The Book of Negative Man

[MrNobody]

The Book of Negative Man

C3G DC WAVE 32
YEAR OF THE HERO


Comic PDF


Mini PDF

The figure used for this unit is a Heroclix figure from the World's Finest set.
Its model number and name are #021 / Negative Man.

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Character Bio - 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. Tasked with testing the experimental X-19 suborbital jet aircraft, Larry put the plane through its paces and successfully broke Earth's atmosphere. However, there was a malfunction, causing the jet's guidance systems to break down and sending Trainor into a field of deadly radiation. Falling unconscious, Larry barely awakened just in time to prevent the X-19 from crashing into the ground.

After this accident, Larry Trainor suffered a truly horrible fate. The exposure to the deadly radiation left him hideously deformed, with glowing, translucent skin that proved dangerous to anyone in his vicinity. Panicked physicians placed him into quarantine inside of a lead-lined contamination cell. But even more bizarrely, Larry found that he now had the ability to project his mind and consciousness outside his body into a flying radioactive energy being, leaving his real body an empty husk. Larry found he could utilize this new ability for upwards of 60 seconds; any more would prove fatal.

Brilliant scientist Niles Caulder approached Larry and provided him special radiation-proof plastic bandages. In order to leave the quarantine, Larry had to wear the bandages from head to toe at all times. While despondent and bitter over his new place as a "freak" of society, Larry was still cajoled into joining Caulder's Doom Patrol, along with Robotman and Elasti-Girl. With this team he found a new place in society; Larry Trainor may no longer be a hotshot pilot, but he's still flying high as the Negative Man! (Adapted from the DC Database)
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-Rulings and Clarifications-

• N/A

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-Combinations and Synergies-

Incoming Synergy:

• As a Metahuman, Negative Man has these Metahuman Synergies.
• As a Pilot, Negative Man has these Pilot Synergies.
• As a Troubled figure, Negative Man has these Troubled Synergies.

Outgoing Synergy:

• Negative Man is linked with Negative Spirit via his Negative Spirit Host, Hollow Man, and Negative Spirit Return special powers.

Immunities, Benefits, and Weaknesses:

• N/A

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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• N/A

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

• Initial playtest: MrNobody
• Second playtest: Arch-vile
• Third playtest: Arkham
• Fourth playtest: LordVenoc
• Art: Comic, Figure, Background
• Art by Soundwarp SG-1

[MrNobody]

NAME = NEGATIVE MAN
SECRET IDENTITY = LARRY TRAINOR
SPECIES = METAHUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = PILOT
PERSONALITY = TROUBLED

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 4

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 3

POINTS = 40

NEGATIVE SPIRIT HOST
Before taking a turn with Negative Man, you may do either or both of the following:
• If the Negative Spirit is on this card, remove all Wound Markers from its card and place it adjacent to Negative Man.
• Move and attack with the Negative Spirit.

HOLLOW MAN
If the Negative Spirit is on the battlefield, Negative Man cannot move, attack or make leaving engagement attacks, and opponents' figures may not target Negative Man for a non-adjacent attack if they could target any other figure you control.

NEGATIVE SPIRIT RETURN
At the end of each round, if the Negative Spirit is on the battlefield, you may place the Negative Spirit on this Army Card. Then, if the Negative Spirit is not on this Army Card, place two Wound Markers on this Army Card.

[MrNobody]

Comic

Spoiler Alert!

Figure

Spoiler Alert!

Background

Spoiler Alert!

The obvious thing here would be to do something like an airforce base to play off the whole pilot thing, but for some reason I'm not really feeling that. It would kind of match the other 2 members though (Rita, a former actress, has a Hollywood background, while Cliff, the former racecar driver, has a car scapyard background.) A regular old airforce base just doesn't feel...kooky enough, you know? Are there goofy wacky airforce bases out there?

Some sort of irradiated landscape could match as well. Might be a bit tasteless to use actual Chernobyl, but something in that vein.

Actually, on that front, a nuclear reactor surrounded by a field seems like a really good choice. Captures the radiation/60s science fiction vibe while also providing some bright poppy colors.

[MrNobody]

Okay gang, still feeling this one out a bit honestly.

One thing I'm still looking at is making the recall effect feel right. Would we rather see a system where you have to manually recall the spirit or risk getting a wound, or would we rather see a system here he gets to automatically recall at the end of the round, but if he doesn't there's a more severe penalty? (2 wounds?)

[IAmBatman]

I'm good either way with slight preference towards the easier to play second one since I don't think he's going to come in as that tough.

That said, a bit of wrestling and difficulty does seem thematic.

[johnny139]

I haven't actually read much with regular Larry Trainor (though my Silver Age Doom Patrol omnibus is in the mail!) - has he ever really had trouble recalling the spirit? Does the spirit have a will of its own, like in the TV series? Has he ever been in danger due to the spirit being elsewhere - like, has that ever been a cliffhanger or a plot point?

I'm leaning toward an automatic recall since that seems more flavorful to me, but I don't know if that's actually the case.

Also, don't love Pilot here. Did he ever have a military rank or something?

[MrNobody]

In the classic stuff, the spirit was literally Larry’s “spirit”, just projected out of his body. It wasn’t until later that it was retconned into a separate entity.

“Larry will die if the Negative Spirit doesn’t return in 60 seconds!” was a big deal in silver age DP, but it was usually due to outside influences like time freezing rays or what have you.

For that reason, I’m thinking the original automatic recall might make the most sense, like you said. I do think it needs a fairly heavy penalty for not recalling though.

[johnny139]

If Brainiac kidnaps the spirit, he's in trouble, then.

Based on that logic (it only comes up when someone is interfering or they're caught in a traly) I agree that automatic recall with 2 Wounds is the right way to go.

[Tornado]

I actually like Pilot if it is suited.
Is he the team driver? Could be a great keyword for VDOs.

[MrNobody]

He was an airforce pilot, and while he doesn’t really pilot actual vehicles that often in-story, he’s kind of a high-flying daredevil Human Torch type.

It could be cool to have certain vehicles keyword in on Pilot, I hadn’t thought of that! It’ll certainly help with my Top Gun customs.

[johnny139]

I actually had the same thought ans immediately pulled up Lady Blackhawk (who is a pilot and our one "vehicle" unit). But she's unfortunately an Adventurer, which isn't really something we can work with in this case... or change for that matter.

If you guys think there's room for growth I can dig it, but I think it would just end up an abandoned class otherwise, which I try to avoid. What other Pilots could we pull?

[Tornado]

Not sure, just the first thing that came to mind. I have been thinking about the Lawmaster and VDOs all day.
My initial thought it could take the place of her driving power and be something mentioned on a VDO instead. We could retcon Lady B so her power makes her a Pilot if needed.
Not sure it is now that you brought up the 'what other Pilots' question.
Maybe the Prez, he drove a race car known as The Lollypop.

Nobody, would love to see those Top Gun customs. That was the first movie we ever had on VHS and I must have watched that a million times. "Any of you boys seen an aircraft carrier lately?"
I came pretty close to joining the Navy but I wanted to be a rescue pilot.