Cerebra's Files
Avalanche
Real Name: Dominic Janos PetrosAffiliation: Brotherhood (IV, V)
Previous Affiliations: X-Corps, Project: Wideawake, Freedom Force, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (II)
Alternate-X Versions: (AOA), (Evolution)
Codename Etymology: Pronounced ăvl'ə-lănch' [from French; akin to Provençal lavanca, "ravine"]; The fall of a massive amount of snow or rock.
Powers & History: Avalanche projects vibratory waves from his hands. In his first appearance, he used his power to disintegrate objects, especially those made out of earth and stone. His power has no effect on human or animal tissue. Nowadays, Avalanche generates a type of seismic wave that he sends through the ground, allowing him to control the surface in many ways. He can cause the ground to move like a tidal wave to bury people, or even ride the wave for transport. His power is ineffective on organic objects, which reflect his waves back at him.
Avalanche is mortal, but a supernatural deal he may have made (see Uncanny X-Men #255-56) may make him very hard to kill. When Freedom Force was disbanded after a botched mission in the Gulf War, Avalanche continued to work for the government in Project: Wideawake, but soon left when he found out that his friend Pyro had the Legacy Virus. Avalanche spent a lot of his time afterwards trying to help find a cure for his friend's condition, but he eventually gave it up.
Months later, Avalanche was again recruited into a reconstituted Brotherhood of Mutants led by Mystique. He participated in missions to capture X-51 and to assassinate Senator Robert Kelly, both of which proved unsuccessful. Afterwards, he was recruited into Banshee's X-Corps, where he served as a chief lieutenant. However, his villainous impulses were actually being restrained by the captive Mastermind III, and when Mystique freed the telepath from Banshee's control, Avalanche (and the other supposedly "reformed" villains in the X-Corps) attacked the other team members. Avalanche himself caused the Earth to swallow up Radius completely. He then disappeared, escaping justice once again.
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. From what Nocturne and Juggernaut later related, Avalanche and the Brotherhood escaped into Mojoworld and traded TJ and Cain for passage back to Earth. Avalanche's whereabouts are unknown.
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