Negative Man is one completely overlooked figure that won me a lot of sealed games single-handedly. He’s a trickster unlike any other, and I believe he has the potential to make a competitive appearance.

Negative Man has a pretty plain dial with a lot of clicks of Perplex, Poison, Willpower and Stealth, and not much else, even his values are low. With no move and attack, no reducers and no real way to utilize his Poison, you might be wondering why Negative Man is even included on here, and it all comes down to this trait.

NEGATIVE SPIRIT: Give Negative Man a power action to place adjacent a Negative Spirit bystander if there is not already one on the map.

Suddenly it’s a little clearer. Negative Man is just a body for generating bystanders. And his bystander is actually really decent, his special movement power is exceptional,

NEGATIVELY-CHARGED ENERGY BEING: Negative Spirit can use Phasing/Teleport. When he is given a move action, after actions resolve, he may make a close combat attack as a free action, targeting any one opposing character occupying a square he moved through.

and he has, Poison and Super Senses, he’s a really annoying tie-up piece that can get right up to any of your characters. His values are decent too, with a high 10 movement, 10 attack and 17 defense, this spirit is surprisingly great…except that glaring 1 damage. Yeah, 1 damage isn’t very high, and even with Negative Man’s Perplex that’s only a two. Thankfully, Negative Spirit has his own trait.

60 SECONDS: Negative Spirit deals penetrating damage. If Negative Spirit isn’t within 6 squares of a friendly character named Negative Man, immediately KO it.

Negative Spirit deals Penetrating Damage, yes, that means all damage, even Poison will be penetrating, making him a very, very dangerous tie-up piece, this of course comes with the downside of forcing him to stay within 6 squares of Negative Man, limiting his range, and forcing Negative Man to get closer than he most likely will want to, this can be helped with the right map and wall placement, but it does leave Negative Man vulnerable due to

HOLLOW MAN: While a friendly Negative Spirit is not on the map, Negative Man deals penetrating damage. While a friendly Negative Spirit is on the map, Negative Man can’t be given move actions.

Not allowing Negative Man move actions means that, without some form of Sidestep or Telekinesis, Negative Man is a sitting duck while his Spirit is out, and this is further compounded by the fact that he has no defensive powers outside of Stealth. Negative Man’s body really can’t take hits especially, with a very low 5 clicks of life, and no real way to defend himself outside of penetrating Poison. Thankfully, he has one final trait that gives him the chance to survive.

WEIRD RESURRECTION: The first time Negative Man would be KO’d this game, instead roll 2d6 that can’t be rerolled. Turn him to the click number equal to the result.

This trait, shared by all the Doom Patrol, gives him a very low chance of surviving death by rolling a 2-5 on two dice. Yes, I know that’s 10/36 or a 27.8% chance of success, but it does give him a hope at staying alive.

Negative Man’s value comes from his bystanders that force an opponent to deal with them, or risk taking penetrating damage, something that threatens almost every figure in the game. Even characters with Invincible aren’t safe, as Negative Man’s Perplex allows the Negative Spirit to get a 2 damage to break through the Invincible, hopefully pushing them to a click with no Invincible. The Negative Spirit can also be a very offensive bystander, as with enough Perplexes, he can be dealing enough damage to take out weakened figures, or get bigger figures off of their top dial.

My favourite strategy for Negative Man is to put out a Spirit and move it into the middle of your opponents forces, taking a swing at a unit you’ve moved through. Next turn, push the Spirit to death, summon a new Spirit, and have it take another swing at your opponent. Your first strategy is going to be utilizing him as a Poison/tie-up piece, but he is also a viable offensive threat. Because he makes the attack after finishing his Phasing/Teleport move, he can move up through an opponent, and then back adjacent to someone with Empower or Probability Control to get their bonuses. Even better he can position himself to avoid the Probability Control of your opponents figures, even if you’re attacking the character with Prob.

There’s just no tie-up figures that are as renewable or as threatening as the Negative Spirit, dropping one in a threatening place after having it make an attack puts a ton of pressure on your opponents who must choose between wasting an action attacking this spirit that has Super Senses and a 17 defense, risk trying to break away from it, or leave their figures there and go after the body. Regardless, the amount of disruption it causes is almost unparalleled, and especially against swarm teams, Negative Spirit will always deal some damage, because unlike every other tie-up figure with the ability to threaten everyone, there’s an infinite supply of him.

Flaws: There are three main flaws with Negative Man. 1. His body is completely vulnerable to all forms of attacks and he needs to rely on Stealth for success. 2. The Negative Spirit needs to remain within 6 squares or it’s immediately K.O’d, and 3. When his Negative Spirit is out, he cannot move, limiting the range at which the Negative Spirit can function. These are the thing you’ll have to think about when fielding Negative Man. On-top of that, Negative Spirit is insanely vulnerable to Poison, forcing you to think carefully about where to position him for the next turn. The last really big issue with Negative Man is an issue with a lot of bystander based figures; they just take too many actions. There are, of course, ways to deal with this, but it’s still something to be wary of, since most turns you’ll want to make a Negative Spirit and move/attack with him, taking 2 of your actions to do so.

Fixes: I’m not going to suggest any entities for Negative Man, because even though they’ll give him Impervious to survive more hits, he has little use for the stat boosts, and there’s a much easier option, Pandora’s Box. Even though he won’t be getting any reducers, Negative Man will be getting a lot more from the sins. I’d suggest using Lust, to prevent Hypersonic users from getting in on him, and increasing his defense to a 19 up-close. Paired with his Stealth this makes him very difficult to ferret out without Improved Targeting. Lust also grants him Sidestep, which isn’t a move action, allowing him to move while Negative Spirit is out, and increase the reach of the Spirit by an extra 2 squares. Another idea is to team him up with Mephisto. With Mephisto’s contract ability that grants Probability Control to the Negative Spirit, and the Perplex Mephisto has top-dial, Negative Spirit is a lot more likely to hit, and on-top of that, Mephisto heals when a character with his contract token dies, which pairs very well with the ability to kill a Negative Spirit on command. Any figure with Perplex or Empower helps if you want to play Negative Man as a pseudo Hypersonic Speed user, boosting the spirits damage up to a 4. Finally, if you want really movement on Negative Man, any Telekinesis user can fling him around, allowing you to do some surprise strikes with Negative Spirit.

Keywords: This is a huge letdown as he only has a single keyword, Doom Patrol. While the other members of the Doom Patrol are fairly good (especially Elasti-Girl) there’s only one that pairs very well with Negative Man, and that’s Chief. Chief can give Negative Man Sidestep, and can Perplex through Negative Man giving his Spirit a double bump up to damage. Mento isn’t bad either, as he has Telekinesis, but overall if you’re looking at using Negative Man, it’s most likely not on a theme team.

Final Thoughts: Here’s a hypothetical situation, your team has moved up, bunching up around your taxi and a Negative Spirit has somehow managed to get adjacent to some of your attackers. You only have three actions, do you want to, 1) Attack Negative Spirit and hope that he doesn’t roll his Super Senses or 2) Attempt to break away, knowing that a failed attempt will leave you vulnerable to his Poison. There is no right answer here; this is the situation your opponent will always find themselves in when playing against Negative Man. Even if they do manage to kill Negative Spirit, they’re wasting actions and attacks on a renewable bystander instead of on the rest of your team. Using the Spirit wisely requires good placement, and a lot of blocking terrain, but there’s nothing sweeter then watching your opponent waste his turn dealing with a figure, then on your next turn, recreating it and forcing them to deal with it all over again.

Hope this convinced you to give Negative Man a try!