants are freed by the X-Force and he becomes a resident of Utopia.

While Utopia and all of San Francisco are trapped in an energy dome created by Bastion, and the mutant race face extermination at the hands of Nimrod Sentinels from the future, Avalanche is among many of Utopia's non-X-Men residents who have now taken up fighting alongside their former rivals. He can be seen fighting alongside the X-Men Sunspot, Husk, and Boom-Boom, defending the passage of the Bart Tunnels. As an "X-Man", Avalanche is also called in by Cyclops during the Fear Itself storyline to help them stop Kurrth. Avalanche uses his powers to create a chasm that Kurrth would not cross, but Kurrth creates a psychic bridge for him and his brainwashed followers to cross anyway.

Avalanche is kidnapped by the Red Skull who removed part of his brain, replacing it with a machine that turned Avalanche into a puppet to attack New York City. As Captain America tries to stop him, he claimed that "the inciting act is complete" and jumped to his apparent death.

Powers and abilities

Avalanche is a mutant with the superhuman ability to generate powerful seismic waves from his hands, creating highly destructive effects. The waves can cause an inorganic object to shatter or crumble into dust and has in recent years been shown to affect organic matter as well. When directed against large objects like buildings or upon the earth itself, the seismic waves can produce effects similar to those of an earthquake or avalanche within limited areas. Avalanche need not touch an object to affect it; he can direct the waves against it from some distance away.

Avalanche himself is immune to the generation of his own vibratory waves. However, if the seismic waves were reflected back at him, he would be injured. Avalanche's power originally had little or no effect on organic tissue, with the reflected vibrations from organic matter ("feedback") injuring him, as when he once tried to attack the Hulk, but lately this has appeared to no longer be the case.

As yet there is no known limit to the amount of area upon which Avalanche can use his powers at one time. There is no evidence yet, however, that he could create an earthquake capable of destroying an entire city.

Avalanche is a fair hand-to-hand combatant and received unarmed combat training while a member of Freedom Force.

Avalanche wears an armored battle suit that gives him enhanced resistance to injury, up to and including protecting him from a land mine. While a member of Freedom Force, he used a two-way radio device for communication with other Freedom Force members.

Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse, Avalanche was one of the select mutants that were approached by Sinister and offered a chance to join his Elite Mutant Force. Avalanche, however, refused Sinister's offer, for which he was captured at the Breeding Pens. During an escape attempt, Avalanche was killed and his corpse turned over to the Dark Beast for experimentation.

Marvel Zombies

In Marvel Zombies: Dead Days, he is seen as a zombie alongside a zombie version of the Freedom Force fighting the suddenly zombified X-Men.

House of M

Dominic appears as a member of the NYPD strikeforce known as the Brotherhood.

Old Man Logan

In the pages of Old Man Logan, Avalanche was among the villains that attacked the Avengers in Connecticut. After Giant-Man killed Crossbones and Vulture, Avalanche used his powers to open up a hole in the ground and Moloids started crawling over Giant-Man enough for him to fall to the ground.

It was also mentioned that Avalanche was the one who blinded Hawkeye.

Television

Video games

Toys and collectibles