Dr. Noah Black is a prize-winning
African American geneticist who in the 1930s received a
Nobel Prize. He attends a conference on genetics in the 1930s along with other noted geneticists in the Marvel Universe, such as
Herbert Wyndham,
Arnim Zola, and Wladyslav Shinsky of the
Enclave. Sometime after winning the Prize, Black goes mad, takes the name "Centurius", and seeing himself as the self-proclaimed savior of Earth, retreats to remote Valhalla Island to conduct genetic experiments. On the island, he is successful in evolving numerous monstrous creatures. During the transport of his newly created life forms to an orbiting space ark, secret agents
Nick Fury and
Jimmy Woo by chance discover Centurius' island when they are forced to crash land their aircraft. The pair of agents initially attempt to convince Centurius to return to civilization with them, but when the geneticist's plot to destroy all life on Earth is revealed, Fury and his companion attack. In a ploy to defeat the agents, Centurius attempts to transform himself into a "superior being" using a device called the "Evolutionizer", but instead of evolving he "de-evolves" into a pile of protoplasmic slime. Later, Centurius somehow "re-evolves" into human form and as a member of the group known as the
Conspiracy, he clashes with the heroic monster hunter
Ulysses Bloodstone when the Conspiracy tries to gain untold power by gathering and reuniting the lost fragments of the Bloodgem, a mystic jewel from another dimension. However, The Conspiracy's efforts ultimately fail when their essences are absorbed by an enormous crystalline creature created from the Bloodgem. Ulysses Bloodstone succeeds in shattering the Bloodgem creature which apparently kills Centurius and the other members of the Conspiracy. Years later,
Captain America discovers the skeletal remains of Centurius while exploring the Conspiracy's abandoned underground base. Much later, Centurius is found to not be dead after all and is a prisoner at the
Raft, a prison for super powered criminals. He is able to escape the prison with numerous other inmates. Centurius, along with many of the other escaped inmates, eventually becomes a member of The
Hood's crime syndicate. During an attack on the
New Avengers headquarters by the crime syndicate, Centurius is incapacitated by the sorcerer
Doctor Strange and taken into custody by
S.H.I.E.L.D. During the
Secret Invasion storyline, Centurius is among the many supervillains who rejoined the Hood's crime syndicate and attacked an invading
Skrull force. He joins with the Hood's gang in an attack on the New Avengers, who were expecting the
Dark Avengers instead. He is later seen conferring with the Hood regarding the
zombie virus. Centurius advises the Hood not to pursue the virus, but the Hood is compelled by
Dormammu to procure the virus anyway. Centurius was later selected by
Luke Cage to be a part of the "beta team" of the
Thunderbolts, alongside
Boomerang,
Shocker,
Gunna, and
Mister Hyde. During the "Search for Tony Stark" arc, Centurius rejoined Hood's gang and assisted in the attack on Castle Doom. ==Powers and abilities==