Titano


Titano the Super-Ape is a supervillain who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics, primarily as a List of [Superman enemies|foe] of Superman. The character is a small chimpanzee named Toto who was sent into space for test flight, at which point an exposure of combined rays have made him grow to gigantic size and gave him kryptonite-like powers. As a "super-ape", Titano rampaged through Metropolis several times in Superman and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen during the Silver Age, and also appeared in some "Tales of the Bizarro World" stories in Adventure Comics. After a poorly-received 1978 appearance, Titano was not used again in the comic.
Different versions of the character, with different origins, appeared in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths and New 52 continuities.

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 film 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.
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, as revealed in interview from 2007: "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. 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".
Titano appears in the June 2025 issue of Batman/Superman World's Finest in a story written by Mark Waid and drawn by Clayton Henry.

Fictional character biography

Pre-''Crisis''

Originally named Toto, a chimpanzee who was dubbed "one of the world's most intelligent chimps," Titano was rocketed into space and bombarded by the combined radiation from two elements, which mutates him into a giant ape with kryptonite-based abilities. Renamed Titano by Lois Lane, he captures her. Superman stops his first rampage through Metropolis by throwing him across a time barrier and into the prehistoric past. A year later, Superman accidentally transports Titano back to modern Metropolis, and has to trick him into returning 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 into the present day, Titano is picked up by Allura, the ruler of a world of giants, who arranges to transport him to her home planet. Titano settles down with a female ape similar in size to him.
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 being an original, but misunderstood super-ape.

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 experiments. This lab is headed by Dr. Thomas Moyers and 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 ends after Titano tries to escape his tormentors by leaping into Lane's arms. An accident causes the ape to gain super-strength and grow to enormous proportions. Attempting to kill Moyers, whom he sees as his tormentor, Titano is stopped by and engages in a battle with Superman. The presence of Lane causes Titano to calm down, as he considered her a friend. Moyers uses his equipment to reverse the transformation, but the stress of doing so kills Titano, who dies in Lane's arms. She later writes the Daily Planet article "Tears for Titano" in honor of him.

The New 52

In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Titano is redesigned and given a new origin as a mutant albino gorilla created by a deranged biophysicist. Furthermore, he is only slightly larger than a normal gorilla. Titano is later depicted as a cyborg with a glowing inner body.
In the series Titans, Titano attacks a nuclear power station that is minutes away from meltdown. When the Teen Titans arrive, Beast Boy transforms into a Tamaranean creature and battles Titano while the plant is evacuated and Cyborg deals with the nuclear core. Starfire and Donna Troy knock out Titano, who is taken away by the military.
Titano appears in Supergirl, where he is shrunken to the size of a dog, nicknamed "Tinytano", and joins the Super-Pets alongside Krypto and Streaky.

Powers and abilities

A fusion between two meteors caused Toto to grow in colossal proportions. As Titano, his size and strength are many times greater than that of a human and he can project kryptonite beams from his eyes.
The post-Crisis version of Titano has similar powers, but he does not possess kryptonite eyebeams.

Other versions

Bizarro-Titano, a Bizarro clone of Titano who possesses blue kryptonite-based powers, appears in Adventure Comics #295.Titano One Million, Solovar's descendant, appears in DC One Million.

In other media

Television

Miscellaneous

Titano makes a cameo appearance in Superman Adventures.

Homages

Characters based on Titano have occasionally appeared in comics homaging the Silver Age Superman:
  • In Alan Moore's Supreme, the Titano equivalent is Stupendo, the Simian Supreme. Stupendo has a similar origin to the Silver Age Titano, but was subsequently befriended by Supreme and given a home on Conqueror Island.