Robbie Robertson (comics)

Joseph "Robbie" Robertson
Robbie Robertson from Daredevil (vol.2) #92. Art by Michael Lark.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Amazing Spider-Man #51 (August 1967)
Created by	Stan Lee John Romita Sr.
In-story information
Full name	Joseph "Robbie" Robertson
Team affiliations	Daily Bugle Front Line
Supporting character of	Spider-Man Daredevil

Joseph "Robbie" Robertson is a supporting character in Marvel Comics's Spider-Man series. Created by Stan Lee and John Romita Sr., he first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #51 (August 1967).

Robertson was one of the first African-American characters in comics to play a serious supporting role, rather than act as comic relief. He has usually been a high-ranking editor at the New York newspaper The Daily Bugle and a close friend and confidant of publisher J. Jonah Jameson, acting as a voice of reason in Jameson's campaign to discredit Spider-Man. He is more friendly and supportive of Peter Parker and his alter ego Spider-Man as well as the other Bugle staffers than the brash Jameson. In the 1980s his backstory was explored with the revelation of conflict with a superhuman hit man Tombstone, with whom he attended high school. The Tombstone stories were well received by readers and contributed to greater interest in Robertson.

Gerry Conway's run on The Spectacular Spider-Man and Web of Spider-Man expanded Robertson's back story with a dark history involving the hit man Tombstone which continues to haunt Robertson in the present. The stories drew an exceptionally intense level of reader interest. Editor Jim Salicrup recalled that "some of the most jaded, seen-it-all before guys - namely the guys in Marvel's production department - got hooked on the Tombstone/Joe Robertson soap opera. They'd actually come into my office concerned about what was going to happen to Robbie next. 'He's not going to jail, is he?' they'd ask."