Robbie Robertson (comics) - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

Joseph Robertson was born in Harlem, New York. He is married to Martha and they have had two sons. Their first son, Patrick Henry Robertson, died when he was only six months old. Their second son, Randy, is currently divorced. Growing up in a working-class family and being a member of an ethnic minority, Robertson seemed to sympathize with the downtrodden, including Marvel Comics' mutants, and he preached tolerance. He was forced to practice what he preached when his son came home from college with his white Jewish wife, Amanda.

Robertson is the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Bugle, the newspaper at which Peter Parker works and sells his photographs of Spider-Man. Unlike the Bugle's volatile Publisher, J. Jonah Jameson, Robbie tries his best to remain objective towards Spider-Man instead of automatically assuming he is a criminal. Robbie is also the only Bugle employee who does not fear the wrath of his boss and is ready to stand up to him on editorial matters. Robbie has served as Publisher when Jameson temporarily stepped down. Robbie was a close personal friend of Captain George Stacy, and it has been implied, although not outright stated, that Robbie has deduced Spider-Man's secret identity, as Stacy did. Robbie's son Randy is also a close friend of Peter Parker, and the two briefly shared an apartment when Mary Jane was presumed dead and Peter had been evicted.

Robbie grew up in Harlem, and as a teenager was a classmate of Lonnie Thompson Lincoln, later infamous as the brutal hit man Tombstone. Writing an article for the high school newspaper about Lincoln's bullying and extortion, Robbie retracted it after being threatened by Lincoln. Years later, while working as a reporter in Philadelphia, Robbie encountered Lincoln again, who this time had just murdered one of Robbie's contacts. Once again, Lincoln threatened Robertson, and the journalist fled to New York and began working for the Bugle. He told no one of the murder he witnessed.

Twenty years later, when Tombstone began his career doing jobs for the Kingpin, Robbie, determined not to be intimidated again, began collecting evidence of past crimes that would have Tombstone incarcerated for life. Furious at his former acquaintance's betrayal, Tombstone hunted Robbie down and supposedly broke the journalist's spine with his bare hands. Robbie was laid up for months as a result of this, but later made a full recovery, as his spine was not broken after all.

Sometime later, Tombstone was arrested and tried, thanks in part to Spider-Man. Breaking 20 years of silence, Robbie testified against his old schoolmate in court. The judge, however, was on the Kingpin's payroll and circumstances led to Robertson having to agree to serve 3 years himself for withholding evidence of the Philadelphia murder. Robbie and Tombstone ended up in the same cell block, where the hit man made the former journalist's life miserable. So broken was Robbie's spirit that he half-heartedly went along with a jailbreak. However, when Tombstone attacked an interfering Spider-Man, Robbie regained his nerve and attacked. The two men fell out of the escape helicopter and landed in a river near an Amish farm.

Things came to a head when Robbie moved to defend the farmer's family from Tombstone, stabbing him with a pitchfork and not caring about preserving his own life. Seemingly stunned by this, Tombstone backed off. While Tombstone has not abandoned his murderous ways, he has officially called off his vendetta on Robbie. Robbie received a pardon for his efforts to protect the Amish family, and resumed work at the Daily Bugle.

Recently after Peter's "coming out", Robbie revealed he knew Peter was Spider-Man at some point and stood up to J. Jonah Jameson after all these years about his treatment to Peter/Spider-Man. Unable or rather unwilling to admit that he had gone too far in his hatred of Spider-Man, Jameson fires Robertson. Later, Spider-Man learns of this from Betty Brant and decides that he and Jameson should have a long overdue 'chat.' Sometime later, Jameson shows up at the Robertson house, with a bottle of wine, two black eyes and a broken hand. Robbie lets him in, and is relayed the story of what happened; Jameson discovered his office at the Bugle covered with webbing, with a note attached telling him to meet Spider-Man at an old gangster lair. Spider-Man tried to persuade Jameson to rehire Robbie, and Jameson gave him a choice, to have the lawsuit against him dropped, or for Robbie to be rehired. Spider-Man chose the former, revealing that he did so because he believes Jameson only fired Robbie to get a rise out of him. Spider-Man then told Jameson to hit him, as many times as he'd like, to finally work out his frustrations for him. Jameson was initially reluctant, until Spider-Man started goading him, threatening to inform his wife and son of his "cowardice". Jameson snapped, and started hitting Spider-Man again and again and again, resulting in his broken hand. When it was over, Spider-Man went into the rafters and gave Jameson a roll of film, containing pictures of their "fight", telling him the photographs depicting him standing back and letting Jameson beat him up would sell "a gazillion copies", and leaves. Later, at the Bugle, Jameson crushed the film with his foot, not knowing quite why he was doing it. As he turned to leave, Betty Brant accidentally hit him in the face with a door, resulting in his two black eyes. Back in the present, Jameson tells Robbie that he is rehired. Robbie asks why he should come back and Jonah tells him that he looks up to him as the person he still aspires to be.