Robert "Robbie" Baldwin is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by artist Steve Ditko and writer Tom DeFalco, the character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22 (January 1988) originally known as Speedball, as well as in Civil War: Front Line #10 (January 2007) as Penance.

The character's origin and early exploits as Speedball were depicted soon after in a solo series. After that series was cancelled, he appeared as a member of the superhero team the New Warriors, in the monthly title of the same name. In the Marvel Comics crossover Civil War, the character changes his name and appearance to Penance. Following this change, he is a member of the Thunderbolts. As of the first issue of Avengers Academy, he has reverted to Speedball and a modified version of his original costume.

Defalco spoke on the creation of the character stating, "I came up with the original idea for the character and wrote a bible on him which included his origin, his powers, personality, family dynamic, and everything else you needed to know in order to write a story about him. Steve designed the costume and also designed Robbie himself...I originally called him Ricochet and presented him to Jim Shooter for the New Universe and told me we should eventually do him in for the Marvel Universe... I changed the name. I didn't like the way Ricochet looked as a logo and thought Speedball was much more descriptive"

Created by artist Steve Ditko and writer Tom DeFalco, The character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22 (January 1988), originally known as Speedball

Marvel Comics published ten issues of the monthly comic book series Speedball from 1988 to 1989. The series was primarily plotted and penciled by Steve Ditko who also supplied the covers. It was scripted by Roger Stern and inked by several different artists.

After the series' cancellation, the Speedball character primarily appeared in New Warriors and its related comics, written primarily by Fabian Nicieza. Speedball continued to be the most consistent character through the second and third volumes of the New Warriors. During his run on New Warriors, Fabian Nicieza commented:

I hope everyone has realized that I love Speedball. He's one of the few spandex folks out there that really enjoys what he's doing. Through Speedball, I get to make pointed comments and references to what's going on around him, which is great fun, using his cockiness and his arrogance, but playing on his insecurity at the same time. I'm proud of the fact that I've managed to make the character that scared so many people away from New Warriors popular enough to get his own mini-series. Speedball's a major part of the book now, and that's something that I, [penciler] Mark Bagley, [editor] Danny Fingeroth, [penciler] Darick Robertson, and [inker] Larry Mahlstedt are all really proud of. It's hard to change public opinion, but I think we've given it a good shot. [emphasis in original]

The character is featured in Paul Jenkins's Civil War: Front Line, after it was revealed that he was the only member of the New Warriors to survive the Stamford disaster. The character underwent a drastic change in this series, in which his powers alter and takes the name Penance, joining the Thunderbolts. He would also feature in his own limited series Penance: Relentless, also written by Jenkins, which examines the background to these changes. In the Thunderbolts comics series, Mike Deodato based Baldwin's appearance on actor Edward Norton.^{[citation needed]}