Several super-simians have complicated Clark Kent’s life over the years.
He tangled with the massive escaped gorilla Gigantic in the 1942 movie cartoon Terror on the Midway. Then in July 1956, he confronted the tragic Super-Ape from Krypton (Action Comics 218). And in October 1959, Superbaby had to deal with the annoying Super-Monkey (Superboy 76).
But towering above them all was Titano.
A King Kong clone, Titano first appeared under the name of “Big Boy” in the Superman Sunday newspaper strip story that ran from March 9 to June 15, 1958.
In that story by artist Wayne Boring, a chimp in a space capsule, having been exposed to cosmic rays and kryptonite gas, gives Superman and Lois Lane a rough time with his ever-increasing size and kryptonite vision. The crisis is resolved humanely, with the promise that Big Boy’s strange condition will wear off.
“It was an interesting glimpse into the real fears of early space travel,” observed comics historian Mark Engblom. “Echoed a few years later in Fantastic Four 1, it was a common fear that the unknown reaches of outer space could affect animal or human voyagers in ways nobody could yet imagine. Granted, Big Boy’s exposure to both cosmic rays AND kryptonite was a stretch even by Silver Age standards. However, in some odd way, it still must have felt topical and relevant to the people of the early space age (particularly the child readers of comic books).”
Big Boy showed up in comic books shortly thereafter, now named Titano, in a story by Boring and writer Otto Binder (Superman 127, Feb. 1959).
I suspect we owe Titano — anticipated by Batman’s “Gorilla Boss” — to the 1952 re-release of the 1933 King Kong, which was promoted on the new medium of TV. It generated more box office receipts than the original 1933 release had. And Mort Weisinger paid close attention to the movies.
“DC loved gorillas in the ’50s and the ’60s,” recalled comics historian Paul Zuckerman. “Apparently, they always sold great guns. Some months, the editors probably fought over who was going to get a gorilla cover. I understand that one of Grodd’s early appearances couldn’t get a cover because another editor had glommed the cover spotlight that month.”
“I have to admit that they got me. I loved Titano. Another one of those semi-tragic characters that populated Weisinger’s books. The Super Ape from Krypton was really sad, though. I think it was the first story that showed what dying from kryptonite was like.”
“Apes and monkeys played an outsized role in 20th century American popular culture,” noted comics historian Matthew Grossman. “As humanity’s closest physical cousins, primates hold up a primal mirror to our species, lending themselves to art satirizing human passions and follies.
“In Silver Age comics, Superman alone encountered a cast of simians as diverse as Beppo, King Krypton, the Super-Ape, Titano and probably a few others I’ve missed, Batman had the Gorilla Boss, and even the Doom Patrol faced the monkey might of Monsieur Mallah.”
“In addition to offering the spectacle of a giant ape trashing Metropolis, what makes Titano stories enjoyable is their offering Lois Lane an all-too-infrequent opportunity to work alongside Superman, and to share more fully his triumphs and tragedies,” observed Joseph McCabe and Mark Waid.
Although safely deposited in the prehistoric past, the popular menace managed to return the next year to once again threaten Metropolis (Superman 138, July 1960).
Titano had a cameo appearance in Superman Meets Al Capone! (Superman 142, Jan. 1961). Everybody’s favorite super-dog had a go at him in Krypto Battles Titano (Superman 147, Aug. 1961). A Bizarro Titano showed up (Adventure Comics 295, April 1962).
The ape even suffered the humiliation of co-starring with the Kryptonian Flame Dragon in a giant monster movie made by Superman’s pal (Jimmy Olsen 84, April 1965).
Titano’s career was an old story for Hollywood monsters. You start out being scary and you end up playing comedy.
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