List of Marvel Comics characters: V
Vagabond
Vagabond is the former partner and girlfriend of Nomad. She prevented Black Racer's assassination attempt on Sidewinder. She thwarted and captured Dr. Karl Malus during his attempt to take over Power Broker, Inc. She was recruited and trained by the Scourge organization; during her training she had a change of heart and decided to help the U.S. Agent shut down the Scourge organization. Later she was being considered as a potential recruit for the Initiative program, according to Civil War: Battle Damage Report.Other versions of Vagabond
Vagabond is a superhero, a police officer who dressed as a homeless man, who appeared in U.S.A. Comics #2–4.Vakume
Valkin
Valkyrie
Vamp
Vamp is a Corporation agent in the Marvel Universe. The character, created by Roy Thomas, Don Glut, and John Buscema, first appeared in Captain America #217 in January 1978. Within the context of the stories, Vamp has an evil alter-ego called Animus and infiltrates S.H.I.E.L.D. She is killed by the Scourge of the Underworld.Years later, Arnim Zola created a Vamp/Animus proto-husk creature, which would encounter Deadpool on two separate occasions.
Rachel Van Helsing
Rachel Van Helsing is a vampire hunter, created by Archie Goodwin and Gene Colan, who first appeared in Tomb of Dracula #3. She is the granddaughter of Abraham Van Helsing, and trained a vampire hunter since childhood by Quincy Harker after Dracula killed her parents. On one of her missions, Rachel was held hostage by two of Dracula's brides who phoned Quincy Harker, who was on the verge of killing Dracula, and told him to leave Dracula alone or Rachel would die. Harker agreed to the brides' demands, much to Rachel's frustration. The brides then let Rachel go. She later fought alongside hunters Quincy, Taj Nital, Frank Drake, and Blade, during which time she developed an uneasy romantic relationship with Drake.After Quincy's death, Rachel retires from vampire hunting, but Dracula turns her into a vampire. Overcoming his control, she asks Wolverine to kill her, which he does. Frank Drake later avenges her death by aiding Doctor Strange in destroying all vampires on Earth.
Rachel Van Helsing in other media
Rachel Van Helsing appears in Tomb of Dracula, voiced by Mami Koyama in the original Japanese version and Melanie McQueen in the English dub.Michael Van Patrick
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.
The events of "Civil War" required all superpowered individuals to register with the American government, with at least some of these individuals being sent to the training camp Camp Hammond. 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 demonstrated extraordinary speed and agility as he broke the camp's obstacle course record for users without super-speed on his first attempt. During a combat simulator exercise, Initiative trainee Armory panicked and fired blindly on the other recruits, killing MVP. Initiative scientist Baron Von Blitzschlag advocates cloning MVP, to chief administrator Yellowjacket's disapproval.
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. As the clone was grown to its original's age, all of his original's skills and abilities were programmed into him. The first clone is sent to his family's farm in Liberty, Kentucky, with a false story that he had failed the Initiative program because of his lack of powers. The clone, who is 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.Scarlet Spiders
Three more clones, developed the same time as the first but with added genetic material donated from Blitzschlag, were programmed with MVP's skills and abilities along with those of Spider-Man. The three clones, Michael, Van and Patrick, were suited up in redesigned Iron Spider suits that Spider-Man had worn during the Civil War.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, Red Team Two, and Red Team Three 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, a new 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, 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. Yellowjacket, one of the chief administrators at Camp Hammond, ironically referred to MVP as "Captain America, Jr." 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.The first clone has those same abilities, with the Scarlet Spiders additionally having the skills, reflexes/reactions and moves of Spider-Man programmed into them to the limit of regular human ability.
Michael, Van and Patrick's Scarlet Spider suits, a redesign of Tony Stark's Iron Spider armor, 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 features 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 display mechanical web-shooters while retaining the ability to change appearance to other versions of the Spider-Man costume or street clothes. In New Warriors vol. 4 #15, it was revealed the suits have had their StarkTech removed, which prevented the suits being affected when all StarkTech was made inoperable by Skrull invaders. However, this is seemingly retconned in a line spoken by one of the Spiders: "should be StarkTech like ours, but it's so alien", in Avengers: The Initiative #22, when the Spiders interface with other technology.
Attached to the "KIA" Michael Van Patrick is Armory's former weapon, known as the Tactigon, which was detached when she was expelled from the Initiative program. It is a multi-dimensional alien device that, once attached to a body, is able to shift into an infinite number of weapons and tools with a built-in safety designed to only enable the wearer to wield the specific weapons/tools needed to get the job at hand done.