Titano


Titano the Super-Ape is a fictional character introduced in 1959, a supervillain that appears in American comic books published by DC Comics, primarily as a foe of Superman. The character is a small chimpanzee that's sent into space in a test rocket and exposed to cosmic radiation, which makes him grow to gigantic size and gives him the ability to shoot Kryptonite energy from his eyes. As a "Super-Ape", Titano rampaged through Metropolis several times in Superman and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen during the 1960s and 70s, and also appeared in some "Tales of the Bizarro World" stories in Adventure Comics. After a poorly-received 1978 return fight, Titano was dropped from the canvas.
The character also appeared in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths and New 52 continuities, with different origin stories.

Publication history

Titano first appeared in Superman #127 in a story called "Titano the Super-Ape!" He was created by writer Otto Binder, penciler Wayne Boring and inker Stan Kaye. The character was inspired by the 1933 movie King Kong, one of the many famous science-fiction and horror films swiped by Superman editor Mort Weisinger during this period.
The character was well received, so Weisinger decided to bring him back for a second story in July 1960. In the first story, Boring drew the character with a chimpanzee head on a giant gorilla body; for the rematch, Boring drew a gorilla head instead, making the character look more like King Kong.
Titano made another brief appearance in a January 1961 Superman story, where he served as an introductory plot device to get Superman lost in time. By August 1961, Titano became a novelty character, appearing in a Superman backup feature starring Krypto the Superdog, and this trend continued over the next few years, as Titano appeared in occasional "Tales of the Bizarro World" backup stories in Adventure Comics, and made lightweight appearances in a few Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen stories between 1962 and 1965. After a cameo in a Superman story in 1970, Titano disappeared from the canvas for a while.
In 1978, Martin Pasko brought Titano back for a two-part story with the Atomic Skull in Superman #323 and 324 — a story that Pasko looked back on with regret. "I thought — foolishly, in retrospect — that I might be able to treat a giant ape that shot kryptonite energy from its eyes with the same straight face I brought to Bizarro," he said in a 2007 interview. "I couldn't, and matters were not helped by the art. We kept forgetting that what you got when you called upon the hyper-realistic and earthbound Curt Swan to draw menacing giant monsters invariably looked cute and cuddly at best, and at worst, like something that reminded you of an old Toho movie and made you look for the zipper. I seem to recall that the mail suggested that Titano was one Weisingerism that was best relegated to obscurity."

Fictional character biography

Pre-''Crisis''

Originally named Toto, he was a common chimpanzee who was dubbed "one of the world's most intelligent apes". Rocketed into space, he and his ship are bombarded with radiation, which change him into a giant ape with incredible strength and the ability to emit beams of Kryptonite radiation from his eyes. Superman stops his first rampage through Metropolis by throwing him across the time barrier into the prehistoric past. A year later, Superman accidentally transports Titano back to modern Metropolis, and has to trick him in order to return him to the past.
Over the next few years, Titano is visited in the past by several characters, including Superman, Krypto the Superdog, Bizarro and Jimmy Olsen.
After another trip through time to the present day, Titano is picked up by Allura, the ruler of a world of giants, who agrees to transport the ape to her planet. Titano settles down with a female ape his own size.
Writer Martin Pasko revived Titano in Superman #324. In this revival, Titano is manipulated by the Atomic Skull into becoming a ferocious killer, rather than the misunderstood super-ape of his original appearance.
The Pre-Crisis Titano appears in a dream of the character Ambush Bug.

Post-''Crisis''

The post-Crisis version first appeared in the "Tears for Titano" story in Superman Annual #1. Titano was originally a normal baby chimpanzee used in cruel scientific experiments for the US government. This lab is headed by Dr. Thomas Moyers, an irresponsible man who caused the creation of Rampage, the super-strong alter-ego of Dr. Kitty Faulkner, also in the employ is Amanda Waller operating under the orders of Sarge Steel. The chimpanzee gains his name from a mean-spirited joke by the other staffers.
A brief visit by Lois Lane to the government laboratories ended soon after Titano tried to escape his tormentors by leaping into Lane's arms. An accident caused the ape to gain super-strength and grow to enormous proportions. Attempting to kill Moyers, whom he saw as his tormentor, Titano was stopped by and engaged in a battle with Superman. The presence of Lane causes Titano to calm down, as he considered her a friend. Moyers used his equipment to reverse the transformation. The reversal is too much for the chimpanzee, who dies in Lane's arms. She later writes the Daily Planet article "Tears for Titano" in honor of the animal.
Another version of Titano appeared as the mascot of "Titano's Pizza". Television advertisements showed a giant ape in a chef's hat defeating "Turtle Boy", who represented the slower delivery of other pizzerias. However, Turtle Boy proved to be much more popular than Titano, and the commercials were discontinued.
In Action Comics #854, a monkey experimented upon by the Kryptonite Man was imbued with Kryptonite radiation, gaining the ability to grow in size and fire Kryptonite beams from his eyes, like the Pre-Crisis Titano. He was eventually calmed down by "Mr. Action" and placed in the care of S.T.A.R. Labs.
Titano's Pre-Crisis version would make a reappearance of sorts in Superman/Batman #28, as a guise for a shape-shifting telepathic alien entity.

The New 52

In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Titano was redesigned and given a new origin. Titano was now only slightly bigger than a regular gorilla rather than the giant of earlier versions, and was now an albino. He also was given a new origin in which he was a genetic mutation created by a deranged biophysicist. He was later shown on life support in a Metropolis laboratory and is executed by a creature appearing to be Superman.
Titano was again redesigned by the creative team of Geoff Johns and John Romita Jr. This version was a giant chimpanzee robot with green-glowing inside parts, alluding to a Kryptonite origin.

Other versions

''JLA: Earth 2''

An antimatter version of Titano, appeared near the end of Grant Morrison's . This version is actually a genetic experiment conducted by Brainiac and Ultraman freed by Brainiac and fires Anti-Kryptonite beams at Superman. Being an opposite version of Titano, the beams make him stronger. He is later caught by the Green Lantern.

''DC One Million''

In DC Comics' DC One Million setting, Titano One Million is the Superman-like defender of the Gorilla Galaxy, a direct descendant of Solovar.

''Dark Nights: Metal''

In the series, Titano is the Superman-analogue of Earth-53, a newly revealed DC Multiverse world analogous to the Gorilla Galaxy, along with a lemur Atom, Atlantean Sea Ape and Batape.

In other media

Television

Characters based on Titano have occasionally appeared in comics homaging the Silver Age Superman.