Mister Negative
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 and Dagger. The character was created by Dan Slott and Phil Jimenez, and first appeared in "Swing Shift", a story in Free Comic Book Day: The Amazing Spider-Man #1. The name "Mister Negative" is a reference to photographic negative, as the colors of his skin, hair, and costume are inverted when he transforms into his alter ego.
Originally a gangster and human trafficker whose real name was never revealed, the man who would become Mister Negative was captured by crime boss Silvermane to serve as a test subject alongside the future Cloak & Dagger for an experimental procedure involving a synthetic drug created by Simon Marshall. The experiment gave the character control over both the Darkforce and Lightforce, and led to the creation of two personalities: Mister Positive, posing as a benevolent and kind philanthropist named Martin Li, who would go on to found the F.E.A.S.T. Project as a means to help homeless people; and the ruthless crime lord Mister Negative, who leads the Inner Demons crime gang in an attempt to take over New York’s criminal underworld. Originally, the character was depicted as suffering from dissociative identity disorder, with one personality not maintaining the other's memories, but both were later shown to be fully aware of the other's existence. As Mister Negative, his powers include healing, mind-control through "corruption", and charging weapons with his energy.
Since his conception, Mister Negative has been adapted into several forms of media outside of comics. Keone Young and Eric Bauza voice him in the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Man respectively, while Stephen Oyoung voices the character in the Marvel's Spider-Man video game series. In 2025, he appeared in the second season of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, voiced by Bowen Yang.
Publication history
Created by Dan Slott and Phil Jimenez, Mister Negative first appeared in Free Comic Book Day: The Amazing Spider-Man #1, which was set in the aftermath of the "Spider-Man: One More Day" storyline. Negative then appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #546, the first issue of the follow-up storyline "Spider-Man: Brand New Day".Fictional character biography
Martin Li is introduced with the backstory of a Chinese immigrant from Fujian who attempted to travel to America to be with his wife. 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.The story is later revealed to be partially false, though only the Mister Negative persona appears aware of it. It is revealed that Negative was actually one of the crew members of the Golden Mountain. When the ship nearly crashed onto the New York shores, he stole the identity of one of the deceased Fujian slaves. This gang member was eventually captured by Silvermane and experimented on with a synthetic drug created by Maggia chemist Simon Marshall. He escaped with the help of two other experimental inmates and soon developed two personalities, the kind-hearted Martin Li and the villainous Mister Negative, the latter of the two developing the ability to generate a black electrical energy that could be used to heal, control others, or charge objects with his touch. The Mister Negative side dedicated himself to becoming Chinatown's Kingpin of Crime while the Martin Li side attempts to run the F.E.A.S.T. center with humility.
Martin Li opens and operates a soup kitchen in Chinatown: the F.E.A.S.T. Project, 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 Mister Negative name. 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.
In the "Brand New Day" storyline, 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 bioweapon called 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. Negative later tries to use the Devil's Breath formula to kill Spider-Man during a fight with the Maggia, but Spider-Man holds his breath long enough to escape alive. Spider-Man then recruits the Black Cat to help steal Spider-Man's remaining blood from Negative and replace it with a vial of pig blood so Negative is unaware of his loss.
Martin Li endorses Bill Hollister for mayor of New York City, putting him against Randall Crowne, adding him to a list of opponents. It also causes him to become the target of a smear campaign by Dexter Bennet, editor of The DB and supporter of Crowne. After Menace is revealed to be Hollister's daughter and Hollister resigns as mayor, Li unsuccessfully runs in a special election, losing to J. Jonah Jameson.
Mister Negative later recruits Hammerhead and offers to put the man's brain in a new robotic adamantium skeleton after having been shot point blank in the head by Underworld. Hammerhead agrees to that and Negative has his surgeon Doctor Tramma perform the procedure.
Mister Negative eventually comes across Eddie Brock, giving Brock a job at his soup kitchen. A touch from him causes Brock's cancerous cells to completely disappear and combines with remnants of the Venom symbiote to create Anti-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 that they were experimented on with drugs made at Oscorp. Later, 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 double identity.
During the 2008–2009 "Dark Reign" storyline, Quasimodo researched Mister Negative for Norman Osborn and considers his abilities and methods too new to predict where he might be a thorn in Osborn's side. Quasimodo states to Osborn that he'll do more research on him. Negative refuses to submit to Hood's rule of conquest over New York's criminal underworld. During a meeting with Hood's henchman White Dragon, Negative corrupts White Dragon and sends the man to attack the Hood's headquarters. In retaliation, the Hood decides to attack and kill him. H.A.M.M.E.R. seals Chinatown on Hood's behalf and an all out fight breaks out around Li's estate. Hood's gang gets the upper hand until Spider-Man arrives to rescue Martin. However, Spider-Man too is corrupted and sent into battle on Negative's behalf. Spider-Man battles the members of Hood's gang who are attacking the villain's headquarters; Negative then sends the web-slinger to kill Betty Brant who is interviewing the real Martin Li's widow and is coming close to finding out the truth. The Hood himself then confronts Negative at his Chinatown headquarters and battles him. During the battle, Negative tries to corrupt Hood but fails. Norman Osborn ends the blockade H.A.M.M.E.R. has on Chinatown when Hammerhead hands 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 Osborn has with his own darker Green Goblin side 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 being Negative's mole in the Hood's gang under the promise that he will be cured once they get their revenge on the Maggia.
In the X-Men storyline "Serve and Protect", Mister Negative and his Inner Demons are at San Francisco on attempting to murder a widowed woman who still have a child. When two unidentified heroes, then revealed to be the X-Men Rockslide and Anole in disguise, Negative hired The Serpents, and devise a plan to lure them into their traps, then turning then into his pawn into attacking other X-Men as well. Although his plan foiled by Anole's strategy into using a temporary brainwashed Rockslide, Negative releases Rockslide and vow they will meet again on the other side.
During the 2009 storyline "The Gauntlet", Mister Negative corrupts May Parker when the woman walks in on him punishing an Inner Demon. May manages to escape Negative's corruption when Peter goes to her for moral support.
During the 2010 "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, Negative was among the supervillains assembled by Doctor Octopus to secure some items.
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 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 2011 "Spider-Island" storyline, Mister Negative is told of a prophecy that he is destined to be killed by Dagger.
During the 2012 "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 Negative's plan by Madame Hydra who wanted to get rid of the competition.
During the 2014 "Original Sin" storyline, Mister Negative is seen meeting with the self-proclaimed Goblin King, who is now leading the Goblin Underground's remnants. Their meeting is crashed by Black Cat and Electro who demand their share of the plan. When Negative and Urich refuse to listen to Black Cat, the woman reminds them that they were all outed by Spider-Man and will succeed in the goal of defeating Spider-Man.
Following the 2015 "Secret Wars" storyline, Martin Li is arrested at some point. He is rescued by Cloak and Dagger who have been corrupted by his touch and are using patches of the drug known as "Shade" to stimulate the effects of Mister Negative's touch and "remain" loyal to him. After the two break Negative out of the prison ship where Li is being held and revert him to his Negative form, he leads an assault on Parker Industries' Japan branch, which leads to a confrontation with Spider-Man, whom Negative manages to touch. Although Peter exhibits an immunity to Negative's corruption power, Negative escapes to his Hong Kong headquarters and reverts to Li. Li later sees a video message from Negative that he is targeting a philanthropist named Shen Quinghao, the former leader of the criminal Snakehead Syndicate which controlled the slave ship where Li became Negative, and makes a proposal to Li, which Li accepts. His plan fails, and after Cloak and Dagger are eventually freed from Negative's control, they vow to remain in Hong Kong to protect it from Negative's future efforts.
During the "Sins Rising" arc, a revived Sin-Eater steals the powers of Mister Negative and uses it to corrupt the guards at Ravencroft when he targets Norman Osborn. He also uses the powers to corrupt the clone of Ashley Kafka into releasing Juggernaut.
A man claiming to be "Martin Li" shows up at the FEAST building seeking help as the Inner Demons attack. This "Martin Li" later surrenders to the Inner Demons. Mister Negative meets with Mayor Wilson Fisk and informs him that they will need the sister counterpart of the Tablet of Life and Destiny called the Tablet of Death and Entropy. As Negative has the item, he states to Fisk that their desired function can only be used when both items are together. Fisk allows Negative to control Chinatown and the Lower East Side. Obtaining the Tablet of Life and Destiny from Spider-Man and Boomerang puts Negative in completion with Black Mariah, Crime Master, Diamondback, Hammerhead, Madame Masque, Owl, Silvermane, and Tombstone.
Mister Negative is among the crime lords who attend the wedding of Randy Robertson and Janice Lincoln. When Shotgun crashes the wedding and shoots Tombstone, Spider-Man goes after Shotgun as the crime lords blame each other for calling the hit.
During the "Gang War" storyline, Mister Negative and Lady Yulan are at each other's throats as she claims that the Inner Demons used holy water on her vampire minions. During a meeting with the other crime lords, Hammerhead hears about what happened between Negative and Yulan as he tells the crime lords that Count Nefaria and Silvermane are backing him. At the next crime lord meeting at Arthur Avenue, Negative and Yulan are still blaming each other for the attacks.
In Spider-Boy, it is revealed that Madame Monstrosity previously hired Mister Negative and the Inner Demons to abduct people for her experiments. They kidnap Bailey Briggs and Eli Hartman, who Monstrosity later transforms into Humanimals. When Madame Monstrosity asks how he will pay her, Negative advises her to turn all the men he brought her into his personal army and to do whatever she wants with. Monstrosity accepts the offer and receives the "keys to his kingdom", which he expects her to eventually return. In the present, Negative learns that Christina Xu found the keys and sends the Inner Demons to reclaim them. While brainwashing some civilians and police officers, Negative was unable to brainwash Aunt May again. When pretending to be brainwashed after procuring a specific item from the bank vault, Bailey helps to defeat Negative as he is arrested by he police.