Powers, 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 (actually the Skrull agent Criti Noll), 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, 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/reactions and moves of Spider-Man programmed into them to the degree of regular human ability.
Michael, Van, and Patrick's Scarlet Spider suits, a redesign of Tony Stark's Iron Spider armor (previously used by Spider-Man), 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. In New Warriors vol. 4 #15 (October 2008), 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 are shown to be able to 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 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 range of weapons or tools that are needed to get the job at hand done.
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Famous quotes containing the word equipment:
“Biological possibility and desire are not the same as biological need. Women have childbearing equipment. For them to choose not to use the equipment is no more blocking what is instinctive than it is for a man who, muscles or no, chooses not to be a weightlifter.”
—Betty Rollin (b. 1936)