Mister Negative - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

Martin Li is an illegal Chinese immigrant from the Fujian province who attempted to travel to America to be with his wife. However, his mode of transportation, the Golden Mountain, was a slave ship operated by the Snakehead gang as a way to sell Fujian captives as overseas slaves in Kenya. During a storm, the ship's crew evacuated, leaving the captives alone to make a break for the New York shores. Li was the only survivor and spent the following years building a large fortune and dedicating himself to helping those less fortunate.

However, this story is later revealed to be somewhat false, though only the Mr. Negative persona appears aware of it. It is revealed that Mister Negative was actually one of the crew members of the Golden Mountain and when the ship nearly crashed onto the New York shores, he stole the identity of one of the deceased Fujian slaves, the real Martin Li, who was heading to America for the aforementioned reasons. This gang member was eventually captured by the Maggia Don Silvermane and experimented on with a synthetic drug created by Maggia chemist Simon Marshall that could be more potent than heroin. He escaped with the help of two other experimental inmates and was soon transformed into two men, the kind-hearted Martin Li and the villainous Mister Negative. The Mister Negative side dedicated himself to becoming Chinatown's Kingpin of Crime.

Martin Li operates a soup kitchen in Chinatown, the F.E.A.S.T. Project (Food, Emergency Aid, Shelter and Training), where Peter Parker's Aunt May volunteers. Neither Peter nor May are aware of Li's dual identity as a Chinatown crime boss under the name Mister Negative. Despite being a crime lord, Li is a seemingly kind and generous man. The F.E.A.S.T. Project has displayed healing powers for people of various illnesses, although the cause of this healing has yet to be revealed.

During the first story of the Brand New Day, Mister Negative first comes into conflict with Spider-Man when he makes a power play toward taking control of New York's criminal underworld by attempting to wipe out all existing members of the Karnelli and Maggia crime families using a DNA specific bioweapon called the "Devil's Breath". In exchange for leaving the Maggia families' children alive, he takes a sample of Spider-Man's blood to use in a Devil's Breath formula. Mister Negative later tries to use the Devil's Breath formula to kill Spider-Man during a fight with the Maggia, but Spider-Man is able to hold his breath long enough to escape alive. Spider-Man then recruits the Black Cat to help him steal his remaining blood from Mister Negative and replace it with a vial of pig blood so Mister Negative is unaware of his loss.

Martin Li endorses Bill Hollister for mayor of New York City, putting him against Randall Crowne, who has him added to a list of opponents (many of whom become targets of the villain Menace, who is actually Hollister's daughter, Lilly). It also causes him to become the target of a smear campaign by Dexter Bennet, editor of The DB and supporter of Randall Crowne. After Menace is revealed to be Billy Hollister's daughter Lily and he resigns as mayor, Li unsuccessfully runs in a special election, losing to J. Jonah Jameson.

Mister Negative later recruits Hammerhead and offers to put his brain in a new robotic adamantium skeleton after having been shot point blank in the head by Underworld. Hammerhead agrees to that and Mister Negative has his surgeon Doctor Tramma perform the procedure.

Mister Negative eventually comes across Eddie Brock and gives him a job at his soup kitchen. A touch of him causes his cancerous cells to completely disappear. Also, the remains of the Venom symbiote fuse with Brock's white blood cells, causing him to become Anti-Venom during a conflict with Mac Gargan, the then current Venom. After the F.E.A.S.T center is torn apart during the fight between the two, Li discovers from a group of sweatshop workers (from a shop owned by Crowne) that they were experimented on with drugs from Oscorp. Later, Mister Negative and his Inner Demons encounter and battle Anti-Venom. In the aftermath, Brock watches Negative turn into Li, becoming the first to be aware of his dual identity.

During the Dark Reign storyline, Mister Negative refuses to submit to Hood's rule during his conquest of New York's criminal underworld. During a meeting with Hood's henchman White Dragon, Negative corrupts him and sends him to attack Hood's headquarters. In retaliation, Hood decides to attack and kill him. H.A.M.M.E.R. seals Chinatown on Hood's behalf and an all out brawl erupts around Li's estate. Hood's gang gets the upper hand until Spider-Man arrives to rescue Martin Li. However, he too is corrupted and sent into battle on Mister Negative's behalf. Spider-Man attacks and pummels the members of Hood's gang who are attacking the villain's headquarters and Mister Negative then sends him to kill Betty Brant, who is interviewing the real Martin Li's widow and is coming close to the truth. The Hood himself then confronts Negative at his Chinatown headquarters and battles him. During the battle, Mister Negative tries to corrupt Hood, but fails. Norman Osborn ends H.A.M.M.E.R.'s blockade of Chinatown when Hammerhead hands him papers implicating Oscorp in the aforementioned drug tests on immigrants. An irate Hood decides to kill Negative anyway, but he escapes. A later conversation that Norman Osborn has with his own darker side the Green Goblin reveals that he now has an alliance with Negative similar to the one with Hood. However, Spot slips in and steals back the evidence of Oscorp's tests, revealing that he is actually Mister Negative's mole in the Hood's gang under the promise that he will be cured once they get their revenge on the Maggia.

During The Gauntlet storyline, Mister Negative corrupts Spider-Man's Aunt May when she walks in on him punishing an Inner Demon. However, Aunt May manages to break free from Mister Negative's corruption when Peter went to her for moral support after the Lizard devoured Billy Connors and essentially 'killed' his human side.

During the Shadowland storyline, Mister Negative takes the advantage of the conflict against the Hand in a plot to set up a criminal establishment there, only for him and his Inner Demons to run afoul of Spider-Man and Shang-Chi.

Mister Negative later has an encounter with Jackpot and Boomerang. During the "Origin of the Species" storyline, Mister Negative was among the supervillains assembled by Doctor Octopus to secure some items for him.

During the "Big Time" storyline, Mister Negative is targeted by both Anti-Venom and the new Wraith. When they, along with Spider-Man, interrupt a heroin-smuggling operation, Wraith uses visual recognition software, linked to every television broadcast in New York, to publicly out Mister Negative as Martin Li. When the police approach, Negative and his men retreat. Li is later seen locked in a room by Negative's men, who wait for him to change back into their master.

During the Spider-Island storyline, Mister Negative is told of a prophecy that he is destined to be killed by Dagger.

During the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline, Mister Negative and his henchmen invade a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility as a way of taking an advantage of the war between the Avengers and the Phoenix Five, but Hawkeye and Spider-Woman defeat them while having a discussion about their relationship. It is later revealed that they were informed about Mister Negative's plan by Madame Hydra, who wanted to get rid of her competition.