This was a pretty unnecessary limited series. The series opened with Norman Osborn declaring war on Mr. Negative for daring to resist joining his super-army, and it closes with Mr. Negative essentially setting himself up as the Hood's peer, so he just joins the super-army after all. The entire exercise didn't really deliver anything dramatic about Dark Reign. Spider-Man and Betty Brant didn't really need to be in this story either, I think the strongest parts were the gang war elements, not the silly evil Spidey chasing around his old friend.As an origin for Mr. Negative, it holds up a bit better. Fred Van Lente gives us a pretty clear origin for Spidey's new foe, complete with a nice tie to classic Marvel characters. It seems that Martin Li/Mr. Negative is actually a human trafficker, a brutal man who left his ship behind and attempted to escape into New York. Silvermane collected and dropped him off on Ellis island to receive experimental drugs and be tested upon. Sound familiar? It should. That's Cloak & Dagger's origin. It seems this trafficker escaped right after Cloak and Dagger and later took on Martin Li's life as his own, doing good deeds as Martin Li while committing evil as Mr. Negative. So Li/Negative is a perfect yin-yang of the balance of good and evil. It's a neat concept, but I'm not entirely sure I understand it. Is the Li part of the character actually a good guy?
The art by Gianlucca Gugliotta is pretty difficult to follow. I couldn't tell who the trafficker was clearly enough to get any dramatic impact from the scene where Mr. Negative saves Li's wife. Everyone had lumpy faces making it difficult to tell people apart. In a story where race was so important, I'm not sure using a post-racial art style was the right choice.
Average
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