The Toy Box: Comics Corner: The Spectacular Spider-Man 139

Title: The Spectacular Spider-Man
Issue Number: 139
Release Date: July 1988

Highlights

First appearance of Isadore Kipper
Origin of Tombstone
A gunshot streaks past Spider-Man's head as he's racing to Robbie Robertson's office to meet him after a frantic phone call insisting he come

Spider-Man web's up the shooter, and finds that he was aiming for Robbie, but that the hero got in the way

The note points him to a cassette player where Robbie has left a recording for him stating he's an accessory tor murder, and articles with the note about Tombstone

Spider-Man is interrupted by J. Jonah Jameson, and Kate Cushing, who are looking for Robbie

Kate tells Jonah that Robbie has been acting different as of late, and may be in trouble

Tombstone and Arranger are having a conversation with Roland Rayburn, but he's not giving them the information they want to hear, resulting in Tombstone getting physical, dislocating his arm at the order of the Arranger
Kingpin knows about Rayburn's ability to manipulate minds, and how it's made him rich, and wants him to work for him

He tries to use this ability on the Arranger, but Tombstone knocks it out of him

Seeing he's not going to help willingly, the Arranger has Rayburn drugged by a needle

Tombstone receives a call from Robbie Robertson, asking him to meet him
As Spider-Man swings through the rainy night, he continues listening to the tape on the portable recorder, taking him back to Robbie's high school years, and the origin of Tombstone
Lonnie Lincolon, AKA Tombstone, hears that Robbie is writing a story on him for the school paper, specifically how he extorts money from other kids for "protection"
After giving him a thorough beating, Lonnie tells Robbie that he's not going to write that, and that the two should be "friends"

Robbie withdraws the story, but after seeing that things with him and Lonnie are just beginning, he vows to never do so again

Flash forward eight years, and Robbie is the night desk catcher for a paper in Philidelphia

He gets a call from a frantic man who tells him he has information on who killed Ozzy Montana, a local crime boss

Robbie races off to meet him, but instead finds the dead man in the hands of Tombstone

A month later, Robbie and his wife have moved to New York, and he's working for the Bugle, but he keeps following every story on Tombstone closely that others write - Specifically about him being arrested numerous times, but never tried
Reference is made to Web Of Spider-Man 36, and The Spectacular Spider-Man 137
At a bar, Robbie overhears Ben Urich talking about Tombstone, and the speculations of him being the number one hitman in Philadelphia

Robbie snaps, and yells at Ben in front of everyone at the bar, telling him that journalists deal in rumors, and that he should grow up

The tape finishes with Robbie telling Peter that all the deaths by Tombstone are on his hands for doing nothing, and he's going to meet Tombstone because tonight it ends
Spider-Man goes to the Arranger, and demands to know where Tombstone is, he's pointed to Battery Park
Tombstone meets Robbie at the park, and the editor pulls a gun on him saying he's going to arrest him

Tombstone lunges at him, and though Robbie fires repeatedly, he's informed the hitman is wearing a vest

Tombstone tells Robbie he's going to give him one more chance for old time's sake, then squeezes him, breaking his back

Spider-Man hears his howl of pain, but when he arrives, Tombstone is long gone, leaving Robbie lying on the ground

Low Points

Oddities

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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