Lawrence Trainor (New Earth)

Larry Trainor has glowing, translucent skin, rendering his muscles and skeletal structure visible for all to see. His body produces deadly radiation that he must contain with special plastic bandages.

Origin

Gained powers when exposed to cosmic radiation

Universe

Earth-One, New Earth

Place of Birth

Midway City

Created by

Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani

First appearance

My Greatest Adventure #80
(June, 1963)

HistoryEdit

Lawrence Trainor (New Earth) 003.png — Added by Roygbiv666

Larry Trainor was a test pilot for the US Air Force who flew a wide variety of jets, and was a friend and colleague of Hal Jordan.

Arranged Accident

When Larry had to fly the experimental X-19, a suborbital jet aircraft. Larry put the plane through its paces and successfully broke Earth's atmosphere. However, Niles Caulder (in his plan to create a team of superpowerd misfits) caused the jet's guidance systems to break down, sending Larry into a field of deadly radiation. Falling unconscious, Larry drifted through the stratospheric wave belts for several hours. Earth's gravity eventually pulled the X-19 back into the atmosphere, where it began spiralling back down to Earth. Larry awakened in time to prevent the X-19 from crashing into the ground.

Upon landing the jet, Trainor noticed a nearby search plane coming into view. It attempted to land near the X-19, but suffered from a malfunctioning landing strut. An intense desire to aid the beleaguered craft passed through Larry's mind when suddenly, a bizarre radioactive energy being flew outward from his body with his mind and consciousness residing in the being while his body left behind was a husk. As the energy he guided the search plane to safety.

Life as a Freak

Shortly after the strange incident, Larry checked into a hospital. The exposure to the deadly radiation left him hideously deformed, with glowing, translucent skin. Physicians placed him into quarantine inside of a lead-lined contamination cell. Niles Caulder finally approached Larry (in the guise of helpful stranger) and provided him special radiation-proof plastic bandages. In order to leave the quarantine and operate in human society again – Larry had to wear the bandages from head to tall at all times.

Trainor became bitter and despondent at the thought of living the remainder of his life as some grotesque mummy. Shunned by society, he kept to himself and took to living inside of a meager rooming house. During this time, he learned more about the strange energy powers – he referred to his astral self as the Negative Man.

Negative Man

Before long, a physician known only as Doctor Drew offered Larry a job as his assistant. Inwardly, Larry referred to Dr. Drew as "Doctor Death". Trainor learned about Doctor Drew's true identity and his covert attempt to take control of the world. He rebelled against the maniacal genius and briefly thwarted his plans for global domination. Death escaped and swore revenge against the Negative Man.

Some time later, Larry accepted a commission to fly a plane towards a dangerous, volcanic island. Doctor Death learned of the charter and arranged to sabotage Trainor's plane, stranding him on the island. He manipulated Larry to use his powers in an effort to destabilize the American government by driving several political figureheads irrevocably insane. Negative Man fought against Doctor Death's efforts, but Death captured him and secured Trainor inside of a lead-lined cell. Meanwhile, Niles Caulder, now calling himself the Chief (wanting to collect Trainor to finish his plan of a small collection of misfit heroes) discovered Larry’s predicament and helped to rescue him from Doctor Death's clutches. With Caulder’s aid, the Negative Man once again foiled Doctor Death's efforts to create widespread anarchy.

The Doom Patroller

Caulder now assembled his misfits calling them the Doom Patrol starting with Larry, a former Hollywood actress and an former race car driver all of them unbeknownst that “The Chief” arranged their accidents. In the Patrol Larry became best friends with Robotman and fell in love with Elasti-Girl but she eventually lost her heart to a self-aggrandizing billionaire named Steve Dayton who went so far as to adopt the super-hero identity Mento in order to impress her. After their marriage Mento joined the team. Steve and Rita also adopted orphan Gar Logan who was Beast Boy on the patrol who Larry was an uncle figure to. With the Doom Patrol Negative Man saved the world numerous times, fighting the strange and unusual like the Brotherhood of Evil.

Alone

The team supposedly perished in explosion in Codsville, Larry survived it but the fate of the other members of the Doom Patrol remained unknown to him. Larry’s original body was destroyed in the explosion and that the “Negative” which is Larry (Mind, Consciences and Soul) found himself without a physical body Larry took solace in a Russian cosmonaut, Colonel Valentina Vostok, who became Negative Woman until The Chief cloned Larry a new body he left Vostok and became his own man again.

Reforming of the Patrollers

Larry and the others finally recuperated and reconciled even forgiving the chief and the original doom patrol was back together. During the second Infinite Crisis the Doom Patrol joined other heroes in fighting Superboy-Prime, Negative Man and the other Doom Patrol members (including former member Beast Boy). It was revealed that when one of Larry’s host body’s expires Larry takes residents in a different genetically altered brain dead donor body. Though through the transaction Larry obtains the memories and experiences of every host body he’s been in, and the whole experience can be maddening to Larry so he constantly reminds him self that he is Larry Trainor.

One Year Later

Year after the Infinite Crisis the team was stationed at Prague in Dayton Manor with The Chief appearing to be manipulating the team members once again claiming to wish to return them to normal, so "maybe one day they won't be freaks anymore". Though the new Doom Patrol was failing as it was brutally defeated by the Mad Hatter and Secret Six but after the Doom Patrol encounters the Teen Titans, the Chief tells them that Kid Devil should be a member of the Doom Patrol instead of the Titans, since his unique appearance and nature will always separate him from others. However, Beast Boy, Elasti-Girl and Mento all stood up to the Chief and forced him to step down as the Doom Patrol's leader.

Oolong Island

Negative Man is currently a member of the Doom Patrol, based on Oolong Island. He has since learned to partially unleash the Negative Entity, granting him its powers without the time limit. During the Blackest Night, he found himself up against the Black Lantern Valentina Vostok. When their Negative entities met, it temporarily created an new entity, which destroyed the Black Lantern ring. Larry maintains an antagonistic friendship with Robotman, a close friendship with Rita, and a bizarre belief that pelicans are stalking him that may yet pay off.

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Powers

The Negative: Negative Man has the ability to generate a black, electrical energy being composed of an as of yet unidentifiable radioactive substance from within his own body. A form of astral projection, Larry's mind and consciousness resides in the being while his body is left behind as a husk. Originally for only a total of sixty seconds but can now go much longer as the Negative being, and can go back inside of his body at will.

Flight: being can fly at speeds nearly equal to the speed of light

Phasing: can alter its density allowing it to pass through solid objects. Phasing itself through biological material causes immense pain to the affected target. The only substance that is proof against the Negative Man's abilities is lead.

Heat Waves: has also demonstrated the ability to generate waves of intense heat, and explosive, concussive blasts of energy. It can likewise absorb thermal energy and convert it into an electrical discharge.

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 as shown. Larry says that it's making him feel a "burning sensation".

Abilities

Larry Trainor is a skilled airplane pilot and hand-to-hand combatant.

Strength level

Larry Trainor posses the strength level of a moderate size and weight who engages in intensive regular exercise. The strength levels of the Negative being have never been fully tested, but have been shown to reach superhuman levels.

Weaknesses

Larry's continued use of the Negative Man however, is hampered by a potentially fatal restriction. If Trainor is ever separated from the energy being for more than one minute, he would lapse into a coma and eventually die. Trainor is always careful to recall the entity back to his person before the sixty-second time limit expires.

NotesEdit

The character of Negative Man was created by Arnold Drake and Bob Haney.

The name Negative Man could refer to either Larry Trainor himself, or the radioactive energy being he produces.

The Negative being takes on the physical properties of its host body. When bonded to Larry Trainor, it assumes the gender attributes of an adult male. When it was bonded to Valentina Vostok, it took on the appearance of an adult female.

TriviaEdit

In his test aviation days, Larry Trainor became a colleague of famed west coast test pilot, Hal Jordan.

Negative Man was secretly in love with fellow Doom Patrol member, Elasti-Girl.

According to the timeline provided in Zero Hour #0, the Doom Patrol were one of the earliest super-hero teams active during the Silver Age era of comics. JLA: Year One #6 shows the Doom Patrol as experienced heroes working alongside the neophyte Justice League of America.

In 2005, Negative Man and the rest of the Doom Patrol appeared in the two-part "Homecoming" episode of the Teen Titans animated television series. Actor Judge Reinhold provided the voice for Negative Man.

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Footnotes

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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