Michael van Patrick was one of the greatest student athletes in the country. Although MVP didn't possess any special powers, his body was genetically perfect due to a lifetime adherence to a special diet and exercise program developed by his great grandfather Dr. Abraham Erskine.

Michael was recruited by Justice as part of the Initiative and took the name MVP. MVP was killed during an incident when Armory's Tactigon raged out of control. After his death Dr. Blitzschlag performed cloning experiments on MVP's body, first cloning it at least four times. One of the clones was given the identity of the late Michael van Patrick and sent back home.

KIA was one of the successive clones of the MVP. The clone, who was distinguished by his whited out eyes, had Armory's moves programmed into him in preparation to use the Omega-Level weapon that killed the original MVP. The Tactigon interfaced with this clone's mind activating latent memories of the real MVP's death. Hacking into the Initiative's computer, the clone learned of his "death" and gained a list of all those who had been present at the time. The disturbed clone demolished the cloning lab, attacking Baron Von Blitzschlag while saying the term Killed in Action over and over again and carving the initials "KIA" into his chest. The clone continued its rampage through Camp Hammond, striking heavily at those whose names were on his list and attacking anyone else who got in his way.

The clone attempted to find the comatose Gauntlet, the drill instructor who had sent MVP to the ill-fated combat training session. However, Gauntlet's weapon, taken from an alien that faced off against the Alien who controlled the Tactigon in Gauntlet and Armory, seemingly took control of Gauntlet's body forcing him to acquire the sword element of his alien's armor which recovered when he originally bonded with the alien glove device. The two later battled and KIA brought Gauntlet out of his coma, in a effort to face the man rather than the gauntlet weapon.

After fighting Gauntlet, KIA battled his way through the Initiative to follow trainees Cloud 9, Komodo and Hardball to the location of MVP's first clone, Bulls Gap, Tennessee, where they were attempting to convince the first clone to download its memories into a device (and most likely leave himself braindead) which could then upload them into KIA to reset his mind. After arriving at the location, KIA was met by the collective Initiative force of the Mighty Avengers, the remaining Scarlet Spiders, a rogue New Warriors group and the trainees. In the climax of the battle, the first clone used the device to download KIA memories leaving his body brain-dead. After the battle, Slapstick took the device, which now read "ready to transmit brain patters to new host body" leaving KIA's eventual fate open-ended.