During the 1970's Fabrizio Musculla was a noted Italian archaeologist, an expert on Roman culture. Once while perusing a lost historical journal he came upon a reference to a previously unknown temple dedicated to Apollo hidden somewhere in the Italian Alps. Fabrizio and his research assistant Maria Bardenelli feverishly rushed to the site, not knowing what they might find.

It took them several months to actually locate the Temple of Apollo, but when they did it was obvious to the both of them that the site was going to be a major one. For Fabrizio, it was like a kid in a candy store; there were so many artifacts. The most interesting artifact was a complete suit of golden centurion armor that seemed to have weathered the centuries with no visible damage. The armor was priceless. That night Maria and Fabrizio also consummated their relationship, and Fabrizio vowed to marry her. For the two lovers it was a magical night.

It was near dawn when the attack came. A group of leering bandits captured Fabrizio and Maria and tied them up. After taking care of the archeologists the bandits started to loot the temple of Apollo. However, Fabrizio was able to get free, and while Maria distracted their guard, he was able to get behind the guard and clobber him with a centuries old urn. The man was out like a light.

Fearing that the bandits might steal the centurion armor, Fabrizio snuck into the tent where he kept it, and put it on. As he came out of the tent he was found out by the bandits who quickly surrounded him with their guns pointed at him. This was also when the sun came out. The light of the dawning sun activated the powers of the armor. Vito was pleasantly surprised when he found himself floating in from of the bandits. Most ran away in terror, but the few who remained learned to regret it after a few well placed burst of solar energy.

After that incident, Vito went on to become one of Italians first post-World War II super-heroes. Taking the code name Solar Centurion, he fought against the rise of terrorists like the Red Brigade. It was after his defeat of the Falconeer , in which the villain fell to his death that Solar Centurion decided to go into retirement. Recently his wife Maria passed away, and Fabrizio has turned himself more and more inward.

He gave the Centurion armor away to one of his students and focussed his energies on research where he came into contact with Professor Grak, Nordkapp Man of the Dawnstars. Musculla struck up a friendship and has been a de facto member of the Dawnstars ever since, often helping with research and his university contacts.

Once Solar Centurion saw himself as a guardian of Italy, but those days are long past. He still occasionally feels the urge to wear the armor again, especially when evil gets too strong. Like most aging professors, Fabrizio can get absent minded at times. This usually gets really frustrating for his friends and relatives. For Fabrizio these bouts of absentmindedness shows that he’s getting older. At times he really wishes for his glory days.

Overall Fabrizio is a very talkative and energetic speaker, absolutely inspiring his yound students and charming those around him.

"Come, gather around, and we shall see what insights this little treasure has to offer us."

As Solar Centurion, Fabrizio wore a mystical suit of armor that was powered by the solar rays of the sun. The armor allowed the wearer to generate solar-like powers. Using the suit, the wearer could project blinding flashes of light, or light energy that caused devastating damage. The armor also protected the wearer by generating a powerful force field. Without the power, Fabrizio is a regular human with no powers.

Since giving up the armor, Fabrizio wears his favorite coat with a white shirt and cord pants. He is always smiling and has a wide mouth. His hair is a little wild and curly, and since his wife died he has allowed it to become more so.