Robbie’s parents got divorced, and Robbie chose to live with his mom in New York. This led to his father discovering his secret identity, and Justin Baldwin denounced his son because of what he saw as vigilantism. It also confronted Robbie's parents, and Robbie was forced to kill his duplicate. At one point, the cosmic villain Magus created evil doppelgangers of Earth's heroes, and Robbie's duplicate used its powers to virtually destroy the town of Springdale. Speedball had battled numerous villains with the New Warriors, including Terrax, the Sphinx, the Puppet Master, Gideon, Force of Nature, Psionex, and the Folding Circle. For a brief time Robbie Baldwin was an intern with the construction firm Damage Control. Although shaken, she supported her son's lifestyle as a superhero.
Robbie helped save his mother and defeat Project: Earth, and in so doing he revealed his secret identity to her. The Warriors discovered the group wanted to kill Baldwin's mother, as her celebrity would serve to make her a martyr to their cause. Shortly after joining the team, he asked his teammates to join him in investigating the long absence of his mother, who had joined a fanatical ecological watchdog group, Project: Earth. Joining the fray along with the other heroes that would subsequently become the founding members of the New Warriors, Robbie agreed to join the team as well after Terrax was defeated.ĭespite the long distance he often had to travel, Robbie stayed with the New Warriors for a long tenure, quickly becoming an annoying but lovable kid brother to the older Warriors and continuing to grow in the development of his powers. New Warriorsĭuring a shopping trip to New York City with his mother he saw a battle breaking out involving Terrax, former herald of Galactus. Robbie hoped to become a big-time superhero, and even joined a tryout for the premier hero team Avengers, only to be rejected. Mayor Story Arcs Connecticut To New York & Back Againĭuring a trip to New York City, Robbie ended up helping Spider-Man and Daredevil stop the Purifiers of the High Evolutionary, but mostly Robbie fought criminals in Springdale, such as the Sticker, Leaper Logan, the Bug-Eyed Voice, and the Feathered Felon. Speedball was created by Steve Ditko and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22 (1988). Benson's cat, Niels, who was similarly caught in the energy experiment and gained Speedball-like powers, and using him to help understand his powers. He also spent much of his time trying capture Dr. Baldwin was forced to keep his power under control, avoiding any potential contact that might trigger his powers. The media leaped to the story, reporting the appearance of a new hero, whom they dubbed "the Masked Marvel." Robbie continued to use his powers to fight crime, and the Masked Marvel enjoyed a great deal of popularity from the townspeople, although his parents held very diametrical and vocal views about the costumed vigilante. Shortly afterward, Robbie's parents were accosted by Johnny Roarke, a criminal Justin Baldwin had put away, and Robbie used his powers to defeat him. During the ensuing battle, Robbie discovered that his body now generated a kinetic energy field that protected him from any impact and made him a bouncing dynamo of kinetic energy. Panicking, Robbie sought to escape to the roof of the lab building where he encountered four masked gunmen. Robbie was bombarded by energy from the dimension but survived, finding himself surrounded by weird energy bubbles, clad in an odd costume, and having a hollow and resonant voice. Unfortunately, Robbie had sneaked into the lab where the experiment was taking place, curious as to what all the hush-hush preparations had been for.
Part of the energies fed back into the generator, shorting out the entire system.
There, Doctor Benson and two colleagues began the final stages of their attempts to tap an extra-dimensional energy source, but the researchers did not construct adequate safeguards and the energies began to overload Hammond Labs' equipment. His parents held very opposite views and often argued in front of Robbie, a fact made more poignant as their arguments often had to do with what Robbie should be doing with his life and future career.Īs a high school student, Robbie was interning at the Hammond Research Laboratory in Connecticut. Robbie Baldwin is the son of Justin Baldwin, District Attorney of Springdale, Connecticut, and Maddy Naylor-Baldwin, a popular actress.