Avatar: The Last Airbender Fans Picked The Perfect Live-Action Combustion Man
"Avatar: The Last Airbender" is about a colorful world of powerful elemental users. Each tribe, or country, of people tends to have an affinity for a specific element, and these include water, earth, fire, and, of course, air. Airbenders receive particular attention throughout the series, seeing how Aang (Zach Tyler Eisen), the Avatar destined to control all four elements, is the last one while all others are thought to be extinct. At the start of the series, Aang awakes after being frozen in ice to a world that has been absolutely dominated by the Fire Nation, who utilize their destructive capabilities to control most of the world in varying capacities.
Combustion Man (minimally voiced by Greg Baldwin), despite sounding like he may be from a They Might Be Giants song, is actually a fearsome and generally silent assassin who gets sent after Aang on numerous occasions per the machinations of the Fire Nation. Combustion Man uses a rather unique form of firebending, which allows him to project powerful explosions from the tattoo in the center of his forehead. Although often thwarted by Aang and his compatriots, Combustion Man is a recurring villain before his eventual defeat. While he's not featured in the maligned live-action movie adaptation of "Avatar: The Last Airbender," it seems as if that hasn't stopped fans from suggesting a perfect actor for the role, considering that Netflix has undertaken a new live-action "Avatar" series.
Fans think Dave Bautista would make a perfect Combustion Man
On Reddit, u/litbacod4 posted an image of Dave Bautista and said that the actor would make a perfect Sparky-Sparky Boom Man, an in-universe joke directed at Combustion Man. Others also felt the same, with u/Angorian44 saying, "[It's] so uncanny, it almost makes it seem like they designed CM with [Bautista] in mind." U/ikhalid1418 suggested that the wrestler Kane from the WWE would make an excellent Combustion Man, while u/flyingboarofbeifong replied, "Combustion Man is straight-up jacked, though. Kane is a complete slab of a man, but he's the type of big that is pretty consistently large all around and doesn't look really well built in spite of the fact the dude could chokeslam a small car. Bautista has the same ox neck effect going on as Sparky Sparky Boom Man."
However, fans on Reddit aren't the only ones who think Bautista would make a perfect Combustion Man in Netflix's live-action show. "Avatar: The Last Podcasters" has also announced its support for the casting on Twitter. Considering that Collider confirmed that Netflix's "Avatar: The Last Airbender" finished filming around June 22, 2022, as well as the cast roster on IMDb, it appears as if an actor has not yet been tapped for the role of Combustion Man. This means that perhaps if enough fans clamor for Bautista to become the terrifying assassin, it may happen. He certainly looks the part, and as Bautista has proven in "Guardians of the Galaxy," he is more than capable of playing a stoic and singularly focused individual.