Supervillain Spotlight: Top 5 Tombstone Stories!

After a very long hiatus, welcome back to Supervillain Spotlight! Today I will be casting the limelight to who I consider to be Spider-Man’s single most underrated villain of all time: Lonnie Lincoln a.k.a. Tombstone!

Created in 1988 by Gerry Conway and Sal Buscema, Tombstone had an absolutely stellar debut worthy of A-list villain status in the pages of Spectacular Spider-Man, with an intimidating presence, intriguing backstory and fascinating history with long-time supporting character Joe “Robbie” Robertson. But for reasons I’ve never been able to fathom, Lonnie quickly fell into generic villain territory after his excellent introduction, often only showing up as just another mob figure or merely somebody for the heroes to have a fight scene with. It perplexes me why writers never capitalized on the character’s potential after his first few appearances, but that might finally be about to change. Zeb Wells appears to be setting up Tombstone as the primary antagonist of his current run on Amazing Spider-Man and it has my attention.

It’s too early to say, but I’m hoping this will finally be the big break Tombstone needs to send him skyrocketing to upper pantheon of Spider-Man villains (though with Marvel’s current track record, I may be in for yet another disappointment). Whatever the outcome ends up being, I think now is the perfect opportunity to explore Mr. Lincoln’s back catalogue and talk about his very best stories.

This list wasn’t easy to make because as previously mentioned, Tombstone is typically used as a prop for a fight scene or as yet another mob figure in a long line of them. In short, he doesn’t have many comics that actually explore his character or even feature him as the main villain. Still, I did manage to dig deep enough to find some genuine gems, so let’s get to them.

 

05.) The Superior Foes of Spider-Man

by Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber

Alright, so Tombstone is admittedly only a minor character in this series, but I did say that this list was hard to make, didn’t I? Anyway, despite not being a major component in Superior Foes, all of the scenes with Tombstone are quite good, especially the ones where he interacts with his daughter Janice a.k.a. The Beetle.

Here we get to see a softer, more human side to Lonnie (not at all like his “friendship” with Robbie Robertson) as he genuinely does love his daughter and actually tries to discourage her from becoming a supervillain like she wants.

Sure, he still wants her to be a corrupt criminal lawyer, but at least he doesn’t want her to get punched in the face while ruining people’s lives. What more could a child ask from their father?

Jokes aside, there are some really fun, humorous interactions between Lonnie and Janice throughout the series that rank among some of the best moments of Superior Foes and succeed in giving Tombstone more depth beyond being just a mass of muscle for someone to punch.

 

04.) King’s Ransom 

by Nick Spencer, Patrick Gleason, Federico Vicentini and Mark Bagley

Before Marvel editorial completely derailed his tenure at the end (something I am still quite bitter about), writer Nick Spencer was delivering some really solid material; King’s Ransom being one such example. Ever since it was revealed that Randy Robertson and Janice Lincoln were dating one another, fans were eagerly anticipating their parents’ reactions. And sure enough, it didn’t disappoint.

Nor did the two’s inevitable confrontation.

If this wasn’t already good enough, both Robbie and Tombstone proceed to team up with one another after their children are abducted by a criminal organization looking for information. This leads to some great exchanges between the two and even a bit of understanding.

Not only is it a treat to see Tombstone and Robbie’s histories finally be acknowledged after years of being ignored, but Nick Spencer plays their personalities off each other so well that their uneasy alliance ends up being the highlight of the entire arc, despite being a side plot. It’s truly a shame that Spencer never wrote a story centering entirely around their relationship/rivalry as it likely would have been a high point in the characters’ histories.

 

03.) Friends and Enemies

by Gerry Conway and Alex Saviuk

In many ways, this arc serves as a conclusion of sorts to the original Tombstone and Robbie saga. In this three-parter, Robbie Robertson receives a suspicious tip on the whereabouts of his old rival Tombstone.

Unable to resist an opportunity to put his tormentor away for good, Robbie follows the information. Sure enough, Robbie finds Tombstone waiting for him, all to eager to exact vengeance on his “friend” for their previous encounter.

But as you can see, things don’t exactly go in Lonnie’s favor. Or do they? Tombstone is later attacked by street thugs where he discovers some brand new abilities brought about by his accident.

Realizing he is now invulnerable, Tombstone sets out to settle his score with Robbie once more…but not in the way you might expect.

This arc does a great job highlighting just how twisted Lonnie truly is and reminds readers that in his own incredibly sick manner, he really does like Robbie and considers him a friend. Aside from that, this is an important story because it shows how Tombstone gained his superhuman abilities and as mentioned previously, it served as the conclusion to Tombstone and Robbie’s rivalry for years to come. Even though Lonnie’s relationship with Robbie is what made the character so fascinating, writer Gerry Conway still managed to conclude it in satisfactory fashion.

 

02.) Death by Tombstone

by Steven Grant and Sal Buscema

Death by Tombstone is perhaps the most effective and ambitious the mobster has ever been as he schemes to take over the entire criminal underworld in New York City and actually comes close to succeeding. The story starts off with a bang as we see Tombstone easily humiliate and defeat Hammerhead in front of his entire crew.

This scene perfectly demonstrates Tombstone’s power and the threat he truly poses. Instead of being a simple stooge, writer Steven Grant endows the character with an intimidation and ambition rarely seen in the hitman. Lonnie is no longer content with carrying out the orders of others, he is now going to be the one giving the orders!

But it gets better! We’re then treated to a delightful sequence where Tombstone attacks a rival mob boss and once again demonstrates why you don’t want to get in his way.

And then in one of the character’s more harrowing moments, he attempts to make his getaway by stealing an ambulance. But who stands in his way?

To the surprise of nobody, Flash does not emerge the victor of this skirmish.

Flash is put in traction as the result of this beating, devastating Peter Parker and enraging his girlfriend…Felicia Hardy.

While it doesn’t explore Lonnie Lincoln’s character in any meaningful way, Death by Tombstone succeeds by depicting him as an utterly ruthless, evil, powerful and downright scary thug that you do not want to cross. Tombstone has rarely been portrayed this effectively, easily making this one of his best outings.

 

01.) The Tombstone Saga

by Gerry Conway and Sal Buscema

I wrote an Overlooked Gems piece on this very story some years back, but I did it a disservice by only focusing on the initial four issues. The entire saga that unfolds throughout Gerry Conway and Sal Buscema’s tenure on Spectacular Spider-Man is superb and must be read in its entirety for the full experience.

The first half of the saga expertly establishes Lonnie Lincoln’s background, including his tempestuous history with Joe “Robbie” Robertson.

A very tempestuous history indeed.

When Tombstone returns to New York on mob business, Robbie tries to face his fears and bring Tombstone in.

It doesn’t go well. This eventually leads to an immensely satisfying beatdown courtesy of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

But this is only the end to part one of the saga! Part two takes place after Robbie is sentenced to prison time for withholding information about Tombstone’s murders.

And who does Robbie end up on the same cellblock with?

You guessed it. As you also may have guessed, Tombstone isn’t exactly pleased with Robbie for turning him over to the feds.

Thankfully, Robbie makes friends with a bulky inmate known only as Bruiser, someone who doesn’t take kindly to bullies and sides with the hapless newspaperman.

But Tombstone isn’t known for his subservience. Soon enough, the quiet killer makes his move.

I won’t spoil the rest because you really need to read this for yourself. Robbie Robertson has never been a more interesting or sympathetic character than he is here and the reader is rooting for him every step of the way. Tombstone has also never been a more intriguing, despicable antagonist than in this story and it’s glorious. Tombstone is one hell of a villain here, ripe for the A-list and it’s a true shame that his potential was never fully capitalized on by future writers. As good as the previous four tales I spoke of were, none of them come close to this.

The Tombstone Saga really is one of the greatest Spider-Man stories ever written and deserves to be lauded as a classic alongside Nothing Can Stop The Juggernaut, The Hobgoblin Saga, The Owl/Octopus War, The Death of Jean Dewolff, Kraven’s Last Hunt etc. Hopefully Zeb Wells will finally remind everyone why Tombstone deserves a spot amongst Spidey’s greatest rogues, but we’ll have to wait and see. For now, do yourselves a favor and read these comics if you haven’t already.