Michael Ian Van Patrick is a character appearing in
American comic books published by
Marvel Comics.''''
The character was created by Dan Slott and Stefano Caselli. Although the character died in his debut appearance, he was cloned after his death and his clones continued to play roles within the ongoing Avengers: The Initiative'' series. Michael Van Patrick's origins trace back to scientist Josef Reinstein, later
retroactively changed to an alias of
Abraham Erskine. On his death, 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. Brian studied his grandfather's work, particularly his work on growing, preparing and serving the most wholesome and nutritional foods and a challenging experimental program of
isometric exercises. Brian used the research during the early life and development of his son Michael, helping him achieve his potential. Michael joined the program under the codename
MVP, along with old and new characters to make up the cast of the
Avengers: The Initiative. During the first day of training at Camp Hammond, MVP demonstrates extraordinary speed and agility, breaking the camp's
obstacle course record for users without super-speed on his first attempt.
First clone of MVP Though Yellowjacket disapproved the idea of cloning MVP, Secretary of the Superhuman Armed Forces
Henry Peter Gyrich had ordered that MVP's death remain secret and sanctioned the cloning. were programmed with MVP's skills and abilities along with those of
Spider-Man. During their first appearance, they identify themselves as the "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, they identify themselves as
Red Team One (Michael),
Red Team Two (Van), and
Red Team Three (Patrick) in the field. They are later revealed to be part of the Shadow Initiative
black ops group under the command of Gyrich with
Constrictor,
Mutant Zero,
Bengal, and
Trauma.
KIA The results of the previous clonings impressed Initiative administrators enough to attempt to fill places within the Fifty-State Initiative with further clones. In the
Avengers: The Initiative first multi-part story;
Killed in Action (starting issue #8), a new clone is fitted with the Tactigon, a weapon previously used by Armory, 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, set before the events of the first, 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 Blitzschlag and Yellowjacket and carving the initials "KIA" into his chest. After being defeated by a large superhero group effort, KIA later joins the
Assassins Guild.
Powers, abilities and equipment of Michael Van Patrick In
Avengers: The Initiative #2, Von Blitzschlag refers to MVP as an "
Übermensch", a perfect human specimen, down to the
cellular level. This perfection is displayed in his physical abilities. He reaches the highest possible standard for a human being without becoming an enhanced super-soldier. in the first issue of
Avengers: The Initiative. However, unlike Captain America's enhanced condition, 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 completed, rather than the super-soldier serum. in the first issue, while a
Comics Bulletin reviewer expanded on this by saying MVP especially "could help carry this title". However, MVP's death at the end of the issue was met with concern "while shocking, [MVP's death] undermines the advancement of the rest of the issue". MVP also received criticism from TheGamer reviewer, Charlie Green, stating that MVP hurt the Marvel comics involving him, "This is essentially what would have happened if nothing particularly exciting happened to [Captain America]". ==Vanguard==