Avalanche (comics) - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

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 Crete in Greece. He supposedly lived a quiet life until he was recruited by Mystique to join her new Brotherhood. In his first public appearance with the Brotherhood, they unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Senator Robert Kelly during his hearings on the menace that mutants allegedly pose to humanity. The X-Men arrived to stop the assassination and battled the new Brotherhood. After escaping the fray, Avalanche continued his mission of Mutant supremacy as well as terrorist and criminal activities, battling the Avengers with the Brotherhood.

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 alongside Landslide on this occasion and suffered broken arms when he attempted to use his powers against the Hulk’s body. When he returned to the Brotherhood, they encountered Rom and Hybrid. The team later battled 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. 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.

Avalanche was then recruited by Sean Cassidy to become a member of his new X-Corp. Cassidy however didn't trust him because of his criminal and terrorist past and Avalanche was lightly brainwashed to serve by Lady Mastermind. Mystique would later infiltrate X-Corp, slice Cassidy's throat and take the members of X-Corp out of Lady Mastermind's trance. Avalanche, alongside the Blob and some of the other Mutants that had joined against their will, ravaged the city of Paris, with Avalanche completely destroying the Eiffel Tower.

Avalanche was able to escape back to New York City, but destroying the Eiffel Tower had left him generally known to the international community and he was assaulted by policemen in 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. He was soon rescued by Exodus as long as he would join his incarnation of the Brotherhood. Their first attack was in Philadelphia, with the idea to draw the X-Men out. This is where Avalanche manifests a newfound ability to affect organic matter by shocking Rogue into submission. He appears again in the attack on the X-Mansion with the rest of Exodus' Brotherhood. After a long battle that leaves the recently re-built X-Mansion almost again in ruins, Avalanche and the rest of the Brotherhood are sucked into the black hole in Shen Xorn's head.

The Brotherood, alongside Juggernaut and Nocturne were teleported into the Mojoverse, where Exodus sold Juggernaut and Nocturne for the Brotherhood's freedom. Although they decide not to disband the group, they still decide to go their different ways as Exodus has to prepare for the future. Avalanche was one of the few mutants to keep his powers during the M-Day. 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; "Fucking X-Men..:"

When Norman Osborn takes over S.H.I.E.L.D. and starts his war against Mutants in the heart of San Fransisco, Avalanche is in the middle of it. He is seen by Gambit 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 chocking 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.

Whilst 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.

Following the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline, Avalanche was offered a place at the Jean Grey School by Wolverine but he declined due to the fact that he had a bar in San Francisco, along with the fact that being associated with Utopia offered him all kinds of protective benefits. Avalanche is then kidnapped by 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.