| 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 Fuijan 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 member of the Golden Snake 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. |
