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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.
History
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 and Abilities
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]
Abilities
- Aviation: Due to him previously being a test pilot he was skilled in piloting.
- Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic)
Weaknesses
Notes
- Negative Man was created by Arnold Drake, Bob Haney and Bruno Premiani, first appearing as part of the Doom Patrol in My Greatest Adventure Vol 1. However, in the rebooted Prime Earth continuity his first appearance as part of the New 52 DC Universe is in Justice League (Volume 2) #30.
Related
- 37 Appearances of Lawrence Trainor (Prime Earth)
- 22 Images featuring Lawrence Trainor (Prime Earth)
- Quotations by or about Lawrence Trainor (Prime Earth)
- Character Gallery: Lawrence Trainor (Prime Earth)
Footnotes
Doom Patrol member |