CENTURIONCENTURION
Real Name: Geoffrey Ballard
Identity/Class: Human technology user
Occupation: CIA operative
Group Membership: The Council of the Chosen (see comments)
Affiliations: Raven Darkholme (Mystique), the Council
Enemies: Ms. Marvel, SHIELD
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None.
Base of Operations: New York, NY, USA.
First Appearance: Black Goliath#4 (as Geoffrey Ballard)
(August, 1976)
Ms. Marvel I#17 (as Centurion) (May, 1978)
Powers/Abilities: Ballard is a normal human. The Centurion System has a Force Beam, a Mesonic Disintegrating Beam, a Targeting Computer, Jets for the flight, and gives enhanced strength and durability.
History:
(Ms. Marvel I#15) - Frank Gianelli stated that ten years before the events of
this story, Geoffrey Ballard had been in Vietnam,
where he cooperated with the CIA and was directly linked with the White House.
(Black Goliath#4 - BTS) - Ballard, the man who would become Centurion, was designated by the President of the USA as responsible for the security of a research project that involved the Stark West in Los Angeles and a mysterious box.
(Black Goliath#4) - Ballard prevented Tony Stark from telling to Bill Foster some secrets about the box stolen from his labs.
(Ms. Marvel I#9) - Ballard set some incendiary bombs in Carol Danver's building, to destroy some documents in her flat. Ms Marvel intervened in time to put out the fire, saving the documents and two children, too. Ballard informed "Alpha" (possibly one of Raven Darkholme identities) of the Council about the success of the mission and that the documents had been probably sent to the Police by Carol Danvers.
(Ms. Marvel I#14) - Ballard, in the night, entered in the Carol Danver's office, looking for the documents. He was interrupted by Frank Gianelli and Tracy Burke, and he fled. After a brief struggle, Ballard was recognized by the reporter; Ballard struck him with his gun and run away.
(Ms. Marvel I#17) - In the morning of February 14th, Carol
Danvers had a premonitory dream about Centurion killing her.
Later, Geoffrey Ballard and Raven Darkholme (in the form of Nick Fury) entered in
the flying SHIELD Helicarrier. They turned the control system off and entered
in the Vortex chamber, where they found the Centurion individual assault system.
Raven gave the armor to Ballard with the order to kill Ms Marvel. Ballard donned
the "Fire-Mouth" glove and absent-mindedly fired a Mesonic Disintegrating
Beam, disintegrating several walls made of Omni-Steel. Minutes after they
tricked the Countess Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine, managing to reach the
transfer chamber where they were teleported to the CIA
Headquarters of Langley.
Hours later, Centurion was patrolling the skies over New York in search for Ms.
Marvel; the War Computer found her, and he fired a Force Beam.
(Ms.
Marvel I#18)
- The beam hit Ms. Marvel who fell. Wanda Maximoff and Janet Van Dyne noticed
Ms. Marvel and ran to the rescue. Centurion's
Force Blasts and Target Sensors proved to be too dangerous for the two Avengers,
and the Wasp called Yellowjacket, Vision, and Wonder Man for help. Meanwhile, Ms.
Marvel had transformed in Carol Danvers and Centurion's Targeting Computer could
no longer recognize her. In the sky, Centurion knocked Yellowjacket down, but was
then heavily punched by Wonder-Man. Almost unscathed, he retaliated and stunned Wonder
Man with his Disintegrating Beam. The battle arrived at a stalemate, Ms. Marvel
changed her costume so as not to be recognized by Centurion's Computer, and
threw Wonder Man like a missile at Centurion. Vision penetrated into the SHIELD
armor in intangible form, but was wounded by the Mesonic Disintegrator.
Then Ms. Marvel lured
Centurion into a generator possessing an intense magnetic field; Centurion's computer system overloaded,
causing the criminal to fly out of control. Ms. Marvel knocked him down with a powerful right
hook.
Ms. Marvel then unmasked Centurion and recognized Ballard.
Comments: Ballard
was created by
Chris Claremont, Rick Buckler & Don Heck.
Centurion was created by Chris Claremont, Jim
Mooney and Tony DeZuniga.
Gianelli reference Ballard
having been active in 1968, which is topical. He was likely in the same activity
as Frank Castle, just a few years before the modern era.
Vietnam War in the
Marvel Universe.
When the Black Goliath series ended, Claremont couldn't use Ballard anymore in the Champions series. Probably he gave to the character a new chance and a new "direction" in the Ms. Marvel series.
Given that this is Claremont, the Council was probably the Council of the Chosen, the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club.
Clarifications:
Centurion has no known connections to
Images:
Ms. Marvel I#18, page 16, panel 3
Ms. Marvel I#9, page 11, panel 10
Ms. Marvel I#18, page 13, panel 2
Other appearances:
Black Goliath#4 (August, 1976) - Chris Claremont (writer), Rich Buckler (pencils), Don Heck (inks), Marv Wolfman (editor)
{Per i lettori Italiani: il
Mitico Thor Editoriale Corno#178/3}
Ms. Marvel I#9 (September, 1977) - Chris Claremont (writer), Keith Pollard (pencils), Joe Sinnott & Sam Grainger (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
{Per i lettori Italiani: i Fantastici Quattro
Editoriale Corno#224/2 (16 novembre 1979)}
Ms. Marvel I#14 (February, 1978) - Chris Claremont (writer), Carmine Infantino (pencils), Steve Leialoha (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
{Per i lettori Italiani: i Fantastici Quattro
Editoriale Corno#230/2 (4 febbraio 1980)}
Ms. Marvel I#17 (May, 1978) - Chris Claremont (writer), Jim Mooney (pencils), Tony DeZuniga (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
{Per i lettori Italiani: i Fantastici Quattro
Editoriale Corno#232/2 (5 marzo 1980)}
Ms. Marvel I#18 (June, 1978) - Chris Claremont (writer), Jim Mooney (pencils), Ricardo Villamonte (inks), Jim Shooter (editor)
{Per i lettori Italiani: i Fantastici Quattro
Editoriale Corno#233/2 (19 marzo 1980)}
First Posted: 03/07/2005
Last updated: 01/07/2014
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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