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Speedball (Collected Editions)
SPEEDBALL: THE MASKED MARVEL
Few creators have left their mark like the inimitable Steve Ditko. His unmistakable creative vision brought the world the Amazing Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and, in 1988, Speedball! Together with writers Roger Stern, Tom DeFalco and Jo Duff y, Ditko crafted the adventures of Robbie Baldwin, a high school student with strange other-dimensional powers that create an energetic kinetic field that turn him into Speedball! In the classic Ditko style, Baldwin's life is complicated - his father is a district attorney with no love for costumed vigilantes and there is serious marital strife between Robbie's parents. This Complete Collection brings together every Steve Ditko tale of the New Warrior-to-be for the very first time. COLLECTING: SPEEDBALL (1988) 1-10 AND MATERIAL FROM AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL (1964) 22, MARVEL AGE ANNUAL (1985) 4, MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS (1988) 14 AND 56 AND MARVEL SUPER-HEROES (1990) 1-2 AND 5-6
320 pages, Paperback
First published May 29, 2019
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About the author
Steve Ditko
1,257 books140 followersStephen J. "Steve" Ditko was an American comic book artist and writer best known as the co-creator of the Marvel Comics heroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.
He was inducted into the comics industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1990, and into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994.
He was inducted into the comics industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1990, and into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 22, 2020
Steve Ditko was one of the greatest creative influences at the dawn of the Marvel Age of Comics. His contributions to the creation and early development of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, the Master of the Mystic Arts, are legendary. But Ditko also helped create many other costumed characters like The Question, Hawk & Dove, The Creeper and the wonderfully surreal Shade, the Changing Man. This volume collects one of his later creations, the Masked Marvel, in all his glorious early solo appearances. This pages are filled with Ditko’s uniquely personal art style and his delightful, fun-loving high school shenanigans that he made so iconic in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man in the 1960s. Does that make these stories dated? Perhaps, but it would be more accurate to describe them as timeless. And that’s Ditko’s take on Speedball in a single word: timeless. The town that Robbie Baldwin inhabits, Springdale, is another example of Ditko’s take on timeless Americana, in fact Ditko’s Springdale is just another of those iconic small communities often dotting the pages in stories by Richard Matheson or Ray Bradbury. The Masked Marvel, Speedball, may not represent Ditko’s best work, but it’s enormously entertaining and filled with page after page of fun superhero silliness.
May 24, 2023
One of the highlights of reading the complete 125 issue run of Marvel Comics Presents were the pair of stories starring the teen superhero known as Speedball: The Masked Marvel. Co-created by Steve Ditko and Tom Defalco, Speedball was an interesting mix of teen angst, youthful enthusiasm and brilliantly creative villains. Plotted and penciled by the legendary Ditko, the pair of stories were a feast for the eyes. And immediately, I took it upon myself to get a copy of this 'omnibus'.
Speedball's story begins with young Robbie Baldwin, a star athlete, bright student and a BMOC in a small Connecticut community. One day during Robbie's part-time job as an assistant at the Hammond Research Lab, the teen is accidentally bathed with strange kinetic energies. As a result, whenever Robbie experiences the slightest bit of inertia, he transforms into the Masked Marvel and bounces around like a bouncy ball until he runs out of energy or finds a way to settle himself.
The scientists who conducted the experiment know that somebody interfered with the experiment that gave Robbie his powers. But they think it's the lab's mascot, the feline Niels, who is obviously showing signs of the same blast of energy that powers Robbie. The teen is tasked with capturing Niels in order for the researchers to determine if the strange energy field is lethal or not. This comedy of errors is a running gag throughout the entire series which only lasted 10 issues. But it's an important plot device as Robbie just wants to be a normal kid once again.
In typical comic book fashion, Robbie's family is oblivious to the fact that their son is the town's new hero called the 'Masked Marvel'. Only Robbie himself refers to himself as Speedball because of the tiny energy balls that follow him when in costume. Robbie would love nothing more than to tell his mom and dad about his powers. But to do so could jeopardize Robbie's father! See, Mr. Baldwin is the town's assistant District Attorney. The town in which the Baldwin's live has a law against masked vigilantes. Robbie fears that should his secret come to light, it will mean disgrace for his lawyer father.
Honestly, Robbie should lighten up a bit. His parents are doing a good enough job turning the whole town against them. When a skeleton is discovered within the walls of Robbie's high school, fingers point at both Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin as being the prime suspects. This results in a loss of jobs for Robbie's mom and a near disbarment of dear old dad.
It says a lot about the writing when the reader is just as interested in the supporting characters as the main character. Roger Stern and Jo Duffy make the mystery of who killed the family friend of the Baldwins just as engrossing as Speedball's battles against an assortment of masked baddies. I was so hooked on the secret of the corpse's killer that I stayed up later than normal a couple of nights in a row to find out 'whodunnit!'
Masks are a big theme in this book. Steve Ditko was a master of bizarre faces and Speedball's Rogue's Gallery, while rather inferior compared to a Green Goblin or Doctor Octopus, are some of the most creative of all-time.
I wish the original Speedball's story didn't have to end!
Speedball's story begins with young Robbie Baldwin, a star athlete, bright student and a BMOC in a small Connecticut community. One day during Robbie's part-time job as an assistant at the Hammond Research Lab, the teen is accidentally bathed with strange kinetic energies. As a result, whenever Robbie experiences the slightest bit of inertia, he transforms into the Masked Marvel and bounces around like a bouncy ball until he runs out of energy or finds a way to settle himself.
The scientists who conducted the experiment know that somebody interfered with the experiment that gave Robbie his powers. But they think it's the lab's mascot, the feline Niels, who is obviously showing signs of the same blast of energy that powers Robbie. The teen is tasked with capturing Niels in order for the researchers to determine if the strange energy field is lethal or not. This comedy of errors is a running gag throughout the entire series which only lasted 10 issues. But it's an important plot device as Robbie just wants to be a normal kid once again.
In typical comic book fashion, Robbie's family is oblivious to the fact that their son is the town's new hero called the 'Masked Marvel'. Only Robbie himself refers to himself as Speedball because of the tiny energy balls that follow him when in costume. Robbie would love nothing more than to tell his mom and dad about his powers. But to do so could jeopardize Robbie's father! See, Mr. Baldwin is the town's assistant District Attorney. The town in which the Baldwin's live has a law against masked vigilantes. Robbie fears that should his secret come to light, it will mean disgrace for his lawyer father.
Honestly, Robbie should lighten up a bit. His parents are doing a good enough job turning the whole town against them. When a skeleton is discovered within the walls of Robbie's high school, fingers point at both Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin as being the prime suspects. This results in a loss of jobs for Robbie's mom and a near disbarment of dear old dad.
It says a lot about the writing when the reader is just as interested in the supporting characters as the main character. Roger Stern and Jo Duffy make the mystery of who killed the family friend of the Baldwins just as engrossing as Speedball's battles against an assortment of masked baddies. I was so hooked on the secret of the corpse's killer that I stayed up later than normal a couple of nights in a row to find out 'whodunnit!'
Masks are a big theme in this book. Steve Ditko was a master of bizarre faces and Speedball's Rogue's Gallery, while rather inferior compared to a Green Goblin or Doctor Octopus, are some of the most creative of all-time.
I wish the original Speedball's story didn't have to end!
July 31, 2022
Ditko doing spider-man like stories with a teen her in the late 80s. Some fun elements, but the art is not Ditko's best, and the writing feels pretty didactic and dated without any fun soap opera elements that would make you want to keep reading.
February 28, 2025
For a comic written in the late 80s, it sure felt like it stepped out of the 60s. Strangely I really enjoyed that and made it more fun than it would have been otherwise.
Will this change the world? No. Is it some timeless classic? No.
Regardless, I really enjoyed it.
Overall - 4/5
Will this change the world? No. Is it some timeless classic? No.
Regardless, I really enjoyed it.
Overall - 4/5
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews