In Avatar: The Last Airbender, the debates between which characters are stronger than other characters are never easy. In so many cases, the main cast represents the top-tier greatest benders of their world, and there’s a solid case to be made that Aang, Katara and Toph were each the single best benders in their respective elements. That’s part of what makes it all the more impressive that the characters admit at multiple points how grossly outgunned they are by the character Combustion Man.
Appearing late in the series by the time the trio’s skills were already fully developed, almost every interaction with Combustion Man involved the Gaang needing to hide, run away or score lucky shots. What was it about the combustionbending assassin that made him so deadly?
Introduced in Book 3 when Zuko hired the assassin to hunt down Aang, Combustion Man never had a line of dialogue throughout the original series. Instead, he let his actions speak for him, as his unique ability to create explosions with his mind proved to be a devastating force on the battlefield. During his first appearance, he managed to plow through Aang, Toph and Katara’s every defense, leaving the Gaang to admit that they could not beat him. All subsequent encounters involved much the same dynamic, and in the end, it was only because of Sokka’s ability to land a lucky shot with his boomerang on Combustion Man’s tattoo that they ultimately prevailed.
What made Combustion Man so powerful first and foremost was the uniqueness and overwhelming effect of his abilities. By channeling his firebending through the third eye tattooed on his forehead, Combustion Man released shots of concentrated air that could destroy massive amounts of stone on impact. Rattling buildings, ripping through columns and very nearly bringing the Western Air Tempe off its cliffside, he had perhaps the most raw power of any character from the original series. However, it was not his raw power alone that made him so formidable, but rather how he used it.
Combustion Man displayed a keen intellect in how he approached each of his fights. He ambushed the Gaang while they were unsuspecting, always did so from a distance and a vantage point that leveraged his ability to snipe them down. Moreover, he never let up in his assaults, giving the Gaang minimal time to recover. Although it’s easy to assume that he was a musclebound figure who lacked subtlety, in “The Runaway,” he even managed to lay a trap for Katara and Toph that saw them both imprisoned. It was only their unexpected escape and Toph landing an accidental shot on his tattoo that allowed the Gaang to survive their encounter.
By his last ambush, when he sniped at the Gaang from a high vantage point on the Western Air Temple, Combustion Man even timed his ambush to coincide with Toph recovering from burns on her feet. Although the earthbender previously managed to detect Combustion Man from a distance with her seismic sense in “The Beach,” his subsequent encounters were all timed so that Toph could not anticipate his arrival. This goes to show just how much thought he put into fulfilling his contracts — and just how lucky Aang and his friends were to remain alive.
Little is known about Combustion Man’s life prior to the series, although it’s noted that he was a masterful Agni Kai dueler. As seen in the series, the firebending duels known as Agni Kais involve two combatants who are mere paces away from each other, so in order to use his ability effectively, Combustion Man proved that he’s even capable of fighting in closer quarters, and to do so with such efficiency that he demolished his opponents before they could meaningfully mount an attack.
After all, the only physical damage done to Combustion Man was self-inflicted wounds resulting from his attempts to first master his abilities. Without a single burn despite participating in numerous Agni Kais, Combustion Man clearly had more going for him than sheer offense. It may be easy to underestimate his cunning, but paying attention to the subtle details in Avatar, as ever, proves to reveal a far deeper story that only becomes more interesting the deeper fans go.
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