Episode #36 - Tombstone
Original Airdate October 12, 1996

Robbie Robertson is losing his son, Randy, to a gang of thugs lead by Tombstone. When this harder-than-stone hit man tries to use his history with Robbie to kill a story about his new boss, Alicia Silvermane, he runs afoul of Spider-Man. Both discover Robbie's bond with his child and his ethical resolve is mightier.

Credits
Story By: John Semper
Written By: John Semper, Marti Isenberg, Larry Brody and Robert Skir
Music Composed By: Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi
Animation Services By: Toyko Movie Shinsha (TMS)
Guest Starring: Christopher Daniel Barnes as Spider-Man/Peter Parker, Alfonso Riberio as Randy Robertson/ Young Joseph "Robbie" Robertson, Iona Morris as Martha Robertson, Dorian Harewood as Tombstone/Lonnie Lincoln and Joan Lee as Madame Web

Review: The first thing that is noticeable is that this episode uses an extraordinary amount of repeated animation, most of which only serves to confuse the viewers. A good example would be when Spider-Man is scaling a wall, then is crawling along a pipe in the sewer, then is seen scaling the wall again. The odd scene of Spidey swinging is almost acceptable, but to the model and backkground are completly different from each! If you're going to animate on the cheap, at least have the decency to change backgrounds so you don't confuse the hell out of your viewers. Even the 60's show wasn't as bad as this!

The animation and music took a dip in quality from the previous episode. In actual fact, the animation in most episodes wasn’t too bad, but it was so awfully put together, it didn’t really make a difference. It’s incredibly distracting to see Spider-Man swing fast, using first season animation, then at a snail like pace with season two animation, and season three animation mixed somewhere in between. The constantly changing colours and light sources didn’t work in the shows favour either. The best thing to do? Find one damn model, keep the colour the same and use that! It's not rocket science!

The story of the episode is a very good, and spotlighted Robbie Robertson, who was always seen as the opposite of J. Jonah Jameson. It also told us of his connection with Tombstone, who was a hit man for Silvermaine in a previous episode, and was in need of some good developmen, as he was falling under the 'lowly thug' banner, which this show already had far too many off. I've always liked seeing the villains origins, and this was no exception. If they have no motivation to commit crimes I find them to a waste of time, most of the time. The Batman serves as a fine example.

Aside from how incredibly annoying Randy Robertson was, and how Madame Web had to save the day again, this episode served it’s purpose. Multi part stories are fun but it’s nice to just sit back for 20 minutes and enjoy a good old-fashioned superhero cartoon.