Fictional Character Biography
Robbie Baldwin is a Presbyterian born in Springdale, Connecticut to a mother who co-starred in a soap opera with Mary Jane Watson. As a high school student, he becomes a costumed adventurer and crimefighter after an accident at the Hammond Research Laboratory where he works part-time as a laboratory worker. When Hammond scientists try to tap into a mysterious other-dimensional energy source, the energy bombards Baldwin. Baldwin survives the experience but finds himself surrounded by energy bubbles and clad in an odd costume.
Minutes afterwards, during a battle with some thieves who want to raid the lab, Baldwin discovers that his body now generates a kinetic energy field that protects him from impact and makes him a bouncing dynamo of kinetic energy. Calling himself Speedball, Baldwin becomes a crime-fighter in his hometown of Springdale, Connecticut. Baldwin's father Justin, a successful district attorney, and his mother Madeline, a former soap opera star-turned teacher, have marital problems while Baldwin secretly leads his double life. This situation leads to domestic stress that escalates over time, driven partly by the conflict between Robbie and his father, who as district attorney is expected to uphold Springdale's ordinance against costumed superheroes and has an extreme prejudice against these "vigilantes".
The energy source also affects Niels, a cat belonging to one of the scientists, giving him the same powers. Speedball makes a number of attempts to catch the cat, hoping that study of Niels would give him better control of his powers. He would later learn that a villainous scientist, Clyde, was also after the cat, hoping to gain Speedball-like powers, and had allegedly created most of the supervillains in Springdale to this end. Speedball would later adopt the cat, who under the name of Hairball would eventually have its own super adventures with the Pet Avengers.
While still an inexperienced crime-fighter, Speedball meets Spider-Man and Daredevil during a turf war between the Kingpin's and the High Evolutionary's henchmen.
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