Publication history
The Larry Trainor version of Negative Man first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80 and was created by Bob Haney, Arnold Drake, and Bruno Premiani.[2] Drake recalled:
I left [editor Murray Boltinoff's] office and bumped into Bob Haney in the hall. Bob was a real good friend of mine ... I asked him if he got an assignment from Bob Kanigher. He had this routine where he'd come up from Woodstock once a week and stay for two nights and get a couple of assignments from Kanigher and then go back home and write them. He said he didn't get an assignment from Kanigher, and I told him I had this assignment that I was about two-thirds through with, but I needed another character and maybe between us we could come up with something. We sat down and came up with this notion of a guy who has gone through a cloud of radioactivity and is bandaged from head to toe with these specially treated bandages that keep the radioactivity within him so he isn't injurious to others. The most novel aspect was Negative Man, the character who lives inside him who can only be outside of him for 60 seconds - and don't ask me why 60 seconds.[3]
Fictional character biography
Larry Trainor
The original Negative Man, Larry Trainor, is a founding member of the Doom Patrol, along with Elasti-Girl, Robotman, and Chief.[4] Like the rest of the Doom Patrol, Trainor sees himself as a victim as much as a hero, and his superpower as an affliction rather than a blessing.
Trainor's career as a superhero begins when he is accidentally exposed to a radioactive field in the atmosphere while piloting a test plane. This experience leaves him radioactive, but also gives him a strange superpower: the ability to release a negatively charged energy being from his body; the being, also referred to as Negative Man, or, later, as the Negative Spirit,[5] can fly at high speed, cause solid objects to explode, and pass through solid materials. It resembles a shadowy silhouette of a human being, surrounded by a bright glow. The being is under Trainor's control and appears at first to have no mind of its own. But Trainor is weak and defenseless while the being is separated from his body; he can only send it forth for 60 seconds at a time without risking death. After his accident, Trainor resembles the Invisible Man; he is forced to wear specially treated bandages over his entire body to protect bystanders from his radioactivity.
Sales of Doom Patrol had waned, and the creative team chose to kill off the entire team, including Negative Man, in the final issue, Doom Patrol (vol. 2) #121 (September–October 1968). The Doom Patrol sacrificed their lives to Madame Rouge and General Zahl (who pushed the actual kill button) to save the small fishing village of Codsville, Maine.
Later, it was revealed that Larry Trainor somehow (never explained) survived the explosion. He turned up alive, permanently separated from the radio energy being, but still radioactive, bandaged, and weak in its absence.
Larry Trainor and Valentina Vostok
In Showcase #94 (September 1977), the Negative Spirit reappears when it possesses a Russian cosmonaut, Colonel Valentina Vostok, who becomes Negative Woman. Initially, Vostok could transform herself into a radio-energy form, possessing the same capabilities as Trainor's "partner". Later, as with Trainor, it would emerge from her leaving her physically weak but in control of it and requiring her to wear special bandages just as Trainor had. After Trainor's return, he gains strength from being in Vostok's presence and pleads with her to return the negative being to him. He later breaks Reactron out of Belle Reve Penitentiary and after fitting him with a regulator, uses him to successfully draw the negative being out of Vostok.[6] During an encounter with Garguax, the negative being is disrupted and returns to Vostok, but saves Trainor and in the process heals Trainor completely removing all radioactivity from his body.[7] After this, Trainor works with the Patrol in a support capacity but occasionally enters combat using high tech weaponry.
Trainor has since been reunited with the energy being and is an active member of the current incarnation of the Doom Patrol.
Recently, Larry has exhibited the ability to cover himself in the negative energy that's inside him instead of releasing it, thus gaining the same powers that the negative spirit has shown. Larry's inner monologue says that it's making him feel a "burning sensation" (Doom Patrol (vol. 5) #9).
Rebis
The Negative Spirit later reveals itself to be amoral, intelligent, and capable of speech. Trainor pleads with it to leave him alone, but it forcefully merges itself with both Trainor and his physician Dr. Eleanor Poole. Together the three entities form Rebis, a divine intersex person, who, again, must wear special bandages. Rebis has all of the memories of all three beings, and is as such a compound being, frequently using "we" when speaking of itself. Rebis has a larger range of powers than those of either Trainor or Vostok; Rebis can fly, is psychic, is extraordinarily intelligent, and, most significantly, is immortal. Rebis' unique life cycle is based on an event called the Aenigma Regis, in which it throws off its old body and gives birth to a new version of itself; in describing its paradoxical existence, Rebis often likens itself to Russian dolls, and to an ouroboros.[8]
Rebis temporarily leaves the Doom Patrol to mate with itself and complete the Aenigma Regis; part of this process involves working through the significant trauma and inner turmoil caused by the death of Trainor and Poole's separate identities. At some point during this absence, Rebis also has intercourse with Coagula, giving her superpowers. Rebis's old body is killed by the Candlemaker, but Rebis' new, presumably harmonized body soon returns to see the Candlemaker defeated.
Byrne Incarnation
In 2004, the Doom Patrol was rebooted in a JLA storyline and new Doom Patrol series, both written and illustrated by John Byrne. In this version of the Doom Patrol, which ignored previous continuity, Trainor is once again Negative Man (although his negative-energy form now has the appearance of a black skeleton instead of a shadowy humanoid shape). After this series was canceled, the miniseries Infinite Crisis explained that this alteration had been caused by Superboy-Prime's attempts to escape from the extradimensional "heaven" he shared with Alexander Luthor and the Superman and Lois Lane of Earth-Two. When the Doom Patrol joins other heroes in fighting Superboy-Prime, Negative Man and the other Doom Patrol members (including former member Beast Boy) begin recalling their previous lives; all previous incarnations of the Doom Patrol are now in continuity, although the exact details of what this means are not yet clear.
Keith Giffen
Larry Trainor is once again a member of Doom Patrol. The negative energy being can now exist apart from Trainor's body for much longer than 60 seconds. During the Blackest Night, he fights against Black Lantern Valentina Vostok, pitting his Negative Spirit against the corrupt Black Lantern version and starts convulsing in pain after absorbing both entities.[9] Managing to take control of them, he sends them into Valentina, overloading her and destroying her ring. However, when he recovers, he cannot repeat the same attack against Black Lantern Cliff Steele before Black Lanterns Celsius and Tempest attack. Robotman comments that the combined form of both entities is partially similar to Rebis.[10]
It is revealed that Larry’s original body was destroyed in the Codsville explosion and that the "Negative" is in fact Larry (mind, consciousness, and soul); when he found himself without a physical body, Larry took solace in Valentina Vostok, but only temporarily, until The Chief cloned him a new body. When one of the bodies expires, Larry takes residence in a genetically altered, brain-dead donor body. In the transaction Larry obtains the memories and experiences of every host and the experience can be maddening to him, so Larry constantly reminds himself that he is Larry Trainor.
The New 52
In the New 52 DC Universe, Negative Man is actually the second host of the Negative Spirit as Negative Woman predates his tenure on the team. Part of Caulder's second incarnation of the Doom Patrol, Negative Man and the team went on a mission to capture the Ring of Volthoom which had attached itself onto a woman named Jessica Cruz. Their mission put them in opposition to the Justice League, where Niles sought to lobotomize Cruz when Volthoom took control over her body. During the battle, Negative Man does not use any of his powers; it is implied that the New 52 version of the Negative Spirit is a violent entity that is so powerful, that Niles forbids Larry from using it in battle unless Niles explicitly orders him to unleash it. The battle ends when Batman is able to help Jessica Cruz regain control over her body and the power ring that has now bonded to her hand.
Young Animal
Some time later, Larry was mysteriously beamed to what was known as "The Negative Space" and separated from his negative spirit Keeg Bovo. After being sent back to Earth, Larry was reunited with his fellow former Doom and contacted by Keeg Bovo, who invited Larry to return to the Negative Space for trial. Trainor, Bovo, and Robotman went to the Negative Space and, despite Trainor being sentenced to continue being connected to Bovo, Robotman talked the council out of their decision, stating it was only fair for Larry to decide if he wanted to continue the connection or be normal. Larry chose to continue being Negative Man and accepted Bovo, knowing that in this way he could continue helping people. As a parting gift, the council modifies his abilities so that whenever the Negative Spirit is released and Larry is unconscious he experiences an entire normal human lifecycle, as a way to allow him to have the chance to feel normal.[11] Many different negative spirits are seen at the trial.
