Tasked with taking out the legendary Master of Kung Fu, Shang-Chi, Death-Dealer employs his mastery of martial arts and weaponry to carry out his orders. As part of his costumed identity, he leaves playing cards behind as clues for his targets to interpret.
Brutal Assassin
Li Ching-Lin trains with British Intelligence MI-6 agents and is noticeably brutal, hurting other agents that he spars with. After a training session, he returns home to receive a visitor, that of Shang-Chi the Master of Kung Fu and son to Zheng Zu, AKA Fu Manchu. Shang-Chi requests that Li come with him, having received orders from Sir Denis Nayland Smith to incapacitate and deliver him. Smith was going off of the orders of Zheng Bao Yu, AKA Fah Lo Suee (Shang-Chi’s half-sister) who wanted him taken off the board as she thought him dangerous. She offers Smith forged but convincing mortgage documents which would entitle him to the Stormhaven Estate, securing a contract for Li’s death.
After Li politely declines Shang-Chi’s request, he abruptly attacks Shang-Chi and makes his escape.
Master Martial Artist
Li trains in Martial arts and armed and unarmed combat with MI-6 and Fu Manchu. He becomes a brutal fighter, often hurting his opponents. He is fast, sharp and controlled. With an ambitious personality, he excels in everything from psychological aptitude to paperwork.
Subversive Allies and Enemies
At some point, Li has a son named Huo Li while his other relations remain unknown.
While Death-Dealer receives orders from Fu Manchu to assassinate Manchu’s son Shang-Chi, he comes up against his target’s allies in Freelance Restorations, such as Clive Reston, Jack Tarr, AKA Black Jack Tarr, Leiko Wu, but mostly he fights hand-to-hand with Shang-Chi.
When Shang-Chi’s half-sister Fah Lo Suee offers to ease Freelance Restorations’ financial concerns, she gives them a lucrative contract to slay the Death-Dealer. Suffice it to say, while they don’t pick up the contract, it’s clear that Fah Lo has it out for her father’s assassin who she sees as a nuisance.
An Assassin’s Account
Despite training as an agent for MI-6, Li worked with Wang Yu-Seng (a disguised Fu Manchu) to plot the downfall of MI-6 past and present. While speaking of this deceit and Li informing Manchu of his encounter with Shang-Chi, MI-6 agent Black Jack Tarr overheard their discussion and plans. Manchu then asked Li to don a mask and become the Death-Dealer to slay Shang-Chi.
Donning the mask, Li bombed Shang-Chi’s friend Leiko Wu’s flat in Soho where Black Jack Tarr was informing Shang Chi, Leiko, and Clive Reston of their plans. But they all survive, with Shang-Chi revealing himself in a failed stealth attempt to sneak up on Death-Dealer, who takes the opportunity to return the favor. They fought but Reston shot Death-Dealer’s three-bladed weapon out of his hand. Death-Dealer fled, jumping out a nearby window and into the watery depths below. Shang-Chi tossed his weapon after him. It wasn’t until later that the cards he left behind were revealed to have false faces—laying underneath their façade were pieces of Shang-Chi’s past, including an image of Fu Manchu, Shang-Chi’s father.
Fu Manchu soon needed his son, effectively rescinding Death-Dealer’s kill orders, as he needed the blood of his offspring to revitalize his Elixir Vitae, his serum of immortal life. When Shang-Chi attempted to escape capture by Manchu, Death-Dealer tried to stop him but failed and fled.
Death-Dealer then attempted to retrieve Shang-Chi’s blood again, which he technically retrieved in another battle between the pair. During the fight, Shang-Chi lit Death-Dealer’s costume on fire and he seemed to burn alive.
