The 20 greatest (and 10 worst) Spider-Man villains of all time
By Mike McNulty
20th Best Villain: Tombstone
Considering Spider-Man fights crime, it’s only natural he’ll run into lots of mobsters. Some of his most memorable tales involve him getting caught in the middle of a gang war between two rival factions for control of New York’s underworld. One of the most compelling of these underworld figures was the albino Lonnie Lincoln, who earned the nickname Tombstone for obvious reasons.
See, Lonnie was the childhood best friend of Daily Bugle editor, Joe “Robbie” Robertson. And by “friend,” it meant he didn’t beat Robbie up when shaking him down for money, unlike the other kids. Even when Robbie ratted him out in the school paper, Lonnie didn’t bear him any grudges…much. Hence why, years later, he only broke Robbie’s back to force him off doing an a news story. Nor was he above threatening Peter’s then wife, Mary Jane Watson when looking for incriminating evidence against him.
Yeah, if you couldn’t tell, Tombstone isn’t a very nice guy. Nor does he have a tragic backstory which drove him into a life of crime, either. Even before falling into a vat of chemicals that made him super strong and bulletproof, he filed his teeth into fangs just to build up his street cred. He also never speaks above a whisper, which, of course, makes him even more intimidating.
He does have a genuine soft spot for his daughter, Janice, though. Though he wasn’t too happy about her quitting her cushy job as a mob lawyer and going into the super villain racket as the new Beetle. At least he came around to the idea…eventually.