"L" is for Larry

[arbre_rieur]

Four pages from Doom Patrol #6...







Larry/Negative Man wallows in self-pity for a time. Robot-Man, returned from Danny the Street, invites him to join the Arcudi Doom Patrol, but he declines. Time passes. Robot-Man comes around a second time, this time asking him to join the Doom Patrol incarnation that came about after the Arcudi one. Larry accepts when he learns that Rita, alive again, is on the team.

The elephant in the room:





Tags: title: doom patrol, group: doom patrol, publisher: dc comics, creator: keith giffen

Comments

Continuity question

[mr_austin]

I'm confused, is he the original Negative Man divided from Rebis, is he a clone of the original Negative Man, a clone in a body imbibed with the powers of the original Negative Man, or some weird hybrid of all of them?

Also it's so subtle but I LOVE that in the DC universe Xboxes are LexBoxes. Because that is what they would fucking be called.

Re: Continuity question

[darkblade]

Just wait until you see the Waynestation 3s. ;)

Re: Continuity question

[jlroberson]

Sadly, only a dedicated cult still swears by the Kord Entertainment System.

But the Beetle Kong game is still an idea ahead of its time.

Re: Continuity question

[darkblade]

I know it wasn't the same after Ted died though, the liabrary on the systems K64 onward were rather disapointing against the offerings of their competion though.

Re: Continuity question

[jlroberson]

And then there was that special six-joystick controller. Too many carpal tunnel lawsuits.

Re: Continuity question

[darkblade]

They did much better than every Holtari system after the 2T00 and unlike Queenga they kept making actual hardware and had the occasional good idea.

Re: Continuity question

[thanekos]

ah, Queenga.

remember when the Speedy games were actually good?

Re: Continuity question

[jlroberson]

But none could compete with the Osborvision.

It seeks out your system, even across dimensions, and throws it from a bridge.

Re: Continuity question

[thanekos]

no one remembers the Osborvision.

Roderick Kingsley's HG-16, however? now that shit was choice.

Re: Continuity question

[jlroberson]

You're making Norman foam at the mouth and start talking to his mask.

Re: Continuity question

[grimmbear]

You owe me a new keyboard!

Re: Continuity question

[arbre_rieur]

He's the original Negative Man energy being, who has Larry Trainor's consciousness. He's inhabiting a brain-dead body that's been injected with Larry's DNA, so that it can serve as a receptacle for the creature.

[jlroberson]

Something that's been weirding me out, both here and, in the latter case I'll mention, with THE AUTHORITY, is that Keith Giffen seems not only good with older and stranger DC concepts(but that we knew), but also, he's very good at picking up things Grant Morrison dropped and going in the same spirit.

So. Larry IS the Negative Spirit. I saw last episode that they mentioned Rebis. So, two questions. Is the Negative Spirit still Mercurius, but now merged with Larry's consciousness? And just what happened to Eleanor Poole, if we're acknowledging Rebis(and they have) as canon?

Because Giffen has now made Morrison canon, eff you very much John B. Unless that's not the Beardhunter and the Candlemaker I see. And I love it. Acting like Morrison's run didn't happen was wasting one of the best arsenals of story ideas DC ever got.

[darkblade]

To be fair half the time in Morrison's Doom Patrol it's hard to say if the characters themselves were even one hundred percent sure it was actually happening to them.

[jlroberson]

Kind of the point of the final Crazy Jane story, wasn't it?

I think Morrison was trying to leave it open for someone else to ignore it if necessary, much as his end of ANIMAL MAN did.

[btravage.livejournal.com]

Well there was that hallucinogenic gas from the JLI Crossover.

[icon_uk]

If Jupiter, the gas giant, were entirely composed at hallucinogenic gases, it still wouldn't be enough to explain either A) Morrison's entire DP run or B) Any single issue of the Silver Age

[citygod]

Hey-oh! (I think I may have to use that - I'll try to remember to quote you.)

[jlroberson]

One small detail I noticed that shows just what a Morrison DP geek I really am: in the full-page spread with Crazy Jane, the artist forgot: her hose have a jigsaw pattern on them. He seems to have mistaken it as just random squiggles.

[arbre_rieur]

"So, two questions. Is the Negative Spirit still Mercurius, but now merged with Larry's consciousness? And just what happened to Eleanor Poole, if we're acknowledging Rebis(and they have) as canon?"

It's unclear. All we know is that the reason he has a male body again is because the Chief took and modified a coma patient. Negative Man/Larry mentions that there's a compartment in his mind where the Rebis memories are, but he tries to avoid looking in.

[yaseen101]

Thanks.

[jlroberson]

What nobody realizes about Caulder, and for that matter Reed Richards, is that both their groups are ways they got around the rules since WW2 about human experimentation. Subjects whose entire lifetimes they could study.

Well, that's kind of known about Caulder, but funny how no one but the Venture Brothers picked up that Reed is the same, only more apologetic.

[darkblade]

Well Reed seeing the rest of the FF primarily as a grounds for experimentaion was brought up in Marvel Zombies of all places. In which he intentionally exposes them to an airborne form of the virus (that never comes up again despite being an airborne zombie virus) to get a first hand account of it's effects.

Of course he was driven insane by watching She-Hulk eat his children but the idea is the same.

[darkblade]

I'd be more concerned with the fact that a zombie She-Hulk came from beyond the fourth wall to eat your family than to reaction to it.

None of my zombie plans took She-Hulk into account.

[jlroberson]

There should be a Marvel Zombies issue like that. As a pop-up book.

[jlroberson]

Watching her do that had the same effect on me. I can relate. On the plus side? Don't have to buy new clothes for 'em. Thanks, green lady!


(a joke, I have no children ever. That I know about.)

It is awfully funny that the form Ben took happens to be the exact kind of thing that's often very useful to Reed. For carrying stuff, going into the Negative Zone, things like that; a big guy made of rock is an oddly useful thing.

[jlroberson]

Just read the whole thing. A quick note for everyone: the scans above are edited to remove the bit about Rebis, who is addressed.

I have two things to say. One, I REALLY like this series so far; I was staying away in dread because, well, any DP that isn't Morrison or Drake is usually terrible. But via the scans posted here early on, I gave it a chance, and it hasn't yet disappointed. In fact, i think Giffen has accomplished an amazing trick: making it so just about all fans of all versions can get something out of this. But I am glad he's taking so much from Morrison's, which is the most fertile ground--and that was 20 years ago, frighteningly enough(JESUS CHRIST! NO! I REMEMBER LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY! I'M NOW OLD! OLD!), so it's time.

Two: this story, in particular, is incredibly sad and touching. Poor Larry. Or whatever he is now. That's another thing from Morrison a lot of people forget and that Giffen has not forgotten in a single issue so far: the fact, brought to the fore, that these are very, very damaged people.