Clifford Michaels (Earth-616)

Turner D. Century
Name	Clifford F. Michaels
Current Alias	Turner D. Century
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Formerly Hood's Gang
Relatives	Parents: Morgan MacNeil Hardy (adopted father)
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	6′1″ (1.85 m)
Weight	185 lbs (83.91 kg)
Eyes	Irises: Blue
Hair	Black
Unusual Features	Handlebar moustache
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human
Living Status	Alive; formerly deceased
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	Probably San Francisco
Cause of Death	Shot by Scourge (Resurrected by the The Hood) Death through unknown means (Resurrected by Dormammu)
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Criminal
Base of Operations	San Francisco, California
Creators and Appearances
Creators	J.M. DeMatteis, Steve Leialoha, Bruce D. Patterson
First	Spider-Woman #33 (September, 1980)
First	Spider-Woman #33 (September, 1980)

 Die! And take your avocado toast-flavored, duck-faced narcissism with you! 

—Turner D. Century

History

Clifford F. Michaels was the son of a chauffeur who worked for millionaire Morgan MacNeil Hardy. Hardy had seen the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and was responsible for much of the rebuilding of the city. He was ashamed at the "degeneration of manners and mores" in the following decades, especially since the beginning of World War I. Hardy tried to foster a movement in favor of traditional values, but he failed.

By that time, Michaels' father had died and Hardy took young Clifford as a foster son. He tried to teach him of the moral values of the first years of the 20th century and, to do so, he restricted Clifford's access to the "outside world".

Thus, Clifford Michaels had been raised to believe in the moral and values of the beginning of the 20th century. As an adult, he discovered how far his ideas were from the real world, and he soon began to hate the social changes.

He then tried to impose those values in the modern world using the alias of Turner D. Century. He had a hairstyle from the 1900s, including a handlebar moustache, and dressed in a costume popular among middle-class young men in the year 1900 in the U.S.: Straw boater hat, striped green jacket, and white trousers.

He attacked things and people representing the object of his hatred. He first tried to "clean" San Francisco, but was stopped by Spider-Woman.

Although mentally unstable, Michaels was deemed a criminal (perhaps because he would have an easy time escaping from a mental asylum, and thus was sent to jail). He nevertheless escaped and developed the "Horn of Time", intending to kill everyone under 65 years old in New York City. He was opposed by Spider-Man and Dominic Fortune, but had a chance to blow the horn. Fortunately, the horn did not work as was intended, and nobody was killed.

Michaels was sent to jail, but was eventually paroled or escaped. He was contacted by Gary Gilbert, a former costumed criminal turned into business agent for criminals. Gilbert was worried about the Scourge of the Underworld, a masked figure who was killing costumed criminals such as Gilbert and Century. Gilbert organized a meeting in the Bar with No Name, Medina County, Ohio, to discuss potential counter-attacks. As the Scourge was known to use weapons instead of powers, weapons were to be left at the door. During the meeting, Century was impressed by the quantity and power of the previous victims. However, the Scourge infiltrated the meeting disguised as the bartender and shot down all the seventeen criminals (including Century) wielding a cut-down .50 sub-machine gun in each hand.

Michaels' corpse, along with some of the other victims of that massacre, were recovered by genetics master Arnim Zola. Zola cloned Michaels and the other criminals to use them as pawns, but all of the clones were eventually killed by mercenary-with-a-mouth Deadpool. Michaels himself, however, was later resurrected by the Hood along with sixteen of Scourge's other victims in order to try to kill the Punisher. The Hood told the resurrected villains that they would die if they didn't kill Punisher in thirty days, and convinced them that it was actually Punisher who killed them disguised as the Scourge.

He was resurrected by Dormammu and attacked San Francisco again, but was thwarted by Superior Spider-Man.

Attributes

Powers

None.

Abilities

He seems to have some knowledge of history and some skill for invention (or access to some contact with these abilities).

Paraphernalia

Weapons

• Flamethrower umbrella with a short range.
• Horn of Time, originally intended to kill everyone under 65 with ultrasonic waves. Due to Michaels' limited grasp of technology, it only knocked down everyone under 65 in a limited area.

Transportation

Flying Bicycle Built for Two, which flew due to unknown methods.

Notes

• It's highly likely that Michaels survived Hood's 30-day deadline since Daken killed Punisher in the end.

See Also

• 8 appearance(s) of Clifford Michaels (Earth-616)
• 4 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Clifford Michaels (Earth-616)
• 6 minor appearance(s) of Clifford Michaels (Earth-616)
• 3 image(s) of Clifford Michaels (Earth-616)
• 1 quotation(s) by or about Clifford Michaels (Earth-616)