Timber Wolf (comics)

Timber Wolf (Brin Londo) is a fictional character, a superhero in the 30th and 31st centuries of the DC Comics Universe and member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. He comes from the planet Zoon (spelled in later stories as Zuun). His powers are enhanced strength,^[1] speed and agility. He first appeared in Adventure Comics #327 (1964) as Lone Wolf.

Character history

Brin Londo gains his super powers from experiments conducted on the fictional element Zuunium by his father, Dr. Mar Londo. A jealous android assistant of his father, named Karth Arn, switches identities with Brin, but the plot is eventually revealed when "Lone Wolf" first meets the Legion.^[2] He is an early graduate of the Legion Academy.^[3] He is thought dead for six months, but is later revealed to have been kidnapped by the villain Tyr (during his captivity his features become more lupine). He has a long standing romance with fellow Legionnaire Light Lass; they break up due to a misunderstanding when Light Lass finds Timber Wolf embracing Saturn Girl on a frozen asteroid. In the Timber Wolf mini-series, he travels back in time to the late 20th century, where he fights alien invaders before being returned to his home timeline.

In the fourth Legion of Super-Heroes series, Timber Wolf is revealed to have been reduced to a giant and mindless dog-like creature named Furball, by new Legion member Kono. The transformation was caused by Doctor Regulus, who blasted Timber Wolf with a dose of radiation during his attempt to destroy the sun in the unseen storyline "Black Dawn". The Legion hid Brin's identity from most due to a desire to protect his friends from finding out what had become of him; when a young girl named Gemini discovered this, she "rescued" Brin from his teammates as they traveled the galaxy in search of Darkseid (who was holding Gemini's brother hostage). Intrigued by Gemini's kindness towards Brin, Darkseid restored Brin to normal in exchange for Gemini killing Darkseid. Brin returned the Legion, horrified at their treatment of him and fled using a time machine back to the 20th Century. There he befriended the "New Blood" super-hero Jamm and was experimented on again by mad scientists who sought to create their own "Timber Wolf". The process transformed Brin again, making him physically wolflike (with brownish black skin limited fur on his body) but allowed him to retain his mind. Timber Wolf returned to the future and ultimately reconciled with the Legion.

The mute Furball incarnation appeared in Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #5, along with various Legionnaires from alternate worlds, to battle the Time Trapper at the end of time.

Reboot

In the Post-Zero Hour reboot, Timber Wolf was introduced in the Legion Worlds miniseries. He appears to come from Rimbor, the home planet of Ultra Boy. He is a rival gang leader to Ultra Boy in this continuity (Ultra Boy led a gang called the Emerald Dragons, Timber Wolf led a gang called the Lone Wolves). There is a love triangle between himself, Ultra Boy and Apparition, as he met Apparition while Ultra Boy was part of the team lost in the Second Galaxy, and formed a strong connection with her. Timber Wolf later realized his feelings for Apparition were only those of a friend, but Ultra Boy remained jealous.

This version of the character had a healing factor. Later, the serum that gave him his powers caused him to mutate into a feral werewolf.

A character named Lupine, who resembled Furball, briefly appeared in an earlier story as a hologram, but due to the creative team changing this was not taken up.

Threeboot

In the 2004 reboot, written by Mark Waid, Timber Wolf appeared originally as an associate of the Legion but subsequently took on full Legion membership. Nothing has been revealed about his origin in this series, ended at issue #50 with several plotlines unresolved. Even if he hasn't shown his wolfen incarnation in this reboot, he's still prone in his human form to violent and vicious outburst of rage, especially when Princess Projectra, for whom he still carries a torch, is threatened. When Projectra, maddened by the loss of her home planet of Orando, begins to blame the whole Legion for her losses, Timber Wolf takes her side, going so far to cover up the savage beating of Phantom Girl at the hands of Princess Projectra, by sneaking around Princess Projectra and anonymously activating Phantom Girl's Legion Ring alarm only when he was sure of Projectra's own safety.

This version of Timber Wolf has all the powers of the former iterations, but despite being fully human, he has some animalistic traits "carried over" to his otherwise humanoid body, like clawed fingernails and slightly elongated canines.

Post-Infinite Crisis retroboot

The events of the Infinite Crisis miniseries have restored a close analogue of the Pre-Crisis Legion to continuity, as seen in "The Lightning Saga" story arc in Justice League of America and Justice Society of America, and in the "Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes" story arc in Action Comics. Timber Wolf is included in the Legion and seemingly reconciled with Lightning Lass.

In the crossover story "The Lightning Saga", Timber Wolf is revealed to be alive in the present, alongside six other members of the Legion. He was discovered in Gorilla City, participating in a race riding velociraptors with no idea who he really is. Only the name "Lightning Lad" (spoken in Interlac) was able to snap his memory back. After completing their "secret" mission in the 21st century, he subsequently returns to his own time along with Dream Girl, Sensor Girl, Dawnstar and Wildfire.

New 52

In the second Legion Lost series, part of DC's New 52 reboot, Timber Wolf, along with Chameleon Girl, Wildfire, Dawnstar, Tellus, Tyroc, and Gates are trapped in the 21st Century while pursuing a time-travelling genetic terrorist. After exposure to the terrorist's mutagen, Brin's fingernails became hardened, resembling sharp talons which he could expel like projectiles (although not without some pain), regrowing new ones in a matter of seconds.

Powers and abilities

Originally, Timber Wolf was superhumanly fast and agile, but when the serum changed him into a wolf-like lycanthrope he gained claws, enhanced senses, the ability to heal quickly from injuries, and superhuman strength. As a byproduct of his wolfen form, he is often prone to outbursts of savage fury.

Through exposure to a mutagen while trapped in the 21st century, he gained the ability to fire off his fingernails as sharpened projectiles, regrowing them almost immediately.

Equipment

As a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes he is provided a Legion Flight Ring. It allows him to fly and protects him from the vacuum of space and other dangerous environments.

In other media

Television

• Timber Wolf appeared in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Far From Home" where he was among the captive Legionnaires under the control of the Fatal Five.
• Timber Wolf is part of the core Legion team in the Legion of Super-Heroes series where he is voiced by Shawn Harrison. In his debut episode, Brin Londo's father Dr. Mar Londo was conducting experiments in the jungles of the planet Rawl. It was revealed he had experimented on his son until he became a werewolf-like creature. Thanks to Saturn Girl, Brin managed to regain his personality in a form much closer to human. He joined the Legion afterwards, but worries that he may not control the animal within him. In "Phantoms," he helps fight off Drax's pets, which annoys Phantom Girl, who doesn't like to be helped. Timber Wolf goes with Phantom Girl in the sewers to search for one of Drax's pets and Phantom Girl tells him that she can handle her own, to which he responds that he wishes she would stop acting like a princess. Timber Wolf has feelings for Phantom Girl. In "Brain Drain," several Legionnaires must travel to a planet called Zuun to collect a rare element (zuunium) that will restore Brainiac 5's failing mind. Timber Wolf says this is his homeworld, and is made mission leader. It is not clear when he and his father moved to Rawl. Zuunium poisoning, Timber Wolf says, causes mutations, although the miners effected are witless, shambling zombies, rather than his own feral form, which was caused by zuunium in the comics. In the second half of "Sundown," Timber Wolf admits he enjoys baking (This can be an homage to Shawn Harrison's previous character Waldo Faldo on Family Matters, who was a skilled chef). In the second season opener, he was part of the Legion team that traveled to the 41st century to battle Imperiex with the Superman clone Kell-El and thus was one of the few Legionnaires able to rescue his captured teammates. When they bring back the original Superman, bigger and stronger than before, Phantom Girl is impressed and he appears jealous. In "Cry Wolf," it appeared that he was losing control of his feral side and apparently murdered his father before it was revealed to be an elaborate plan to get him to work with his father once more. This episode further hinted at a possible romance between him and Phantom Girl.

References

External links

• A Hero History Of Timber Wolf