Real Name: Lance Alvers
Mutant Power: Ability to send out shockwaves of force in the Earth and create major earthquakes over a concentrated area, or minor ones over a larger area
Voice Actor: Christopher Grey
First Appearance: "The X Impulse"
Back Story: Avalanche was placed in a foster home a long time ago, apparently, and lived there up until relatively recently. However, he soon discovered his Mutant abilities and met Kitty Pryde in school. He tried to convince her to join him in using their powers to do whatever they wanted (although he didn't word it that way, of course), but she refused. Following an accident in which he, in his anger, caused part of his school to cave in on itself- nearly killing Jean, Kitty, and her family in the process- he left the school and ran into Mystique, who adopted him into her ranks. He had a brief stint with the X-Men in "Joyride", but that was short-lived, as he found it just wasn't for him.
Personality: Avalanche is very much a character filled with anger. He has quite a temper problem, and, given the extent of his powers, he can get away with having one, too. He's definitely very mad at the world in general, for several reasons. The first and foremost reason is, of course, his powers, which he doesn't really seem to want in the first place, as it labels him a "freak", but he definitely uses it to his advantage regardless. I'm assuming he's also mad because his parents either died or left him at the foster home, as well. He gets along rather well with the other Brotherhood members, although he gets annoyed by Toad very easily. He's sort of the unofficial "ringleader" of the group when Mystique's not around. He was originally very loyal to Mystique, since she "saved" him from the foster home, but his loyalty seemed to be shrinking during the latter half of the series due to Mystique's long, sudden disappearances. Avalanche developed a bit of an unofficial boyfriend/girlfriend relationship with Kitty during the second season, and almost managed to join the X-Men as a result, but declined a couple of days in, due to his long-time hatred of Scott. I suppose this is because Scott is pretty much everything Lance secretly wished he could be, but isn't because of his anger. After the whole Mutant situation became known to the public, Lance began his trek back to the "dark side", so to speak, and Kitty's breakup with him soon afterwards only amplified this. He started to show his good side again in Season 4, though, and after the events in "Ascension" in which he arrived last-minute to help them save the world from Apocalypse, Kitty is back together with him again. According to Xavier's "future visions" at the end of the series, Avalanche will stay with the other Brotherhood members, but will eventually work for S.H.I.E.L.D, like the rest of them. This was a throwback to the comics, apparently.
Final Reflections: I never understood the whole Avalanche/Kitty relationship, so I probably liked Avalanche less than I should have. Ignoring that, though, he was a pretty good character, and surprisingly deep; he acted like your typical thug on the outside, but he still had some "good" part of him that he kept hidden. And, what I really liked about that development, was that he DIDN'T eventually become a good guy. Sure, he played with the idea, but he never gave into it. And that's just like real life; sometimes people don't always make the right decisions, and just sink farther and farther into the "dark side". Kudos to the writers for that.