Monday, April 9, 2012

Timber Wolf Vs. Wolverine



It is interesting that Wolverine became such a smash hit character, when he shared so many traits with the far lower profile character Timber Wolf, who preceded him.  The talented Dave Cockrum worked on both characters and he seemed to bring over the parts that worked best on the Legion of Super-Heroes member to the new bad boy in the Uncanny X-Men.  I do prefer Logan's brown outfit to the blue and yellow that he reverted back to - Cockrum had a keen eye for costume design.

14 comments:

Dirty Soap Bar said...

wow, this is one we have all sub-conconsciously been waiting for (without knowing it!). Timber Wolf and Wildfire were equally my favorite Legionaires, so of course I'm waiting impatiently for Wildfires' turn!

Anonymous said...

how abou Dondi (from the sunday strips) and Terry and the Pirates?

Adam Barnett said...

You know, I guess I'm in the minority but I greatly prefer the blue-and-yellow costume. The brown one was so generic. Timber Wolf's costume there was awesome, though. Cockrum indeed had an amazing eye!

Charles Roig said...

I grew up on and prefer the brown outfit. I've always been kind of sad that yellow and blue has become Wolverine's default costume colors.

I have to correct you, though. The brown outfit was designed by John Byrne. It debuted in issue 139, towards the end of Byrne's run.

I heard Byrne had a funny anecdote about how Jim Lee was gloating to him how he'd been able to get Wolverine back in the blue and yellow, until Byrne politely informed him that he'd been the one to design the brown outfit in the first place.

Ross said...

Wolverine took Fang's costume from the Imperial Guard which had the brown color scheme and was Cockrum's design. Byrne later incorporated the colors into Wolverine's more traditional look.

Anonymous said...

Recently purchased and currently reading The Art of George Perez. Its really inspirational, actually, as he discusses how he developed his own style. Marvel had a "house" style that he had to conform to, but chafed against for a decade (in the 70s), and when given the chance to work with Marv Wolfman in the 80s, he was given a clean slate with the Titans to do all the things he wanted to do. Fascinating insight into how an artist is developed. its NOT overnight.

pblfsda said...

When I saw this cover I knew you had to be aware of the true origin of the brown costume (which originally had the alien tooth necklace that Byrne ditched pretty quickly-- (a) kinda gruesome and (b) takes too long to draw). After all, the Imperial Guard were obviously meant to be the Legion and Fang was obviously meant to be Timber Wolf.

Mitchell Craig said...

If we're talking about Wolverine's original costume..i.e., the one in which he made his debut in Incredible Hulk #180-182, that one was designed by John Romita. Cockrum's rendering was more of a streamlining of Romita's work, particularly where the hood was concerned (the original Romita design made Wolverine look more cat-like).

Rick L. Phillips said...

How about a team-up between Wolverine and Lobo?

Ross said...

I'm not the biggest fan of Lobo but perhaps one of these days...

Anonymous said...

Really like this. Just discovered this blog via a plug on "Last of the Famous International Fanboys". Being an older comics fan (Turn 50 in a couple years), I of course remember the Cockrum run on LSH, and have always thought of Wolverine as a Johnny-Come-Lately version of Timber Wolf.

Again, I'm totally digging your site, just added it to My Favorites bar.

Anonymous said...

And yes, Timber Wolf could and would throw Wolverine into orbit if they could ever battle, lol.

Anonymous said...

Wow. Once again... Marvel was the House of Stolen Ideas.

Dcrules said...

Timber wolf no Contest

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