Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! How Feral Should Timber Wolf Be?

One of the flashpoints on the Manapul thread is the divide over Timber Wolf -- do people like or loathe his barefoot look?

I thought this was worth a whole thread, in part because I don't know that we have had one on this topic before, namely, who feral should Timber Wolf be?

When first introduced as Lone Wolf during the Silver Age, he was a clean-cut Sigma Chi looking as all the other Legionnaires. The most hirsute them about him was his moustache in the "Adult Legion" stories by Bridwell and Swan. If he was wolfen in any way, it was a state of mind--unsure of his place in the universe, or even of his very humanity.

Dave Cockrum (God bless and rest his dear soul) got the ball rolling by "feralizing" (trademark pending) Brin in the early 1970s. As we now know, Cockrum had been developing the Wolverine character at the same time. He couldn't get that character into Legion, but the Timber Wolf makeover was a consolation. Then, of course, Wolverine ended up becoming one of comic's greatest characters, making Timber Wolf look like a pale imitation, when Brin was there first.

Levitz and Giffen de-feralized Brin in the early 1980s, just in time for Brin and Imra to get stranded on an asteroid and cuddle together for warmth and survival. Levitz and Giffen re-introduced Brin's internal struggle with his humanity, or lack thereof. As I recall, Greg LaRoque (or maybe Steve Lightle?) gave T-Wolf some big sideburns and made him more wiry.

Then, of course, Giffen and the Birbaums turned poor Brin into a literal furball, looking like Cousin It's very buff brother. Less said about that, the better.

Brin was absent from most of the 2-Boot, showing up at the very end in Legion Worlds and looking very feral indeed, more wolfy than Cockrum, but a far cry from Furball. I think the DnA T Wolf looked the most like a classic werewolf, with long flowing hair, claws, etc. This look seems to have influenced the animated version.

Waid and Kitson completely de-feralized Timber Wolf, bringing him back to a "lone wolf" persona, a loner who lurks in the shadows and wears anachronistic overcoats. Their Brin was handsome and interesting, but his all-brown and black appearance, coupled with features virtually identical to Ultra Boy AND Micro Lad, made Brin much less distinctive.

So, what say the learned sages of Legion World? How feral, if at all, should Brin Londo appear?

For my part, I think the Manapul look is pretty close to the ideal. I think if you are going to have a character with "Wolf" in his name in a group with 20+ members, he should stand out physically with some canine qualities. Otherwise, why not just call him Acrobat Lad or Tracker Kid? At the same time, a look too much like Wolverine will be considered derivative (even if Timber Wolf predates Logan), and a werewolf look is just too cheesy, at least for me. For my taste, the animated version goes a bit too far toward the werewolf. So, a "wolf boy" look, i.e., boy RAISED by wolves, seems a good happy medium--hairy, scruffy, bare and physical.

What I DO wish the creative team would do is restore Brin's inner doubts about his humanity, and you could do this by having him ACT like a wolf without necessarily LOOKING like wolf. Meltzer did a good turn with Vixen along those lines in JLA. It's perhaps MORE isolating to LOOK fairly human but not FEEL human.

I think you left out the post-Furball, half-man, half-wolf with the white streaks look he had in his mini series.

Personally, I like the mostly human with a touch of wolf look (Cockrum had it best, but the DnA version is good too)

The Cockrum makeover made Brin one of the most visually distinctive Legionnaires (perhaps second only to Wildfire at the time). But, for me, his personality didn't stand out until the Levitz/Giffen era, when he became hapless buddy to Blok and rejected lover to Ayla.

In those stories, Brin was initially regarded as a cad by his fellow Legionnaires because of the asteroid incident with Imra. Yet he chose to stay with the Legion instead of run off with Ayla. I think that marked the beginning of a long and difficult growth for the character, which culminated in him being voted deputy leader under Sensor Girl. (A pity we didn't get to see more of him in that role.)

The DnA version of Timber Wolf seemed ill-thought out.

To me, the issue isn't how feral TW should be, but what can be done to make him an interesting character? Any or no feralness (ferality?) is fine by me so long as a good story results from it.

I had no idea that Timber Wolf was a sort of dry run for Wolverine. Interesting.

I think the toon carried the look too far. For me Cockrum was on the money (as usual).

I'd agree with the others that Cockrum's version hit the right balance. It was similar to Bigby Wolf in the Fables series (who is a rough-looking man or transforms into a giant wolf).

A lot of Brin's story has revolved around his physical appearance - undergoing the surgery to get more human features, hiding the fact that he was "Furball" from most of the legionnaires. Rather sad; it was a theme also taken up with Ferro Lad in the post-boot, wanting to look like the others. Interesting stories but I'd like to see something else done with Timber Wolf.

Beyond his appearance, though, is how he acts. Feral implies an uncontrolled wildness; exploring the "inner doubts about his humanity", as Doublechinner points out, would develop the more complex character.

Cockrum face,Lightle costume,Levitz personality.

And Pat Broderick was the artist on the issue where Brin got his human face back.

I would say that attempting to make Brin feral would just continue the comparison to Wolverine. I did like the Cockrum TW (my first exposure to the character)

I think they should continue exploring the lone wolf/loner aspect of the character and how such a character would fit into a team.

I don't mind the barefeet, but they remind me more of Beast from the X-Men.

Bare feet RULE!

uh, not that I have a fetish or anything...

I think the latest version kind of nailed him.

I recently read his first appearance. He was more loner than wolf.

With that said I don't mind the feral look. Barry's Legion rocked but too many brown head boys. It makes him stand out.

BUT I don't want his personality to be THAT feral. When he uses his powers he can bounce around and be all business. Only getting "feral" if he really gets hurt. I rather him keep the too cool for school/legion attitude.

DnA lost it with having Brin say things like "Bub", giving him a "healing factor" and a "tracking ability". i think Coipel even gave him claws on his fingers.
please.
that has nothing to do with Timber Wolf and everything to do with Wolverine. Cockrum's TW looked like a wolf. the eyes, the pointed hair. they really need to bring back the eyes with the fur around them.
he should be aloof, troubled, socially awkward, have a drug addict past. he should be a little too scary to be a babe-magnet.

I'm a big fan of Timber Wolf, so I'm pretty much always glad to see him, whatever he looks like.

He is very complicated and interesting. Messed up. Cool.

I've been trying to think of a response, but you pretty much summed it up for me, Sketch Lad.

If I have to be specific, I think Brin should be feral in mind not body. Claws, tracking powers that's too much. Personality-wise, though, I think he should be a loner and kind of wild. I think the new look fits. It doesn't look like he's got fur, claws or teeth, but the costume design and the hair look wild and kind of out of control.

"Free the feet and free the mind." Gilligan

These people are virtually invulnerable. Shoes are a concession to 21st century societal expectations, with no practical sense. Why should R.J. Brande have to go to the expenses of tailored shoes for quad-toed legionnaires?

What's all this about four toes? There are clearly five toes on each foot in the art, though the pinky toes are not all that pronounced. 'Course they are pinky toes, so: DUH!

And do bare feet automatically signal feral character? Is Shang Chai/Master of Kung Fu over at Marvel feral because he classically is barefoot? Was Bruce Lee? Namor? The Flintstones?

Certainly Tarzan or Kazar and Shanna have that feralocity (or whatever) about them, but were the feet the biggest clue there to said quality or just a part of the whole feral look along with loincloths, unruly hair, bad diction and partial nudity?

I mean, yeah, T-Wolf's pose is slightly suggestive of ferality (or whatever) but isn't really over the top in any way.

Really, if any Legionnaire should be barefoot I'd vote for Val because IMO that's how all martial arts characters should be depicted. And feraliciousness (or whatever) ain't ordinarily associated with martial arts archetypes...well, unless ya get 'em, pissed!

Yeah I don't think he will be all that feral. His hair looks messy, he is jumping into action, etc. It's not like his has fur.

My favorite Timber Wolf is from my favorite Timber Wolf story, his visit with Karate Kid's old sensei to the world of Lythyl (where they ended up picking up a stray named Myg). During the fight, he'd get smacked and come back with red eyes and visible fangs, and that was awesome to me.

I think the premise of a generally clean-cut character visibly changing physically when he gets angry or hurt is cooler than having him be 100% clean-cut or 100% 'wolfy.'

The less said about 'Furball,' the better. I do think that the Legion could benefit from a few less overtly 'human' Legionnaires, but the answer to that, IMO, is to add new 'alien' characters like Tellus and Shikari, not to turn Brin or Jeckie into furries.

One of the recurring 'issues' with the Legion of Super-Heroes is that they have so darn many characters that each of them lacks the sort of development that the members of a smaller team (or a solo book hero) would receive. Timber Wolf's origins leaves all sorts of room for other animalistic traits to surface, depending on what sort of stuff his dad did to him on Zoon.

He could devolve into a furball, suffer a genetic degenerative condition that requires medical intervention, or further 'evolve' into an even more 'perfect predator...'

Like many of the 'old school' Legionnaires, he's got tons of untapped potential.

Correction: Nightcrawler was the character that Dave Cockrum designed for LSH that ended up getting used in X-Men. Dave didn't create Wolverine (though he probably was responsible for designing Logan's civilian appearance); Wolverine first appeared as a Canadian super-agent in a Hulk story set in Canada.

Actually, Dave [b]did[/b] create a character called Wolverine as a villain for the Legion in 1972 . Long before a certain Canadian debuted.

In fact, Dave claims he showed his Legion-related sketches to Len Wein who then created Wolverine in the pages of the Hulk and later (with Dave) the New X-Men.

BRM, I was thinking of some concept art that Cockrum did -- I can't remember the name of the group, but he wanted to use them in Legion. Tyr was the only one actually used. The group also included a "Wolverine" and a "Typhoon" (who changed sex and name to become "Storm").

In general, barefoot super-heroes annoy me. The idea of, let's say, The Avengers' Mantis traipsing around the universe, fighting Kang's Macrobots or the Red Dynamo or whatnot barefoot is just annoying (though I *love* Mantis).

And who wants to run around Detroit fighting crime in their bare feet? Apparently Gypsy of the JLA had invulnerable feet.

Anyhoo, I guess the barefoot thing doesn't bug me IF Brin is going to be more feralesque looking. But if he's gonna be human looking, put some shoes on 'im!

So the Imperial Guard Fang was the original Wolverine? huh.

Actually, there's really no explanation for why Brin would be feral at all. His father experimented on him with Zuunium. Was that some sort of feral beast-making material? When Brin thought he was an android, and different from all the people he met, he called himself Lone Wolf, emphasis on "lone" not wolf. This is a very 1960's term, isn't it? He switched to calling himself Timber Wolf, because he was more interested in being part of the pack.

My point is that Brin has never been more in touch with the earth or animals than anyone else. In fact, it would make more sense for him to go as hairless as possible, to make himself more streamlined for his acrobatic feats and battle.

Still, if you've given yourself a name with "wolf" in it, you kinda have to be as furry as can be, spike your hair like wolf ears, etc.
I get it.

To Lash, and all the other barefeet-haters--LAY OFF 'EM!

Barefeet effin' RAWK, man! It's about time we had some damn bare feet in the Legion book! Why, I bet we'll see LSH sales rise to a modern age high, all because of Brin's bare feet! And if all the Legionnaires suddenly go barefoot...look out X-Men!

So let Brin show off them dawgz, and stop bitchin' already!

Um...nunna this should draw inferences that I have a foot fetish or anything...'kay?