Li was forcibly dosed with this drug, named D-Lite, along with several other unwilling subjects. Rather than send the man now calling himself Martin Li to join his fellow smugglers in the hereafter, Silvermane gave him to a criminal chemist who was in the process of testing a new designer drug. This was before Silvermane became a head on a robot body, FYI. Swimming to shore, the Snakehead returned to his gang’s hideout in Flushing, where he discovered all of his criminal compatriots had been killed by Maggia Family crime boss Silvio Manfredi, better known as Silvermane.
Panicking, the smuggler stole the name of one of his deceased charges, Martin Li, fearing that he would be caught and deported to China for previous crimes. This particular Snakehead, whose true name remains a mystery, was transporting one such group on a ship that ran aground near New York. The man known as Martin Li, AKA Mister Negative, used to make his living as a “Snakehead:” a Chinese smuggler who specialized in illegally transporting people across borders. Who says you need a positive outlook? Welcome to and today we will explore the comic book origin of the villainous Mister Negative.
