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Who is Martin Li aka Mister Negative in Marvel's Spider-Man 2?
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Jan 18, 2024 · Here is everything you need to know about Martin Li, including how Mister Negative cost Peter and Miles’ personal lives with losses that the two heroes had never endured before, his surprising return in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and how his appearances in the games compares to his history in the comics.
- Mr. Negative (Martin Li) In Comics Powers, & Villains| Marvel
As a wealthy and widely hailed philanthropist, the man known...
- Mr. Negative (Martin Li) In Comics Powers, & Villains| Marvel
- Overview
- History
- Characteristics
- Relationships
- Original appearance
- References
Martin Li, nicknamed Mister Negative by J. Jonah Jameson, is a recurring character in the Marvel's Spider-Man series. Li serves as an antagonist in Marvel's Spider-Man, was mentioned in Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and returns as a major anti-hero in Marvel's Spider-Man 2. Li was the founder and owner of the F.E.A.S.T. shelter. At the same time, he was also secretly the ruthless leader of a criminal group known as the Inner Demons and possesses the ability to harness a form of negative energy at will. He had a personal vendetta against Mayor Norman Osborn, which led him to terrorize the city. Following his defeat and imprisonment, he became a member of the Sinister Six, organized by Doctor Octopus, but was defeated once again and reimprisoned along with the other members of the group by Spider-Man.
His time imprisoned allowed Li to reflect on his life choices and he now sought redemption for his past crimes. Li was initially hunted by Kraven and the Hunters, and put at odds with the new Spider-Man, Miles Morales, for his role in his father's death. However, they put their differences aside and Li redeemed himself by helping the Spider-Men defeat Kraven and the Symbiotes, even helping Peter get rid of the remaining symbiote in his body and converting it into the Anti-Venom symbiote, before turning himself over to the authorities to pursue his redemption.
Early history
Martin Li was born somewhere between September 18 and December 31, 1978, in Dali, China. He and his parents immigrated to the United States in his early childhood. In 1986, at the age of seven, Li and his parents came to Oscorp for medical consultation regarding an unknown physiological condition. On September 19 of that year, Oscorp's co-founder Norman Osborn had Li injected with the experimental prototype of the GR-27 (codenamed "Devil's Breath") serum created by Oscorp. The treatment combined with the condition triggered a reaction that altered Li's physiology, granting him powers and causing an explosion that killed his parents. An orphaned Li spent the rest of his childhood in foster care in Manhattan. At the age of 18, he returned to China, where he made a fortune in the shipping industry. When he came back to New York nearly a decade later, he was already a billionaire. Rather than living off his fortune, Li founded his F.E.A.S.T. homeless shelters to ensure nobody would ever feel forgotten or abandoned. He opened his first F.E.A.S.T. shelter in Chinatown in 2013.
Marvel's Spider-Man
Li is the employer of May Parker, who serves as the operations manager of F.E.A.S.T. All outward appearances indicate he is a generous man, but secretly he runs the criminal organization the Inner Demons. With the arrest of criminal Wilson Fisk, Li moves swiftly to take advantage of the resulting power vacuum to take over his territory and weapons, preparing to move on now-Mayor Norman Osborn. Obsessed with exacting revenge against Osborn, he intends to uncover his lies and use Oscorp's own Devil's Breath against him and the city. He and the Demons attack one of Osborn's re-election rallies by using suicide bombers, killing Jefferson Davis and countless others. Prior to fully committing to destroy Osborn, Li makes May the new head of F.E.A.S.T. He then steals the Devil's Breath from Oscorp and attempts to release the gas on Grand Central but is foiled by Spider-Man. After his arrest and imprisonment, Li is freed by Doctor Octopus and becomes one of the Sinister Six. Under Doctor Octopus's orders, he kidnaps Oscorp scientist Dr. Morgan Michaels to take the Devil's Breath antiserum from him. Li also captures Osborn and confronts him. Before he can kill Osborn, Spider-Man follows him into the lab and defeats him in battle. After being betrayed by Otto, and May's death, Martin's whereabouts were unknown, until he got arrested off screen sometime later.
Miles Morales
Despite not appearing due to his imprisonment, Martin is mentioned and alluded throughout the story. It was mentioned that the Inner Demons disbanded following a fight with the Underground sometime after his second arrest. He was also mentioned by Rio Morales, Miles' mother and Aaron Davis, Miles' uncle. Mister Negative's actions deeply impacted Miles Morales' family: it was because of Jefferson Davis' death, which he caused, that Jefferson's wife Rio started to run for councilwoman and it was also because of losing Jefferson that Aaron Davis, his brother, decided to do whatever he needed to protect his nephew at all costs to not lose him too.
Appearance
Li is a middle-aged Chinese-American man with a muscular build and clean shaven face. His standard attire is a black suit and tie with a white handkerchief in his breast pocket. In his "Mister Negative" form, Li's appearance resembles a photo negative version of himself, with black skin, white hair, and glowing eyes. His clothing takes on the same transformation, and seems to react to light in an inverse manner. In Spider-Man 2, he sports medium long hair and a beard. When he is first encountered, he wears an orange Raft inmate uniform with a harness to suppress his powers. This harness was removed during his fight against Miles. After being freed from Kraven's compound, he wears a black button-up shirt with rolled-up sleeves, a white undershirt, and blue denim jeans.
Personality
There are two sides to Li's personality. The good side is that of a generous altruist and good-natured humanitarian: calm, pleasant, and humble in demeanor. Instead of using his incredible wealth to live a life of luxury, Li chose to create F.E.A.S.T., the most extensive and well-funded charity organization in New York, so that no one would suffer abandonment, hunger, and homelessness like he did when he was a child. Li takes great pride in his charitable work, seeing F.E.A.S.T. as his greatest accomplishment and a way of honoring his parents. Li's evil side sees him as a ruthless criminal and fanatical terrorist leader, who commands the fearsome Inner Demons in an almost cult leader-like manner. He follows the philosophy of necessary evil, claiming that he is a hero who camouflages himself as a monster to do justice. Aggressive and short-tempered, this side of Li is driven by his hatred for Norman Osborn for indirectly causing the death of his parents. Li is aware of the duality of his character, acknowledging that he has fallen "out of balance" in his quest for revenge. That said, he does not feel he can resist desire for revenge. He states that sometimes to fight a demon, you must become one in reference to Osborn, implying he thinks that, by killing Osborn, he could put his evil side to rest. While imprisoned in the raft, Li spent a lot of time reflecting on his choices in life and regrets his quest for revenge, showing guilt for the destruction and death he caused. He decided that giving up everything he cherished would not have been worth the payout. He helps the Spider-Men before willingly turning himself in to the police, displaying a desire to atone for his crimes.
Powers and abilities
Mister Negative possessed the ability to generate and control a highly destructive electric negative energy. He typically uses this energy to project powerful blasts from his hands, or to charge up swords, combining his dark powers with his swordsmanship skills in battle. Mister Negative also displays increased physical attributes in terms of reflexes, resilience, and strength. He is able to take extreme amounts of physical trauma without major injuries and can move in small dashes of superhuman speed, akin to teleportation. His attacks also have great range. Mister Negative appears to have a mind control ability. With just a touch, he is able to "corrupt" people, effectively bringing them under his control, or give himself even greater power through amplifying his victims' negative emotions. He can additionally gift small portions of his powers to his followers. Furthermore, Mister Negative's mind control ability allows him to create realistic illusions in his victim's mind, such as zombie-like holograms that he creates to use against Spider-Man when the two battle. While truly angered, he is able to generate a large holographic demonic entity that he weaponizes against Spider-Man during their final battle. Publicly, Li is known for his inspiring philanthropic leadership. In addition, he has a college degree in art and has a detailed knowledge of history, historical art and relics as well as arcane lore. Li has studied martial arts, being a highly skilled swordsman and is competent in unarmed combat.
Norman Osborn
Norman Osborn was responsible for Li's exposure to Devil's Breath, and, as a result, Li's powers and the death of his parents. Li would hold a grudge against Norman for the incident, which only grew as Osborn avoided culpability for his actions. Eventually, Li gave into his hatred and began plotting a lifelong vendetta against Norman. Leading the Inner Demons terrorist group, Li threatens and harms countless New Yorkers, including innocent civilians, all in order to get to Norman. When he finally faces Norman in the Devil's Breath research lab, he prepares to slowly and painfully kill the man he deems a "piece of scum". His hatred for Norman leaves him deaf to Spider-Man's attempts to reason with him, demanding that Norman face "true justice" and suffer for his crimes. Unfortunately, upon learning of May's passing, and later learns Miles is the son of the late Jefferson whom Li directly killed at the City Hall bombing, Li comes to realize that he repeated a same mistake as how Norman did directly to his parents. Despite having sacrificed his power to purify Venom Symbiote suit into Anti-Venom Suit and not present in the final battle against Venom, Li somehow got what he wanted to make Norman suffer, when the latter's son Harry falls into coma after being purged from Venom's influence.
Otto Octavius
Otto Octavius first encountered Li when the latter came to Oscorp for medical consultation. While Octavius was unable to stop Li from being exposed to GR-27 and accidentally killing his parents, it appears that he was in touch with Li for some time, providing him with medication to help him suppress his powers. As the game's story progresses, Li's actions come to inspire Octavius to pursue his own plot against Osborn, and Li readily joins him. When Li fails to secure the Devil's Breath antiserum, he is thrown aside by the increasingly unstable Octavius, who deems him useless before taking the antiserum himself and leaving Li to go on the run from the authorities, but ended up being caught second time sometimes later, off-screen.
May Parker
Li holds May Parker in great respect for her generosity, kindness, and contributions at F.E.A.S.T. He states that May inspires him to be humble and altruistic. When he is about to leave to pursue his vendetta against Norman Osborn, he asks for her to continue running and expanding his F.E.A.S.T. operations, as he is truly proud of their charitable accomplishments for the people of New York. Before he leaves to move forth with his vendetta, Li leaves a note for May in his office, confessing to his crimes as a terrorist, but promising that the work they have done together is true, and asking that she stay. Unfortunately, due to his long-awaited revenge on Norman, his own crime ends on taking parts on unleashing Devil's Breath that kills May, Li blames himself for her death.
For more background of Martin Li throughout comic book history, see all appearances of Mister Negative and the original appearance of Martin Li on the Marvel Database
Mister Negative first appeared in a cameo in Free Comic Book Day (Spider-Man) (May 2007). His first full appearance came in Amazing Spider-Man #546 (January 2008). In the original comic continuity, Martin Li is an alias of an unknown Chinese gangster and trafficker, who assumes the name of a deceased Fujian slave (the real Martin Li) and was mutated alongside two pairs youths who would become superheroes Cloak and Dagger by Silvermane's experiments. Li is also the original creator of Anti-Venom symbiote suit when his Mister Negative persona secretly purifies the Venom symbiote's fragment inside the body of a recently cancer cured Eddie Brock.
Characters in Marvel's Spider-Man
Characters in Marvel's Spider-Man 2
Full Name. Martin Li. Alias. Mister Negative. Mr. Li. The Demon. Origin. Marvel's Spider-Man. Occupation. Oscorp Industries test subject. Founder and Director of F.E.A.S.T. Crime lord. Supervillain. Terrorist. Leader of the Inner Demons. Second-in-command of the Sinister Six (all formerly) Powers / Skills. Leadership. Martial arts expert.
Mister Negative is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is usually depicted as an enemy of Spider-Man, the Punisher, Shang-Chi, and Cloak & Dagger.
Norman Osborn used Li as a test subject for the Devil's Breath virus. After this experiment, Li lost control and accidentally killed his own parents. What was Martin Li’s evil plan in...
Full Name. Martin Li. Alias (es) Mister Negative. Mr. Li The Demon. Origin. Marvel's Spider-Man. Occupation. Oscorp Industries test subject. Founder and Director of F.E.A.S.T. Crime lord Terrorist Leader of the Inner Demons Second-in-command of the Sinister Six (all formerly) Powers / Skills.
