TYRANNO
Real Name: Not applicable
Identity/Class: Possible Deviant mutate (see comments) (1938 to late 1940s era)
Occupation: Predator
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Professor Rangely
Enemies: Captain America (Jeff Mace) (see comments), Golden Girl (Betsy Ross), Joe, Maggie La Fable, Spike
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: "Tyranno" (as called by Captain America)
Base of Operations: Mobile
First Appearance: Marvel Mystery Comics I#91/4 (April, 1949)
Powers/Abilities: Tyranno was a green-skinned tyrannosaurus, having all the attributes of that species of dinosaur.
Tyranno was unable to swim, and could only travel on dry land.
Height: 40 ' (by approximation)
Weight: 30 tons (by approximation)
Eyes: Unknown
Hair: None
History:
(Marvel Mystery Comics I#91/4 (fb) - BTS)
(The following events as recorded in
Professor Rangely's diary) - On August 10, 1938, Professor
Rangely found an intact tyrannosaurus egg in the Shoelee Tar Pits of
Utah.
On August 15, 1938, Rangely chartered a plane to fly the egg to his laboratory at the Acme Warehouse in New York City.
On December 25, 1938, Rangely artificially hatched the egg in an incubator; he would continue to secretly raise the fledgling tyrannosaurus in his lab over the succeeding years, feeding it a diet of horse-meat. Rangely planned to present the living dinosaur specimen to the world on its tenth birthday (see comments).
(Marvel Mystery Comics I#91/4) - While entering the warehouse one night (see comments), Rangely was shot by two armed robbers. The criminals went into the warehouse in search of valuables, and they unwittingly released the fully-grown tyrannosaur from confinement. The prehistoric beast trampled the robbers to death, smashed through the warehouse wall, and began its rampage in the city--before he died, Rangely managed to write about the creature's escape in a final entry in his diary.
The tyrannosaurus headed for Times Square, where a movie was premiering; Captain America and Golden Girl raced to the scene (They had been nearby in Golden Girl's apartment, and heard a news report about the monster on the radio). After saving some bystanders, Cap (who dubbed the creature as "Tyranno") used a spotlight to momentarily blind the dinosaur, and he narrowly missed getting hit by a piece of wreckage thrown off by Tyranno. As the monster lumbered away, Golden Girl jumped on the creature's back and rode upon it, with Captain America running along after them. Tyranno reached the Forty-Second Street ferry dock and leaped onto a departing ferry--upon landing, the creature's ponderous bulk capsized the boat, and Golden Girl was thrown off Tyranno's back and into the Hudson River. While Golden Girl and Captain America assisted the victims of the ferry disaster, they believed Tyranno had drowned...but the dinosaur had actually managed to make its way back to the Manhattan shore.
Near dawn, Captain America and Golden Girl traced Tyranno's path of destruction back to the warehouse, where they began their investigation; after finding the dead bodies of the robbers and Professor Rangely, they read through Rangely's diary and learned the origin of Tyranno. Then they heard a roar and saw that Tyranno had returned; the creature tore open a crate of horse-meat and began to feast. Suddenly, there was the sound of artillery as a tank rolled up to the warehouse and began to fire at Tyranno, but the monster overturned the tank with a swipe of its tail. Frightened by the gun blast, Tyranno ran off at great speed.
Meanwhile, Captain America read the final entry in Rangely's diary, in which the professor wrote of Tyranno's release--the professor had further speculated that his dinosaur would instinctively head back to its point of origin in Utah. Taking Rangely's theory into consideration, and guessing that the creature couldn't swim, Cap predicted that Tyranno would continue westward and try to get off Manhattan Island by crossing the George Washington Bridge, so Captain America suggested to an Army official that they station an artillery battery on the New Jersey side of the bridge.
After making its way through the metropolis, Tyranno was about to cross the George Washington Bridge, where the dinosaur encountered a cannon waiting for it. The cannon blasted Tyranno and hit the monster, yet still the creature advanced westward and crossed the bridge. A military official told Captain America that he would call for more artillery, but Cap told him that Tyranno was mortally wounded and knew it, and he didn't think the tyrannosaurus would do any more damage because the creature was saving its strength for only one purpose: With death near, Tyranno instinctively knew to head back to the tar pit in Utah.
Three days later at the Shoelee Tar Pits, Captain America and Golden Girl (both having flown there by plane) watched as Tyranno weakly stumbled into the pit, its final goal attained. As the dying Tyranno slowly sank down into the tar, Golden Girl guessed that Tyranno knew he didn't belong in the current era, and Captain America commented that death had waited a million years to claim the creature.
Comments: Created by an unidentified writer and Ken Bald (artist).
Since they knew the general direction Tyranno was headed, maybe Cap and Golden Girl arranged to have horse-meat snacks left along the dinosaur's projected path so the creature wouldn't cause any undue carnage along the way.
The origin of the dinosaur egg Professor Rangely found in the tar pit was unrevealed--possibly it was engineered by Deviant scientists (There was at least one confirmed Deviant-created tyrannosaurus in the jungles of Africa), or maybe that tar pit was somehow connected to the Savage Land.
Professor Rangely planned to present his dinosaur to the world on its tenth birthday, which would have been on Christmas of 1948; yet when this story (published in 1949) began, Rangely was still holding the tyrannosaurus in captivity--my guess is that these events actually took place during the summer/early-fall of 1948, since a cold-blooded dinosaur would have difficulty surviving outdoors in the colder New York City weather.
Although the Captain America in this story was depicted with the civilian identity of Steve Rogers, per modern continuity, it actually had to be Jeff Mace (the third Cap) since the real Steve Rogers would have been frozen in suspended-animation during this time-period.
Profile by Ron Fredricks.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Tyranno has no known connections to:
Professor Rangely has no known connections to:
Joe has no known connections to:
Spike has no known connections to:
Maggie La Fable has no known connections to:
He was a retired archeologist who had discovered an intact tyrannosaurus egg in the Shoelee Tar Pits of Utah a decade earlier. He had the egg flown to his lab at the Acme Warehouse in New York City, and he successfully hatched it in an incubator. He spent the succeeding years secretly raising the new-born tyrannosaur on a diet of horse-meat, and he planned to present the living dinosaur specimen to the world on its tenth birthday--Professor Rangely recorded these events in his diary.
But one night, Rangely was about to enter the warehouse when he was confronted by two robbers. Although he begged the crooks not to interfere with his life's work, the robbers shot him; the criminals then unwittingly released the tyrannosaur.
As he lay dying, Rangely was able to write one final entry in his diary about the creature's release, and he theorized that the escaped dinosaur would head back to the tar pits of Utah.
--Marvel Mystery Comics I#91/4
Two common thugs, they had watched the Acme Warehouse for weeks; they thought that the crates of horse-meat that Professor Rangely was constantly having shipped there contained furs or merchandise. They shot Rangely and fatally wounded him, then Spike and Joe unwittingly released the tyrannosaur Rangely was secretly raising.
Spike and Joe were both trampled to death by the dinosaur.
--Marvel Mystery Comics I#91/4
A beautiful motion-picture actress, she was the star of the movie False Alarm.
One night, she appeared at the premiere of the film at the Marquee Theatre in New York City's Times Square, where she was escorted by producer Jack Farge. But a tyrannosaurus came rampaging into the area, and the panicking Maggie stumbled and fell to the sidewalk, too frightened to move.
She would have been crushed beneath the dinosaur's foot if not for the timely intervention of Captain America (Jeff Mace), who picked her up and carried her to safety; Maggie thanked the hero with a kiss.
--Marvel Mystery Comics I#91/4
images: (without ads)
Marvel Mystery Comics I#91/4, p3, pan3 (Main Image - Tyranno outside movie theatre, as witnessed by Golden Girl and Captain America)
Marvel Mystery Comics I#91/4, p4, pan4 (Headshot - Captain America shines spotlight at Tyranno)
Marvel Mystery Comics I#91/4, p6, pan3 (Tyranno leaps upon ferry, spilling passengers and Golden Girl into Hudson River)
Marvel Mystery Comics I#91/4, p12, pan5 (mortally wounded Tyranno returns to tar pit to die, as Golden Girl and Captain America watch)
Marvel Mystery Comics I#91/4, p1, pan3 (Professor Rangely, shot by Spike (background))
Marvel Mystery Comics I#91/4, p2, pan1 (Spike (left) and Joe (right) in Rangely's warehouse lab, about to release Tyranno)
Marvel Mystery Comics I#91/4, p3, pan4 (Maggie La Fable, fallen to sidewalk, as Captain America runs to her rescue)
Marvel Mystery Comics I#91/4, p3, pan6 (Maggie La Fable thanks Captain America)
Appearances:
Marvel Mystery Comics I#91/4 (April, 1949) - unidentified writer, Ken Bald (pencils and inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Last updated: 01/09/17
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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