WANTED: Earth-Two's Most Dangerous Super-Villains
Dr. Togg
Personal information
Rocco Togg
Residence: Usually Mobile, occasional base of operations on Wide
Island
Occupation: Scientist, Professional Criminal First Appearance
(Golden Age): Adventure Comics #57 (December 1940)
First Appearance (Post-Golden Age): None
Character History
Little is known about the life
of Rocco Togg before he set up his first base of criminal operations on
a small piece of land called Wide Island off the cost of New England. He
possessed advanced scientific training, at least to doctorate level,
and an understanding of genetics and developmental biology that was well
ahead of his time. He often claimed to have been scorned, implying that
he had once held a formal position but may have lost it.
Dr. Togg first came to public attention in 1940.
To acquire resources and funding to support his research operations, Togg
had generated a specialized hybrid of dog and bird which he termed a gombezi.
The gombezi possessed the head and torso of a dog but the grasping feet
and wings of a large bird. Through either genetics or surgical modification,
Togg had imbued his creation with the ability of limited speech, allowing
him to issue primitive commands and communicate by radio transmission.
The gombezis also had a thick slippery hide making them immune to some
projectiles and difficult to hold on to.
Togg began his criminal career with a series of robberies
along the New England coast, including having his gombezis rob a mail train
and a few local banks. After a couple of weeks of headline grabbing robberies,
Togg set his sights on a large radium shipment aboard the S.S. Cambria
bound for New York Harbor. Meanwhile in New York City, Rex Tyler read of
the Cambria's cargo and made the logical deduction that it
would be the next target of the strange robberies. Intercepting it before
it docked, Hourman found the ship raided by gombezis. In hot pursuit, he
followed the strange creatures back to Wide Island and entered Dr. Togg's
lair. Recognizing the nature of the threat, Togg unleashed a new hybrid,
the wolf-buzzard, against Hourman. Thinking quickly, Hourman threw a collection
of chemicals at them, bring the building down around them. In the aftermath,
Togg was nowhere to be found and presumed dead (Adventure Comics
#57).
Whether he survived or produced heirs is unknown.
Powers and Abilities
Dr. Togg possessed no super-powers. He was an extremely skilled scientist and possessed an understanding of genetics and organic manipulation advanced even by modern standards. Togg also was a master engineer and generated a variety of novel technologies for his personal use. While most of his devices centered on the creation of hybrid monstrosities to act as his personal assistants, he also developed a neophyte form of video communication known as the Radiofoto.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Togg was a normal human and, after getting past his monstrous lackeys, could be captured as such.
Multiversity
Prior Earth-0
Togg's first case in the post-Crisis Earth-0 timeline was likely very similar to his counterpart on Earth-Two. On this earth, he is known to have escaped and his next recorded appearance of Dr. Togg was in 1942, when he kidnapped the wife of the mayor
of New York. Holding her hostage while his gombezis raided New York, Togg
threatened to turn her and a variety of others into a hybrid monsters.
Tracking him to a hideout in the Mid-Town Chemical building, Hourman thrashed
both Togg and his gombezis, allowing the villain to be bathed in the light
of his own "monstroscopic lamp". The result mutated Togg significantly,
a condition he retained for the next 58 years (Hourman #5).
In 1999, Rocco Togg was paroled after 58 years in
the New York State Penitentiary. Contacting World-Farmco Industries, he
convinced them to restore his lab, ostensibly for their benefit. Instead,
Togg re-created his force of mutated Gombezis and sought to capture Bethany
Lee, a companion of the modern Hourman. The modern version made short work
of the elderly scientist and his plans but instead of returning him to
prison, had him use his considerable genetics acumen in an attempt to cure
Rick Tyler, the son of the original Hourman. (Hourman
#10). Togg and his team were eventually successful in curing Rick and he remained on the ship until the android Hourman left to eventually replace Rex Tyler and restore him to a normal life in the 20th century. (Hourman #25). What became of Togg after these events is unknown.
Appearances
|
Issue |
Comment |
Reprinted in |
|
Adventure Comics #57 |
First Appearance , vs. Hourman |
DC 100-Page Spectacular #18 |