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Stella Vergione was lucky enough to flee Italy before the end of the Second World War and the partisan fighting that erupted in the north of Italy as the Germans retreated. Her mother was American and organised for their family to travel to New York City via Portugal, and upon arrival, the Vergione family settled into a fairly comfortable life. Her father found work as an assistant editor for an Italian-language paper, before moving to the New York Post in 1943.
Stella graduated from high school in 1948 and married Jonathan Numen, an expatriate Hungarian university student at Harvard. After Jonathan graduated with a degree in physics and landed a job with the U.S. government, they moved to Long Island and started a family. Stella and Jonathan had four children between 1952 and 1961 and they became a Happy American Family.
When Stella’s son Saul and his family were nearly killed in Turkey when their airplane crashed into a lake, and her son emerged as an uberhuman, Stella was shaken to her core. She immediately blamed her husband and his work with the government. Jonathan and Stella fought over the next three years before filing for a divorce in 1996. Stella fled to Florida and an apartment in Orlando while Jonathan returned to Europe.
Stella was never far from her son and grandchildren, but when Balthasar Numen arrived on her doorstep in 2004 with a cherubic smile and a letter inviting him to become a “substantial” employee of a local theme park, she was shaken again. Her neighbours and friends thought it would be wonderful for her to be so near her grandson, acting as a moral figure in the absence of parental supervision; but Stella was a little uncertain.
It could have been because Balthasar was such an unabashed teenager, frequently flaunting his body in nothing more than a pair of briefs. It could have been because wherever her son and grandchildren went, trouble was sure to follow. It could have been because Balthasar was tipped to become an overnight celebrity with his face on the walls of every teenage girl in the northern hemisphere. Or it could have been because Stella had finally, almost miraculously, met a soul mate in Florida and feared that everything would be ruined if her family secrets were revealed.
She was, after all, mother to Doctor Numen, the mutant genius behind the New Men.
Stella was certain her life would never be the same. Again.
Created by Ben Langdon
Stella is stubborn at times, but inside she has thousands of doubts. She worries about what people think, especially when it concerns her family, and spends hours upon hours analysing potential disasters so that her personality has become a little bitter and caustic.
Quote About Her: “Nonna can be a little scary sometimes.” – Balthasar Numen, Jungle Boy of Hero City.
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Stella is an immaculate dresser, favouring black in the Italian tradition. She visits the beauty salon weekly and believes appearances are the most important aspect of a person.
Art by Ben Langdon