Born in Harlem, Lonnie Lincoln was bullied for his albinism, and in-turn bullied Joe "Robbie" Robertson into becoming his friend. After high school, Lonnie took to crime, becoming a thug called Tombstone. As Lonnie worked his way up the criminal underworld, Robbie took a job at the Daily Bugle. When Tombstone murdered a New York mob boss, Robbie was terrified at the idea of confronting him, but after twenty years found the courage to testify. When Robbie confronted him, Tombstone snapped Robbie's spine, an act that brought him into conflict with Spider-Man. Breaking out of jail and abducting Robbie, Tombstone acquired superhuman abilities after being exposed to an experimental chemical, Diox-3, at an Oscorp plant during a fight with Spider-Man. Tombstone has since worked for the Kingpin and Hammerhead, has been a member of the Norman Osborn's Sinister Twelve, and a powerful crime boss in his own right based in Brooklyn, where he's caused Spider-Man some grief.