Tombstone (comics)
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Tombstone is the nickname of a fictional character in Marvel Comics comic books. He is an enemy of Spider-Man and first appeared in Web of Spider-Man #36 (March 1988).
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[edit] Character biography
Tombstone (real name Lonnie Thompson Lincoln) is a superhuman hit man and mob enforcer. He is frequently hired by the Kingpin and has close ties to organized crime and considerable influence within the prison system.
Lonnie started out as troubled youth who was bullied by his peers because he was Harlem's only African American albino. He became a school bully, taking protection money. The school newspaper was edited by Joseph "Robbie" Robertson, who was going to run a story on Lonnie's activities but pulled it when Lonnie intimidated him. Unfortunately, Lonnie allowed his personal demons to direct the course of his life and he turned to a life of serious crime.
As a hitman and enforcer, Lonnie used his albinism to his advantage. He filed his teeth and nails to points, giving him the appearance of a vampire. This frequently caught his opponents off-guard making it easier to kill them. He also lifted weights and engaged in many street fights to hone his fighting skills. As an adult he stood over six and a half feet tall.
As an adult Robertson would regret ever having known Lonnie (who was now known as Tombstone on the street). One night Robertson, now working for a local paper, went to meet a source only to see him being killed by Tombstone. The latter threatened to kill Robertson if he ever confessed the story. Robertson kept the secret for over twenty years whilst Tombstone became a powerful mob enforcer, killing many others. The situation exacerbated when Lonnie returned to Robertson's neighborhood. Eventually Robertson went to the police which resulted in Tombstone's incarceration, but not before Tombstone seriously injured Robertson nearly permanently damaging his spine.
Robertson however was also incarcerated by a judge on the Kingpin's payroll for suppression of evidence. In prison, Tombstone made Robbie's life a living hell and eventually broke out of and forced Robertson to come with him. Tombstone was confronted by Spider-Man but eluded capture after a harrowing battle in which Lonnie and Robertson (fighting on the side of Spider-Man) were knocked into a river. Both men survived and a temporary truce was agreed. Robertson was then given a full pardon for helping recapture Tombstone.
Lonnie eventually gained a superhuman physical constitution. Under a strange set of circumstances, Tombstone was locked in an airtight chamber with experimental gas at the Osborn Chemical Plant. The gas was absorbed into Lonnie's bloodstream and had a mutagenic effect on his body. This resulted in the manifestation of enhanced strength and other heightened physical abilities.
Recently, Tombstone was hired by the Green Goblin to be part of his Spider-Man killing group the Sinister Twelve, but was defeated.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Originally Tombstone had no superhuman powers, but has gained them through artificial means. Tombstone possesses superhuman strength that has increased beyond his original limits. Tombstone's body is also highly resistant to physical injury. He is capable of withstanding extreme temperatures, great impact forces, and high caliber bullets without sustaining injury. His reflexes, speed, and stamina are likewise heightened beyond a range attainable for normal human beings.
Aside from these advantages, Lonnie is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant with years of street fighting experience. He is also highly proficient with conventional firearms and well connected in the underworld of organized crime.
Lonnie has managed to hide the fact that he is nearly functionally illiterate, which was probably a large factor in his decision to become a criminal. As an albino, he is sensitive to sunlight due to a natural deficiency of melanin.
He is only capable of speaking in whispers.
[edit] Other media
In Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Tombstone (voiced by Dorian Harewood) was not originally an albino, he was turned into one by the same laboratory accident that gave him his superpowers. He was hired by Silvermane to steal the Tablet of Time. During an altercation with Spider-Man in Dr. Conner's lab poison gas was released choking Spider-Man. Tombstone was unaffected because he claimed he did not need to breathe anymore, nor was he "alive". In fact, it is heavily implied that he is a walking corpse, a member of the undead.
Later on in the series, Tombstone appeared again and became the leader of a gang that had Robbie Robertson's son, Randy, as a member, to kill the story of Alicia Silvermaine being a gansgter in the Daily Bugle. Tombstone promised to set Randy free to Robbie if he kills the Silvermaine story. Robbie refuses and Spider-Man captures Tombstone, having him sent to jail while Robbie and Randy confess to the police.
Also, in this series, Tombstone's origin was different in the comics. He was once Lonnie Lincoln, a friend of Joseph "Robbie" Robertson who wasn't an albino. When he was a child. he accidently threw his basketball through the glass of a grocery store, but, after seeing the store was closed, Lonnie decided to rob the store to get ice cream, with Robbie's help. Lonnie ended up failing when the police came and arrested him. Robbie felt guilty for abandoning Lonnie and guiltier that Lonnie never gave his name to the police. After his release, Lonnie became a crook while Robbie graduated with honors at schools. Eventually, Lonnie made a break-in at the Spaulding Chemical Plant to contact Robbie. While there, it was revealed that Lonnie wanted to frame Robbie to get his revenge for abandoning him on a grocery store. After Lonnie fell into the vat of chemicals by accident, Robbie decided to stay behind to face the consequences to think about abandoning Lonnie at the grocery store. After the fall, Lonnie's skin turned white, his hair yellow, and his flesh tough and rock-like.
Later in the series, it was revealed that the prison Tombstone went to was Rooker's Island with Richard Fisk (who was incarcerated two episodes before Tombstone). Fisk and Tombstone agreed to team up and bring Robbie Robertson into the same prison as them. They eventually kidnap Robbie, slipped a gun in his hand while he was unconscious and made him look like the leader of a gang in frozen crime. Apparently, Robbie's prison assignment would be New York State Penetentary instead of Rooker's Island. But unfortunately, with a little bit of help from the Kingpin, Richard's father, he was reassigned to Rooker's. There, Robbie would live for the next fifteen years. He also met Richard and Tombstone there again and revealed their entire plot to him. Apparently, Spider-Man found out about this whole plan and rescued Robbie just when Richard and Tombstone would escape with their cellmate, also putting them back to jail.
