The Centurion
The life and legend of Earth's first true superhero are too well known to be repeated here. What is perhaps not so well known is the fact that the Centurion did not possess the epic level of power he demonstrated in his final battle with Omega when he began his career as a hero. Most people do know that he was originally only able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, rather than fly, but they fail to appreciate that his other attributes were not quite as superlative as they would become. Hopefully, this series of portraits, illustrating his capabilities at various points in his life, and discussing how he grew in power to become the mythic being that he was by his end, will clarify matters.
Further, one of the Centurion's most significant weaknesses was entirely unknown to the public. Perhaps because of the way in which he acquired his powers, through exposure to energies beyond ordinary space and time, the Centurion's powers would weaken when he himself traveled in time. Had he, at the time of his final battle with Omega, travelled back in time to his youth, the time travelling version of him would be no more powerful than the version of him which existed natively in that time period. When he time travelled to periods prior to his birth, he possessed no powers whatsoever.
An interesting question, and one that can sadly no longer be answered, is what would have happened had he travelled into the future ...
Mark Leeds (1931-1936) -- PL 10
The child who would become the Centurion demonstrated his powers even in his cradle, and so there is literally no point at which he can have been considered a typical child. This information expresses the abilities he possessed in his early adolescence. While he didn't adopt a costumed identity until later, he often did find himself getting into adventures in these years. Unfortunately, it can be fairly said that young Mark Leeds was somewhat horrified by the potential for havoc that his strength, even restrained, could cause. He was particularly afraid of what his strength might do to a member of the opposite sex if he gave into his emotions around them, and often seemed timid around young women of his acquaintance as a consequence.
This stage of his life came to an end when, in 1936, both his adoptive parents passed away within a few weeks of each other. He was more than just saddened by this; it was fair to say that he was devastated by this loss, which left him alone in a world that he didn't fit. Almost immediately after the funeral, Mark Leeds left Freedom City and began heading north, intending to spend the rest of his life in the Northwest Territories of Canada, where he would encounter as few people as possible, and thus put at risk the same few. Fortunately for the rest of humanity, he did meet people there, and one of those encounters changed the course of his life.
Abilities: STR 12/3 |
STA 12/3 |
AGL 1 |
DEX 0 |
FGT 6 |
INT 0 |
AWE 1 |
PRE 2
Powers: Invulnerability (Immunity 6 [cold, disease, heat, poison, pressure, radiation]; Impervious Toughness 10),
Might (Enhanced Stamina 9; Enhanced Strength 9),
Super-Senses (Senses 4 [extended vision 2, low-light vision, ultra-hearing]),
Super-Strength (Enhanced Strength 3, Limited to lifting),
Swiftness (Enhanced Advantage 1 [Improved Initiative]; Leaping 6; Quickness 4; Speed 5)
Advantages: All-Out Attack,
Improved Initiative, Language 1 (Latin, English is native).
Skills: Close Combat: Unarmed 2 (+8), Expertise: History 5 (+5), Insight 4 (+5), Intimidation 4 (+6), Perception 4 (+5), Persuasion 3 (+5).
Offense: Initiative +5, Unarmed +8 (Close Damage 12).
Defense: Dodge 5, Parry 6, Fortitude 12, Toughness 12, Will 5.
Totals: Abilities 32 + Powers 76 + Advantages 2 + Skills 11 + Defenses 8 = 129 points
Complications: Doing Good--Motivation. Afraid of His Own Strength. Family (parents).
Minor. Secret. Weakness (time travel).
The Centurion (1938-1950) -- PL 12
It's been said that even if you travel as far away from your home as you can imagine, there's a good chance that you'll end up meeting someone from there. So it was with young Mark Leeds, who had journeyed far into the north of Canada only to run into a fellow Freedonian -- Dr. Thomas Osiris Prophet, the legendary Man of Marble, whose adventures Mark had read about without ever imagining he might meet the man behind them. Doc Prophet maintained a small laboratory in northern Canada to conduct experiments which might be too dangerous for civilization, and happened to encounter the young paragon in the course of one.
Amazed by the abilities that Mark demonstrated, the doctor invited him to make his home in this sanctuary, as it lay unoccupied when Prophet was busy elsewhere. The two men formed an odd friendship, and had many conversations about the world and their respective places in it. Under the Doctor's tutelage, Mark came to see that he could do many things with his strength that could help people, rather than place them at risk. On the other hand, he also realized that if he made himself available to do that work, as Doc Prophet did, he would be forever called upon at any and all hours, leaving him with no time to himself.
From these discussions came the idea of the secret identity that Mark would eventually embrace. Drawing on the Roman history his mother had taught him, he developed the identity of the Centurion with Prophet's help, as well as creating the false Mark Leeds -- a stammering coward -- to ensure that no one would link the two men. Doc also helped to train him in the limits of his abilities, so that he understood his exact powers and just how much control he had over them, ensuring that he no longer had much cause to fear them.
Eventually, Mark decided that he was ready, and returned to his hometown to begin the great work that Dr. Prophet had urged on him. While it may be true that, without the love and support of his adoptive parents, the boy might have grown up to be a tyrant, it can also be said that without the influence of Doc Prophet, he would never have grown up to become a superhero.
It should be said, however, that Doc Prophet's training alone cannot account for the increase in his superhuman abilities that occurred over the year and a half that they worked together. Such an increase suggests a hypothesis about the way that the Centurion's powers increased -- that it happened in response to frustrations or unhappiness in his life. This hypothesis also offers an explanation for the way that his ability to make enormous leaps transformed into the ability to defy gravity, coming as it did within a year of his earliest battles with the man who would become his nemesis, August Roman.
Abilities: STR 15/5 |
STA 15/5 |
AGL 1 |
DEX 1 |
FGT 7 |
INT 1 |
AWE 2 |
PRE 2
Powers: Invulnerability (Immunity 8 [aging, cold, disease, heat, poison, pressure, radiation, starvation & thirst]; Impervious Toughness 10),
Might (Enhanced Stamina 10; Enhanced Strength 10),
Super-Senses (Senses 4 [extended vision 2, low-light vision, ultra-hearing]),
Swiftness (Enhanced Advantage 1 [Improved Initiative]; Leaping 8*; Quickness 4; Speed 6).
* Becomes Flight 8 in late 1942.
Advantages: All-Out Attack,
Improved Initiative, Language 1 (Latin, English is native), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 6, Ultimate Effort (Strength checks).
Skills: Close Combat: Unarmed 2 (+9), Expertise: Civics 4 (+5), Expertise: History 5 (+6), Insight 8 (+10), Intimidation 6 (+8), Perception 4 (+6), Persuasion 5 (+7).
Offense: Initiative +5, Unarmed +9 (Close Damage 15).
Defense: Dodge 6, Parry 7, Fortitude 15, Toughness 15, Will 7.
Totals: Abilities 48 + Powers 81/89 + Advantages 10 + Skills 17 + Defenses 10 = 166/174 points
Complications: Doing Good--Motivation. Secret Identity. Weakness (time travel).
The Centurion (1951-1968) -- PL 13
The next major increase in the Centurion's power may be tied to the great change in his life which occurred when he wed Laurie Lamont in 1950, having revealed his secret identity to her some time before that. Others have argued that the growth he demonstrated in the Atom Age came as a response to the fact that he realized that human beings could now move faster than he'd ever imagined possible, and that bursting shells could now do enough damage to destroy whole cities. Another factor might have been his ongoing frustration that, nearly a decade after he'd first clashed with Augustus Roman's criminal empire, he had proven unable to keep his arch-enemy behind bars.
This hypothesis that he experienced growths of power in response to changes, frustrations and tragedies in his life might seem contraindicated by the way that he didn't appear to experience any when his friends and colleagues in the Liberty League retired or disappeared. However, we know from other accounts that he wasn't particularly close to the most notoriously vanished Liberty Leaguer, the man called Midnight. Contrariwise, he was friends with the original Bowman and Arrow, and encouraged the young Arrow to take up his mentor's identity, just as Doc Prophet had encouraged the Centurion himself.
Something else that becomes apparent in these accounts is that the Centurion never considered himself to be a leader of his fellow heroes, but just part of the same team as them -- a team which included the law-abiding public and the police. He was faintly bewildered by the divisions that were beginning to demonstrate themselves in American society, and tried to ignore them as much as possible. He saw himself as encouraging others to do what they already knew to be the right thing, rather than telling them what that right thing was.
This was also the era where he formally took charge of Doc Prophet's laboratory, following the man's own retirement, and began to transform it into his Sanctum. He had first travelled to what seemed to be his original homeworld but was actually the world Terra-Roma in 1947, and used the Sanctum as a place where he could embrace Rome, where his home life with his wife was completely Americanized. Even with his wife in his life, he maintained a sharp division between his identity as the Centurion and the life of Mark Leeds -- and she was part of Mark Leeds' life, not the Centurion's.
Abilities: STR 16/5 |
STA 16/5 |
AGL 2 |
DEX 1 |
FGT 8 |
INT 1 |
AWE 2 |
PRE 3
Powers: Invulnerability (Immunity 9 [aging, cold, disease, heat, poison, pressure, radiation, starvation & thirst, vacuum]; Impervious Toughness 10),
Might (Enhanced Stamina 11; Enhanced Strength 11),
Super-Senses (Senses 4 [extended vision 2, low-light vision, ultra-hearing]),
Super-Strength (Enhanced Strength 2, Limited to Lifting),
Swiftness (Enhanced Advantage 1 [Improved Initiative]; Flight 9; Quickness 4; Speed 6).
Advantages: All-Out Attack, Equipment 5 (Sanctum), Improved Disarm,
Improved Initiative, Inspire, Language 1 (Latin, English is native), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 7, Second Chance (mind control), Ultimate Effort (Strength checks).
Skills: Close Combat: Unarmed 2 (+10), Expertise: Civics 4 (+5), Expertise: History 7 (+8), Expertise: Teaching 4 (+7), Insight 8 (+10), Intimidation 6 (+9), Perception 4 (+6), Persuasion 5 (+8), Technology 4 (+5).
Offense: Initiative +6, Unarmed +10 (Close Damage 16).
Defense: Dodge 7, Parry 8, Fortitude 16, Toughness 16, Will 8.
Totals: Abilities 54 + Powers 98 + Advantages 19 + Skills 22 + Defenses 11 = 204 points
Complications: Doing Good--Motivation. Enemy (Augustus Roman).
Fame. Family (wife).
Secret Identity. Weakness (time travel).
The Centurion (1969-1982) -- PL 14
Just a few years after the first Terminus Invasion, the Centurion met with Tomen the Archivist and learned from him the truth of what had become of his homeworld. It seems fairly likely that the stress, anger and grief of this realization were what spurred his development to yet another level of power, which he maintained throughout what was called the Bronze Age. For those who don't accept that hypothesis, it might be that he developed this increased power through his fairly common clashes with Omega's servants, the Annihilists.
This was also the era when the Centurion had the role of leader of the Freedom League forced upon him. He made a valiant effort to handle this task, but it proved to be beyond him, and he would ultimately preside over the end of the original League. It took the death of Lady Starbright to make him realize that he'd made a terrible mistake in disbanding the League, which led to him taking the initiative to form the Guard in response. This was a dramatic change from how he'd been in the past, and he ended up accepting the role of the Guard's leader as well.
Abilities: STR 18/5 |
STA 18/5 |
AGL 2 |
DEX 1 |
FGT 8 |
INT 1 |
AWE 2 |
PRE 3
Powers: Invulnerability (Immunity 9 [aging, cold, disease, heat, poison, pressure, radiation, starvation & thirst, vacuum]; Sustained Immunity 2 [suffocation]; Impervious Toughness 10),
Might (Enhanced Stamina 13; Enhanced Strength 13),
Super-Senses (Senses 4 [extended vision 2, low-light vision, ultra-hearing]),
Super-Strength (Enhanced Strength 2, Limited to Lifting),
Swiftness (Enhanced Advantage 1 [Improved Initiative]; Flight 10; Quickness 4; Speed 6).
Advantages: All-Out Attack, Equipment 5 (Sanctum), Improved Disarm,
Improved Initiative, Inspire, Language 1 (Latin, English is native), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 7, Second Chance (mind control), Ultimate Effort (Strength checks).
Skills: Close Combat: Unarmed 2 (+10), Expertise: Civics 4 (+5), Expertise: History 7 (+8), Expertise: Teaching 4 (+7), Insight 8 (+10), Intimidation 8 (+11), Perception 6 (+8), Persuasion 5 (+8), Technology 6 (+7).
Offense: Initiative +6, Unarmed +10 (Close Damage 18).
Defense: Dodge 7, Parry 8, Fortitude 18, Toughness 18, Will 9.
Totals: Abilities 54 + Powers 110 + Advantages 19 + Skills 25 + Defenses 12 = 220 points
Complications: Doing Good--Motivation. Enemy (Augustus Roman).
Fame. Family (wife).
Secret Identity. Weakness (time travel).
The Centurion (1983-1989) -- PL 15
This change in power was unique, when compared to the others, as it was due more to the growth in the Centurion's skill in using his abilities than the growth of those abilities themselves. While the Guard was a more loose organization than the Freedom League had been, the Centurion made a genuine effort to learn from his new teammates, and practiced combat exercises with them as he had not done with any of his previous teams. The result was a Centurion who was more proficient in fighting than he had ever been, perhaps appropriate for this Iron Age.
Abilities: STR 18/5 |
STA 18/5 |
AGL 2 |
DEX 1 |
FGT 8 |
INT 1 |
AWE 2 |
PRE 3
Powers: Invulnerability (Immunity 9 [aging, cold, disease, heat, poison, pressure, radiation, starvation & thirst, vacuum]; Sustained Immunity 2 [suffocation]; Impervious Toughness 10),
Might (Enhanced Stamina 13; Enhanced Strength 13),
Super-Senses (Senses 4 [extended vision 2, low-light vision, ultra-hearing]),
Super-Strength (Enhanced Strength 4, Limited to Lifting),
Swiftness (Enhanced Advantage 1 [Improved Initiative]; Flight 10; Quickness 4; Speed 6).
Advantages: All-Out Attack, Equipment 5 (Sanctum), Improved Disarm,
Improved Initiative, Inspire, Interpose, Language 1 (Latin, English is native), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 9, Second Chance (mind control), Ultimate Effort (Strength checks).
Skills: Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+12), Expertise: Civics 4 (+5), Expertise: History 9 (+10), Expertise: Teaching 6 (+7), Insight 10 (+12), Intimidation 8 (+11), Perception 8 (+10), Persuasion 5 (+8), Technology 8 (+9).
Offense: Initiative +6, Unarmed +12 (Close Damage 18).
Defense: Dodge 9, Parry 10, Fortitude 18, Toughness 18, Will 11.
Totals: Abilities 54 + Powers 112 + Advantages 22 + Skills 31 + Defenses 18 = 237 points
Complications: Doing Good--Motivation. Enemy (Augustus Roman).
Fame. Family (wife).
Secret Identity. Weakness (time travel).
The Centurion (1990-1993) -- PL 16
Laurie Leeds, the wife of Mark Leeds, died in 1990. This data point provides some of the best evidence for the hypothesis concerning the Centurion's power level, as it was clear to both civilian witnesses and to his fellow heroes, that the Centurion in these last years had grown considerably in power even when compared to how he had grown after 1982. It was also clear that he was beginning to lose the connection he'd always had with his mortal life, spending most of his time in his Sanctum rather than living as Mark Leeds. He admitted to some of those he trusted that he was afraid of these changes, but felt helpless to stop them. Who can say what he would have become, had all the possibilities of his life not resolved into the sad certainty of its end during the Terminus Invasion?
Abilities: STR 20/5 |
STA 20/5 |
AGL 2 |
DEX 1 |
FGT 8 |
INT 1 |
AWE 2 |
PRE 3
Powers: Invulnerability (Immunity 9 [aging, cold, disease, heat, poison, pressure, radiation, starvation & thirst, vacuum]; Sustained Immunity 2 [suffocation]; Impervious Toughness 10),
Might (Enhanced Stamina 15; Enhanced Strength 15),
Super-Senses (Senses 4 [extended vision 2, low-light vision, ultra-hearing]),
Super-Strength (Enhanced Strength 2, Limited to Lifting),
Swiftness (Enhanced Advantage 1 [Improved Initiative]; Flight 10; Quickness 4; Speed 6).
Advantages: All-Out Attack, Equipment 5 (Sanctum), Improved Disarm,
Improved Initiative, Inspire, Interpose, Language 1 (Latin, English is native), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 9, Second Chance (mind control), Ultimate Effort (Strength checks).
Skills: Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+12), Expertise: Civics 4 (+5), Expertise: History 9 (+10), Expertise: Teaching 6 (+7), Insight 10 (+12), Intimidation 8 (+11), Perception 8 (+10), Persuasion 5 (+8), Technology 8 (+9).
Offense: Initiative +6, Unarmed +12 (Close Damage 20).
Defense: Dodge 10, Parry 10, Fortitude 20, Toughness 20, Will 11.
Totals: Abilities 54 + Powers 118 + Advantages 22 + Skills 31 + Defenses 19 = 244 points
Complications: Doing Good--Motivation. Fame. Fears Losing Touch With Humanity. Secret Identity. Weakness (time travel).
The Centurion (hypothesized) -- PL 18
What follows is a
conservative estimate of what the Centurion might have been, by the present day, had he not died in 1993. It assumes that he would have undergone at least two rapid growths in power during the last quarter century, possibly in response to the Grue Invasion and the Silver Storm, but just as likely from the arrival of Centuria and the discovery that a world where his wife was still alive had just been destroyed. Of course, what he would have been doesn't tell us
who he would have been.
It may be worth noting that this information accurately describes the Centurion of Earth-1165, who was up until 2014 the sole intelligent inhabitant of his world, which suffered a devastating nuclear war in the 1980s. Fortunately for his sanity, roughly a thousand refugees from a different parallel Earth destroyed by Collapsar have joined him in an attempt to rebuild this planet, thanks to the Alterniteens.
Abilities: STR 24/5 |
STA 24/5 |
AGL 3 |
DEX 2 |
FGT 8 |
INT 1 |
AWE 2 |
PRE 3
Powers: Invulnerability (Immunity 9 [aging, cold, disease, heat, poison, pressure, radiation, starvation & thirst, vacuum]; Sustained Immunity 2 [suffocation]; Impervious Toughness 10),
Might (Enhanced Stamina 19; Enhanced Strength 19),
Super-Senses (Senses 4 [extended vision 2, low-light vision, ultra-hearing]),
Super-Strength (Enhanced Strength 6, Limited to Lifting),
Swiftness (Enhanced Advantage 1 [Improved Initiative]; Flight 10; Quickness 4; Speed 6).
Advantages: All-Out Attack, Equipment 5 (Sanctum), Improved Disarm,
Improved Initiative, Inspire, Interpose, Language 1 (Latin, English is native), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 9, Second Chance (mind control), Ultimate Effort (Strength checks).
Skills: Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+12), Expertise: Civics 4 (+5), Expertise: History 9 (+10), Expertise: Teaching 6 (+7), Insight 10 (+12), Intimidation 8 (+11), Perception 8 (+10), Persuasion 5 (+8), Technology 8 (+9).
Offense: Initiative +6, Unarmed +12 (Close Damage 24).
Defense: Dodge 10, Parry 10, Fortitude 24, Toughness 24, Will 12.
Totals: Abilities 54 + Powers 126 + Advantages 21 + Skills 31 + Defenses 20 = 252 points
Complications: Unknown.
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."