MVPMVP
Real Name: Michael Ian Van Patrick
Identity/Class: Human
Occupation: Initiative trainee
Group Membership: The Initiative (Armory/Violet
Lightner, Cloud 9/Abby Boylen, Constrictor/Frank Payne, Debrii/Deborah
Fields, Gauntlet/Joseph Green, Henry Peter Gyrich, Hardball/Roger
Brokeridge, Hellcat/Patsy Walker, Justice/Vance Astrovik, Komodo/Melati Kusuma, Network/Valerie Martin, Nighthawk/Kyle Richmond, Red Wolf/Will Talltrees, Scorpion/Carmilla Black, She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters, Slapstick/Steve Harmon, Stingray/Walt Newell, Trauma/Terrance Ward, Triathlon/Delroy Garrett Jr., Werner von Blitzschlag, Yellowjacket/Criti Noll)
Affiliations: The Initiative
(Constrictor/Frank Payne, Debrii/Deborah Fields, Hellcat/Patsy Walker,
Justice/Vance Astrovik, Network/Valerie Martin, Nighthawk/Kyle
Richmond, Red Wolf/Will Talltrees, Scorpion/Carmilla Black,
She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters, Stingray/Walt Newell), Brian Van Patrick
Enemies: None
Known Relatives: Brian Van Patrick (father), unidentified mother, Dr. Abraham Erskine (great-grandfather, deceased), "Michael Van Patrick" (clone "brother"), KIA (clone "brother"), Michael, Van, Patrick (Scarlet Spiders, clone "brothers")
Aliases: "Captain America, Jr." (called by a Yellowjacket Skrull), "Kid," "Mike"
Base of Operations: Camp Hammond, Stamford, Connecticut, USA; formerly Liberty, Kentucky, USA
First Appearance: (mentioned & image
seen): Civil War Battle Damage Report (2007);
(fully seen): Avengers: The Initiative I#1 (June, 2007)
Powers/Abilities: MVP had no actual superhuman
powers but he was a physically perfect and athletic human being with
peak human physical attributes, acquired through years of intense
isometric exercise and an organic diet.
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 173 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
History: (Avengers: The Initiative I
Annual#1/3 (fb)) - The toddler Michael Van Patrick grew up being fed a
strict, revolutionary diet of wholesome foods designed by Dr. Abraham
Erskine, his great-grandfather. Michael also followed a regime of
isometric exercises outlined by Dr. Erskine that ultimately molded
Michael into the peak of human physicality, similar to what Dr.
Erskine's Super Soldier Serum had done for Steve Rogers.
(Avengers Assemble - MVP entry (fb) - BTS) - Michael
Van Patrick was sometimes nicknamed "Mike." Becoming a star athlete,
Michael won an athletic scholarship to the University of Kentucky.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#1 (fb) -
BTS) - Michael Van Patrick was embroiled in a scandal that cost him his
college scholarship when the public learned that Michael's
great-grandfather was Dr. Abraham Erskine, creator of the Super-Soldier
Serum. Despite having several tests run that showed him clean of any
foreign substances, Michael was still kicked him out of college sports
and there was talk of taking aways his hard-earned medals. His story
soon drew the attention of the heroic Justice, who worked for the
Fifty-State Initiative.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#1/Avengers: The Initiative I#2 (fb) - BTS) - Justice visited
Michael Van Patrick's home and spoke to him about the possibility of
being trained as a superhero, ultimately recruiting Michael into the
Initiative under the codename of MVP.
(Civil War Battle Damage Report - BTS) - When compiling a list of items on the table following the superhero civil war, Tony Stark created an appendix of loose ends and MVP, whose name was temporarily classified at the time, was listed as an active Initiative recruit.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#1) - In the Camp Hammond
Observation Deck, Yellowjacket (secretly a Skrull), War Machine and
Justice discussed their new recruits and "Yellowjacket" asked how MVP was
doing so far. Justice pointed them to look down at the training
grounds, where MVP appeared to be going for the obstacle course record
as applause followed his every move. Upon finishing, MVP was
congratulated by She-Hulk, who informed MVP that he had broken the Camp
Hammond record for non-speedsters before telling MVP to hit the
showers.
(Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt#5 (fb)) - Before going
to the showers, MVP was asked to line up with the other new recruits
Cloud 9, Hardball, Trauma, Slapstick, Komodo and Armory, where they
were yelled at by their drill instructor, Gauntlet.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#1) - At he was later ending his shower, new Initiative recruit Cloud 9
stumbled into the men's shower and MVP politely informed her that she
had stepped through a utility door into the wrong showers. When Cloud 9
asked that MVP forget the entire event, MVP politely agreed to.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#11 (fb)) - Recalling the
events of Cloud 9 stumbling into him, MVP secretly found himself
interested in her despite not even knowing her full name.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#1/Avengers: The Initiative I#6 (fb)/Avengers: The Initiative I Annual#1/2 (fb)) - Upon
getting dressed, MVP learned from Triathlon that the new recruits had
been taken to the combat simulator room, where MVP again ran into Cloud
9, whom he apologized to about their earlier encounter. When new
recruit Armory was spooked by Trauma's fear-based shape-changing powers
and began firing wildly, MVP yelled for Cloud 9 to get down but she
froze in fear. Tackling Cloud 9 to shield her from Armory's blasts, MVP
checked on Cloud 9 before being shot through the head by another of
Armory's stray blasts. Following MVP's death, an autopsy was performed
on his corpse by the Initiative's Werner von Blitzschlag, who informed
"Yellowjacket" and Henry Gyrich of something interesting he had
discovered.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#9 (fb) - BTS) - Footage of MVP's death was saved in the Camp Hammond computer systems.
(Avengers: The Initiative I Annual#1/3 (fb)) - Initiative scientist Baron von Blitzschlag further dissected MVP's corpse and learned nothing of the Super-Soldier Serum that seemingly ran through MVP's blood.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#2/Avengers: The Initiative I#14 (fb)) - Days following MVP's death, Justice, who was unaware of MVP's death, remarked to "Yellowjacket" how he recruited MVP, whom he felt was the perfect candidate to publicly represent the Initiative program. Following up his remark with a comment that he had not seen MVP in days, Justice nonchalantly asked "Yellowjacket" where they were hiding MVP. Briefly pausing, "Yellowjacket" merely replied that MVP's location was classified. A short time later, as several of the new Initiative recruits trained, Cloud 9 asked the other recruits how they could think about the depowered Armory when MVP had been killed. Asking Cloud 9 to stop thinking about her fears about MVP's death, Trauma soon became unable to contain his fear-based transformation power and uncontrollably changed his shape into a zombie MVP to match Cloud 9's fears. Unable to regain control, Trauma (in the zombie MVP form) announced Cloud 9's fears that it was her fault MVP had been killed and began ranting that death was what awaited any of the Initiative recruits if they made any small mistake. Witnessing events from afar, "Yellowjacket" and Justice opted to help the fear-frozen Initiative recruits, with "Yellowjacket" volunteering to take care of Trauma and warning Justice that the subject of MVP was off-limits. Justice tried to argue but "Yellowjacket" ordered him to drop the subject and Justice relented, promising that their discussion was not over. "Yellowjacket" then quickly took Trauma aside and demanded to know what he was doing but Trauma admitted he couldn't control her fear-based powers, soon transforming into a beaten Wasp from "Yellowjacket"'s fear of losing control of himself. From his quarters, "Yellowjacket" was later summoned to Baron von Blitzschlag's lab for a supposed emergency, where Blitzschlag had placed MVP's dissected corpse in stasis and revealed that MVP had no superhuman powers, only peak physical attributes gained from intense training. Blitzschlag then continued, insisting that MVP's corpse not be released in favor of keeping it for further genetic material usage. "Yellowjacket" immediately declined, exclaiming that there was an ethical line in the sand to be drawn somewhere but Henry Peter Gyrich sided with Blitzschlag to secret away MVP's corpse in hopes of using his genetic material to create superhumans for every state as part of the Initiative. "Yellowjacket" argued back but the argument ended when a priority one emergency call sounded to announce a Hydra attack in Texas.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#12 (fb) - BTS) - The
Superhuman Armed Forces secretly approved the cloning of MVP for the
purposes of filling Fifty-State Initiatives teams with more superhumans.
(Avengers: The Initiative I Annual#1/3 - BTS) - The Initiative's Baron von Blitzschlag wrote a memo to Henry Peter Gyrich detailing the information he had learned about MVP's origins during a visit to MVP's Kentucky home alongside "Yellowjacket" (actually disguised Skrull Criti Noll) and a new clone of MVP, who had elected to remain with MVP's family.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#4/Avengers: The
Initiative I#6 (fb)) - MVP's dissected corpse was seen by Hardball, who
was secretly stealing Initiative de-powering nanotech, while MVP's
father Brian remained unaware his actual son had died and was replaced
by a clone.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#6 - BTS) - When Cloud 9 mentioned MVP being alive, Initiative recruit Komodo reminded Cloud 9 and the other recruits how MVP had been killed during a training session and that he was gone. Hardball then chimed in, agreeing that MVP was dead but then blurted out how MVP wasn't buried, as he had seen MVP's corpse. Komodo quickly questioned Hardball, who tried to cover up his slip by claiming all of the recruits in the training session had seen MVP's corpse. Overhearing the discussion about MVP at insect size, Yellowjacket (actually a Skrull impostor) enlarged to normal size and ordered them all to keep quiet about MVP.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#7) - Justice called a meeting with War Machine and Yellowjacket (still the Skrull) and demanded answers to whether or not MVP had truly died and if he had, who the boy resembling MVP whom Justice and Cloud 9 had seen in Kentucky was. When the discussion was tabled due to an emergency situation involving the Vulturions, an angry Justice took Cloud 9 to MVP's Kentucky home, where he decided to leave the Initiative to investigate MVP's death, feeling that he owed it to MVP since he had been the one to recruit MVP into the Initiative. Later that day, the MVP clones known as the Scarlet Spiders were reprimanded by Initiative scientist Baron von Blitzschlag within Yellowjacket's lab, where MVP's corpse still remained, for publicly assisting outlaw hero Spider-Man.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#8 - BTS) - After the Initiative was blackmailed, "Yellowjacket" (still the Skrull Criti Noll) admitted that MVP's death was the Initiative's own fault because the Initiative had been careless and now they were being forced to cover up MVP's death. Henry Peter Gyrich angrily suggested de-powered all of the Initiative cadets that knew of MVP's death and that the Initiative should create more clones of MVP to staff the entire Fifty-State Initiative, prompting Baron von Blitzschlag to remark how that idea might work.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#9 (fb) - BTS) - Upon creating a new clone of MVP, Baron von Blitzschlag informed the newly created clone that he could not use the name Michael Van Patrick as the Initiative already had a clone using that name that was living in Kentucky and it would cause confusion. When Blitzschlag suggested the name "Ian," the original MVP's middle name, the clone remarked that he was Michael Van Patrick. Explaining how he they had went over the situation before, Blitzschlag next suggested the name "Wernher, Jr." but the MVP clone again insisted it was Michael Van Patrick. The Tactigon weapon was soon bonded to the MVP clone, who was driven mad by the process and used the Tactigon to access the Initiative's computers, learning about the true MVP's death and those who had witnessed it. Growing angry at seeing footage of the real MVP's death, the clone exclaimed that the events could not be true, as he was Michael Van Patrick, but upon hearing the Initiative's computers state that MVP was killed in action, the mad clone took to calling himself KIA.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#9 - BTS) - When KIA began attacking
several Initiative personnel who had witnessed the true MVP's death,
Initiative recruits Trauma and Thor Girl (actually a Skrull impostor) ran into KIA in the hallway and thought him to be a somehow resurrected MVP.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#10 - BTS) - As KIA continued his attack on the Initiative, several of the other recruits saw KIA and at first thought he was somehow a resurrected MVP. Cloud 9 admitted she had seen another living "MVP" before and had the recruits follow her lead against the rogue clone. Baron von Blitzschlag eventually suggested that the Initiative recruits use a device to overwrite KIA's brain patterns with that of the original MVP, prompting Hardball to admit his knowledge that Blitzschlag had the original MVP's corpse within his lab. Before Blitzschlag could further question Hardball, Cloud 9 mentioned the MVP clone that was living in Kentucky posing as the true MVP and the recruits departed to get a recording of the perfect clone's brain patterns.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#12 - BTS) - Following the KIA incident,
a hearing was called to discuss recent events and the death of MVP.
Representing S.H.I.E.L.D., Iron Man arrived at the hearing to call the
hearing to order, immediately announcing to the others present that the
hearing was called to discuss a number of recent disturbing events
including MVP's death and its subsequent cover-up. Since Henry Peter
Gyrich was present during the training exercise in which MVP had died,
Iron Man started with Gyrich, who claimed he didn't recall what exactly
had happened. As the hearing continued, drill instructor Gauntlet and
several Initiative cadets visited the Camp Hammond Chapel to pay their
respects to the supposedly deceased cadet Trauma, where Gauntlet
admitted that his Tactigon weapon had now caused him to lose two men
under his watch: first MVP and now Trauma. The hearing progressed
further, eventually moving onto the topic of the cloning of MVP, which
Iron Man demanded to know why the cloning that created KIA was done
after the failure of an earlier clone of Thor. "Yellowjacket" (still
the Skrull Criti Noll) responded by informing Iron Man that MVP was not
a superhuman and the Initiative had no complications with earlier MVP
clones. Shocked that MVP had been cloned before, Iron Man was told that
the earlier clones were created with the approval of the Superhuman
Armed Forces in order to help fill the Initiative teams, beginning a
heated argument between Iron Man and Henry Peter Gyrich. During the
argument, Gyrich exclaimed his opinion that MVP was a nobody, nothing
more than a pawn, while Iron Man seemingly had the blood of Captain
America on his hands following the superhuman civil war.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#22) - Following a battle between the Initiative and the cybernetic Thor clone Ragnarok that also involved Justice's Counter Force group, Justice admitted to the Initiative's Gauntlet that Counter Force had come to Camp Hammond to make things right regarding MVP's death. Telekinetically breaking into Baron von Blitzschlag's lab with the help of Blitzschlag's MVP clone Patrick, Justice acquired MVP's corpse from stasis and revealed to the unaware Gauntlet that the Initiative had killed MVP and that Counter Force had come to take him home.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#23) - As Justice telekinetically carried MVP's corpse, Sally Floyd of the Front Line newspaper asked Justice if the Initiative had murdered MVP but Justice sternly explained that MVP's death had resulted from an Initiative training accident and that the Initiative's subsequent cover-up of the death was wrong. Announcing to reporters that MVP deserved to be buried with honor instead of kept in stasis like a piece of meat or cloned without his consent, Justice was asked if he had proof of the unethical cloning, to which Scarlet Spider removed his mask to reveal his nature as an MVP clone. When reporters moved to asking Gauntlet questions about MVP's death, Gauntlet looked over at Justice and the corpse of MVP and opted to instead help those in the immediate area who had been injured during the earlier battle with Ragnarok, ignoring the questions about MVP. Sally Floyd then moved on to Ultragirl, asking her if Justice's allegations about MVP and the Initiative were true, and after a brief pause, Ultragirl confirmed that Justice's allegations were all true. Announcing that there was no more time for questions, Justice suggested the reporters speak with the Initiative heads for any other questions and flew off with MVP's corpse in tow, only to be stopped by Ultragirl, who decided to join Justice. As Gauntlet and other Initiative instructors and cadets helped the damage done by Ragnarok, Gauntlet admitted to Tigra that he knew of MVP's earlier death and subsequent cover-up, but not of MVP's cloning. Trauma tried to console Gauntlet, reminding him that his transformation had caused the training accident that cost MVP his life, but Gauntlet claimed that the fault was on him as Trauma's instructor and that his shame had kept him going with the cover-up. Gauntlet then commented that he had now let MVP down twice and that he deserved whatever was coming to him.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#25) - Justice and his Counter Force
group traveled to rural Mississippi to return MVP's corpse to his
father, Brian. Upon Counter Force's landing, Brian came running up to
the transport and demanded to see his son, which Justice revealed in
stasis. As Brian looked MVP's corpse, Scarlet Spider spoke with the MVP
clone living with Brian about which of them might take over where the
true MVP had died but the clone told Scarlet Spider that it was not the
time to be discussing the matter. Brian soon embraced MVP's corpse and
Justice informed Brian that MVP had died saving the life of a fellow
cadet but Brian quickly grew angry and ordered Counter Force to leave.
Brian soon apologizing for the harsh treatment, admitting that he knew
Justice was not personally involved in MVP's death but that he couldn't
look at Justice and Counter Force without thinking of what the
Initiative had done to his son. Brian further explained that he knew
the real Michael Van Patrick would not want anger to consume his father
but Brian remarked that he wasn't sure he could control his anger as
long as Counter Force was around. Justice replied by saying he
understood but Scarlet Spider asked if he also made Brian angry and
Brian explained that seeing Scarlet Spider only further reminded him of
the experiments the Initiative had done on his true son and that the
only way he could start his life again would be to do it without any
reminders of MVP's death. Scarlet Spider argued that the Michael Van
Patrick living with Brian was a clone too but Brian replied that the
clone living with him was the first pure clone of his son without any
additional tampering from Baron von Blitzschlag, admitting that while
he knew the clone wasn't his true son, it was as close as he could get
to being with his real son.
(Avengers: The Initiative I#28 - BTS) - After the newly-dubbed Avengers Resistance rescued rogue Initiative team, the Heavy Hitters,
from Norman Osborn and his goons, Resistance member Debrii decided to
quit the team, claiming that she never wanted to be a superhero in the
first place and, after everything that had happened since her debut
including the explosion in Stamford, Connecticut, MVP's death and
Osborn taking over the Initiative, she just couldn't go on with things
seemingly to constantly be getting worse.
Comments: Created by Dan Slott and Stefano Caselli.
Technically, an image of MVP first appeared in Civil
War Battle Damage Report, which came out one month prior to Avengers:
The Initiative I#1. Given that solicits had already been released for
Avengers: The Initiative prior to that, it's a safe bet to assume MVP
had been created prior to the publication of the Civil War Battle
Damage Report.
Profile by Proto-Man.
CLARIFICATIONS:
MVP has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Avengers Assemble, MVP entry, main image (MVP, main image)
Avengers: The Initiative I#1, p13, pan6 (MVP, headshot)
Avengers: The Initiative I Annual#1, p31, pan4 (Michael Van Patrick as a baby with mother)
Avengers: The Initiative I Annual#1, p31, pan5 (Michael Van Patrick doing isometric exercises)
Avengers: The Initiative I#1, p13, pan1 (MVP running Initiative obstacle course)
Avengers: The Initiative I Annual#1, p25, pan2 (Baron von Blitzschlag dissecting MVP's corpse)
Avengers: The Initiative I#2, p7, pan1 (MVP's corpse, in stasis)
Appearances:
Civil War Battle Damage Report (2007) - Anthony Flamini (head writer,
coordinator), Ronald Byrd (writer), Stefano Caselli (MVP Appendix entry art), Jeff Youngquist (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#1 (June, 2007) - Dan Slott (writer), Stefano Caselli (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#2 (July, 2007) - Dan Slott (writer), Stefano Caselli (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#4 (September, 2007) - Dan Slott (writer), Stefano Caselli (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#6 (November, 2007) - Dan Slott (writer), Steve Uy (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#7 (December, 2007) - Dan Slott (writer), Stefano Caselli (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers:
The Initiative I Annual#1 (January, 2008) - "Reason for
Being" story - Dan Slott, Christos Gage (writers), Clayton Henry
(pencils), Paul Neary (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor); "Born to Serve"
story - Dan Slott, Christos Gage (writers), Tom Feister, Carmine Di
Giandomenico (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#8 (February, 2008) - Dan Slott, Christos N.
Gage (writers), Stefano Caselli (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#9 (March, 2008) - Dan Slott, Christos N. Gage (writers), Stefano Caselli (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#10 (May, 2008) - Dan Slott, Christos N. Gage (writers), Stefano Caselli (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#11 (June, 2008) - Dan Slott, Christos N. Gage (writers), Stefano Caselli (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#12 (June, 2008) - Dan Slott, Christos N. Gage (writers), Steve Uy (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers:
The Initiative I#14 (August, 2008) - Dan Slott, Christos N. Gage
(writers), Stefano Caselli (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#22 (April, 2009) - Christos N. Gage (writer), Humberto Ramos (art), Jeanine Schaefer (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#23 (June, 2009) - Christos N. Gage (writer), Humberto Ramos (art), Jeanine Schaefer (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#25 (August, 2009) - Christos N. Gage (writer), Humberto Ramos (art), Jeanine Schaefer (editor)
Avengers:
The Initiative I#28 (November, 2009) - Christos N. Gage (writer), Rafa
Sandoval (pencils), Roger Bonet (inks), Bill Rosemann (editor)
Avengers Assemble (July, 2010) - Jeff Christiansen, Sean McQuaid (head
writers, coordinators), Rob London, Michael Hoskin, Ronald Byrd, Markus
Raymond, Madison Carter, Gabriel Shechter, Kevin Garcia, Mike
O'Sullivan, Chris Biggs, Jacob Rougemont (writers), Gus Vazquez (MVP
entry art), Jeff Youngquist (editor)
Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt#5 (November, 2011) - Sean McKeever (writer), Mike Norton (art), Lauren Sankovitch (editor)
First Posted: 11/30/2018
Last updated: 11/30/2018
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and
© 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you
like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!