Scarlet Spiders (Earth-616)

Scarlet Spiders
Name	Scarlet Spiders
Aliases	Red Team, "Tony Stark's Spider-Slayers"
Members
Former Member(s)	Patrick, Michael (deceased), Van (deceased)
Affiliation and Identity
Identity	Known to Authorities
Allies	Spider-Man (Peter Parker)
Enemies	KIA, Vulturions, Ragnarok, Osborn's Initiative, Sinister Syndicate
Origin and Status
Origin	A trio of MVP clones given duplicates of the Iron-Spider costume.
Status	Defunct
Reality	Earth-616
Base of Operations	Formerly Camp Hammond, Stamford, Connecticut
Place of Formation	Camp Hammond, Stamford, Connecticut
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Dan Slott, Stefano Caselli
First	Avengers: The Initiative #3 (June, 2007)
First	Avengers: The Initiative #3 (June, 2007)
Last	Avengers: The Initiative #22 (February, 2009)
Last	Avengers: The Initiative #22 (February, 2009)

History

The Scarlet Spiders were three clones of the seemingly-deceased Initiative recruit, MVP. After his death via training accident, Dr. Blitzschlag found his genome too valuable to simply throw away and with reluctant permission from Yellowjacket proceeded to clone him. The clones were named Michael, Van, and Patrick. To accelerate their development, telemetry education was fed into their brains by Taskmaster to have the martial arts prowess and physical muscle memory and moves of Spider-Man. All three of them wore the 'Iron Spider' Stark armor which Parker formerly wore pre-Civil War and during the event. Originally, they identified themselves as "Red Team" on the field. They took down the Sinister Syndicate consisting of Shocker, Boomerang, and Hydro-Man.

When Blitzschlag was visiting New York City after the events of World War Hulk, he was attacked by a group of Vulturions, who stole the plans for a gamma bomb he was carrying. Coming to his aid, the Scarlet Spiders pursued the Vulturions until being attacked by Peter Parker, angry over Stark's use of other Spider-Men. Taking one of the members out, he was eventually convinced by a second to help them against the Vulturions. Arriving in time to help Van, the two Scarlet Spiders utilized a cloaking technology built into their suits to make them appear to be differently-costumed versions of Spider-Man, distracting the newest Vulturions while Peter Parker took down the original member, Honcho. Thankful for his help, the Scarlet Spiders went against orders, and instead of capturing Parker, they made it appear as if he had been a member of the team, throwing doubt on whether he was ever actually Spider-Man.

File:Spideryknock15.jpg

The Vulturions take on a Scarlet Spider

A formerly deceased clone of MVP acquired a top secret weapon known as the Tactigon and began referring to himself as KIA (Killed In Action). Insane, and greatly influenced by the alien technology, he began systematically hunting down all members of the Initiative whom he felt was responsible for his condition. During the attack, he decapitated one of the three Scarlet Spiders, Van, after they unmasked themselves in an attempt to calm KIA. The surviving Scarlet Spiders, Michael and Patrick, make their way to Bulls Gap, Tennessee to aid in the capture of KIA.

After the defeat of KIA, the surviving Scarlet Spiders, along with the MVP clone who replaced the original MVP to fool his parents, and the real MVP's father, joined with Justice's New Warriors as a Counter Initiative/Counter Force of underground registered heroes.

Following the Skrull invasion, Counter Force were made wanted criminals when Norman Osborn began taking control of the 50-State Initiative. The team showed up at Camp Hammond, having retaken the name New Warriors, to battle a rampaging clone of Thor, Ragnarok, but with the cost of losing Scarlet Spider Michael. In the aftermath of the battle, Patrick, the last surviving Scarlet Spider, publicly unmasked himself, revealing to the media that the Initiative had secretly cloned MVP.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

• Iron Spider Armor: The Scarlet Spider's wear a variation of Spider-man's initial Iron Spider armor; the high tech spider suits carry a variety of various systems, weapons and accoutrements.
  • Waldoes: The Iron Spider Armor possesses four mechanical spider-arms, or "waldoes," that can be used to see around corners (via cameras in the tips) and to manipulate objects indirectly. Stark describes them as too delicate to use in combat, yet they have used to smash through the sensors in the Titanium Man's helmet.

• • Liquid Metal Nano-Fiber: The armor is composed of a liquid metal nano-fiber and can more or less disappear when not needed. It responds to neuro-chemical impulses, as well as blend into a variety of backgrounds. He can give it the shapes and colors of his classic costumes for instance.

• • Gliding: The armor incorporates mesh webbing that grants the suit mid-range gliding capabilities on wind currents, similar to the suit of Spider-Man 2099's.

• • Bulletproof and Heatproof: The armor is both bulletproof and heatproof, thanks to it being composed of a heat-resistant Kevlar micro-fiber that can resist small-caliber bullets.

• • Built-in Emergency Scanner: The armor possesses a built-in police, fire, and emergency scanner that allows the wearer to listen to police, fire, and/or emergency broadcasts through radio-waves.

• • Audio/Visual Amplification: The armor possesses audio and visual amplification, enabling him to see in the infrared and ultraviolet portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

• • Carbon-Filtering System: The armor possesses a carbon-filtering system in the mouth area that enables the wearer to breathe in toxic environments by filtering out toxic particles in the air. It also grants the ability to breathe underwater.

• • Short-Range GPS Microwave Communication System: The suit possesses a short-range GPS microwave communication system that enables Spider-Man to communicate with others over short distances.

• • Detachment: Part of the costume can detach it self from the wearer to cover an object too dangerous to touch, such as a radioactive asteroid.

• • Adaptive Camouflage: Allows the Scarlet Spiders to appear to be wearing any classic Spider-Man costume, or to copy any nearby clothing.

Weapons

• Pulse cannons
• Repulsor grenades

Transportation

Web shooters

Notes

• Part of the Shadow Initiative, a classified, black-ops arm of the Initiative and personal bodyguards to Henry Gyrich.
• They look to Baron Von Blitzschlag as a father figure and even share some of his DNA.

Trivia

• Unlike Spider-Man's Iron Spider outfit, the Scarlet Spiders are equipped with four "waldoes" whereas Spider-Man only had three.

See Also

• 9 appearance(s) of Scarlet Spiders (Earth-616)
• 2 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Scarlet Spiders (Earth-616)
• 3 mention(s) of Scarlet Spiders (Earth-616)
• 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Scarlet Spiders (Earth-616)
• 4 image(s) of Scarlet Spiders (Earth-616)
• 3 member(s) of Scarlet Spiders (Earth-616)