We recently talked about Tombstone’s relationship with Robbie Robertson in our recent episode! But you want to see a little of what we were talking about, you can check out his origins below:
Tombstone first appears in Web of Spider-Man #36, created by Gerry Conway and Alex Saviuk in 1988. We first see him tailing another character (long story) in the back of a car…
…before Robbie Robertson spots him and freaks out.
A few issues later, he’s confirmed to be The Arranger’s new enforcer, when he promptly throws Hobgoblin out of a window. A baller entrance, if you ask me.
In The Spectacular Spider-Man #137, Robbie tails Tombstone and ends up coming face to face with him for the first time in years.
It’s during the Spectacular run that they introduce his trademark dialogue boxes – nice small font for a whispery voice.
He’s a rough customer, I’ll tell you that.
It’s in Spectacular #139 that ol’ Tomby gets his first cover shoot.
In this issue, Robbie leaves a taped message for Peter confessing that he’s an accessory to murder… starting the origin of his long relationship with Tombstone.
Robbie first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #51 (1967), created by Stan Lee and John Romita. He was one of the first black characters at Marvel to get a serious supporting role, and is one of my favourites from the series. But it’s only here that we learn about his dark past…
A thing to note here for anyone who is a fan of Tombstone from the 90s Animated Show or maybe the Spider-Man PS4 side missions… he’s an albino black man here – and introduced without any powers to speak off.
Robbie knew him at high school, where he beat him up for running a story on him for the school paper (god knows what it was about).
Robbie decides to pull the story and it wrecks havoc on his soul… as is the way with Mr. Robertson.
The nickname ‘Robbie-Pal’ and that wink comes back in a pretty traumatic way.
Years later, Robbie is grown up and working as a journalist in Philadelphia. Following up on an anonymous tip he got on a killer in the city, he instead finds his informant dead… in the hands of Tombstone.
There’s that wink again. God damn, Tombstone. You might get why Robbie was too scared to report him to the police – but still follows him to see how he evades the law.
And when he eventually does try to confront (and shoot) Tombstone, it DOES NOT go well.
Got to love this Sal Buscema art! Outrageously good.
After this, Robbie is hospitalised with paralysis for a while – and it gets pretty dire from there! Before he can get his courage up, Tombstone turns up in his hospital room and threatens his family if he’s ever to speak out on what happened.
Now to scared to say anything, Robbie asks Peter to burn the tape he gave him. His own life is one thing – but he won’t risk the people close to him.
Soon after, The Punisher gets involved, throws some bacon grease at Tombstone thugs.
Tombstone also attacks MJ to try to get to Peter, leaving Robbie even more distraught.
Robbie’s back is revealed to be not broken, but he does have a bruised and compressed spinal chord, leaving his spinal nerves traumatised. He learns how to walk, gets his courage back, and decides to confess the full truth to the police. But first – Spidey takes on Tombstone finally and takes him down.
Yeah, Tombstone ain’t quite right. But he won’t give up on the idea that Robbie is really his friend.
Despite getting his courage back, Robbie has so much self-loathing over the whole thing he doesn’t fight back in court at all and gets put away for 36 months. Oh, and Tombstone pulls some strings to get a cell right next door to him…
Over the next few issues, Tombstone threatens Robbie into becoming his friend and accomplice.
Robbie is briefly helped out by new friend Bruiser, but he’s soon ‘taken care of’, leaving Robbie blackmailed into helping Tombstone get Spidey into the prison for revenge.
Robbie calls Spider-Man to visit him in prison, Tombstone attacks him, Robbie apologises and injects him with an experimental virus Tombstone got a hold of.
Tombstone beats Spider-Man, chains him up, and they pull a breakout. Tombstone forces Robbie onto a helicopter with him, Spidey hangs on while Tombstone tries to get rid of him. Eventually, Robbie is pushed too far and tackles Lonnie off the helicopter and to their supposed death…
Soon enough, it’s revealed that not only did they both survive the fall, but they’ve been resting up in an Amish community they found.
Eventually, with their strength back, Tombstone tries to kill Robbie finally – and Robbie fights back. Hard.
Tombstone looks pretty dead, flees, but – you guessed it – survives.
Man, this dude…
Robbie gets a presidential pardon, thanks to Bruiser’s brother being a lawyer with all the right connections.
But as soon as he makes it back to New York to celebrate, his welcome home party is ransacked by The Hobgoblin – hired by Tombstone’s new boss Hammerhead as revenge for what he did to Lonnie, despite his objections. But ol’ Hobby is shot before he can assassinate him, because Tombstone is still pretty damn possessive…
Tombstone stays working for Hammerhead for a while, biding his time. Later, he blackmails a now straight-edged Molten Man into robbing an Oscorp factory where they are creating Diox-3 (which Harry later explains is an experimental preservative that bonds to cellular walls in plants to prevent decomposition).
Robbie gets a tip, turns up, finds out Tombstone placed the call – but decides to finish the job anyway and shoots him.
Tombstone falls into a chamber, hitting a switch and locking himself in a room that’s then flooded with the gas he was meant to steal. By time the cavalry arrives, the chamber wall has been blown open somehow. Guess he’s dead!
Wrong!
In Web of Spider-Man #67 (1990), a still-alive Tombstone is mugged by some teens – but ends up beating them all and taking a bullet no problem. That’s when his powers come into play, finally, and he decides to take over Hammerhead’s operation.
Tombstone’s Powers
It’s here, two years after he was introduced, that Lonnie Lincoln gets the powers to suit his namesake. He has:
- Super strength, able to lift six tons
- Super stamina
- Highly resistant to injury, including – high calibre bullets, great impact force, extreme high and low temperatures
- Skin as hard as diamonds
Yep, this dude is pretty much invulnerable at this point!
After this, unfortunately, Tombstone’s story becomes a lot less interesting. He steadily has less to do with Robbie and goes from superpowered big bad to the heavy to be passed around from series to series.
It’s in the Darkhawk series (1991) that he gets his black popped collar look, the one we know from The Animated Series.
He does return to various Spider-Man series over the coming years, most notably in Spectacular Spider-Man #204-6, where Spidey finally takes down the unbreakable giant.
He puts his absolute all into one punch, and it doesn’t seem to have an effect… at least at first.
After this, he also drops by in Cage #2-4, various Daredevil comics, Nomad #4, Punisher War Journal #47, Marc Spector: Moon Knight #47-9, Captain America #411, The Punisher #9, the Spider-Man/Punisher: Family Plot mini-series, Thunderbolts #53, Wolverine #30, Underworld #3, Dark Reign: The Cabal, the Deadpool: Suicide Kings mini-series, Hawkeye, Gambit, All-New Captain America, Power Man & Iron Fist, Kingpin, Absolute Carnage vs Deadpool, Savage Avengers, Miles Morales: Spider-Man, as well as various other Punisher, Deadpool, Daredevil and Spidey comics over the next 30 years.
Phew!
What I’m saying is: he does the rounds. Any comic writer need a filler villain? Grab Tombstone, it’s all good!
If you want to hear me talk more in-depth about Tombstone’s comic origins, as well as his episode in Spider-Man: The Animated Series – check out our podcast here.
That’s all for this week, folks! Make sure you check out our Patreon for more bonus episodes!
That '90s Spider-Man Show 