Origin

Michael Varadi is the father of a six year old boy named Adam. Adam was unfortunately kidnapped and killed by serial killer, Richard Jacob Kelly. Kelly never saw the inside of a courtroom though because Michael waited outside and shot him in the head before he could walk up the stairs. Because he has an existing rap sheet, Michael was unable to avoid jail time. After three trials, he was finally convicted of second degree manslaughter and given six years.

Creation

Michael Verardi first appears in the segment "The Blizzard" by Geoff Johns, Andrea Mutti, and Rob Leigh in IMAGE! 30th Anniversary Anthology #1.

In the first chapter, his name was spelled as both Verardi and Varadi. Following titles did not use the Varadi surname.

Major Story Arcs

The Blizzard

Verardi was being transported to a prison in the mountains of Colorado to serve his sentence, along with four other prisoners, escorted by three prison guards. Unfortunately, it was during a very bad blizzard where visibility was low. Their bus crashed into a truck on the side of the road full of partially eaten bodies. The guards and prisoners were then attacked by The Monster responsible for bodies.

After the deaths of one prison guard and two prisoners, Verardi and the other survivors run through the forest and take refuge in a ranger's shack. On the way, Verardi survived a direct encounter with The Monster, which included hallucinations of his dead son and the man he killed. He reported back to the others that it might be due to The Monster. They band together, using a particularly unlikable prisoner as bait, but their attempts to kill The Monster were futile.

Plagued by visions of his dead son telling him to embrace his guilt, Verardi had enough. He grabbed an improvised bomb made from a propane tank and ran toward The Monster, blowing both of them up. Neither of their bodies were found.