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Quote1 'Cold as ice, hard as marble'... I like that, Web-Spinner. Thanks. All my life I felt like a freak. What else would you call an albino? -- A black man trapped in a white man's skin? People looked at me, they saw a monster. But I was just a man. Now I am a monster, and I love it. Yeah: 'Cold as ice, hard as marble'... What else would you call a tombstone? Quote2
ā€”Tombstone[src]

History

Lonnie Lincoln was born and raised in Harlem, New York City. His albinism, a congenital disorder characterized by the complete absence of pigment in his skin, made him an outcast among the children his age. He also had a problem with his vocal chords, making him speak in whispers. The only student who didn't ostracize Lincoln was aspiring reporter Joe Robertson, causing Lonnie to misconstrue this lack of hostility as a token of friendship. To make up for his appearance, Lonnie exercised intensively, and ultimately became a school bully. Using his size and muscles to extort money out of his fellow students, Lonnie was nicknamed "Tombstone." In senior year, when he discovered that Robertson was writing an exposƩ on his activities for the school newspaper, Tombstone felt betrayed and assaulted Robbie to force him to drop the story.[5][6]

Eight years later, Tombstone had grown to become a mob enforcer in Philadelphia, where Robertson happened to work as a reporter. When Lincoln killed crime boss Ozzy Montana, his employee Isadore Hipper witnessed the murder and contacted the newspaper where Robbie worked. Robbie was about to meet with Hipper when Tombstone killed him, and arrived at their meeting point only to find Tombstone taunting him with the man's corpse.[5] Due to his perceived friendship with Robertson,[6] Tombstone let him go, but later taunted him on the phone, prompting Robbie to flee with his wife back to New York, where he became an acclaimed reporter for the Daily Bugle.

Tombstone continued working as an enforcer. He was arrested several times for many murders, but between witnesses disappearing or recanting their testimony, Lincoln never went to jail.[5] At some point in time, Tombstone had a daughter named Janice. Lincoln was actually a good, if amoral, father to Janice. He proudly remembered helping her with her first scam, where she attended a girl's birthday party and stole all of her gifts. Lincoln would pay her way through law school so she could exploit the law as a financial lawyer, but Janice would want to be a costumed super villain, much to Lincoln's chagrin. As an adult, Janice would fulfill her dream and adopt the identity of the Beetle.[7]

Over twenty years after Hipper's murder, Tombstone was hired by the Arranger, and moved back to New York to work for him. Tombstone recruited mutant Roland Rayburn, later known as the Persuader.[8] When he spotted Tombstone in the streets, Robertson was overcome with a feeling of responsibility to bring Tombstone down, since he felt responsible for the murders Lincoln had committed for failing to stop him back in high school. Before personally confronting Tombstone, Robbie taped a recording detailing his history with Lincoln as well as the evidence against him and left it to his employee at the Daily Bugle, photographer Peter Parker. When Robertson faced against Tombstone, he tried to kill the mobster with a gun, but he failed since Lincoln was wearing a bulletproof vest. In retaliation, Tombstone squeezed Robbie with his arms, nearly breaking his back and leaving him crippled,[5] but not killing him due to his perceived friendship with him.[9]

Alonzo Lincoln (Earth-616) from Spectacular Spider-Man Vol 1 142 001

Tombstone captured

In order to obtain the incriminating tape, Tombstone threatened Parker's wife, Mary Jane Watson,[10] and then summoned him to Atlanta, where Parker confronted and defeated him using his costumed identity of Spider-Man. During their fight, Robertson contacted the Department of Justice to give them his deposition against Lincoln.[9] Tombstone was finally jailed, but so was Robbie since his testimony entailed a confession to being accessory to Hipper's murder. Using his influence, Tombstone ensured that he would be transferred to the same prison as Robbie, Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary, in the cell next to his.[11] Lincoln's haunting of Robbie was impeded by a muscular convict known as the Bruiser who had taken a liking to Robbie. He protected Joe until they were ambushed by Tombstone and other inmates, and Bruiser was beaten to death by Lincoln.[12]

After Bruiser's death, Tombstone forced Robbie to contact Spider-Man, luring him into a trap. With the hero drugged and beaten up, Tombstone and his henchmen used him as a hostage to stage a breakout that saw Lincoln taking Robbie away on a helicopter. When Spider-Man, still weakened, clung to the helicopter, Tombstone began kicking him from above. Finally overcoming his fear for Tombstone, Joe grabbed Lincoln and lunged out of the helicopter.[13] They survived the fall, landing on a river, but Robbie was injured. An Amish named Aaron DeWeiss found the duo,[14] and sheltered them at his farm. Tombstone waited for weeks until Robbie healed and challenged him for a final battle, during which Robbie impaled him with a pitchfork. Although the injury wasn't grave, Tombstone felt betrayed that his "friend" would try to kill him, and walked away. Lincoln eventually made his way back to Manhattan, where he met up with his new employer, the crime boss Hammerhead.[15]

Thinking of Robertson as a liability due to his connection with Tombstone, Hammerhead hired the Hobgoblin to kill the reporter, who had been pardoned and was a free man. Tombstone secretly intervened to stop the Hobgoblin, since he didn't want anybody killing Robbie except for himself in due time.[16] Since Hammerhead still wished to kill Robbie, Tombstone himself lured Robertson to one of his operations in a chemical plant to kill him. In the resulting tussle, Robbie accidentally locked Lincoln in a chamber filled with a preservative gas named Diox-3 that mutated Tombstone and made his skin virtually indestructible.[17] After taking over Hammerhead's operations, Tombstone summoned Robbie to Hammerhead's mansion to call off his vendetta against him out of gratitude since Joe had been accidentally responsible for the new powers he enjoyed. After Spider-Man intervened to assist Robbie, a confrontation between Tombstone and Hammerhead saw the mansion explode, and Tombstone fled.[18]

With his reputation having taken a hit following the attempted takeover of Hammerhead's territory, Tombstone took part in an assassination game to join the ninja cult The Hand in hopes of finding a purpose and a place to belong.[19] The game pit Lincoln against Taskmaster in a contest of killings. The vigilante Daredevil intervened to stop the two villains while preventing the deadly Punisher from killing them.[20] After being left hospitalized by the Punisher, Taskmaster informed on Tombstone's plan to pose as a clown to kill City Cultural Affairs Commissioner Christin Harris. Tombstone was left distraught after Daredevil foiled him, but he managed to escape while the hero finished dealing with the Punisher.[19]

Following the Kingpin's fall, Tombstone joined a conference of powerful criminal leaders who intended to divide up the empire left by Fisk.[21] Among the members of the conference were Slug, Hammerhead, Fenris, and their sibling Werner von Strucker.[22] This, and other arguments, caused the conference to degenerate into a shouting, shooting and blasting match.[23]

Tombstone's operations later became a target to a supercriminal known as Deadzone. Moon Knight, who was also after Deadzone, used Tombstone as bait. He took a position as the mobsters limo driver. When he finally attacked he took down Deadzone and Tombstone personally thanked him for his help.[24] Tombstone tried to murder Deadzone while he was unconscious but was stopped by Moon Knight. However Deadzone awoke. As both Moon Knight and Deadzone battled once more, Tombstone escaped in the limo.[25]

Hammerhead began to seize power across New York City. He took over Sandoz making him his right-hand man.[26] Tombstone claimed to have killed Spider-Man, as he emerged from the East River holding his mask.[27] When Tombstone was eventually knocked down by Spidey and the Black Cat, Sandoz surrendered to the police.[28] Lincoln broke out of prison and returned to New York only to face the Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider. Ben followed a trail of bodies to find him and they battled atop a speeding car with an unconscious driver. Ben jumped in front of the truck and stopped it before hit a restaurant full of diners. Lincoln tried to attack Ben but was knocked out when using a street light.[29]

Daredevil Vol 2 91 Textless

Tombstone later became a bookie and got involved with a client named Conrad O'Shea, but over time he racked up a considerable gambling debt. Conrad hired the "Merc with the Mouth" Deadpool to kill Lincoln. But when Deadpool went to the given address and a bomb exploded. Surviving due to his healing factor, he discovered he had been framed using a doctored video by Lincoln as it was featured on the nightly news.[30] Many heroes went after Deadpool because of this including Punisher, Daredevil and Spider-Man.[31] Working with the Punisher they interrogated Lincoln goons, they find Lincoln's address but he was able to escape on a motorcycle. Spider-Man arrived returned to help and battled Lincoln under a bridge, with the Wrecking Crew, whom Lincoln had hired from The Hood.[32] They took down the Wrecking Crew with ease, Lincoln and Conrad escaped, but Conrad was thrown to Lincoln's hungry pigs. However, Deadpool saved him so he could learn the truth. Conrad had made a bet with Lincoln on the outcome of a basketball game. Shantee Williams the star player had an altercation with Deadpool and decided to pull a gun, sending him to the emergency room, and he needed surgery to reattach his fingers; this caused Conrad to lose the bet. Lincoln agreed to a double-or-nothing bet. He framed Deadpool for the bombing to see if he could survive the next 24 hours. Conrad had bet that Lincoln couldn't kill Deadpool. As Lincoln was about to leave in his helicopter, Deadpool confronted him. Deadpool gained the upper hand, threatening to stab Lincoln in the eye and impale his brain, Lincoln's one vulnerable spot. He confessed and was arrested.[33]

Tombstone was hired by Doctor Octopus to kidnap the unborn son of Harry Osborn and Lily Hollister. Doc Ock believed that the Goblin Formula in his DNA could cure him. Tombstone and Shocker chased the very pregnant Lily, resulting in her giving birth during the fight. Shortly after, Doc Ock arrived to steal the baby.[34] Spidey, however, escaped with the infant and Tombstone followed Carlie Cooper back to the apartment where Lily and Mary Jane Watson were hiding. Tombstone had overheard her mention that she knew Lily personally and reasoned that he could find the infant if Spidey brought it back to its mother. Carlie tried to shoot him but Lily used her remote controlled glider to smash into Tombstone, knocking him out.[35]

Mister Negative next targeted Tombstone's operations, tipping detective Teddy Rangel on the location of one of Tombstone's hideouts. The NYPD stormed the building and captured Tombstone with Spider-Man's help, but Rangel was hospitalized and Tombstone was set free by a judge who got drugs from him.[36]

Luke Cage and Iron Fist visited Tombstone on a mission to recover a necklace for Jennie Royce who had told them it was her grandmother's. He refused to say that he had won the necklace in a card game with The Hood, not from any debt collection. Feeling disrespected by the accusations of being a thief, as well as the very presence of Iron Fist, things rapidly took a turn for the worse, forcing Luke and Danny to fight their way past numerous gangsters as they took the necklace and flee. As the left, Tombstone tried to warn them that the necklace was magical. When he recovered he swore revenge, believing the Heroes for Hire were back together.[37]

Tombstone was one of the many crime bosses assembled by the Kingpin when he was Mayor of New York and put a bounty on the villain Boomerang, who was keeping pieces of the Lifeline Tablet from Fisk.[38] Once he learned Boomerang was roommates with Joe Robertson's son Randy, Tombstone intended to use him as a hostage to lure Boomerang and then kill him to spite Robbie. To his surprise, when he approached Randy's apartment, he saw him kissing his daughter Janice, who he had been dating in secret.[39] Robbie himself learned this separately but concurrently,[39] and each tried to persuade their child to drop the relationship to no avail.[40] Joe and Tombstone would put aside their differences after Randy and Janice were kidnapped by the crime bosses Madame Masque and Crime Master in a bid to take over Lincoln's territories.[41] Working together, Tombstone and Joe managed to save their kids with the help of Spider-Man and Beetle's team, the Syndicate.[42] Afterward, both Lonnie and Joe decided not to let their own grudge interfere in their children's future, and called a truce for anything pertaining to their children's relationship.[43]

After being shot,[44] Peter Parker under the influence of Green Goblin's sins,[45] unplugged the life support of the hospital bed where Tombstone was lying in an unconscious state.[46] The doctors were able to resuscitate Tombstone, and he survived the attempt on his life.[47]

Attributes

Power Grid[49]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Experienced Fighter:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/None:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Bulletproof:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Superhuman:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (800 lbs-25 ton):Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Slow or Impaired

Powers

  • Chemically Enhanced Physiology: Alonzo's body was exposed to the chemical Diox-3 which granted him all of his superhuman attributes.[17]
    • Superhuman Strength: Tombstone possesses sufficient strength enabling him to lift about 6 tons.[48]
    • Superhuman Reflexes Tombstone's reflexes are enhanced to superhuman levels.[48]
    • Superhuman Stamina: Tombstone's muscles produce less fatigue toxins than the musculature of an ordinary human. He can exert himself at peak capacity for several hours before fatigue begins to affect him.
    • Superhuman Durability: Tombstone's body is highly resistant to physical injury. He is capable of withstanding high caliber bullets, great impact force, and temperatures as hot as 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit and as low as -80 degrees Fahrenheit without sustaining injury. He is also somewhat insulated from electricity.[48] By his own account his skin is as hard as diamonds, although his eyes aren't as durable.

Abilities

Extremely skilled in the use of hand-to-hand combat and firearms.

Trivia

  • In addition to referencing his pallor, Lincoln's alias of Tombstone doubles as a pun on his middle name, Thompson.[6]

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. ā†‘ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 6) #3
  2. ā†‘ Miles Morales: Spider-Man #7
  3. ā†‘ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #28
  4. ā†‘ Daredevil #294
  5. ā†‘ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Spectacular Spider-Man #139
  6. ā†‘ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #7
  7. ā†‘ Superior Foes of Spider-Man #7
  8. ā†‘ Web of Spider-Man #36ā€“38
  9. ā†‘ 9.0 9.1 Spectacular Spider-Man #142
  10. ā†‘ Spectacular Spider-Man #141
  11. ā†‘ Spectacular Spider-Man #150
  12. ā†‘ Spectacular Spider-Man #153
  13. ā†‘ Spectacular Spider-Man #155
  14. ā†‘ Spectacular Spider-Man #156
  15. ā†‘ Spectacular Spider-Man #157
  16. ā†‘ Spectacular Spider-Man #161
  17. ā†‘ 17.0 17.1 Web of Spider-Man #66
  18. ā†‘ Web of Spider-Man #68
  19. ā†‘ 19.0 19.1 Daredevil #293
  20. ā†‘ Daredevil #292
  21. ā†‘ Nomad (Vol. 2) #4
  22. ā†‘ Daredevil #308ā€“309
  23. ā†‘ Punisher War Journal #47
  24. ā†‘ Marc Spector: Moon Knight #48ā€“49
  25. ā†‘ Marc Spector: Moon Knight #50
  26. ā†‘ Spectacular Spider-Man #204
  27. ā†‘ Spectacular Spider-Man #205
  28. ā†‘ Spectacular Spider-Man #206ā€“209
  29. ā†‘ Web of Spider-Man #120
  30. ā†‘ Deadpool: Suicide Kings #1
  31. ā†‘ Deadpool: Suicide Kings #2ā€“3
  32. ā†‘ Deadpool: Suicide Kings #4
  33. ā†‘ Deadpool: Suicide Kings #5
  34. ā†‘ Amazing Spider-Man #642ā€“643
  35. ā†‘ Amazing Spider-Man #644ā€“645
  36. ā†‘ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 3) #16.1 19.1
  37. ā†‘ Power Man and Iron Fist (Vol. 3) #1
  38. ā†‘ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #59
  39. ā†‘ 39.0 39.1 Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #62
  40. ā†‘ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #63
  41. ā†‘ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #64
  42. ā†‘ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #65
  43. ā†‘ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #66
  44. ā†‘ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 6) #31
  45. ā†‘ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 6) #32
  46. ā†‘ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 6) #34
  47. ā†‘ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 6) #38
  48. ā†‘ 48.0 48.1 48.2 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #12
  49. ā†‘ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 12
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