Michael Van Patrick

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MVP
MVP from Avengers: The Initiative #1 Art by Stefano Caselli.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Avengers: The Initiative #1 (March, 2007)
Created by	Dan Slott Stefano Caselli
In story information
Alter ego	Michael Ian Van Patrick
Team affiliations	The Initiative
Notable aliases	MVP, M.V.P.
Abilities	Peak human intelligence, strength, speed, reflexes, agility, and endurance.

Michael "Mike"^[1] Ian^[2] Van Patrick is a fictional comic book character created by Dan Slott and Stefano Caselli. Although the character himself is currently believed to be deceased, and to have in fact died in the issue in which he first appeared, the character is said to have been cloned after his death, with his clones continuing to play roles within the ongoing series.

Described by Slott as an archetypal "all-American boy"^[3], the character is introduced in the pages of Avengers: The Initiative #1 as the great-grandson of Dr. Abraham Erskine,^[4] the inventor of the super soldier serum within Marvel Comics' shared universe the Marvel Universe, before being subsequently killed at the end of that first issue.

The first clone replaced Michael, and was sent back to his parent's home to prevent them from learning of his death. The next three clones, named Michael, Van, and Patrick, originally worked as the Scarlet Spiders, as part of the Black Ops group within The Initiative. They were revealed to be clones in Avengers: The Initiative #7. He was cloned once more, in the Killed in Action story arc when plans were made to fill some of the vacant positions in the Initiative teams with MVP clones.

Michael Van Patrick, and all his subsequent clones, have yet to appear outside the pages of Avengers: The Initiative. All that is known about the characters has been revealed throughout the ongoing series, with Van Patrick's (and the first sets of clones) origins being shown in the 2007 Avengers: The Initiative Annual.

Contents 1 Michael Van Patrick 1.1 First clone 1.2 Scarlet Spiders 1.3 KIA 2 Abilities and equipment 3 Footnotes 4 Bibliography 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] Michael Van Patrick

Michael Van Patrick's origins are traced back to the developer of the Super-Soldier serum, that changed a frail Steve Rogers into Timely Comics's^[5] (Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor's) Captain America, scientist "Dr. Josef Reinstein,"^[6][7] later retroactively changed to a code name for the scientist Abraham Erskine.^[8] On his death, Dr. Erskine left papers, which covered years of research and findings that the government had not seen fit to classify, to his grandson, Brian Van Patrick^[9], who studied his grandfather's work, particularly regarding his work on growing, preparing and serving the most wholesome and nutritional foods, and an exceptionally challenging experimental program of isometric exercises he developed. Brian Van Patrick used the research during the early life and development of his son, Michael, helping him achieve his optimum potential.^[1]

The events of the 2006-2007 Marvel Comics crossover, Civil War, required all United States superpowered individuals to register with the American government. Some of these individuals were sent to The Initiative's training camp, Camp Hammond. Given Michael Van Patrick's descent from the creator of the super soldier serum, many people came to suspect his athletic abilities to be superpower-related with a subsequent scandal resulting in Michael losing his scholarship and Justice, an Initiative superhero, recruiting Michael for the Initiative program to train him into a superhero.^[10]

Michael Van Patrick joined the program, under the codename MVP, along with a selection of old and new characters to make up the cast of the Avengers: The Initiative. During the first day's training at Camp Hammond, MVP demonstrated extraordinary speed and agility as he broke the camp's obstacle course record for users without superspeed on his first attempt.^[10]

During a combat simulator exercise, one of the Initiative trainees, Armory goes out of control and fires blindly on the other recruits, and MVP has to save a fellow recruit Cloud 9. While saving Cloud 9, MVP is shot in the head, killing him instantly.^[10]

Initiative scientist Dr. Baron Von Blitzschlag, a former Nazi and supervillain, performed the autopsy on Michael's body. The autopsy revealed that MVP's extraordinary physical abilities were unconnected to the super-soldier serum, and were instead achieved by purely natural means. Von Blitzschlag advocated cloning MVP, much to chief administrator Yellowjacket's disapproval.^[11]

[edit] First clone

Though Yellowjacket disapproved the idea of cloning MVP, Secretary of the Superhuman Armed Forces Henry Gyrich, who had ordered MVP's death remain secret, sanctioned the cloning. As Van Patrick is a non-altered human, Yellowjacket considered the cloning was comparatively easy.^[1]

Avengers: The Initiative Annual #1 reveals the clones creation and development. As the clone was grown to its original's age, all of his original's skills and abilities programmed into him with the help of a special suit with telemetry circuits and a video of MVP's training session and the photographic reflexes of Taskmaster. The first clone is sent home to his family's organic vegetable farm in Liberty, Kentucky, with a false story that he had failed the Initiative program because of his lack of powers. The clone, who was still coming to realize that his memories are not his own and that he will never be the real Michael Van Patrick, elects to stay with "his" family. He is warned however to never tell them that he is not their real son.

However, the clone's first appearance was a couple of months prior in a few panels of Avengers: The Initiative #4, where Justice and Cloud 9, not knowing of clone's replacing Michael, flew to the Van Patrick farm to inform MVP's parents of his death. On arriving, they are greeted at the door by the clone but are called off to deal with the events of World War Hulk^[12] before they can ask how it is Michael is alive and well. In a later issue, Justice again returns with Cloud 9 to the Van Patrick home, wishing to find out what information Gyrich and Yellowjacket were keeping from him. On arriving, they find the house boarded up and abandoned.^[13]

During the Killed In Action storyline, it is revealed that the clone has an imbedded tracking device and that the Van Patrick family had moved to Bulls Gap, Tennessee^[14]. In the conclusion of this storyline, the clone then helps The Initiative stop KIA, and begins to further MVP's romantic interest in Cloud 9^[9]. In Avengers: The Initiative #12, the MVP clone, along with the surviving Scarlet Spiders and MVP's father, join with Justice's New Warriors as a Counter Initiative of underground registered heroes.

[edit] Scarlet Spiders

Three more clones, developed the same time as the first but with added genetic material from Baron Von Blitzschlage^[14], were programmed via input from Taskmaster with not only MVP's skills and abilities but also those of Spider-Man, Peter Parker.^[1] The three clones, Michael, Van, and Patrick (sometimes referred to as "Pat"), were each suited up in redesigned Iron Spider Stark armor which Spider-Man had worn during the early stages of the superhero Civil War.^[15]

During their first appearance, they identify themselves as "Red Team" and take down supervillains Shocker, Boomerang, and Hydro-Man. Though War Machine identifies them by their official name Scarlet Spiders when contacting them,^[16] they still identify themselves as Red Team One (Michael), Red Team Two (Van), and Red Team Three ("Pat" Patrick) in the field.^[13] They are later revealed to be part of a black ops group called the Shadow Initiative under the command of Henry Gyrich with Constrictor, Mutant Zero, Bengal and Trauma.^[17]

The Scarlet Spiders were forced to expose themselves to the public in Avengers: The Initiative #7 after an attack on Baron Von Blitzschlage. The subsequent pursuit of three criminals wearing the Vulturions flying exosuits would lead the spiders into confronting an angry Peter Parker. Their appearance in battle against and alongside Parker has raised public doubts over whether Parker is the original and/or only Spider-Man, despite his having publicly revealing his dual identity in the early events of the Civil War.^[13]

Now public, the Scarlet Spiders join with the other initiative trainees in the next issue. An incident involving Dragon Man leads one of the Spiders to save Cloud 9 in much the same fashion as the original MVP did at the time of his death.^[18] In Avengers: The Initiative #10, the Scarlet Spiders unmask themselves in an attempt to calm the enraged MVP clone, KIA, only to have him behead one of their number. The surviving (and still unmasked) Scarlet Spiders, Michael and Patrick^[9], are later seen by the majority of the trainees, including Cloud 9. ^[19] In Avengers: The Initiative #11, the remaining Scarlet Spiders make there way to Bulls Gap, Tennessee to aid in the capture of KIA. In Avengers: The Initiative #12 after the defeat of KIA, the surviving Scarlet Spiders, along with the MVP clone and the real MVP's father, join with Justice's New Warriors as a Counter Initiative of underground registered heroes.

[edit] KIA

The results of the previous clonings impressed Initiative administrators enough to attempt to fill places within the Fifty-State Initiative with further clones of MVP.^[18] In Avengers: The Initiative's first, and currently ongoing, multi-part story; Killed in Action (starting issue #8), a new Michael Van Patrick clone is fitted with the Tactigon, Armory's former alien weapon and sets forth on a murderous rampage through Camp Hammond in an attempt to seek revenge for MVP's death.

In the second part, First Casualties, the clone, who is distinguished by his whited out eyes, is said to have had Armory's moves programmed into him in preparation to use the Omega-Level weapon that killed the original MVP. The Tactigon interfaces with this clone's mind activating latent memories of the real MVP's death. Hacking into the Initiative's computer, the clone learns of his "death" and gains a list of all those present at the time. The disturbed clone demolishes the cloning lab, attacking Baron Von Blitzschlag while saying the term Killed in Action over and over again and carving the initials "KIA" into his chest. The clone continues its rampage through Camp Hammond, striking heavily those whose names are on his list and attacking anyone else who gets in the way.

At the end of the second part, the clone attempts to find the comatose Gauntlet, the drill instructor who sent MVP to the ill-fated combat training session. However, Gauntlet's weapon, taken from an alien that faced off against the Alien who controlled the Tactigon in Gauntlet and Armory's origin stories^[1], seemingly takes control of Guantlet's body forcing him to acquire the sword element of his alien's armor which recovered when he originally bonded with the alien glove device. The two later battle and KIA brings Guantlet out of his coma, in a effort to face the man rather than the gauntlet weapon.^[14]

In the concluding part of this storyline, Worst Case Senario, KIA battles his way through the Initiative to follow trainees Cloud 9, Komodo, Hardball to the location of MVP's first clone, Bulls Gap, Tennessee, where they are attempting to convince the first clone to download its memories into a device (and most likely leave himself braindead) which could then upload them into KIA to reset his mind. After arriving at the location, KIA is met by the collective Initiative force of The Avengers, the remaining Scarlet Spiders, a rogue New Warriors group and the trainees. In the climax of the battle, the first clone used the device to download KIA memories leaving his body braindead. After the battle Slapstick is seen taking the device which reads "ready to transmit brain patters to new host body" leaving KIA's eventual fate open-ended.

Many trainees and staff members were injured during KIA's rampage with only Dragon Lord^[20], Trauma^[20], Van^[9] (one of the Scarlet Spiders^[20]) and 8 S.H.I.E.L.D. agents^[20] being killed. However in Avengers: The Initiative #12, Trauma would come back to life.

[edit] Abilities and equipment

In Avengers: The Initiative #2, Dr. Baron Von Blitzschlag refers to Michael Van Patrick as an "Übermensch", a perfect human specimen, down to the cellular level. This perfection is displayed in his mental and physical abilities being the highest possible standard for a human being to be without being considered superhuman, much like Captain America. Yellowjacket, one of the chief administrators at Camp Hammond, ironically referred to MVP as "Captain America, Jr."^[21] in the first issue of Avengers: The Initiative. However, unlike Captain America, MVP's abilities were revealed in the Avengers: The Initiative Annual to have come as a result of the "revolutionary" diet and an "ultimate" isometric exercise regime he went through rather than Dr. Erskine's super-soldier serum.

The first clone has those same abilities, with the Scarlet Spiders additionally having the skills, reflexes and moves of Spider-Man programmed into them to the degree of regular human ability.^[1]

Michael, Van, and Patrick's Scarlet Spider suits, a redesign of Tony Stark's Iron Spider armor (previously used by Spider-Man),^[15] are supported by systems similar to that of Stark's classic Iron Man design. In the Scarlet Spider's first appearance, Avengers: The Initiative #3, the suit is shown to feature several devices, including four mechanical spider-arms or "waldoes" on each suit, one more than on the original, along with cloaking devices, and a short-range GPS microwave communication system. In Avengers: The Initiative #7, the suits are shown to have the new feature of mechanical web-shooters and had retained the ability to change appearance to other versions of the Spider-Man costume or street clothes. Other abilities which were present in the original three-armed suit have yet to be displayed in the new, four-arm suits.

Attached to the "KIA" Michael Van Patrick is Armory's former weapon, known as Tactigon, which was detached when she was expelled from the Initiative program. It is a multi-dimensional alien device that is able shift into an infinite number of weapons and tools with a built in safety designed to give the wearer exactly what she or he needs to get the job done.^[10]

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] Bibliography

• Avengers: The Initiative #1- (Marvel Comics, April 2007–)
• Avengers: The Initiative Annual #1, (Marvel Comics, December 2007)

Collections

• Avengers: The Initiative, Vol. 1: Basic Training ISBN 0785121609; collects Avengers: The Initiative #1-6

[edit] See also

• Avengers: The Initiative
• Captain America
• Scarlet Spider

[edit] External links

• Marvel.com Universe: MVP
• Marvel Database wiki: MVP
• Marvel Database wiki: Scarlet Spiders (Team Red)