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    Patrick

    Character » Patrick appears in 42 issues.

    Patrick was cloned from the body of Michael Van Patrick (MVP) of the Initiative after his death, and is one of the Initiative's Scarlet Spiders. He is the last surviving Scarlet Spider.

    Short summary describing this character.

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    Origin

    Avengers Assemble!
    Avengers Assemble!

    The story of Patrick begins with Doctor Abraham Erskine, the scientist who developed the super-soldier formula. It is known for certain that Erskine gave some to Steve Rogers, who gained extraordinary powers. Erskine was then assassinated (or at least is seemed that way) by Heinz Kruger, and the information of the formula was lost forever. Or so it seemed.

    Generations later, when the Initiative was formed, SHIELD officials acting under orders from Senator Henry Peter Gyrich approached 18-year-old Michael van Patrick, a descendant of Erskine, to begin super-human training. Rumors that he had super-human powers inherited from his father (who people claimed had taken the formula) had caused Michael Van Patrick to lose his track-and-field awards. He agreed to join the Initiative, but insisted he had no super-powers. Initiative scientist Baron von Blitzschlag ran several tests and stated that the boy was correct; even so, Gyrich insisted he join. The young man took the code-name MVP, which was also his initials.

    Creation

    Patrick was created by Dan Slot and Stefano Caselli and first appeared in Avengers: The Initiative issue 3 (2007).

    Major Story Arcs

    The Original Dies

    On the first day of training, tragedy struck. When Instructor Gauntlet foolishly released a robot on the students to test their powers, a young recruit named Trauma inadvertently activated his power to turn into people's worst fears. He became a spider, the inner terror of another recruit, Armory. Armory then panicked and turned her alien gauntlet into a high-power plasma-blaster and began to fire chaotically. MVP died saving recruit Cloud 9 from the blasts.

    Creation of the Scarlet Spiders

    Patrick
    Patrick

    Under orders from Gyrich, Blitzschlag "cloned" (or created genetic duplicates with most of the memories of) MVP. One clone was sent to MVP's home and pretended to be him, saying that he had been expelled after being confirmed to be powerless. Three other duplicates, who were likely slightly genetically modified, continued to work for the Initiative in secret as a test program in how cloned armies could exist. The three clones took the names Michael, Van, and Patrick. They were given the Iron Spider suits and became the Scarlet Spiders. The suits gave each clone invisibility, resistance, sonar, force fields (that were stronger when combined), gliding abilities, Stark-tech hardware including spy-ware, and four cybernetic arms.

    Armory had had her gauntlet removed and been fired from the Initiative and brought to an inpatient-unit of a psychiatric hospital. While there, she was under strict orders not to reveal anything about what had happened--something she obeyed despite being threatened with life-institution.

    Baron von Blitzschlag cared strongly for the Spiders, and began to treat them as if they were his children.

    First Mission

    On their first mission, the Spiders were sent to intervene in a battle between Spider-Man and Shocker, Boomerang, and Hydro-Man of the Sinister Syndicate (who had been in the middle of a theft). War Machine and Komodo entered the battle first, and took on Spider-man. The Syndicate decided to flee, but the Spiders tracked them down stealthily and within ten-minutes surrounded them. Using all their gadgets (especially force fields), they trapped the supers until War Machine and SHIELD agents arrived and arrested the villains.

    World War Hulk

    The Spiders next secret was to rescue several Initiative recruits (including Cloud 9) from an invading Hulk and his Warbound. In this mission, the Spiders were serving as a part of the Shadow Initiative. The Spiders did not accompany their teammates into the makeshift prison built in a ruined section of New York City, but waited with a small airship and brought out their teammates as well as all of the prisoners.

    Identity Revealed

    No Caption Provided

    In a subsequent mission, the Spiders were sent to apprehend the Vulturions. When they found them, the Vulturions were also attacked by Spider-man, who was on the run. This took place at a time when Spider-man's identity as Peter Parker was known to everyone. The Spiders found Parker, but his spider-sense warned him of their attack. In the ensuing fight, the Vulturions were defeated and Parker told the Spiders he was a hero and was just objecting to the Initiative's questionable activities. Realizing their own existences were both illegal and unethical (due to cover up a government mistake), they stopped fighting and went to a near-by news-camera. On live TV, the Spiders revealed their identities--much to the outrage of Gyrich.

    K.I.A. and losing his first brother

    Gyrich and Blitzschlag had been trying to have Armory's gauntlet bond to someone else; but, having its own intelligence, it would not. Finally the duo decided to activate a fifth MVP clone and try and bond the gauntlet to it. The idea worked; however the clone was driven insane and decided to take down the Initiative for letting MVP die and trying to cover it up. The clone took the name K.I.A., an acronym for Killed In Action like Gyrich claimed had happened to MVP.

    In the ensuing battle at Camp Stamford the Scarlet Spiders decided they might calm K.I.A. down by revealing their identities to him. He did not respond well, turning his gauntlet into a plasma-blaster and blowing Van's head off, just like had happened to MVP. The only difference was Van had really been Killed In Action. Eventually, Cloud 9 managed to distract K.I.A. long enough for the Initiative to kill him. However, Justice (Initiative trainer Vance Astrovik) decided this was the last straw and announced he was forming a new New Warriors team and leaving the Initiative. Several of the Initiative recruits decided to join him, including both Scarlet Spiders. Initiative Chief Tony Stark (Iron Man) decided to allow the New Warriors to legally continue their activities outside of the designated Initiative team.

    Secret Invasion

    When the fighting of the final battle in Secret Invasion, the war between the United States and an invading Skrull army, began the New Warriors decided to join in the fight. The Spiders fought bravely and both survived.

    The Initiative: Disassembled and losing a second brother

    No Caption Provided

    The New Warriors decided that MVP's body should be shown to the public and then given to his family. They decided to steal it from the Initiative in the days following Secret Invasion, when Camp Stamford was already in chaos and they thought there would be less opposition. A day before they began their mission, the newly appointed Initiative Chief Norman Osborn repealed Stark's decision to allow the New Warriors to continue non-Initiative heroics an even said it was corruption, and thus the Warriors were already criminals.

    As the Warriors were on their way to steal MVP's body from Camp Stamford, the cyborg semi-clone of Thor named Ragnarok that had been believed to be dead was reactivated in Blitzschlag's lab, due to a code left by the Skrull Criti Noll when he was impersonating Hank Pym. Believing himself to be the real Thor, Ragnarok was infuriated when Blitzschlag told him otherwise. After zapping the scientist with a large dose of his mystical lightning, he stormed outside of the camp intent on destroying it for disrespecting the gods. The New Warriors decided to join the fight on the side of the Initiative. The Spiders attempted to use their Stark-Tech to hack into Ragnarok and stop him, but since Noll had secretly made him run on mostly Skrull-tech, the technique failed. Enraged at their attack, Ragnarok lashed out and killed Michael with a blow from his Mjolnir-copy hammer.

    The battle continued and Ragnarok easily gained the upper hand. However Blitzschlag then came from the rubble looking far healthier than he had in years. His body, which had powers of electricity, had been rejuvenated by Ragnarok's blast. He then confronted the enraged Thor-clone saying he had hours of video-footage proving Ragnarok was not the true god of thunder. Patrick then ran up and took off his mask and that of Michael's, showing that the Initiative had truly been cloning people. Confused and upset, Ragnarok left Camp Stamford saying he intended to destroy Thor for (in his opinion) disgracing Asgard by bringing it among mortals. Patrick was then left as the last of the Scarlet Spiders. Blitzschlag then approached Patrick and asked him to stay with him. Patrick replied that even though he loved Blitzschlag very much, he was a clone and did not feel comfortable staying with the Initiative. He then left with the New Warriors, who took MVP's body with them. The Initiative, exhausted from battle, decided not to try and stop them.

    Dark Reign

    No Caption Provided

    As Norman Osborn's Initiative became increasingly corrupt, several of its formers employees quit and became illegal vigilantes. These people (including Tigra and Gauntlet) joined the New Warriors and formed the Avengers Resistance, meant to be true heroes and battle the villains posing as heroes in the Initiative. After punching and then announcing his teammate Outback (really Patrick's old foe Boomerang) was steeling and blaming it on Non-Stop, Nevada's team Heavy Hitters' captain Prodigy challenged the Initiative and decided to make a stand. Joining him were his teammates Non-Stop and Telemetry. The Resistance decided to intervene and rescue them. Patrick fought in the battle, and survived and escaped. The Resistance successfully rescued Telemetry and Non-Stop, though their teammate Night Thrasher was injured and captured while Prodigy decided to stay behind and make a public stand for justice. A hidden camera placed by Tigra recorded the Initiative beating Prodigy badly, and the Resistance posted it on the Internet.

    The Resistance then decided to rescue Night Thrasher (formerly known as Bandit). Patrick joined in, and the Resistance and Initiative were forced to team-up when Nightmare attempted to invade this dimension. Afterwords, the Resistance escaped with Thrasher.

    Siege

    When Norman Osborn and his forces decided to attack Asgard (against the President's orders), Tigra convinced the Resistance to attack Camp HAMMER (the Initiative's new headquarters). Patrick participated, and fought bravely. This attack divided Osborn's forces between Asgard and Camp HAMMER, and participated in his downfall. With Steve Rogers replacing Osborn, the Superhuman Registration Act was repealed and Patrick became a legal hero once again, though he continued to serve with the non-government sponsored New Warriors.

    Grim Hunt

    The new Kraven the Hunter (Ana Kravinoff) began kidnapping many spider-themed heroes (mostly connected to Spider-man) in order to complete her plan to resurrect her family and kill Spider-man. Kraven then began killing the spider, and she located Patrick. However, with Spider-man's help, he managed to survive.

    Fear Itself

    No Caption Provided

    Commander Steve Rogers informs Prodigy of the unknown meteors that have fallen from the heavens and mass panic is on the horizon. Rogers asks Prodigy to gather heroes on a volunteer basis to help keep the peace and lead a new Initiative where there is no forced conscription or registration. Prodigy agrees to become the leader of the new Initiative and most of the former Initiative members including Scarlet Spider gather in Washington DC.

    Scarlet Spider is assigned to help out in New Jersey with Gravity, Firestar, Frog-Man and Geiger where they assist civilians from a burning building. Crossbones would escape from the Raft after a mystical hammer fell from the sky and crashed into the prison facility. Crossbones was inside the building and already killed several officers and innocent civilians. Crossbones comes into conflict with Scarlet Spider and his teammates. Scarlet Spider webs Crossbones to the floor but the deadly felon frees himself with a knife and punches Patrick in the jaw. Scarlet Spider would recover but Crossbones appears to have escaped after he throws a grenade.

    Powers

    Patrick has no powers save for being in peak human condition, however his Scarlet Spider armor grants him the ability to fire webbing from web-shooters on his wrists, camouflage himself by altering the armor's coloring to blend into the background, stick to (and climb) walls, and attack enemies with mechanical spider-legs that sprout from the gold disc on his back. The armor also has micro-servos that boost Patrick's strength, speed and agility. Patrick is also trained in hand-to-hand combat, and shows some gymnastic talent.

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