The past of the mutant known as Avalanche before he was recruited by the shape-shifting mutant terrorist Mystique into the team of superhuman operatives known as the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants is almost entirely unknown, except for the fact that he is a naturalized American citizen after having immigrated to the U.S. from Greece. He first publicly appeared with the Brotherhood when they attempted to assassinate Senator Robert Kelly during his hearings on the alleged menace that mutants posed to humanity. The attempt failed thanks to the intervention of the mutant team of costumed adventurers known as the X-Men.
Avalanche briefly left the Brotherhood to attempt to blackmail the state of California into paying him a large sum of money to prevent him from using his mutant power to trigger a major earthquake. Avalanche encountered the gamma-spawned behemoth known as the Hulk, and suffered serious injury when he attempted to use his power on the beast, resulting in him shattering every bone in both his arms. He returned to the Brotherhood to recuperate, and eventually both his arms were fully healed.
Mystique soon became aware of the United States government's increasing anti-mutant activity, and, tired of being hunted as outlaws, offered the services of herself and the Brotherhood to the United States government in exchange for a pardon for their crimes. Thus the Brotherhood was renamed Freedom Force, and Avalanche and Freedom Force's other members became superhuman operatives of the United States government. On their first official mission, they were dispatched to capture the self-styled master of magnetism, the mutant named Magneto.
As a member of Freedom Force, Avalanche was involved in missions that continued to bring him into conflict with super-heroes, most notably the X-Men, X-Factor, and the Avengers. However, after a disastrous mission in the Middle East against the Arabic super-team named Desert Sword, the government disbanded Freedom Force, and Avalanche became a free agent.
Avalanche later found himself in the employ of the government once again, this time as a super-powered operative for the government-sponsored Project: Wideawake. Working alongside his former Freedom Force teammate the Crimson Commando, Avalanche was dispatched to investigate the island home of renowned author Jonathan Chambers. Avalanche and Commando discovered that Chambers' island was actually a "leper colony" for mutants suffering from Legacy Virus infection, and that Chambers himself was a mutant who was able to absorb the powers of those mutants who had come into his care to bring them comfort as the disease ravaged their bodies. Discovering their former teammates Pyro and Blob were residents on the island as members of a new incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, led by the acrobatic mutant known as the Toad, Avalanche and Commando chose to remain with them.
Avalanche was later seen with an ad-hoc band of mutants suffering from the effects of the deadly Legacy Virus. Avalanche's former Brotherhood and Freedom Force teammate, Pyro, was amongst those infected, and Avalanche sought to help his friend find a cure. The team sought to obtain the powerful mutagenic compound known as Isotope-E from its creator, the enigmatic scientist known as the High Evolutionary, as they mistakenly believed it to be a possible cure. This brought the team into conflict with the mutant speedster known as Quicksilver and the team of superhumans known as the Heroes For Hire.
After the Toad's Brotherhood collapsed, Mystique returned to lead the team. Avalanche remained loyal to Mystique, helping her in an attempted second assassination of Senator Kelly. This time, however, the Brotherhood were stopped by their former teammate Pyro, whose last act before the Legacy Virus killed him was to save Kelly's life, forcing the Senator to rethink his anti-mutant stance.
Avalanche was later forcibly recruited into the paramilitary group known as the X-Corps, headed up by the former X-Man named Banshee. Following the infiltration and subsequent betrayal of the group by Mystique, Avalanche assisted in an attack on the French capital city of Paris, himself destroying the Eiffel Tower. Recently, Exodus recruited Avalanche into a new incarnation of the Brotherhood which was defeated in an attack on the Xavier Institute, and the Brotherhood was sucked into the black hole of Shen Xorn.
