Marvel has a parade of heroes that are hard to keep up with, but some of them should have likely been introduced by now or at least given cameos since there are plenty that link up with the heroes that have been around for a while. Speedball is one of those that have worked with a lot of different heroes such as Spider-Man, Daredevil, and even the Avengers despite the fact that he wasn’t made a member. Robbie Baldwin was, as you can imagine, someone that was in the wrong place at the wrong/right time and was infused with a great deal of energy from an extradimensional source by accident. What happened was that he was turned into a muscular, hard to damage individual that could harness kinetic energy and dish it back to those that had caused it with even greater force. As he continued onward through the Marvel universe his powers continued to grow and change, and his character continued to develop as well.
He’s the kind of hero that no one initially wants on a team since to start off, he never used to shut up, he was always the kind of guy that would continually have something to say, and his powers weren’t always perfect since despite his time with the New Warriors he was still pretty unrefined when it came to how he used them. But he was an asset to those around him when he focused, and as the Marvel universe continued to change, so did Robbie. He did use his powers for the best as far as he knew, but when ended up making a decision that killed over 600 people he turned that horror inward and became the character known as Penance. As Penance, he had the same powers, but they were directed in a very different way, and his outfit was a part of how the process worked.
Penance wore full body armor with spikes fashioned on the inside that caused Robbie unbearable pain at all times considering how he moved and how his power worked. But he learned how to use his pain to his best advantage. For quite some time Robbie walked a very dark path as Penance, but eventually he went back to being Speedball and has been in that mindset since. He’s still scarred, beaten, and depressed quite often over what happened, but with the Speedball persona back it’s at least something to be positive about. Adding him into the MCU for a movie or a series would be kind of fun since the character has developed quite a bit since being introduced.
A series would probably be best since it could possibly show Robbie’s evolution from being a young kid to becoming the hero that people didn’t respect that much to Penance, and then Speedball once again. It’s fair to say that not every superhero idea is going to be a winner, but taking into account all the different heroes and villains that Speedball has dealt with it’s easy to think that he might fit right in and could possibly be a breath of fresh air at the same time. Thinking about who would play him is kind of tough since it might need to be someone that can pass for a teenager but would be able to stick around for a while for the series. It might even be a way to introduce The New Warriors since he stayed with them for a pretty good while until he moved on.
The reason for wanting to bring Speedball into the mix is pretty simple: he’s a fun character. He’s also a very controversial character that has made several bad decisions in the past and is someone that people can’t stand and needs better PR. But bringing in the New Warriors and other heroes would be easier with him or one of the other Warriors, and it would be great to see if he could be used to interact with other heroes just to cement his place in the MCU. If nothing else, Speedball is easy to imagine as a great support character, someone that could be there when needed but not so prevalent that we’re going to see him all the time. It does feel that he’s needed in the MCU since at one point he was a pretty amazing character and while he was a little annoying he was also the life of the New Warriors since the rest of them were rather adept at brooding and looking their leader, Night Thrasher, for what to do. Of course, even that was rare at times since a lot of the Warriors kind of went their own way. But bringing him into the MCU does sound like it would be a good idea because it would be something different, and that’s usually a pretty good idea.
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