Valentina Vostok

Origin

Valentina Vostok was a cosmonaut from the Soviet Union (though this may be retconend to Russia, due to the age of the character) who attempted to defect to the United States by stealing an experimental jet fighter. Although she was successful in crossing the ocean into U.S. airspace, she eventually crash landed in Codsville, Maine. The site just so happened to be the exact spot where the original Doom Patrol had sacrificed themselves to save the inhabitants of the town from General Zahl and Madame Rouge. Valentina found her body glowing with cosmic energy, and soon after discovered that her body had been possessed by the same negative energy creature that had possessed Larry Trainor. She also found the necessity to be bound in special bandages to contain the radiation in order to survive.

Creation

The character was created to serve in the second incarnation of the Doom Patrol. Her first appearance was in Showcase #94 in 1977.

Character Evolution

The Doom Patrol is a valued property of DC Comics, however it is one that has generally failed to maintain a long term following after its first appearance. As a result numerous attempts have been made to reimagine the team to make them more interesting to readers. The character of Negative Woman has fallen into some level of flux due to her position as a member of one of these teams (in this case she was essentially the same as the Negative Man, but reimagined with a different gender.) As a result of this the Negative Man was eventually brought back which left her in creative limbo. It was eventually decided to transform her into a spy like character, a role she maintains to this day.

Major Story Arcs

Valentina took part on many missions with the second Doom Patrol. After a fight with the villain

Reactron, she found that her negative form was returned to Trainor who was not dead as she had thought. She thus returned to being a regular human.

She would soon join forces with Checkmate, eventually rising to the level of White Queen (and thus replacing Amanda Waller).

She was apparently killed during Final Crisis as she is deployed to Bludhaven alongside Count Vertigo and the Atomic Knights. She is there when it is destroyed. The fact that she died is later confirmed in Blackest Night as she returns as a Black Lantern.

New 52

Negative Woman, Tempest and Celsius are seen in the upper left monitor of Grid’s many montor displays based at the Crime Syndicates base.

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Personal Characteristics

• Real Name: Valentina Vostok
• Status: Hero
• Occupation: Adventurer
• Base: Mobile, formerly Midway City
• Height: 5ft 5in
• Weight: 130 lbs
• Eyes: Blue
• Hair: Blonde

Powers and Abilities

As Negative Woman: Valentina could release an extremely powerful creature made of negative-energy. This creature possessed super strength, the ability to run at near light speed, flight, phasing abilities and the ability to make objects burn or explode by touching them. This all had to be done within 60 seconds or Valentina would slip into a coma and eventually die without being reunited with the creature. She no longer possesses these abilities.

She was a top notch spy: Having taken part in numerous missions as a member of Checkmate. She had the same assortment of usual spy skills including hand-to-hand combat and familiarity with high tech machines.

She was also a gifted pilot.

As a Black Lantern: She wielded a Black Power Ring and controlled the abilities inherent to it.

In Other Media

Live Action

DCs Legends of Tomorrow

Valentina Vostok is a scientist, during the height of the Cold War, in Russia. She is portrayed by Stephanie Cornelissun on the CWTV show Legends of Tomorrow. She appears in the episodes “Fail Safe” and “White Knights.” Toward the end of the episode there is Chernobyl like incident involving the Firestorm protocols.

Doom Patrol

Valentina appears as a member of a trio of cosmonauts who make an emergency landing at the Doom Patrol’s HQ. She reveals to Negative Man that she also has a Negative Spirit but lives harmoniously with it without physical deformities.