Speedball - Marvel Comics' Most Tragic Hero
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- čas přidán 13. 01. 2022
- In this video I talk about Robbie Baldwin, also known as Speedball/Penance. Ultimate Spider-Man video is in the works.
Issues covered:
Amazing Spider-Man Annual 1988
Civil War issue 1
Civil War: Front Line 1-10
Penance: Relentless 1-5
Avengers Academy 1-12
twitter: / lexanderlennen - Zábava
Kind of crazy that a borderline joke character would be the catalyst for one of the biggest events in modern marvel history it's kind of like jar jar being responsible for Palpatine's rise to power
never heard that before but it's literally the perfect comparison
@@alexlennen thanks
But jar jar was, jar jar is literally a sith Lord 😂
@@primal1723 ah a fellow man of culture I see
@@themangoman9315 of course of course I sat through a whole documentary about it.
He remembered every single child... Damn. Also, he definitely had to train to be able to swiftly deal with the enemies in the end. This is truly a great character it seems
I don't think he trained.
It's been a while but I think I remember there was some other plot stuff that said nitro never blew up like that before and there was some sort of power enhancing drug he was on?
Plus nitro only had one hand for the rematch.
And confusingly, penance literally let him take a free explosion shot at him to start the fight, and got blown up again later, and it just...didn't really do that much.
@@FFKonoko in Wolverine's story arc following Civil War, he found out about a drug that supes up a mutant's power by like ten or hundred-fold (I forget the exact number); it's essentially steroids for mutants
Wolverine kills the guy manufacturing it and considers the civilians avenged. I wish he knew Iron Man was secretly behind Civil War because THAT would've been a great story to see
I remember reading the reveal of the suit the week the issue came out and we all at the comic shop were laughing at how stupid it was. It was so over the top and asinine.
@@jjgarcia156 What did Ironman do?
@@DaDualityofMan I would also like to know
This character means a lot to me. I’ve got three types of arthritis and a super rare pain disorder called RSD/CRPS. As a kid I was in debilitating, literally crippling pain 24/7, so reading about a character who derived power from pain was really special for me. It allowed me to look at my situation an imagine it in a more optimistic light. I didn’t know anyone else with RSD, and because of that it was really hard for me to relate to other kids. But I felt like I could relate to penance when he had his suit on. It made me feel cool as a little boy imagining how strong I’d be with his powers.
Shit. You deserve at least a few more likes. Imho.
Everyone has a superhero they can look up to on a personal level, & it's always always empowering to find that hero you can look at, see them be freaking awesome, & think "That's me." Thanks for sharing who & why that hero was for you.
That's really cool that you were able to derive some strength from your pain through penance. Are you still going through that amount of pain these days?
As a kid I too had great pain, luckily only on occasions, I had strong phases of growth and as my doctors explained it "my body can't quite keep up" so I used to have like a week in a Month where my own body was litterly ripping itself apart. I had periods of crying, laying in bed and honestly just wishing to be put down from exhausting into sleep from the pain.
I imagine your pain was at least similar and I congratulate you for staying strong. I can't imagine that pain but all the time.
Ive told people for years this is why speedball is the best superhero. I feel the same way man. I think for all of us who suffered trauma or pain Robbie is a way for us to see that as strength.
Gotta love how with way lesser known superheroes, writers can get away with much more when writing stories
Also, with such characters, their history is less extensive & therefore easier to track.
God if only other franchises would do stuff like this (not the making edgy crap part, but rather making a minor character more interesting)
That's why the MCU started with Iron Man. In 2008, no one cared about Tony Stark, so if they bombed, oh well. No big loss
SNOWFLAME
Reminds me of going to see James Gunn’s Suicide Squad and almost crying because he told a good and brutal story with polka-dot-man of all people
I'm not the only one!?!?
Polka-dot man
And he even had Calendar Man bully tf outta Polka-Dot Man 😂
It was great!
Bro, that movie was honestly super good, a lot better than I expected it to be
Ikr
In a way, Speedball is what would happen if a superhero from the Boys actually owned up to their wreckless behavior. It’s eerily similar how the lead up to Nitro detonating plays out like a low tier reality television show. The heroes are more concerned about their acne and one liners than the fact children can be blown up.
I can't believe Marvel unintentionally did The Boys better than Garth Ennis' The Boys without even trying.
The use of Penance's suit and how it helps with his powers is basically like Darth Vader's suit and how it strengthens his Dark Side connection.
But unlike Vader, he got a much more substantive redemption.
The vader suit is meant to hinder vader not help him.
@@eyjay1508They're talking about how his hindrance and thus even further suffering than he already feels increases his connection to the dark side.
I actually learned about Penance through Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and it was pretty disturbing and sad hearing about his origin honestly.
Same for me. I legit walked into his fight and was like who the hell is this guy later being baffled at A. How much of a punch he had and B. How readily he chose to help us.
Later got to the audio recording collectible where it's clarified he was Speedball(first heard of that moniker from Ultimate Spider-Man racing Human Torch), and was having a new costume commissioned to reflect his guilt and details how the larger spikes represented the 60 children. Just trying to picture Robbie having 612 spikes jammed into his entire body 60 of those being big enough to seriously lacerate organs, kinda made me stop playing the game for a while so I could process it.
They took a joke and made it grounded and serious. I have to hand it to games as a good story telling media for adapting Penance in like they did.
@@newfoundwisdom8532 Yeah that sounds pretty damn impactful.As a kid I didnt really care much for aspects like that,but now that I'm older and able to understand these things,it's just pretty messed up to hear.
i main him in that game even tho i didnt know his lore lmao maybe its bc of his sick design and name
I first learned about his existence in the game too, and then I read some New Warriors comics I had at home.
Also, dope game.
dang you just made me wanna get out the playstation 2 from storage
Its always funny that in this story everyone just ignores Nitro's part in the tragedy.
You know, the blowing himself up and actually killing everybody part.
I dont know why in a universe where there are unambiguously evil villains the public seems to think they're not responsible for their crimes. Its kind of why Civil War doesn't really work in the Marvel universe, especially in a universe thats had superheroes in it for decades.
Ikr.
Like, would you blame a cop for fighting a bunch of street assholes and one just so happens to go boom?
Like
Dude he would have went boom one way or the other
@@toolatetothestory Vigilantes are a whole different can of worms than a cop.
The people needed someone to blame. Incarcerating Speedball was obviously a political decision, but it makes sense that the public would still react with outcry. If speedball had never fought them in the first place, six hundred wouldn't have died. (of course, this isn't acknowledging the fact that if literally anyone else took on Nitro, the same exact incident would happen, but that falls deaf on the ears of the public).
Don't forget, this is the US government, they are willing to violate someones rights to appease the masses (or companies).
nah, it's actually kinda realistic how they put more blame on Speedball than Nitro. Somewhat of a parallel is Waco, most of the reaction I heard growing up was more "remember when the government screwed up and killed those kids?" rather than "remember when david koresh killed all those people?".
Well, we see it IRL. Some nutter shoots up someplace, and people rush to blame white supremacy, or a lack of gun control, or Pewdiepie, or literally anything but the choices of the actual person responsible. They often turn out to be wrong, but never admit it.
As a man that lost my dog in a house fire speedballs story really hits when your a child and only have your dog as a loved one
Its wild! I remember reading original Speedball back in the day.... Kinda liked the goofy vibe but didn't follow up. To see where it all went and ended up was pretty emotional, I gotta admit... Like hearing an old friend you hadn't seen in years had passed away!
Good work, thank you!
The only thing I think you missed was that, over the course of Civil War, we didn't know who Penance was. It was a very well played mystery and the reveal was solid.
Pls elaborate
@@zachariahsawian335 it wasn't revealed that speedball was penance at the time
Actually I only found it out because of this video, and I read both civil war and thunderbolts when they came out
@@zachariahsawian335 how do you need elaboration for that dude
It was in civil war frontlines
I've always really liked this story. But I do feel they were too harsh on Robbie. Like literally everyone. Especially since Nitro was still alive and was far more guilty.
Speedball has like 5% of the blame for urging them to catch the villains. Its like blaming a cop for suggesting they should arrest people making homemade bombs and blaming the cops if one of those bombs go off. You can argue that the way it was handled was incompetent but its not like he himself set the bomb off
@@lazerfruit2121 I feel like its because the main narrative the media in this story pushed (in this case probably CNN) is that it was Speedball that "triggered" Nitro's explosion, because for all we know Nitro and his gang were not planning to attack the school, but because Speedball and the New Warriors pushed for the attack, they preassured Nitro to go completely bonker and explode.
TOO HARSH ON A GUY WHO CAUSED 600 PEOPLE TO DIE. HITLER WOULD LOVE YOU.
@@lazerfruit2121 DOOFUS, NO IT'S LIKE AGGRAVATING A GUY WITH POWERS TO KILL MILLIONS BECAUSE YOU WANTED RATINGS.
copy an paste from my comment:
a lot of people complain about how nobody blames nitro but to me they miss the point.
A) while nitro was the one who caused the explosion, if speedball and his crew hadn't tried to arrest them on their own instead of calling the pros in the first place that wouldn't have happened, think of it this way, if you discover the mob hideout and decide to attack them head on instead of calling the cops, if something bad happens it's your fault.
B) nitro was dead (or given by) as well as the rest of the speedball team, people couldn't blame it on a dead body, so they went to the closest thing they had. when you are suffering a loss all you want is someone to take it out on, a target to release all your anger on, and if you can't find it, create it. god, fate, yourself, whoever it is, as long as you can blame them for what happened they will be valid targets, because being mad is easier than being sad.
I think it really is a good way to show how survivor's guilt can shred someone. I'm lucky to not have it and hope I never do, but I've read some harrowing stories. it's nice that they show someone feeling the consequences to their actions, and trying to adapt to it
9:03
This line was killing me for hours.
A whole new meaning to "busting a fat one."
Personally, I like to believe that Robbie uses his old suit after becoming a teacher because although it symbolizes the pain and guilt he feels due to being the one that forced everyone to go fight Nitro, it also symbolizes his past and more innocent side. Something to show how he finally accepts how it’s his fault but he’s ready to change rather than dwell in his past mistakes and bring faith back to the name of “Speedball”
also I think he didnt want to teach students while bleeding out on the floor
@@stressedinmotion even if he wasnt using his old costume, Nitro was currently occupying the masochism suit. So, dunno, maybe he'd just dress in normal teacher clothes.
to me it seemed more like it was him saying "no, I did it, I'm not going to change who I am to hide from it". I mean lets be honest, no-one would look at Penance and recognize him as the same person, but EVERYONE would recognize Speedball, it'd be him putting a banner on himself admitting what he did. To everyone else it might look like a campy way to get out of it, or moving on like nothing happened, making them all the angrier at him.
And maybe to keep from being made fun of by the students for his edgy OC? :P
@@robonator2945 there’s an actual writer statement which states the new speedball suit, while being spiked is much less than penance suit, basically having the new pain powered energy attacks while doing the same message of speedball being redeemed
I loved the Great Lakes Avengers story where Squirrel Girl went to visit Penance and found that he was so dark and edgy that his cat was also locked in an Iron Maiden ad was now called something like "Suffering the Petulant Puss." and Squirrel Girl was so depressed that she went back in time to talk to Speedball before Civil War and just hang out with him.
Came here after watching specifically to reference this Squirrel Girl instance; was hoping Alex might mention it, but it was such a niche issue/appearance.
It took me a couple reads of this comment before I realised it wasn't Petulant Piss
Man I just looked at a picture and poor cat he looks so sad!
Seems like standard squirrel girl honestly.
Theres 2 kinds of joke characters. Dark and broody, or upbeat and chipper. Also deadpool, who’s a mix of the 2
GLA 4 Lyfe!!!!!
I remember the first reveal of Robbie being Penance was when Richard Rider, Nova, returned to Earth following the Annihilation War in space, but after all the events of Civil War.
Really great, and touching moment, where these two heroes who used to be New Warriors together, talk about all that's changed
Do u know the comic
Yeah Nova was in space during this event, probably banging Gamora who I think was his gf back then
I loved it when Speedball said, "it's ballin time," and then he balled everywhere
Underrated comment
I loved it when Speeball said "It's ballin time" and then he indirectly killed 612 people, 60 of which were children.
@@aaronking2020 I mean technically they had to have come back one of the 70 times the timelines and universes were revived and reset.
You're stupid ...i like ya
@@aaronking2020 i cant believe he put the new forgis on jeep, how could he?
I wouldn't even call his character arc edgy. He feels remorse for thinking of his own gains before helping others, and causing the deaths of many people. It's really well done.
redemption
To be honest I'd consider it Edgy Well Done
@@emackenzie fr fr tbh tbh ngl ngl
being well done doesn't stop It from being edgy
@@Gabe600 it's edgy of course, but in a good way
Had no idea that a character called Speedball has this much depth. Great song at the end too. Artful vid
Is the beat from Nujabes' Feather or i'm just imagining things?
@@KaantheKaan u may be onto something
I've always thought it odd that marvel has a character named after shooting up heroin and cocain
@@alexlennen +q+qq+
Qq!qa
This would make an excellent an miniseries for Marvel. There are so many great Marvel stories that deserve a live action treatment.
I like to imagine that the actual reason that Speedball didn’t want to continue as Penance is because he wants the costume to remain on Nitro for as long as possible.
and it was way less expensive to commission a normal, speedball costume, than to commission another penance suit
Robbie as a teacher was a good choice. He has perspective on things that no other support can have.
copy and paste from my comment:
being a teacher seems perfect to me, being a hero is much more difficult than being a super, and due to his experience he seems to be the right guy.
Sad that what wasn't covered was the whole conspiracy of WHY Nitro was able to vaporize that city section. Wolverine goes on this whole quest to find out why Nitro, who could never do something like that before was able to release such a catastrophic explosion. I think part of it is definitely the New Warriors fault, but I don't honestly remember if Robbie ever knew it was do to super drugs.
The Civil War cannon goes really deep into alot of different groups and people in the marvel universe
Wow the plot keeps getting better.
Wolverine ends up finding the person who makes this steroids for mutants and kills him and considers his job done: he killed the guy responsible for Civil War.
What he doesn't realize is that Iron Man was the person he actually should've killed since he set it all into motion and even helped into creating the drug (implied anyways)
@@jjgarcia156 iron Man causes almost 90% of the Marvel plot. XD
@@Manganization on the MCU sure
Anyone who has played Ultimate Alliance 2 knows who Penance is, and I also gotta wonder if it's actually just coincidence that during the beginning of the opiate epidemic a character named SPEEDBALL is indirectly responsible for so many innocent deaths
I remember learning about Penance from Ultimate Alliance back in the day. Penance needs more recognition.
Once X-Men are introduced proper, seeing Speedball in the MCU will send warning flares across the fandom.
Speedball was meant to be introduced into the MCU ages ago but his show got cancelled :(
@@alexlennen As does all the good Marvel shows :(
@@funnyfunnyvalentine7991 at least Agents of Shield ended on its own terms, love that show so much
Yeah warning flares that he’ll start a real civil divide between the MCU
@@alexlennen RIP Daredevil
AND THE WALL VIDEO WAS TEASED HERE OMG THIS IS REALLY A SAGA WITH BUILDUPS AND PAYOFFS
When is it teased?
@@marmato9332 right here 11:25
@@jonatasgrolli Huh
So it’s foreshadowing a feet video too?
In the ultimate spider-man villains video in the end musical bit there's feet, just saying
so what you're telling me is since his powers now activate whenever he gets some form of stimuli if he finds a joke really funny he violently combusts
This was a genuinely *great* video.
Robbie even started self injuring again, I think, as Speedball.
I remember seeing a panel somewhere where, although he'd moved on from his "Penance" days and went back to Speedy, he still harboured guilt and shame for his part in the disaster and started cutting.
Whoa….that bit with the kids being incinerated is….something else. It’s sad, but I love that the writers did that. Really gives a new meaning to ‘with great power, comes great responsibility’.
I love high stakes like that.
A++ for the song at the end.
That's why most comics and stories based on them are for little kids. You expect me to believe that when super villains attack an entire city, explosions galore, no one suffers horribly? Everyone that is important always has a swift and meaningful death while all the background characters have off-screen deaths.
The proper way of saying it is "with great power must also come great responsibility". If you watch the new Spiderman movie they said it right.
@@booklover311 both phrases are correct because they're both officially used by marvel. Just because it's the original doesn't mean the others aren't also correct.
@@randomvideoboy1 This is a comic though?
Comics are for kids because they don't show the thing this story literally shows?
I'm both a Speedball fan and a Penance fan, so I guess I'm a fan of...
*PEN BALL*
Ballpeen
Bal-ance
ballpoint pen
Ball pen
Speedance
One of the first games I played consistently on the ps3 were games like infamous, WWE 2010 and Ultimate Alliance 2. There was something extremely maturing about watching that cutscene in the game and later finding all of Robbie's interview tapes about how his powers broke but still worked. Dude has remained in my mind for years despite rarely ever looking into him
These small stories is what I like about marvel comics.
Back in the 80's, I was in a group regularly playing the Marvel Superheroes RPG. I created a goofy hero for the game named Pinball who basically had speedball's exact power set and even a similar suit, but I did so about 2 months BEFORE Speedball's first appearance. When the comic hit the stands and a buddy showed it to me, I was a little freaked out at the coincidence. :D
love it when things like that happen
They ripped you off bro
You should sue marvel.
A yes American love sueing.
@@starwolfcyberlight4546 I do indeed love sueing.
Maybe it's just because I love colorful fun characters, but I love the idea of Speedball picking up his old costume and persona. It's like he's moved on from hurting himself and wants to go back to a better life, with the knowledge and maturity he's earned combined with the brightness of before
copy and paste from my comment:
I see that you don't like the change back to speedball as a mutant teacher and I understand you, but I differ with that opinion, the story of speedball is a story of arrogance, where a young man thirsty for fame and attention makes an egregious mistake that hurts others and himself (basically, any teenager with tik tok who does stupid challenges for likes), the guilt is so great that he decides to punish himself, eventually, he realizes that it's no use, punishing himself won't bring back those who are already gone, it won't ease the pain of broken families and it won't change anything. the fact that he has returned to his identity as a speedball and put aside his perpetual punishment is the final stage of his growth, demonstrating how he has now left his meaningless suffering to try to make a real change in the world by striving for redemption, even if he does not deserve it, even if doing so is impossible.
being a teacher seems perfect to me, being a hero is much more difficult than being a super, and due to his experience he seems to be the right guy.
Yeah, even though it was a short time between "speedball is dead" and "call me speed ball". People forget that time can change someone's opinion. It's just the writers didn't do good enough to emphasize on why he decided to resurrect the persona speedball.
But yeah, that part shows he knew being speedball and holding onto his mistakes wouldn't make anything better. And him picking up being speedball was really inspiring as a true hero to keep being a hero, even if he's not perfect. He'll take his mistakes to make him stronger
And penance had a good underlying idea, but in the end it was a very edgelord tryhard execution.
People grow over that just as much as depression. And likewise, it is experience that can be used to help others.
a part of me wants him to make a third and final identity. I don't know, maybe a bit too cheesy.
@@afasdfasafd314 he never said that
Very well done mate. I remember reading his main story arch through the Civil War series and I loved the transformation, albeit sad as hell, that he had after the reality tv disaster. I recall thinking most people who read comics will miss this one story because of the massive all encompassing story arc of the Civil War series. It stuck with me and I have always loved telling this story to fellow comic readers that just missed it because it was one of so many stories. Cheers, and thanks for that video.
Really liked this video. Bringing the art, scenes and story summary together from a number of books is really cool. I would have never bothered with this character before but sounds like they made his arc interesting.
Speedball's costume was a transformed version of the lab gear he wore during the lab accident that gave Robbie and his cat Niels their powers and was basically instantly created from this same extradimensional energy.
Therefore Speedball wearing different versions of his costume over the years and eventually taking off his costume and even burning it was a mistake by the writers, because it was never a fabric costume.
It's like Eddie Brock taking off the Venom symbiote like a sweater and then burning it.
69 likes
Its like when flash takes his costume off despite the fact that it is made from speed force
@@valletas Exactly!
@@valletas What?
Interesting
Fun fact: penance (speedball) is a playable character in marvel ultimate alliance 2, he even has his own boss fight.
Fucking loved that game. It was a great fight. I remembered the character during it, but I hadn't known the backstory until now
That game came out while I was going through my edgy phase, so penance was my favorite character without a doubt.
Honestly, the fact that he made his new costume basically an iron maiden is quite heart wrenching, but it’s honestly the most interesting way I’ve heard a hero trigger their powers.
Damn. I enjoyed the character analysis and commentary but that rap at the end… really got me bro
Meanwhile, the only two people who give a damn what Nitro, the person who, ya know, ACTUALLY KILLED ALL THOSE PEOPLE, are Wolverine, and Nemor (because Nitro killed his sister).
They should probably do what Spider-Man did to the dude and have him explode close to a warehouse full of riot gas... And THEN siphon his gas form into two separate cylinders, before shooting one of them into the sun.
I mean, Nitro is a special kind of batshit insane and he's a walking weapon of mass destruction, I'd say he deserves the death penalty by now.
I literally forgot nitro existed halfway through the video and thought robbie was at fault for the initial explosion.
@@sparklee5044 That's how they getcha
@@sparklee5044 You're the public in the comic lmao
@@sparklee5044 basically same as those people
its nitros fault 100%
I actually like the path his character took. I see penance as an unhealthy way of atoning for his path through punishment. But only when he became a teacher for new heroes can he actually atone for what happened, by making them better than he was. This video did a great job of explaining the character.
Having a team of former villains seems like a bad idea, they're all together to come up with schemes
You should put like, one former villain on each team
yeah like at least give ‘em a handler or something
Vivec.
This is an amazing piece of Robbie representation and I'm glad I learned about it.
- a fellow Robbie
The story does sound kinda edgy but in the overall context of what was happening during Civil War it definitely fits.
Would definitely love more writers going back to him keeping all that backstory and weight
I didn't expect Speedball's story to become a commentary on the nightmarish and inhumane state of the US prison system, but here we are.
@@asscancer9510 what's scp 3000?
@@asscancer9510 goddamnit not again
To me it’s more like the horrible state security and safety measures.
A month ago in Texas a school shooting happens and 16 kids YOUNGER THEN SEVEN!!
We’re killed.
And you know shot and killed the shooter?
Not the police but a solder from the border who heard the call and drove over to the school.
The police wouldn’t go into the school to get the shooter afraid to get shot and the solder just ran in and immediately gun downed the man.
I got some serious connections between Robbie’s accident and that tragedy.
@@asscancer9510 Sorry Dr.Cancer I’ll get him of the internet
@@beartheconfused6798 Both, I'd say. There's a lot of problems with the american justice system
dude i remember reading some spiderman search and find book as a kid and seeing speedball in one of them and forever reason LOVING his design and thinking that hes my favorite superhero. im no comics girl so i never actually read any of his comics, and damn after watching this its so cool to see him given an actual character arc.
Always been my absolute favorite hero, and it’s a shame how few people know about him
One detail that was left out here was that the power of Nitro's blast was completely unexpected as it was an order of magnitude greater than he'd demonstrated in the past. It turns out he was on Mutant Growth Hormone, which magnified his power. Wolverine traced the source to the then head of Damage control, who though this was a great way to drum up business for the company.
Wow. And *Speedball* gets all the hate, blame, & guilt for the attack instead of that guy. What the heck?!
Damage Control was manufacturing it on behalf of Tony Stark..who was doing it to create a tragedy so he could push his Registration Act. so ultimately, the whole thing falls on Iron Man and the Illuminati.
@@warhorse03826 That is absurd. Where was there any indication whatsoever Stark drove and was in turn responsible for the 600 dead in Stamford? Wolverine took out the head of Damage Control and certainly would have come for Stark if he had any reason to believe he was responsible.
@@epobirs it's not absurd. it's canon. Civil War Front Line #11. Stark is confronted by the newspaper reporter Ben Urich with the facts of MGH production and everything else.
@@warhorse03826 I don't have the issue at hand but find this extremely dubious. There would be an army of very powerful people seeking to take down Stark if the information were widely known. Yet this never comes up anywhere in the aftermath.
If they ever make a disney+ show about him, your *Speedball Rap* needs to be the credits song
I went from not having ever heard of this hero to learning there's a canon Marvel character called Radioactive Man in 20 minutes.
Lmaoo
Radioactive Man is in the game Marvel Ultimate alliance teaming up with Winter soldier and the Masters of Evil. That's how I know him.
Oh damn, I INSTANTLY recognized him, especially from civil war, speedball is an idiot, you DON'T chase fame, that's when you make a mess, and that's what I enjoyed of this story, along with the short childhood flashback, most of the characters (superheroes, villains and normals) are really well represented and speedball evolution was great.
On a side note, i thought he had Linkin Park in his ears all the time, with songs like "In The End" etc.
“Will probably tank cause it’s not about Spider-Man”
*does the best on the channel*
Dude this video rocked. I’ve read ever marvel comic that’s come out since infinity and I had no clue about any of this. It’s just not something that touched on today even in books where speedball appears. Loved this and loved his story. Keep up the good work!
I implore you, go back and read civil war & civil war frontlines. CW was done so much better in the books and it became a pissing match between Capt America and Iron man, when there’s so much more going on… then go read dark reign followed by siege. Marvels story writing was impeccable over those arcs.
"I've read since infinity" well yeah that's your first mistake, ofc you wouldn't know abt him marvel is always awkwardly the best on every non-mainstream product of theirs
Damn how much have you spent on comics? I only read the X-Men comics and it's draining my wallet so badly, and I see the like other hundred comics that get released by marvel every week how do you do it
I always liked when Nova returns from the Annihilation War, finds out about Civil War, sees Robbie as Penance and with the Thunderbolts, finds out about what happened to the New Warriors and just can't handle returning back, even his parents are freaked out by him. Its kinda a nice effect of the PTSD he suffered from the war and coming home and realizing everything has changed.
Bro I don't really ever like videos but you really earned this, your passion for this shows.
As much as I love shows like The Boys or Invincible, it's really nice to see the concepts of superhero collateral within the medium itself, and to not have the characters causing it be either indifferent or straight up evil.
But invincible started out as a comic and so did the boys where similar stuff happened. The invincible comic especially continues way past where the tv show has left off and is super good
@@jacksonbrickmedia939 I'm aware, but both are meta criticisms of the superhero genre and not trying to be a part of genre. Invincible definitely fits the superhero theme better and as the comics goes on finds that little bit of camp rather than all out gore too. The boys comics though just reads like emo torture porn.
@@fireball111121 never read the boys and from what I have seen it is just extra for the sake of it. Invincible comics find the perfect balance of gore, dark, camp, character and wholesome
Except the people causing the collateral in this comic are both indifferent or straight up evil.
Both Nitro and the people who got him hopped up on Mutant Growth Hormone.
@@fireball111121 Invincible is hardly a "meta criticism of the superhero genre" but the TV show sort of frames it in that manner. It's really a slightly different but at its core normal superhero story
Been loving these videos dude, been watching everything ever since the first one was recommended to me.
You have a very natural way of talking about this stuff, it’s very well presented!
Holy shit, Salty's here.
sup Salty, thank you❤️
Big Salty!
Yo!
oh wow!
in general, it turned out to be a very underestimated antihero, it was very difficult to observe public pressure on the speedball and subsequently moral decay, in general, an excellent video, thanks for discussing forgotten and interesting concepts in comics
"Unfortunately Spider-Man saved him..." has me dead
12:57 at least it gets a great ending and isn’t a “he gets tortured in prison, goes insane, then dies” thing, so it’s not to edgy
I’ve recently gotten into Speedball/Penance about a year ago, I just remembered back when I was younger, I liked playing as him in Ultimate Alliance 2
I’m honestly a really big fan of the character and his development and especially the realistic and brutal development he went through in Civil War, but also showing his redemption in Avengers Academy… Which is honestly really emotional and powerful…
Robbie may not be like a top 10 Superhero character or top comic book character out there, but there’s a special place in my heart for this character
Yoo! Me too I got introduced to him through ultimate alliance 2 back then
@@divoltious you too? Same! Ultimate Alliance introduced me to Penance as well. He was really cool
I never understood why so few people blamed Nitro. He's the one that blew up and killed everyone. Robbie started the ball rolling, but Nitro chose to explode instead of holding the area hostage or something.
I stopped collecting comics when this first came out. I was a big NW fan and upset over how they treated the team (seriously, the art in their third volume is horrible). I just lost my job so without income, it made for a good excuse to stop. This and Civil War could have been handled so much better if the writers didn't decide to hammer in a bunch of bad characterization and out of character moments.
mainly bad optics due to the clips somehow not being destroyed and getting released. but if we're being objective he's definitely guilty of those deaths too, he wasn't fighting to save people but to climb up that hero ladder. he had no uncle ben so he went ahead with it and learned the lesson the hardest way possible.
heroing ain't a game unless you're saitama lol
Because people need someone to blame, and Nitro wasn't around to point the finger at.
ooh, the new warriors parts of Civil War are so hard to get through I hate the art style so much like....ew.but also yeah, it's optics and the fact that it was easier to blame Speedball. idk if the general populace even knew who Nitro was, but they definitely knew Speedball as he'd been filming a reality tv show non-stop
@@walkermcmullin8665 Nitro was alive. He got hunted by Wolverine in his book at this time, IIRC. Blaming the NW made zero sense.
They are both responsible. Why is it so hard for people these days to understand that not everything is "one side vs the other side" ? Both sides can be worng, both sides can be right. In this case, both Nitro and Speedball are responsible.
Unrelated but I move around a lot. Longest time I've stayed in a place is 4 years but I was born in Stamford and it's always given me a comfy feeling seeing it pop up all my life through comics
While I don't think this is the most tragic story for a hero, I had NO idea who this guy was until now so I appreciate the knowledge! This sounds like an incredible story for especially those who were reading the comics as they came out!
7:39 "It wasn't the villain's fault that everyone died. [...] It was him and only him."
Damn, I didn't know Speedball had the power to cause villians to explode with enough force to kill everyone nearby.
It was his because he insisted on attacking the villains in a populated place, knowing that they were out of their league... He basically put everyone in danger by starting a fight they couldn't control. Shoulda walked away.
@@Wingededge the villain still chose to explode wtf😂
It's really complicated because he was the one who insisted they do it, but everyone else agreed to do it, (all his team mates and the camera people) and he can't control whether or not someone decides to blow up and possibly didn't know what their powers were.
BUT if he had been okay with just going home, none of it would have happened. So it's nuanced, but the general public doesn't like that, because all people have the instinct to find someone to blame when crap goes wrong, it seems.
@@marymohr2799 I mean, it was everyone's involved fault, but it was really irresponsable to try anything in a place like that, just right next to a school. Not knowing the capabilities (both powers and how far they're capable of going) of the people you're going to battle against can just cause as much harm as Nitro did.
Yeah, I'm not saying Speedball isn't responsible at all, but saying that it wasn't at least partially the villain's fault is just wrong. The explosion also would never had occurred had the villain chosen not to explode either.
Honestly my comment was mostly tongue-in-cheek, I just saw the opportunity for a joke and took it.
Penance is a playable character in Ultimate Alliance 2, and I remember him being too edgy for even my highschool self at the time. But I'm glad Speedball found his heroic side again.
Same and he's so much different from anyone on the game
He was always on my team because I was an extremely edgy kid and also just cause I liked his backstory. Never would have known about speedball without ultimate alliance 2, one of my favourite marvel games
i love that he said it’d tank, then it proceeds to be his most popular video
I remember playing this character in a marvel video game. I didn't know this character had it this down bad
Ultimate Alliance 2
@@anthonyescobar8695 Yup, it was that game
That's the only reason why I knew who he was, the Ultimate Alliance games introduced me to a lot of characters.
I did. I read the Civil War comic like 10 times with my sister as a kid because it's amazing. Penance/Speedball was one of the best characters in the story.
The craziest part of his storyline. Is when I first read every single comic tying into civil war was while I was deployed. Little did I know I’d soon end up dealing with PTSD myself. Just makes it hit even harder now.
I love how most ppl forgive Robbie then you see Spider-Man “kills” one man and the entire world hates him so he has to make everyone forget him😂
It took a while for people to forgive Speedball actually. They actively blamed him.
Speedball 2100 was one of the first PS1 games I ever played, so I feel a connection with this guy.
Goodness, I went into this video thinking it was about _Screwball_ and was extremely confused for the first minute.
"A self loathing mass murderer? We are talking about the bad guy that streams herself online right? Oh you meant _Speedball,_ that makes much more sense! Twitch streamers aren't at that level of broadcasting their felonies... yet."
oh there's definitely some twitch streamers who've done bad stuff on stream lmao
@@alexlennen dudes beat their girlfriend up for a $10 tip
Literally who?
I mean....pretty sure Pokimane broadcasted a federal crime
@@alexlennen Don't mean you are the one to blame when you didn't create the explosion.
Yes he was overconfident for taking on Nitro...
BUT IT STILL WAS NITRO WHO CHOSE TO EXPLODE.
This is one of the things I never could stand with stories like CW.
I think I’ve come to realize what I love about your content is mainly is hearing your perspective of something and doing something different (imo) from other channels who talk about topics. It’s very amazing.
thank you, that's kinda what I strive to do❤️
this video has been in my recomended nonstop for like a full year. Finally watched it. Amazing video and story
4:46 This man is inadvertently responsible for killing 600 people while hunting super powers and the deal they're offering is that he repeat that error? Also, he has no powers now so he's even more useless. What kind of sense does any of this make?!
Remember kids; When someone with a previously established intent to murder pulls the trigger and kills people. It isn't his fault and all blame solely rest on the shoulders of the person who pushed that madman into a corner. No need to consider if this person had any previous knowledge as to who the maniac was or what he was thinking/willing to do. ALWAYS BLAME THE PERSON LEFT AT THE SCENE!
Rick Jones killed Captain Marvel. Nitro was innocent.
Sry for nitpick but when speedballs superpower kicked in and absorbed the blast and saving him the force was so strong he was sent to uptown New York. Also if every
One died in the explosion then how the hell did anybody find out that speedball was even apart of it? Like the camera man must’ve gotten killed aswell
@@Schloopytoober ahh, but you forgot one thing. The cameraman never dies
@@Schloopytoober It was a live broadcast
unfortunately very true.
I see a lot of people discussing about the people to blame for the firey explosion, I want to put my two cents in as well. Personally, I think that Nitro was the main culprit, Speedball was the 2nd most to blame (although very little compared to Nitro), the new warrior that flung Nitro into a school zone had decent amount of blame, and the rest of the new warriors had some blame. While it is poingiant to point out that if it wasn't for Speedball's recklesness than this would likely not have happened, you need to remember that the reason he was reckless was due by his tragic backstory. Also, the other new warriors went along with him, so it's not like he rushed in by himself to mess everything up. Also, no one would have expected Nitro to be able to create such devastation. I think that while Speedball is guilty, he gets a way worse rapport than he deserves.
Speedball did nothing wrong, those kids would have died anyway. It's a school in America for goodness sake. The country that doesn't care about people because weapons of mass destruction are more important than human lives?
He's one of the only survivors and Nitro got away, so everyone blames him. Tis' the sad truth.
I juat wonder why nitro decided to just blow himself up
@@thegoldengamer9315 I also hate that Nitro didn’t suffer any actual consequences for what he did
@@carlbloke8797 fr like he didnt think to just kill the hero he just wanted to cause destruction.
With a name like Speedball, I can only expect things to go wrong. I had a couple of friends OD from that
The 2014 run of New Warriors had a bit where it showed that even though he's trying to be more carefree and jokey again, he's still internalizing Penance and won't ever forgive himself.
That run got cut WAY too short.
No pain no gain. I love his story. Everyone can identify with it. Sometimes failure is the only thing that teaches us to be better. The prison story is maybe too overdrive. But still one of the best stories in marvel comics even compared to spiderman.
What happened to the speed ball song?
I imagine the MCU version bouncing around like crazy with Gmod/Goat Simulator looking body physics
WOAH. This is the most sorrowful shit I've ever seen and now that I'm not a comic books geek, I'm missing out on lesser known stuffs like this. Thanks for putting effort into this, I really appreciate it
Pick up some comics man, there's lots of characters outside the movies that have great stories like this
@@toons8744 "now that I'm not a comic books geek" implies that at some time they were.
I've only ever read after Robbie turned into Penance, so i had no idea he actually used to be speedball, and what motivated him to change. I too would have called him edgy, but now learning about why he changed into penance, it makes perfect sense to me.
As someone from Connecticut, I find it kind of funny that the only time I’ve seen our state mentioned in a comic is this one, in which part of it gets blown up.
Speedball was one of my favorite heroes in the 80s/90s, I could relate to him and how his parents ignored him and my hyperactive tendencies, good writing and character arch
I got introduced to Penance as one of the unlockable characters in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and I didn’t know the full story of civil war so I really thought he was so out of place in the game because of his edgy and scary look so it was great to finally know his backstory.
Did you skip the cutscenes or something? You see a scene with Speedball and Nitro blowing up Namorita with the school in an early cutscene.
Always wondered what happened to him, I was first introduced to speedball in the Spider-Man clone saga run and I never saw him in a comic again so it’s nice to know what happened to him but damn that’s rough
1:50 wow I read civil war years ago and am just now getting the full context for the scene. Never knew those guys were more than throwaway characters
So much effort being put into a 15 minute video is insane, but also it feels like I've just finished a good book.
I can't believe they ran The New Warriors for 20 years only to kill all of them in a single fight.
They've all been brought back in one way or another and while the original run started in 1990 the cumulative years the book actually ran was way less than 20. I wish it was 20 though. New Warriors was a good comic.
That would be Joe Quesada’s idea, Penance came about when Paul Jenkins (writer of Civil War Frontline) most likely said to Joe “Killing off Speedball is too easy, I have something more twisted in mind”
I had never heard of this character until now and he seems pretty interesting. I'm reminded of another character I heard of once called, "Forget-Me-Not." If I remember correctly he was incapable of being perceived, so no one knew of his existence unless he was in their direct eyesight. While I don't dare try to rate which comic characters have it worse than others, I assume he suffers from his fair share of emotional baggage on top of what one could only describe as crippling loneliness.
Side-Note: That Speedball rap at the end was brilliant! XD That alone deserves serious likes and subscriptions!
Oh yeah, I remember him. Well, I do for now
@@ABronyNamedBurnie I see what you did there and I love it! XD
He’s a mutant. Was basically the X-Men’s mvp and no one in said team even knew he was there.
No more song
Love this! I collected New Warriors as a teenager when they first came out. It's been a heck of a ride since they started and I appreciate the spotlight on Speedball and his story
Eh. I've always been an X-Men ,personally
Damn, was vibing the whole video and then the best songs ever made starts playing. subbed
On a serious note, I liked Speedball’s story because it gave some vindication to repentant wrongdoers. For all the guilt they should rightfully feel, there’s also a virtue that goes unacknowledged. That kindness doesn’t have to be given, but as the conversation with the police officer at the memorial shows, people do see moral improvement when it’s there; their efforts aren’t in vain.
Am I the only one that thinks they took inspiration for Invincible's suit from Speedball? Pretty crazy how they're both tragic characters
Fr tho its really cool if that is the case
That beatbox at the end was so adventure time-like. Im subscribing ! You got me at adventure time