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Lawrence Trainor (Prime Earth)

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As a result of the New 52 in 2011, the entire line of DC characters was relaunched, incorporating properties belonging to the company's imprints: Wildstorm, Milestone, and Vertigo. As such, elements of this character's history have been altered in some way from the previous incarnation. For a complete list of all versions of this character, see our disambiguation page.

Captain Lawrence "Larry" Trainor is the Positive Man (formerly the Negative Man), a chipper and friendly superhero and member of the Doom Patrol. Once able to project from his body and guide the negative spirit Keeg Bovo to fight crime, he now projects positive energy into the universe, effectively altering reality with it.

Origin

Larry Trainor was formerly a test pilot for the United States Air Force. While piloting his plane, he flew through a highly radioactive energy field that crashed his plane and connected him to the negative spirit Keeg Bovo. The doctors managed to stabilize him, but one of the doctors involved died of cancer due to the radiation that emanated from his body. Larry was truly saved by Niles Caulder. Larry was grateful for this and stated that he owed his life to Niles his, joining the Doom Patrol in return.

Larry operated with the Doom Patrol, at one point taking on the new superhero name Rebis, and battled surreal threats like the Scissormen and Brotherhood of Dada alongside his teammates Robotman and Crazy Jane.[1]

Finding Power Ring

Having assembled another iteration of the Doom Patrol after some variation had died during the Earth 3 invasion, Niles Caulder had Negative Man and the new team go 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 of the Justice League. However it was revealed by Lex Luthor that Niles caused Larry and every one else on the team's respective accidents, forcing them to lose morale and give up.

New Doom Patrol

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 Patrol member Robotman and contacted by Keeg Bovo, who invited Larry to return to the Negative Space for trial.

Both Negative Man and Robotman went to the Negative Space and, despite Larry being sentenced to continue being connected to Keeg, Robotman talked the council out of their decision, stating it was only fair for Larry to decide if he wanted to continue having powers or be normal. Larry agreed to continue being Negative Man and accepted Keeg, hoping that his powers could be used to continue helping people.[2]

On their adventures, Larry helped free Danny from Vectra, stopped the Brotherhood of Nada, and solved the crisis of the Milk Wars.

Weight of the Worlds

Having become comfortable with the newest iteration of the Doom Patrol, Larry allowed his negative spirit Keeg to operate more independently of him, spending more time living entire lifetimes in his sleep while Keeg was away. With so many lives he'd lived, Larry became so enlightened that his dreams began to become too dark and got an emotional support dog named Hank for some positive energy.

However, the positive energy that Hank brought Larry was too effective, and his positive energy overwhelmed him and escaped. After the energy was supercharged again by Lotion the Cat and forced back upon Larry, Keeg was permanently expelled from Larry's body - who then became the new Positive Man.[3]

Doomsday Clock

 Main article: Doomsday Clock Vol 1

After Superman is framed and rendered comatose, Larry Trainor joined the group of heroes heading towards Mars to confront their mysterious enemy. The heroes meet and engage Doctor Manhattan, but they are easily defeated.[4]

Powers

  • Positive Energy Being: After absorbing a massive amount of positive energy once he got his therapy dog Hank, Larry separated from his negative spirit Keeg Bovo and was imbued with the powers of positive energy.
    • Flight
    • Reality Alteration: As Positive Man, Larry can project positive energy into the world.
      • Pheromone Control: Among the positive energy he can project, Larry can convince people to become infatuated with one another.[5]
Former Powers
  • Negative Spirit Connection: Larry Trainor was 'accidentally' sent into a field of cosmic radiation while testing an experimental jet in the stratosphere. The radiation caused him to gain a connection to his negative spirit Keeg Bovo.
    • Energy Absorption: Negative Man can absorb thermal energy and convert it into an explosive discharge tied to his other thermal abilities.
    • Enhanced Intellect: Larry lives an entire lifetime in his sleep whenever his spirit leaves him. This caused him to become enlightened in his own words[3]
    • Flight: Negative Man can fly at speeds equal to or greater than jets and other airplanes.
    • Phasing: Negative Man can alter his density to pass through solid objects. Phasing through biological material causes pain to the affected target. Lead is the only substance that he cannot phase through.
    • Radiation Production: Negative Man has the ability to summon and control what is known as a negative spirit, a black, electrical energy humanoid, from his body. Larry's mind and consciousness resides in the being while his body is left behind as a husk. Originally, he could only leave his body for a total of sixty seconds. By now he has trained himself to last much longer before returning to his body at will.

Abilities

Weaknesses

Former Weaknesses
  • Mental Disorder: The stress of living an entire lifetime every time he released the negative spirit caused Larry to become, in a sense, overly-enlightened. Therefore, he adopted a therapy dog named Hank, which had the unexpected result of giving him the positive energy to become Positive Man.
  • Power Instability: Larry is reluctant to use his powers and release his "Negative-Man" energy, stating that it hurts when he does it.
  • Vulnerability to Witchcraft: Niles Caulder theorized that, because Larry's new bandages were bestowed upon him by the Negative Entity when he was reunited with his negative spirit and therefore sacred in nature, that he'd be more vulnerable to magic and witchcraft than if he returned to a plastic-based set like his originals.[6]


Related

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 6) #9, Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds #5
  2. ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 6) #4
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds #2
  4. ↑ Doomsday Clock #9
  5. ↑ Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds #7
  6. ↑ Doom Patrol (Volume 6) #7



Founders The Chief • Elasti-Girl • Negative Man • Robotman
Members Beast Boy • Bumblebee • Casey Brinke • Celsius • Coagula • Crazy Jane • Cyborg • Danny the Street • Doc Magnus • Doctor Light • Dorothy Spinner • Dusty Marlow • Element Woman • Elongated Man • Faith • Fast Forward • Fever • Flex Mentallo • Freak • Fugg • Grunt • Karma • Kid Slick • Lodestone • Lotion the Cat • Lucius Reynolds • Mento • Metamorpho • Negative Spirit • Negative Woman • Nudge • Rebis • Rocky Davis • Scott Fischer • Tempest • Vortex • Vox
Enemies Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man • The Brain • Brotherhood of Dada • Brotherhood of Evil • The Candlemaker • Crowdark • Cult of the Unwritten Book • Darren Jones • Doctor Tyme • Garguax • General Immortus • General Zahl • Kalki • Madame Rouge • Men from N.O.W.H.E.R.E. • Mister 103 • Mister Nobody • Monsieur Mallah • Red Jack • Retconn • Scants • Scissormen • Shadowy Mister Evans • Shrapnel • Tenth Circle
Comics Doom Patrol (Volume 1) • Doom Patrol (Volume 2) • Doom Patrol (Volume 3) • Doom Patrol (Volume 4) • Doom Patrol (Volume 5) • Doom Patrol (Volume 6) • Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds (Volume 1) • My Greatest Adventure (Volume 1)
Other Media DC Nation's Doom Patrol • HBO Max's Doom Patrol
Miscellaneous Recommended Reading
Creators Arnold Drake • Bob Haney • Paul Kupperberg • Grant Morrison • Rachel Pollack • John Arcudi • John Byrne • Geoff Johns • Keith Giffen • Gerard Way • Nick Derington
Doom Patrol 014.jpg
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Doom Patrol member
This character was at some point primarily a member of the Doom Patrol. A long-running team of rag-tag misfit heroes who work together for the common good, fighting evil against all odds. This template will categorize any article that includes it into the Doom Patrol members category.

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