Avalanche (character)

Avalanche is the name of two fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Each character is usually depicted as an enemy of the X-Men.

The Dominikos Petrakis version of Avalanche is a Cretan mutant who possesses the ability to generate seismic waves from his hands that are strong enough to create earthquakes of varying sizes and to disintegrate any substance other than living tissue.^[3] He has been a member of the Brotherhood of Mutants and Freedom Force.

The

Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist/co-writer John Byrne, the Dominikos Petrakis version of Avalanche first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #141 (Jan. 1981).^[4]

Avalanche's story before

When Freedom Force is disbanded after the botched mission in the Gulf War, Avalanche continues to work for the government as part of Project: Wideawake, but soon leaves when he finds out that his friend Pyro had contracted the Legacy Virus.^[23]

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.^[2]

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.^[24] 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.^[25] Eventually Avalanche and the other imprisoned mutants are freed by the X-Force and he becomes a resident of Utopia.^[26]

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

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.^[29]

Avalanche was among the mutants resurrected and residing on Krakoa.^[30]

A somehow-repowered

As Lydia Nance still had a use for the Brotherhood of Mutants, she orchestrated Mesmero's escape from the Box.[33] Mesmero once again lured Avalanche and the second Pyro into helping him out again. They were to attack a yacht that was owned by the Heritage Initiative at the time of its fundraiser. They group fought the X-Men alongside the NYPD.^[34] The Brotherhood of Mutants managed to get away and fall back to their base. When Mesmero states that the Brotherhood of Mutants are still under Lydia Nance's paycheck, Pyro takes his leave since he didn't want to work for an anti-mutant activist. Avalanche then demanded from Mesmero to get Pyro's cut.^[33]

Avalanche then joined another new Brotherhood of Mutants, this time led by Magneto's clone

The Dominikos Petrakis version of 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.

The unidentified version of Avalanche is also a mutant with the same abilities as the first version except that he can also target organic tissue which the first version was unable to do.

In the

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.^[37]

In the "House of M" reality, Dominic appears as a member of the NYPD strikeforce known as the Brotherhood.^[38]

In the original "Old Man Logan" arc on Earth-807128, it was mentioned that Avalanche was the one who blinded Hawkeye during his discussion with Logan.^[39] This was seen in the pages of "Old Man Hawkeye" where he vibrated Hawkeye's skull after he killed Baron Zemo.^[40]

In the pages of Old Man Logan that took place on Earth-21923, Avalanche was among the villains that attacked the Avengers in Connecticut. After

• The Dominikos Petrakis incarnation of Avalanche appears in
  Brotherhood of Evil Mutants
  .
• An original incarnation of Avalanche named Lance Alvers appears in X-Men: Evolution, voiced by Christopher Grey. This version is a teenage thug and high schooler who leads the Brotherhood of Bayville whenever Mystique or Magneto is not around. Initially aggressive, Alvers slowly matures over the course of the series. Additionally, he displays a rivalry with Scott Summers throughout and initially antagonizes Kitty Pryde during the first season before developing mutual romantic feelings for and dating her during the second season, which leads to him briefly leaving the Brotherhood to maintain their relationship. While they break up in the third season, they eventually rekindle their relationship by the series finale, with Alvers and the other Brotherhood members going on to reform and join S.H.I.E.L.D. in a vision of the future that Professor X has.
• The Dominikos Petrakis incarnation of Avalanche appears in Wolverine and the X-Men, voiced by James Patrick Stuart.^[42] This version is a member of the Brotherhood of Mutants who speaks with a strong Greek accent and sports a goatee.