Timber Wolf (Brin Londo) is a character appearing in American comics published by DC Comics. He is a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes from the planet Zoon (spelled in later stories as Zuun), and possesses enhanced strength and agility.
Publication history
Timber Wolf first appeared in Adventure Comics #327 (December 1964) as Lone Wolf, created by Edmond Hamilton and John Forte. He joined the team in Adventure Comics #372 (Sept 1968).
Fictional character biography
Brin Londo gained powers from experiments conducted on him by his father, Mar Londo. Karth Arn, Mar's jealous android assistant, switches identities with Brin, but the plot is eventually revealed when "Lone Wolf" first meets the Legion. He is an early graduate of the Legion Academy. 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 Action Comics #377 (July 1969), Timber Wolf battled addiction to the juice of the Lotus Fruit.
In the fourth Legion of Super-Heroes series, Timber Wolf is eventually revealed to have been transformed into a giant, mostly mindless dog-like creature dubbed Furball, due to being blasted with radiation by Doctor Regulus during his attempt to destroy the sun. Jo Nah (Ultra Boy) hid this from the Legion because of Brin's desire to keep his friends from finding out what had he had become.
Furball goes missing, resulting in a cadre of the Legion members seeking Furball and Brainiac 5 (Querl Dox). They eventually discover that Darkseid is involved in a scientific process to create a Demigod from a young girl, Aria. The small Legion troop eventually finds Darkseid (who has been holding Aria's father and Sacred Twin brother hostage) and despite Legion's intervention, Darkseid, with the reluctant help of Aria's father, manages to transform Aria into the Gemini Entity using his recently acquired Gemini Matrix. Darkseid is angered by Gemini's unwillingness to do the job he created her for, and also her kindness towards Brin, and restores Brin to his previous Human form, knowing full-well the change from his more bestial state, will eventually kill him.
In Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 4) Annual #3 (1992), Brainiac 5 discovers that Brin's "condition" was the eventual result of his father's scientific machinations which has deteriorated Brin to the point of a fatal malignancy. Brin decides to wait out the remainder of his life with a small group of Legion friends that he feels are "family". Gemini magically appears and because of her deep friendship with Brin, tries to cure him, by transporting him back to the time before he was experimented on with Zuunium, but accidentally shifts the two of them back to late 20th century Earth which metamorphosizes Brin into a new different hybrid creature somewhere between his original self and the Furball beast.
Subsequently, in the Timber Wolf miniseries, Brin is discovered by a "secret" low-profile underground, government-subsidized group Point Force that recruits "meta-humans without reputations" for undercover operations. He reluctantly joins Point Force, realizing they may be his only hope of finding and rescuing Gemini, who has been kidnapped by the Dominators for use as a god-like power source.
Eventually he is befriended by 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 wolf-like but retaining 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, the Emerald Dragons; Timber Wolf led a gang, 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.