Rebis (New Earth)

Nothing pure... My race is mixed, my sex is mixed, I am woman and man and light with darkness, mixed. Mixed. I am nothing special, nothing pure. I am mud and flame.

— Rebis ^src

Rebis was a stoic but unstable composite entity created from the lifeforces of Larry Trainor, Eleanor Poole, and the Negative Spirit Mercurius. Due to Rebis' connection to Negative Man, it acted as a member of the Doom Patrol.

History

Creation

After the invasion of the Dominators that wiped out most of the current Doom Patrol, Larry Trainor, the superhero formerly known as Negative Man now spending time recovering in the hospital, was found by the negative spirit Mercurius, whom he had been separated from. It desired to merge with him again, but this time as well as with his female human doctor, Eleanor Poole. By making contact with them both at once, Mercurius fused the three lifeforms into one single entity, a powerful intersex being known as "Rebis".^[2]

Unsure of what had happened, the hospital applied treated bandages to Rebis' body to contain the radiation being expelled by them, and contacted Niles Caulder, the eccentric scientist and leader of the Doom Patrol, in the hopes that he would be able to form a conclusion about their condition thanks to his connection with Larry. Despite his knowledge, Caulder was just as confused as the doctors, albeit much more fascinated. Recognizing hir intense power, he offered Rebis a spot on the Doom Patrol, like Larry before it.^[3]

New Doom Patrol

Rebis reunited with the remainder of Larry's former teammates from the Doom Patrol when the Scissormen began to attack their reality.^[3] By absorbing some of their memories, Rebis was able to lead the team to the Scissormen's base of operations. Rebis located the leaders of the Scissormen and, by philosophically confusing them, caused to them to explode and return reality to normal.^[4]

Rebis briefly reconnected with Eleanor Poole's former husband Dan to explain the situation that they now found themselves in. Dan, devastated that his wife had been absorbed into a new being, reacted emotionally, but Rebis offered a simple hug goodbye as closure.^[5]

Rebis assisted in finding Rhea Jones, who had been kidnapped by the interdimensional serial killer Red Jack. The negative spirit distracted Jack long enough for Rhea to be able to stab him with a knife. With Jack defeated, the Doom Patrol returned to reality.

Back at the Doom Patrol headquarters, Rebis was given a bedroom to rest in. However, it chose not to furnish it all and, according to Cliff, it spent all hir free time unpacking a Russian nesting doll and talking to itself in the dark.^[6]

Brotherhood of Dada

Later, the Doom Patrol were called in to handle the Brotherhood of Dada after they activated the Painting That Ate Paris. Rebis, having a unique ability to sense the painting's power, allowed the Doom Patrol to enter it and search for the Brotherhood inside through a seemingly endless loop.

However, the Doom Patrol was eventually split up within the painting, and Rebis was forced to fight the Brotherhood member the Quiz, who had every power you couldn't think of. Because Rebis couldn't think fast enough, the Quiz captured it with the power to create escape-proof jars.^[7]

The Doom Patrol were temporarily defeated until Willoughby Kipling entered the painting and pointed out that they had inadvertently summoned the Fifth Horse of the Apocalypse. The Doom Patrol sprung into action, still inside the painting, to reduce the damage and stop it from escaping to the real world. Jane successfully tamed the horse, and, as the painting began to crumble around them, Rebis helped the city of Paris and the Doom Patrol escape back to the real world.^[8]

However, the mental damage of taming the Fifth Horse was too much for Jane and left her in a catatonic state. In order to mentally heal her, back at the Doom Patrol headquarters, Rebis mentally linked Robotman into Jane's subconscious - also known as Underground - by touching both of them at the same time. The mission was a success, and Jane was restored.^[9]

The Doom Patrol then worked together to stop the Cult of the Unwritten Book from summoning the Decreator. Though the Decreator was summoned, with the help of Willoughby Kipling, the Doom Patrol slowed its progress to decreate the world at an exponentially reduced rate.

Rebis' powers were stolen and imitated by an "Amazoid"—an android created by Justice League villain Anthony Ivo—in a ploy by Ivo to use the abilities of powerful superheroes to commit suicide. The incident was relayed to the Justice League International, who defused the situation, saving Ivo and restoring Rebis.^[10]

Aenigma Regis

As Mister Nobody and the Brotherhood of Dada returned to campaign for the presidency, Rebis informed the Doom Patrol that it had to temporarily go on leave to perform the Aenigma Regis - hir rebirth ritual.^[11] Cliff begged it to stay, but it insisted it go, asking whether they were even really friends.^[12]

During hir leave of absence as the process began, Rebis had sex with the prostitute Kate Godwin, giving her superpowers herself to become the hero Coagula.

Eventually, Rebis reached the Moon and performed the asexual mating ritual. By going through an intense inner journey, Rebis supposedly merged all three of hir inner personalities to create harmony. Unclear of what was real and what was reality, Rebis saw itself as a bleeding prostitute, itself pregnant, Larry and Eleanor have sex and die, and a vision of the future where the wax deity known as the Candlemaker attacks. When the ritual was over, Rebis had created a glowing green egg.^[1]

Candlemaker

Once the vision of the future came true and the Candlemaker began plunging the world into chaos, Rebis returned to confront it in New York City. With a new sense of self, Rebis confirmed that they really were friends, before the two sprung into action. However, the Candlemaker proved too strong and, upon grabbing Rebis, reduced it to only hir skeleton, killing it.^[13]

Willoughby Kipling tracked down the glowing green egg that Rebis had laid and, upon bringing it to the Doom Patrol Headquarters, it hatched into the original Rebis, with all hir memories and body still intact. Rebis, using hir revitalized energy, used the negative spirit to make the Candlemaker explode, finally ending its destruction.^[14]

With the disaster averted, Danny the Street had accumulated enough energy to manifest as something new - Danny the World, an entire planet in another dimension for people to live in. Rebis decided, due to hir natural peculiarity, that it was better for it to live in Danny full time. It said goodbye to Cliff and left to start hir new life.^[15]

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Divided Once More

Rebis later unfused for unknown reasons, and Larry returned to the Doom Patrol with Mercurius as the Negative Man, while Eleanor Poole's status remains unknown.^[16]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Unique Physiology: Rebis' unique form of life transcends the laws of physics.
- Asexual Reproduction: Rebis partook in a ritual to reproduce asexually. Every so often, Rebis was called to the moon and, by going on an intense, erotic journey within hir mind, produced an egg that would become hir new body.
  - Immortality: Through this process, Rebis was essentially immortal. Even if one of hir bodies was killed, hir asexual copy would continue to live with all hir memories.
- Clairvoyance: Rebis has an otherworldly connection to the abnormal. It can physically feel the presence of danger, like when it detected a mass gathering of Scissormen.^[3] It can also sense where other people have been by feeling hir former presence around them.^[7]
- Dimensional Travel: Rebis understood the surrealist power of the Painting That Ate Paris and therefore was able to transport his allies in and out of it.^[7]
- Flight
- Interstellar Travel: Rebis could survive in the vacuum of space without the need for oxygen.
- Negative Spirit Projection: Despite the negative spirit being one of the components that makes up Rebis, it can still leave them like it could with Negative Man.^[4]
  - Discern Motivation: The negative spirit had the ability to absorb the abstract memories of Scissormen by passing through them.^[4]
  - Phasing: The negative spirit was able to reach through people as a form of attack.^[5]
- Precognition: Rebis has a limited view into the future. According to them, "I see through time as though through a clear window".^[6]
- Psychic Link: By touching two people at the same time, Rebis could link hir minds inside one another. This power allowed for Robotman to enter Jane's mind - also known as the Underground.^[9]

Weaknesses

Separation: Because the negative spirit represents one third of Rebis' being, whenever it leaves the whole, Rebis' physical body experiences extreme fatigue.^[4]

Other Characteristics

Mental Fragmentation: As Rebis describes it, hir body is perfect - both man and woman - but hir mind is crowded holding three people. According to Cliff, all Rebis does in hir spare time is stand in hir empty room and talk to themselves.^[6]

Notes

Because of Rebis' complex relationship with gender as a combination of a man, a woman, and a negative spirit, its pronouns were rarely strictly defined, oftentimes being misgendered as either Larry Trainor or Eleanor Poole by people who knew them. Who's Who in the DC Universe #3, written by various writers without Rebis' creator Grant Morrison's input, officially gave Rebis the pronouns "it", "itself", and "hir". However, in Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #35, a comic actually written by Morrison, Crazy Jane refers to Rebis with the pronoun "s/he", though Rebis does not confirm or deny that this pronoun works for it. For simplicity's sake, the DC Database has decided to use Who's Who #3 interpretation and refer to Rebis with the pronoun "it".

Trivia

Rebis' fascination with Russian nesting dolls - symbolic of themselves - was due to Eleanor Poole's interest in collecting them when she was an individual.^[5]
Rebis' trench coat perpetually changes colors naturally.^[5]

Doom Patrol member
This character has been 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.

[DP54-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #54

[2] Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #19

[DP20-3] 3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #20

[DP21-4] 4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 ^4.3 Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #21

[DP23-5] 5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 ^5.3 Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #23

[DP27-6] 6.0 ^6.1 ^6.2 Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #27

[DP28-7] 7.0 ^7.1 ^7.2 Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #28

[8] Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #29

[DP30-9] 9.0 ^9.1 Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #30

[10] Justice League Quarterly #5

[11] Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #51

[12] Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #55

[13] Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #59

[14] Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #61

[15] Doom Patrol (Volume 2) #62

[16] Doom Patrol (Volume 4) #1

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