Marvel has a tradition. Ever since the vast success of Spider-Man, they’ve tried once a decade or so to recapture lightning in a bottle. In the 70’s they tried it with Nova, in the 80’s with today’s subject, they skipped it in the 90’s to make 765 Wolverine clones, but in the 00’s they did it twice with Gravity and Ultimate Spider-Man. Sometimes worked better than others, but today’s hero had a lot going for him. He had Spider-Man’s co-creator, Steve Ditko co-plotting and drawing his adventures. He also had Roger Stern along for a writing assist. So confident was Marvel that they started the character with his own #1 issue! Sadly, after 10 issues, that run ended. The character would go on to be a mainstay of the New Warriors, which would ultimately be his undoing. I’m getting ahead of myself though, let’s find out the Secret Origin of the Masked Marvel, Speedball!
Our tale opens by painting a picture of the Robbie Baldwin, and the predicament his life is currently in. His home life is pretty idyllic, what with two loving parents, and nary an Aunt or stack of wheatcakes in sight. Rob does have a problem though, his body contains incredible energies (which we’ll discover later), and he’s having issues keeping them in check. But first, let’s have a couple of crooks describe the town they’re in, why not?
Springdale, typical American town, what with their Supermax Prison and scenic castles!
Then Mr. Career Criminal ties our threads nicely together, when he swears vengeance against the D.A. who just happens to be Rob’s dad. The narrative gives us a quick peek into D.A. Justin Baldwin’s life, where he turns down a plea bargain because he doesn’t want to see a criminal go free. Ah Marvel, sometimes I forget how unrealistic you can be. As the plane continues its tour of Springdale, we fly over the Hammond Research Center where Rob’s mother, Madeline is giving an impassioned speech about the importance of art in our culture. I will say this, while these things aren’t super important to the story, it is a unique way of introducing our cast. Finally, the plane motors by the local High School where we finally meet Robbie himself. He’s mulling about the campus in classic Ditko-Spidey style, worrying that the slightest wrong move could unleash his dread power on an unsuspecting populous. Then, he’s angsting about his future in the world, and how he’s torn between what his father wants and what his mother wants for him.
Two seemingly opposite views in conflict? That’s not Ditko-ish at ALL.
As he’s lost in thought, Rob is almost pelted by a mis-thrown football, and he freaks out again, and walks off, wondering how he’s ever going to stay in control. Meanwhile, the plane has landed, and the crook and his pilot (also a crook, don’t get me wrong) meet with a third man, and their plan for revenge starts to get underway. Then, we jump back to Rob. Seriously, this story bounces around quite a bit, which I suppose makes sense, given out hero’s powers. Anyway, Rob is wondering if there is anyone he can confide in, who can possibly help him control his powers. Not being a mutant, I guess Charles Xavier is right out. A pack of winos see Rob moping away and decide to roll him because “kids these days always have money”. Now, I was a kid when this was published, and I didn’t even have an allowance, but Springdale does its own thing. The bums decide to give Rob the Bum’s Rush under a bridge, but as they throw him against the wall, they find out they’re getting more than they bargained for.
The next thing you know they’ll be seeing pink elephants on parade. Oh wait…
The winos are (rightly) scared off, and Rob is able to calm down and return to what passes for normal in the Marvel Universe. We then cut to the Baldwin residence where Thuggy McGee and company are stalking the place so they can get the drop on the D.A. Madeline is also there, and they discuss their son and argue about his future. Too bad they aren’t including their son in the conversation, but I digress. Johnny Roarke (I like calling him by my name better), pulls a gun on the bickering couple, and it looks bad for them, seeing as there aren’t likely to be witnesses, what with forest surrounding the Baldwin estate. As fate would have it, Robbie’s trek home from school gets him there in such a way that he sees what’s happening without being seen and decides to leap into action. Well, “leap” probably isn’t the best term…
Luckily, you don't have to be full of grace to be noble.
As Speedball accosts the villains, his parents are still debating, now over whether or not their son’s super-heroic alter ego is altruistic or not. Nevertheless, Speedball’s bombastic bouncing is keeping the criminals distracted enough to not want to shoot the incessantly bickering couple in the face, so good on him, I guess. Rob doesn’t really have control of his powers, so his victory and his downfall are how unpredictable he is. Eventually, he gets the hang of things and knocks the baddies out, and his antics have gathered a crowd. Incidentally, the fracas has given Robbie both of his monikers, Roarke calls him “a speedball” and one of the gathered onlookers refer to him as a “masked marvel”. The fervor dies down, the cops haul Roarke and his accomplices away, and Robbie returns to his old self and meets up with his parents, but all is not well in Springdale, as Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin aren’t done arguing.
For a super-cool D.A. Justin Baldwin doesn't have a very keen grasp of the law.
And so the day is saved for what it’s worth. I kid about Robbie’s folks, but to be honest, it’s refreshing to have a character who isn’t defined by tragedy (more on that later). In the aftermath, Robbie is still in full on mope mode. People know that Springdale has a super-powered citizen within their midst. Robbie just wants to be normal, but feels like he’ll be hounded more than Michael Jackson. I don’t think that’s possible, but hey, dare to dream Rob!
You may have noticed that we’ve gotten through the story without actually revealing the origin of Speedball. That’s true, but I felt it important to establish the character, plus the issue I am sourcing from lists this story first. Now, on to the actual origin antics!
In our next story, appropriately titled “Origin of a Masked Marvel”, we open with a quartet of criminals in very unique, yet incredibly Ditko-y masks. They are discussing an upcoming heist at a place that is getting a rare metals shipment. It is a scene that screams “THIS IS THE SETUP FOR SOMETHING COMING LATER!” Of course, that means we cut to young Rob at his weekend job as a gofer at the Hammond Research Lab. There’s no way these two plot threads will converge! Rob is doing a quick clean-up job so he can sneak into the lab and witness the day’s exciting experiment. So if you have ever read a Marvel comic, you probably know where this is going. Witness said experiment now…
"Ach, The dilithium crystals are shot, Captain!"
So yeah, in the space of two panels, things go incredibly wrong. While the big brain scientists are spouting technobabble explanations with they’re going out of style, the energy wave itself lashes out at Rob, who was peeking in on the situation, and he takes the brunt of… whatever this junk is…
Osh Kosh B-Gosh, indeed!
As the scientists curse the fact that they’ve lost months of work, Rob is still undergoing his metamorphosis. Before you know it, he’s in full Speedball regalia, complete with a weird, otherworldly change in his voice. Not wanting anyone to see him in this state, he flees to the roof, and futilely tries to peel his costume off. Before the narrative can hit a wall, the be-masked criminals arrive to steal their rare metals or whatever they were after. For plot’s sake, they decide to enter from the roof, so of course they run into Robbie who is still in mid-freak.
"One thing's for sure, you don't have enough expletives in your vocabulary to describe me!"
Dispensing with the pleasantries, Mr. Mask casually tosses Speedball off of the roof. Here, Rob gets a quick lesson in how his abilities work, as instead of dying or breaking a leg, he bounces back up. In fact, he bounds around so much that he can’t control himself. It seems that this is fast becoming his de facto method of crime fighting. One of the hoods finally gets a hold of the Masked Marvel, but his tactics aren’t the best way to go about things to be sure.
"The sillier he looks! We won't be able to contain our laughter if we keep this up!"
Eventually, the villains manage to dogpile Speedball and things are looking dire, until police sirens wail and the thugs decide to rabbit. While the baddies try to make their getaway, Rob gets all introspective and slumps on the roof trying to make sense of everything that’s happened to him in the last couple of minutes. As the police chase rages, the miscreant’s van take a turn badly and they all wind up dying in a fiery wreck. Regardless, the police decide to check the roof, because they need to make sure that the van wasn’t just a decoy. As they reach the roof, the police find Rob, back in his jumpsuit. Even after explaining himself, one of the officers isn’t completely satisfied.
Jeez, So much for A=A eh, Ditko?
And after this, Rob is still unbelieving about his situation, so he tries to replicate conditions by hitting the wall, and this does indeed cause him to bounce off the walls and become Speedball again. As the story ends, Speedball questions his place in life and what the heck he’s going to do with himself, which leads into our first story quite nicely. It’s not a perfect debut, but there is a lot of fun to be had.
Sure you can Rob, It's called being a complete slacker.
And there you have it. As mentioned before, after his short-lived solo series, Robbie Baldwin ended up being the heart of the New Warriors, and overcame his angst to be a fun and fun-loving character. That is until the Marvel Civil War, where he inexplicably takes responsibility for a villain blowing up a town and starts living in an Iron Maiden-style super suit and calling himself Penance. Fans of the ‘real’ Speedball were given a version closer to the Robbie of old recently, but he turned out to be a damn dirty (Marvel) ape. Time will tell if a future writer will restore Rob to his former glory, but until then, there are always back issues for those of us who aren’t fans of darkening comics for darkening’s sake.
These stories originally appeared in Speedball #1 October, 1988. It has been reprinted in various places in part over the years, and is also available on Marvel’s Digital Comics Unlimited.
