Profiles in Supervillainy: Turner D. Century

Eileen’s main literary love is comedian books, however she’s all the time looking out for her subsequent literary journey it doesn’t matter what kind it takes. She has a Bachelor’s in media research, a Master’s in digital communication, a smattering of revealed brief tales, and a severely cute canine. Follow her on Bluesky.

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What is a superhero with out a supervillain? Not a lot. Some supervillains, nonetheless, are price much more than others. I’ve, subsequently, determined to highlight some lesser-known villains. Are they underrated gems or irredeemable losers who should be forgotten? You resolve!

Today’s topic: Turner D. Century!

I first heard about this charming fellow by way of Mara Franzen’s article on obscure supervillains and instantly wanted to know extra about him. Debuting in Spider-Woman #33, his actual title is Clifford Michaels, and his father was the chauffeur of a conservative Californian politician, Morgan MacNeil Hardy. Hardy raised — or ought to I say indoctrinated — Clifford after his father’s dying.

Beneath his crumbling mansion, Hardy created a pretend city that reminded him of San Francisco in the “good old days” of his youth in the 1910s. These classes turned warped in Clifford’s thoughts, prompting him to go out to San Francisco and, armed with a fire-spewing umbrella, “cleanse” town of all undesirable parts, significantly folks of colour and conceited ladies.

(They don’t point out the LGBT+ group, however I don’t assume it’s a coincidence that the story befell in San Francisco two years after the assassination of Harvey Milk or that certainly one of Century’s first targets was a disco.)

Turner D. Century, a man in early-20th-century clothing and riding a bicycle built for two, attacks a bar with his flame-spewing umbrella while yelling about decadence and sin. — So his origin story is “raised Republican.”

When Hardy finds out that Clifford has murdered dozens in his quest to deliver again “decency” — and that Hardy’s personal teachings prompted the massacres — Hardy elects to die together with his pretend city, which received set on fireplace throughout Century’s ultimate battle with Spider-Woman. Century stays behind with him, saying he loves the previous man an excessive amount of to let him die alone. A pleasant sentiment, although it was not reciprocated, as we will quickly see.

There are some attention-grabbing parallels right here: Spider-Woman had additionally spent years remoted from the actual world, however when she returned, she selected to find out about and shield that world, not attempt to return it to some imagined idyll. Alas, these go unexplored, as the 2 by no means meet up once more.

Notable Appearances

Just a yr after this touching scene, we received the weird Captain America #264, in which we be taught Hardy survived the hearth, however Clifford apparently didn’t. Hardy had modified his thoughts about the entire dying factor and, unable to seek out his surrogate son, escaped by himself. Ouch.

Hardy’s newest scheme proves he’s actually simply as ruthless as Turner D. Century ever was: he finds some telepaths and vows to “drain their brains” if it is going to remake America in his personal picture. This outcomes in Cap being shunted by a sequence of alternate Americas, drawn from what every of the telepaths views as the best model of the nation.

Cap stops Hardy’s scheme in time, however Hardy and two of his extra odious check topics die, for actual, this time.

Marvel Team-Up #120

Century himself returned in this situation, this time with a nifty new gadget known as a Time Horn. This machine was able to killing all younger folks inside vary as a result of, clearly, younger folks symbolize every little thing that’s incorrect with the world, all the time and endlessly.

Ironically, Century was defeated by Dominic Fortune, an aged Golden Age hero who got here out of retirement particularly to kick his butt.

Captain America #319

In the mid-Eighties, a brand new menace stalked the villains of Marvel: the Scourge, an unknown serial killer who focused anybody who’d ever tangled with a superhero. In an effort to guard his fellow miscreants, the previous Firebrand invited a bunch of villains to a gathering to debate their mutual safety. One of the few to point out up was Turner D. Century.

The former Firebrand informs his fellow villains about Scourge. Turner D. Century and the others react with horror.

This appears very out of character to me. Century views himself because the final bastion of morality in America, not a supervillain. And he definitely wouldn’t sit amiably subsequent to a scantily clad girl when he might be insulting her costume and telling her to get again in the kitchen.

In any case, he was killed (once more) when Scourge crashed the assembly and mowed everybody down with a machine gun. And then he was resurrected (once more) in Punisher #6 as a part of the “Dead End” storyline, which he subsequently performed no function in.

Superior Spider-Man #9

In his most up-to-date look, ol’ Turner and his Time Horn returned to his roots: terrorizing San Franciscans for his or her decadent, immoral, “avocado-toast-flavored” methods.

On his flying bicycle built for two, Turner D. Century scolds the masses for obsessing over their phones when there is so much wrong with the world.

True to kind, Century was instantly punched into defeat by a spider-person, in this case, Otto Octavius, the Superior Spider-Man. Otto additionally had the intelligence to level out simply how hypocritical Century is for criticizing Americans’ alleged narcissism whereas insisting that he is aware of every little thing about how everybody ought to behave.

Anything Else?

Nope. But Octavius didn’t kill him, so presumably, he’s sitting in a cell someplace, griping about how prisons have actually gone downhill recently.

The Verdict

Loser. But the broader idea has some benefit.

Every technology has a bunch of pompous, controlling puritans who insist on dragging everybody again to some “better,” “purer” previous that by no means actually existed. So, the kind of villainy represented by Turner D. Century is evergreen and will definitely work. I’m simply undecided {that a} man whose fundamental mode of transportation is a flying bicycle constructed for 2, full with an explosive-filled dummy in the opposite seat, has the chops to tug this off.

It actually looks as if Marvel has gotten hung up on Century’s gimmicky look and gimmicky…gimmicks. This is obvious in his physique rely: in Spider-Woman, he’s a mass assassin; in Superior Spider-Man, he’s a goof. So possibly we should always begin from scratch or at the least give him a serious revamp. Give us a personality who, like Clifford Michaels, was raised to revere a wrong-headed, bigoted imaginative and prescient of the previous after which despatched out to remake the world in accordance with the twisted model of morality inculcated in them since childhood.

Heck, there’s even room for a redemption arc. Have the character discover the actual world, uncover that every little thing they have been taught was incorrect, and resolve to combat for a greater future as a substitute of a romanticized previous.

Want to satisfy extra ignored villains? Check out my profiles on King Tut, the Matador, Peek-a-Boo, Man-Killer, Mad Mod, Big Wheel, KGBeast, the Living Monolith, Egg Fu, Mahkizmo, my One-Shot Special, Lord Manga Khan, Deadly Nightshade, and la Dama!

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