Centennia
Centennia was a major superhero of Reality Z-25 31-H, considered among the most powerful. Competent and unflappable, she derived her super-strenght, flight, and apparent immortality from her half-alien heritage, and was considered New York City's greatest protectors against supervillainous threats. Though a solo hero for most of her career, at one point in the early 21st century, she temporarily joined the Odds, at a point where Jenny was also a member (although the overlap in their memberships was short).
Description
Physical appearance
Centennia was a tall, elegant white woman with golden hair. Owing to her age, she dressed in fashions reminiscent of her youth in the 1920s, though never to the point of seeming anachronistic. She also had a superhero outfit which included golden bracelets and a green cape, although she “felt a bit silly in it”, and only wore it for practicality (it was much more durable than her civilian clothes). (COMIC: Sausage-Fest!) At an earlier stage in her superhero career, she dyed her hair a light brown and wore a white tunic and golden cape, instead of a blue tunic and green cap. (PROSE: Sensation Adventures feat Centennia)
Personality
Centennia was calm and business-like in the face of danger, largely because very few things could be actual threats to her safety. Nevertheless, she felt bored and listless in the absence of supervillains to fight or mysteries to solve. (COMIC: Sausage-Fest!) She displayed interest both in men (COMIC: Interview With A Superhero) and women. (COMIC: Tales To Behold Halloween Cameo Caper 2014, Symbiote Surprise) Relentlessly duty-oriented, she had difficulty grasping the concept of an actual vacation, continually asking what the point of it was. (COMIC: Halloween Cameo Caper 2014 Reprise)
Powers & abilities
Centennia displayed a form of invulnerability, the ability to fly under her own power, and inhuman strength. She was also immortal, not having visiby aged since the 1920s. The combination of her strength and invulnerability allowed her to barrel through walls to gain entry to a building if necessary. (COMIC: Sausage-Fest!) Her superhero outfit had a few hidden tricks, with her metal gauntlets concealing communicators on which she could receive emergency phone calls. (COMIC: The Search For Kate Five)
She was capable of being charming and seductive for the sake of extracting information covertly, despite almost never smiling in her own time. She was also an expert at rope-skipping. Centennia seemed to have some kind of Fourth Wall Awareness, as she sometimes winked at “no one” when she made a joke that only she or someone familiar with her recent adventures could have been able to get. (COMIC: Sausage-Fest!)
She was a highly skilled poker player. (COMIC: Symbiote Surprise)
Biography
In Reality Z-25 31-H
Origins
Centennia was conceived in the Autumn of 1899 by a single woman and a mysterious gentleman she met at a society ball, who was actually an extraterrestrial explorer investigating humanity, who wanted to experience human love before he left Earth. Though the two knew each other for just one night, Centennia's mother became pregnant with the hybrid child, something she was very pleased with. (COMIC: A Night to Remember)
As she grew up, it began to be apparent that the resulting child was stronger and more intelligent than all her peers at school, and she became the target of bullying. One day, she fought back and, with inhuman strength, tossed her bullies aside; she became self-conscious about her “freak”ishness, and when her mother tried to comfort her by telling her the true story of her birth, she thought it a lie her mother had made up to try and make the girl feel better. However, one night, she stayed up looking at the stars in her window, pondering the possibility, and triggered her ability to fly for the first time. (COMIC: Child of the Stars)
Early adventures
Centennia had adventures throughout the 20th century. During its first half, she had dyed her hair brown, and wore a white-and-gold costume. On one occasion, she faced the supervillain calling himself the Mad Catter, who sent a giant cat after her. (PROSE: Sensation Adventures feat Centennia)
Defeating Nefario
In Summer of 2012, having defended New York City for a hundred years, a bored Centennia agreed to investigate the systematic theft of kosher sausages in the City for lack of a more interesting case. After due investigation, she discovered that this was in fact a supervillain plot, with the evil magician Nefario having created a Sausage Golem he intended to animate to wreak havoc. Centennia destroyed the golem before he could finish the spell, however, and arrested Nefario and his henchmen. She then met up with the friend who'd informed her of the sausage-thefts, though she refused his offer of getting a hot dog. (COMIC: Sausage-Fest!)
Ending things with Captain Perfect
At some point, Centennia had an affair with fellow paragon and superhero, Captain Perfect. After intimate images of them in bed together were leaked, there was a scandal, although one from which both heroes' reputations were able to recover in time. Centennia was one of the figures depicted in a biopic of the Captain, leading to the real Centennia attending the premiere alongside the Captain. (COMIC: Interview With A Superhero)
A different superheroic Captain, Captain Evening, attempted to reach her around the same time to get her to accompany the Odds on a mission to England to halt Insecto's attempted invasion of a town, but he didn't manage to get in touch with her. (COMIC: Battle of Britain) Centennia was not present at the ceremony where Captain Perfect was to be given the Keys to the City by the Mayor as part of his public come-back. However, after a robot called Ultimatron attacked and knocking out Captain Perfect — with the Odds, despite their best efforts, proving unable to defeat it —, Centennia flew out of the sky and down at the robot like a missile, destroying it in a single stroke. She then got the three henchfolk piloting it from inside to confess who they were working for.
To her surprise, it was actually Captain Perfect himself, with the entire attack staged with the intent of providing the Captain with an easy, live-televised win. The Odds' unexpected interference had thrown events off-script, leading to Ultimatron quite accidentally knocking out the purported star of the show. With her sense of betrayal compounded by Perfect weakly attempting to convince her that the henchpeople were lying, she memorably broke up with him by punching him off into the distance. When Captain Evening expressed his sympathies and thanked her for the save, he took the opportunity to ask her if she wanted to officially join the Odds, and she agreed. Evening threw a party at the Fortress of Evening to celebrate, inviting all of his superhero acquaintances; among others, Centennia was seen hanging out with Jenkins, who confessed that he had long been “a huge fan” of hers. (COMIC: Meanwhile, On Earth) She and British metahuman Kate Five also met for the first time, forming a mutual fascination which neither acted on yet at the time. (COMIC: Symbiote Surprise)
Soon after, the Odds were lured to a building in Queens by Armagedda to face an alliance of villains assembled by Evil Cloak, alias Jenny Nowhere — which included Captain Perfect. When Nowhere ordered her villains to attack the Odds, Centennia soon found herself facing Perfect, but with them seeming evenly-matched, Captain Evening soon directed Centennia to instead take on Jesse Brain while Merv the Griffin handled Perfect. The battle was ultimately cut short when Nowhere was eaten alive without fanfare by Gazoom, the demonic entity she had summoned as the final phase of her master-plan — with both heroes and villains feeling the loss (since Jenny had previously been posing as Jenny Everywhere with the Odds), they agreed to call the battle a tie and go their separate ways for the night. Back at the Fortress, Centennia admitted to the rest of the team that she did not, after all, feel up to being part of a team full-time, something they graciously accepted. (COMIC: Meanwhile, In Queens)
Fighting the Cosmic Solution
However, before Centennia left, the Odds received a distress call from the Mayor, warning them that “a monster” was attacking downtown. (COMIC: Meanwhile, In Queens) When they arrived, Captain Evening taking stock of the situation, immediately ordered Centennia and Merv the Griffin to help some of the heroes already present with keeping the Cosmic Solution robot contained while they formulated a better plan, without trying to destroy it, as it absorbed the energy from any impacts and used it to become larger.
Even she, with or without the other heroes' help, proved unable to hold it down for long, and she was hurled to the ground when the robot wrestled itself free of the heroes pile-on, but the Captain had managed to sneak behind the robot and connect him to the device built by Hank Richards to drain its power and thereby shrink it. This victory proved short-lived as the Protectors, a third set of superheroes, arrived on the scene and pummeled the robot again, allowing it to grow even larger than before and tear into the heroes with renewed vigour, with Centennia narrowly avoiding being crushed by one of its now car-sized fists.
In the end, the robot left Earth of its own accord when it was called off by another agent of the Cosmic Order, who repealed the Cosmic Order's condemnation of humanity after Jenkins sincerely argued that the world was “worth saving” (albeit in a rather unexpected fashion). After witnessing the two cosmic beings' departure back into space, a bruised Centennia congratulated Jenkins. (COMIC: Journey Out Of Misery)
A vacation
The Odds (now joined by the real Jenny Everywhere) were offered a vacation by the mysterious Mr Montibar, and flew to the equally-mysterious, magical Kokotomo Island, where dreams could magically come true for a limited period of time. Like Jenny and the Captain, Centennia elected to spend her time relaxing on the beach, rather than anything more elaborate. (COMIC: Tales To Behold Halloween Cameo Caper 2014) Centennia was later reacquainted with her ex-lover, Nula who got rejuvenated. (COMIC: Kokotomo (Kaza's Mate, Gwenna comic story)
Jenny and Centennia wandered off to relax by themselves. As they lay down side-by-side on the beach very near to the sea, Centennia once again asked Jenny to explain what the “point” of a vacation was. (COMIC: Halloween Cameo Caper 2014 Reprise) Going for a stroll, the two met the Valkyries Brunhilda and Gertrude, briefly deciding to swap outfits with them. (COMIC: Caper 2014 Bikini Babes) When the Odds left on the plane back to the normal world, (COMIC: Tales To Behold Halloween Cameo Caper 2014) continuing their vacation in the form of a lower-key road trip in the Odd Mobile. (COMIC: Road Trip Of No Return) Centennia parted ways with them and chose to stick around Kokotomo for a while yet, as did Jenny, with the two of them partying with Montibar himself. (COMIC: Tales To Behold Halloween Cameo Caper 2014)
She returned to New York around the same time as the Odds, in order to help Professor Madison with the work of repairing the damage dealt to New York by the battle against the Solution. (COMIC: Epilogue to Destruction)
The Kate Five debacle
Some time later, Centennia rejoined the Odds. Like the others (save Armstrong), she was lounging on the roof, preparing to play a game of strip poker with her friends, when Kate Five arrived at the Fortress of Evening. Kate, who was under the control of her evil symbiote at the time, persuaded them to play a drinking game instead, using a bottle of alcohol that she'd secretly drugged. With all the other teammembers unconscious, it fell to Centennia to defeat Kate Five with the help of Armstrong's disembodied arm. After she did so and all the other Odds were awoken, they cared for the unconscious Kate until she woke up. After she did, they all reassured her that they did not blame her for what she'd done under the symbiote's influence, and Centennia finally kissed her. (COMIC: Symbiote Surprise)
Seeking Kate Five
After the dust cleared on another adventure, Centennia, who had found herself tentatively back together with Captain Perfect, started to think at length about Kate Five. Wondering if she was alright, she learned that Kate had recently tangled with some superheroes in Angel Falls before disappearing. She travelled there with Perfect, and, chasing a lead, they found their way to the Bleeding Rose nightclub. There, while Perfect slept around with a few of the pretty vampire girls under the guise of “interrogation”, Centennia actually got useful information out of Marcus, who agreed to fly them to Sark Island in his helicopter, this being where he had only just taken Kate's other friends who were similarly looking for her.
On the Island, Centennia and the Captain were ambushed by Ohmega and soon restrained in their facilities; however, when the villains informed Centennia that Kate had been here, but had teleported to freedom mere minutes ago, a frustraded Centennia revealed that she was only playing along for information and easily tore through her restrains, to the surprise of the Captain, who'd been genuinely incapacitated. She then, even more frustratingly, received a phone call from Professor Madison announcing that Kate had just appeared back in New York City, right in the Fortress of Evening. (COMIC: The Search For Kate Five)
Other realities
In one universe, Centennia was instead a fictional superhero character. She existed as early as the “Golden Age” in the comics, when her rather campy adventures were printed in Sensation Adventures; by the mid-2010s, an issue from these early years was a very valuable collectors' item. (PROSE: Sensation Adventures feat Centennia)
| Recurring elements of The Cosmic Beholder | ||||||||||
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