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Last updated:
18th Mar 2002
The following is reproduced from "Who's Who in the Legion", my semi-coherent ramblings are italicised.
| Occupation: | Legionnaire (Oooh! What a surprise!) |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Mar Londo (father, deceased) |
| Group Affiliation: | Legion |
| Base of Operations: | Legion HQ |
| Height: | 6' 0" |
| Weight: | 190 lbs |
| Eyes: | Brown |
| Hair: | Brown |
History
Widower Mar Londo wanted to prove that zuunium, a mineral
only found on Zoon, would give humans super-powers under
the proper scientific process. So he built an army of
androids to mine the mineral for him. By bathing his
teenage son Brin in the zuunium ray, Dr. Londo proved his
theory worked, as the boy exhibited signs of enhanced
strength and agility. Unfortunately, the ray also
inhibited part of his intelligence, causing him to go
into feral rages (what the chuff is a feral rage?)
when under undue stress.
Dr. Londo's android assistant, Karth Arn, who had obtained Londo's zuunium, was jealous over the attention and powers Brin received; consequently, after Mar's death, Arn induced amnesia in Brin and convinced him that he was the android and Arn the human son. Brin ran away from home and, calling himself Lone Wolf, began performing a number of heroic deeds across the galaxy, including Metropolis, where he encountered the Legion. With their help, he eventually discovered his true origins, and the Legionnaires - particularly Light Lass, who had become infatuated with him - encouraged him to seek therapy.
After having his mental faculties completely restored, Brin joined the Legion Academy, where he could further train himself alongside his roommate, Chemical King. He helped the Super-Heroes break down the Legion of Super-Villains from within and was awarded Legion membership under his new name, Timber Wolf.
Brin has never been the most communicative of Legionnaires, and his recent breakup with Lightning Lass seems to have stemmed partly from his inability to express himself verbally, which has previously led to some personal problems, including a short period of drug abuse.
Timber Wolf has always had a special bond of friendship with Saturn Girl. Hur, hur... special bond of friendship? Yeah, right. Including perfectly innocent games of tonsil hockey on remote asteroids. Hur, hur!
Powers and Skills
Timber Wolf's powers include augmented strength, speed
and agility. He uses these powers to their fullest with
his acrobatic fighting style, a very loose and
unstructured style of battle that leaves a target puzzled
until the moment of impact. He excelled at the Legion's
personal combat training, although he rarely makes use of
the suggested moves. He can fly using his Legion flight
ring.
So pretty, much "bog-standard" super-powers, hardly imaginative, not like turning into a rubber ball or shouting at things, for example. How he managed to side-step the power duplication prohibition and join the Legion is anyone's guess. While hardly in the a-list he's a true "b-list" heavy-weight in and easily able to take out the likes of Dream Girl.
First Appearance ADV 327.
And now for my two penn'orth...
Brin has the dubious distinction of being the most mucked about character outside the Superboy pantheon. Despite a promising start as one of the few not to fall over himself to accept Legion membership (at least initially), Brin has been portrayed largely as a second-rate Wolverine knock-off with a dumb jock image even worse than Jo (UltraBoy) Nah's. Lazy writing syndrome lead to his codename dictating his behaviour.
Ironically, his
initial wolf-like appearence was at the hands of Dave Cockrum (who otherwise
showed excellent design sensibilities in updating the appearence of the
Legion) before he moved on to the X-Men and apparently applying his designs
to Wolverine. If Dave had stayed on the Legion who knows how Brin would've
turned out. In the event, no-one seemed to know how to deal with Brin
in any original or meaningful way, the situation degenerating to the point
of Giffen turning him into some kind of retarded Wookiee reject. His continually
morphing appearence "settled down" into a kind of (more visually
interesting) adrenaline driven manic werewolf.
While writers felt the need to blame the influence of Zuunium for his behavioual idiosyncracies, it's no wonder he exhibited mental problems (although not on the scale of Brainy's). His own father used him as a guinea pig, he suffered the traumas of amnesia, being replaced by a jealous android, and his girlfriend, Ayla (Light Lass) Ranzz being lesbian.
His relationships skilled do seem rather questionable. He was the main squeeze of the sexually confused Ayla. And talking of questionable taste, almost had a fling with Imra (Saturn Girl) Ardeen whilst marooned on an asteroid. And while ostensibly befriending Blok (Blok) he spent most of the time taking the piss out of him for being "slow-witted" ("Hello, Kettle, this is Teapot, you're black").
He was briefly "awarded" his own mini-series (set in the 20th Century), but since even Inferno got one of those it's not saying much. He had no young counterpart in SW6 and disappeared during Zero Hour.
The post-boot incarnation of Brin Londo hails from Rimbor, rather than Zoon, and has some "affiliation" with Tinya (Apparition) Wazzo. His character and powers seem similar to the pre-boot TimberWold, but being Rimbor based his back story is presumably different.
Despite hints of a previous encounter with the Post-Boot Legion, none seems likely.
