Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Thirty-Six: The Sins of the Fathers, Chapter 9 - Tombstone

Tombstone

First Aired: October 12th, 1996

Synopsis: Tombstone is hired by Alisa Silvermane to make sure a Daily Bugle expose on her never makes it to print. Tombstone starts off by breaking into Peter Parker's house to get his negatives for the story, and while Peter goes after him as Spider-Man, he's unable to stop him. Robbie Robertson, the other person working on the story, is blackmailed by Tombstone into a meeting, right when Robbie is confronting his son Randy about the fact that he's joined a gang and was trying to steal Robbie's gun for them. When Robbie meets with Tombstone in a crypt, Robbie refuses to squash the story, and Tombstone gets into a fight with him. Spider-Man's followed Robbie since he anticipated Tombstone going after him, though, and he's able to save him. Afterwards, Robbie explains to Spider-Man that he was friends with Tombstone - Lonnie - when they were children, but when Lonnie pressured him into robbing a convenience store, only Lonnie was caught and sent to juvenile prison. Years later, Lonnie tried framing Robbie for breaking into a chemical factory, but he ended up falling into a vat of chemicals, which is how he got how he is now.

 

Meanwhile, Randy Robertson meets with the gang he's part of, and discovers that Tombstone is their boss. Spider-Man takes Robbie home, but Robbie gets a call from Tombstone, who wants Robbie to meet him at the chemical factory. Robbie agrees to do so since he realises that Tombstone has Randy with him. While Robbie heads to the factory, Spider-Man does so too, and is contacted by Madam Web who tells him that his brains will be more important than his strength in fighting Tombstone. Once Robbie's at the factory, Tombstone again tries to get him to kill the Alisa story, saying that otherwise Randy will be framed for robbing the factory. Robbie still refuses to kill the story, and calls the police. Spider-Man shows Randy how his father's standing up for him while the gang runs off, and Randy realises that his family cares about him more than the gang. Spider-Man then fights Tombstone, and ends up using his webs to stop Tombstone. Randy wants to run away before the police arrive, but Robbie says that they've got to do the right thing, and they diligently wait for the police, and everything ends well for them.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• The history between Robbie and Tombstone is original to this series, but it appears to be vaguely based on stuff revealed in Spectacular Spider-Man #139 - 142.
  
• Robbie mentions that the gun in his drawer which Randy tries to steal is his old service revolver. So, he was a police officer at some point, I guess?
• It's no, "No! Robbie! My best friend!", but Peter does think to himself that "Robbie's more than just a friend to me - he's the only one who likes me as Peter Parker and as Spider-Man." It's progress, I guess.
  
• Robbie reveals when confronting Tombstone that he's so adamant about getting the Alisa story printed that the story's been rushed to be printed. He holds up an advanced copy of the paper and we see that the story has apparently been written by Ned...Needs? (Wait, is Ned a pseudonym of Robbie's in this series?)
• When Robbie goes for his initial meeting with Tombstone at the crypt, he does so by lighting two candles, which opens up a secret door down to the basement. What is this, Broken Sword?

Review: I wasn't really expecting much of this episode - Tombstone's often just extra muscle, and it's a role that he works well in - but it exceed my expectations greatly. Robbie and Tombstone's backstory is a little dramatic (SENT TO JUVENILE PRISON FOR STEALING ICE CREAM) but Robbie's guilt over it and whether he should have turned himself in makes a lot of sense, and it's executed well. The antagonism between Robbie and Tombstone is also brilliant - Tombstone's just a big bully, and you can see why Robbie couldn't stand up to him in the past.

So yeah, the real star of the show here is definitely Robbie, and the conflict with Tombstone is done really well. If it weren't for the fact that Robbie wouldn't stand a chance in a fight with Tombstone, you could easily take Spider-Man out of the episode (and in fact, he really feels like he's here to bail out Robbie when needed) and it'd work just as well. Even so, the fights feel fairly brutal between the two characters, and satisfying in a way that fights in the show don't always manage.

The weakest link by far is Madam Web, who shows up for very little reason, gives Spider-Man some obvious advice which doesn't really feel like it pays off, and then disappears. (For that matter, why is she even a thing in this season? Were there some Madam Web action figures that had just come out?) Other than her, though, this is a very solid and standalone episode, easily worth watching.