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Avalanche (Dominic Petros) is a Marvel Comics supervillain, an enemy of the X-Men. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist/co-writer John Byrne, he first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #141 (January 1981).
A Cretan mutant, Avalanche, possesses the ability to create earthquakes of varying sizes and to disintegrate any substance other than living tissue. He has been a member of the Brotherhood of Mutants and Freedom Force.
The animated series Evolution reimagined him as a misguided mutant teenager and love interest of the X-Men's Shadowcat.
History
Avalanche's past before Mystique recruited him for the second Brotherhood of Evil Mutants is almost entirely unknown, except for the fact that he is an immigrant from Greece. He first publicly appeared with the Brotherhood when they unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Senator Robert Kelly during his hearings on the menace that mutants allegedly pose to humanity. Avalanche briefly left the Brotherhood in an attempt to blackmail the state of California into paying him an enormous sum to prevent him from using his power to trigger a major earthquake there. Avalanche fought the Hulk on this occasion, and suffered broken arms when he attempted to use his powers against the Hulk’s body. He has since returned to the Brotherhood. Recently, Mystique offered the Brotherhood's services to the United States government. Their first mission under their new name of Freedom Force was to capture the mutant Magneto. He later abandoned the rest of Freedom Force during 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. Avalanche spent a lot of time afterwards trying to help find a cure for his friend's condition, but he eventually gave up, and Pyro died.
Recently, Avalanche assaulted the center of New York City, but he was taken down quickly and cleanly by the then-powerless Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane) and delivered to the authorities. What he intended to accomplish is unknown. Following that, Avalanche re-appeared in a Brotherhood attack on Philadelphia, and again at the X-Mansion, led by Exodus. How he escaped the NYPD in the first place is unknown, and his current fate is equally uncertain, as he and the rest of the Brotherhood were sucked into the black hole in Xorn II's head. However, it is known that he is one of the few mutants to keep his powers after the Scarlet Witch depowered most of the world's mutants.
Powers and abilities
Avalanche is a mutant with the superhuman ability to generate powerful waves of vibrations from his hands, creating highly destructive effects. The vibrations can cause an inorganic object to shatter or crumble into dust. When directed against large objects like buildings or upon the earth itself, the vibrations can produce effects similar to those of an earthquake or avalanches within limited areas. Avalanche need not touch an object to affect it: he can direct the vibrations against it from some distance away from it.
Avalanche is himself invulnerable to the effects of generating these intense vibratory waves. However, if the vibrations were to be reflected back upon him, he would be injured.
For unknown reasons, Avalanche's power has little or no effect on organic tissue. When he once used his power against the Hulk, the Hulk was uninjured, but the resulting feedback shattered the bones of Avalanche's arms (which have since completely healed). Hence, although Avalanche's vibrations have little or no effect on organic tissue, the reflected vibrations ("feedback") can injure him.
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, however, that he could create an earthquake capable of destroying an entire city.
Other appearances
Appeared in the FOX X-Men animated series in the 90s. He was always accompanied by Pyro and later on, The Blob. Usually acts as a hired henchman by Mystique.
In the Evolution cartoon, Avalanche has been heavily reimagined. Here, he is a high school student; his name is Lance Alvers, and he is a member of the Brotherhood. His love interest is Kitty Pryde, and although the two are very fond of each other, their different allegiances often thwart their relationship.
This Avalanche comes over as a character who is more a misfit than a thug, often belligerent and angry, but often also showing a more responsible side. In the end, Lance is hinted to have joined S.H.I.E.L.D..
Also of interest, this version bears a physical resemblence to the character Rictor, and channels his power in the same manner.
Avalanche also appeared in X-Men Legends as a boss character that the X-Men must fight, but did not appear in the sequel.
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Brotherhood of Evil Mutants members | X-Men villains | Fictional geokineticists | Fictional Greeks | Marvel Comics mutants | The 198 Files
"Avalanche (comics)"