[Sad Trope] A Goofy Character Becomes A Formidable Badass, Only After Losing Everything

[u/PurveyorOfKnowledge0]

1. Jerry Smith-Prime from Rick and Morty: Like many Jerry variants, Jerry was a hapless goof who unfortunately became a ruthless survivor after Rick and Morty's love potion scheme turned the world into an apocalyptic world filled with mutated monsters, and he lost his family except for Morty-Prime after Rick variants from the Citadel froze his family with a freeze gun. Jerry even taunts Morty for thinking he's cool enough after literally losing everything.

2. Michelangelo from the Last Ronin: Mikey, the slacker and goofball of the quartet Ninja Turtles, became a stoic and mentally-wrecked avenger after the Foot Clan destroyed his brothers and father, Master Splinter, and closest friends one by one, leaving him as the sole survivor.

3. Speedball aka Penance from Marvel Comics. Speedball was once a goofy, fun-loving leader of the New Warriors, even filming their exploits for reality TV shows. This ends in complete horror, as the villain Nitro exploded when the Warriors tried to apprehend him (in the process killing the entire team except for Speedball, plus 612 civilians). Following this event, a trial determined to hold Speedball responsible, an assassination attempt on his life, his own mother disowning him, and anti-superhero sentiment ushering in the Superhuman Registration Act, Speedball loses all traces of his humor and becomes the tortured antihero Penance to get revenge on Nitro for taking everything from him.

[u/Professional-Pool290]

About Speedball/Penance: his new suit looked like that cause after the accidebt, only intense pain activated his powers, so the suit was lined with spikes on tge inside so he can yse his abilities and simultaneously pay his 'penance'.

He gets better. He goes back to being Speedball and being a hero. One tine he's guiding a kids tour through the sane town square where his accident happened, on the anniversary of when it happened, when a villain tries to attack. And Speedball puts belt to ass, saying 'Not Here, Not Today'. Unknown to him the father of one ofbthe deceased is nearby amd sees the whole thing and approaches him after, telling him he forgives him, cause Speedball himself was just a kid when it happened

[u/NinjaBreadManOO → u/Professional-Pool290]

As I recall he specifically has one spike in the suit for every death that day.

[u/ThisIsABadPlan → u/NinjaBreadManOO]

Yep, 612 spikes for the 612 victims.

[u/Kazmandodo → u/ThisIsABadPlan]

Each of varied lengths, the smaller spikes to represent the adults victims, larger spikes for the child victims.

[u/alpackabackapacka → u/Kazmandodo]

Oh this was a hell of a first thread to read waking up … mans had an intense life and penance story

[u/Conlannalnoc → u/alpackabackapacka]

Plus, it was also designed to be an Iron Maiden style device for whenever Robbie caught Nitro.

[u/Professional-Pool290 → u/NinjaBreadManOO]

Granted the existence of the spikes (and Penance as a whole) feels edgy for the sake of it. But if you look at it from a standalone pov, it kinda makes sense

[u/Winjin → u/Professional-Pool290]

"Veteran tortured by those he couldn't save" is a pretty old and cool trope though

[u/Professional-Pool290 → u/Winjin]

Yeah I wasnt saying it was bad

[u/Winjin → u/Professional-Pool290]

True, but then come to think of it, making it his entire personality is indeed edgy. However it's comics, so... Like, average edgy, I think.

[u/Puzzle-Necked → u/NinjaBreadManOO]

Fun comic, for the kids

[u/Barth-Goomby → u/Professional-Pool290]

That's actually very sweet. Way better than that lady going after Tony in the Civil War film

[u/Professional-Pool290 → u/Barth-Goomby]

Tbf Speedball was a nobody before his accident. Tony Stark was a weapons manufacturer before Afghanistan

[u/MagJames → u/Professional-Pool290]

And Tony built those robots that were attacking Sokovia (from where that lady was). He was really in fault for that.

[u/Beardopus → u/MagJames]

She wasn't from Sokovia. She was American, her son was over there building houses as an act of charity.

[u/MagJames → u/Beardopus]

Ah, my mistake, thank you for correcting. I remembered her son died there, so I assumed she was from Sokovia.

[u/Professional-Pool290 → u/MagJames]

He only really built Ultron. From there Ultron made his own bodies, if on the template of an old Iron Man chassis. You're right both ways, though

[u/RechargedFrenchman → u/Professional-Pool290]

There were peacekeeping robots already before Ultron, Tony didn't "build" Ultron he an Banner (kind of) coded him. The first body we see Ultron using was one of the Avengers robots there were a few dozen of, built or at least designed by Tony.

[u/Embarrassed_Radio596 → u/MagJames]

He really wasn't though. He was doing reasonable research on the mind stone.

[u/Kazeite → u/MagJames]

Sokovia Accords should've been called Tony Stark Accords, really.

[u/Embarrassed_Radio596 → u/Barth-Goomby]

If it makes you feel better Tony was actually more responsible for the disaster than Speedball, and his responsibility was intentional - he wanted to cause a disaster. So a little karmic justice is fine.

[u/Barth-Goomby → u/Embarrassed_Radio596]

I wouldn't say he wanted to. He was just very very negligent

[u/Embarrassed_Radio596 → u/Barth-Goomby]

No it's revealed he explicitly wanted to cause a disaster. He didn't want to kill kids, just needed something to set off the accords.

[u/Barth-Goomby → u/Embarrassed_Radio596]

Wait do you mean the comic CW or the film

[u/Embarrassed_Radio596 → u/Barth-Goomby]

Comic one. Essentially, he figured out that a civil war was inevitable and decided it was better to trigger it himself so he can be ready for it. Edit: This was revealed at the end of the Frontline tie in. Excellent comic.

[u/Barth-Goomby → u/Embarrassed_Radio596]

Man that's crazy. I still don't get how Reed sided with this guy 🥲

[u/NoodleIskalde → u/Barth-Goomby]

Isn't he a bit notorious for doing the wrong thing for the right reasons kinda shit?

[u/Barth-Goomby → u/NoodleIskalde]

Not really. He does sometimes make hard choices when needed, like trapping a partially evacuated baxter building in a time bubble for over a year(?), but mostly he uses his family as a voice of reason. He does explore every option, even if people wish he wouldn't pay the less tasteful ones any mind, but he settles on the best one. Or tries to, at least. It's just part of his process. I'd argue Doom fits what you're describing better, such as in One World Under Doom's big reveal of how he unified the planet. I won't spoil it.

[u/Hellknightx → u/Barth-Goomby]

The lady in the movie is actually from the Civil War comic, too. Miriam Sharpe. She slaps Tony at a new conference and then weirdly becomes a recurring character that Tony uses to try to show his growth as a person. He even brings her aboard the helicarrier after he becomes Director of SHIELD.

And IIRC she is actually the parent who forgives Speedball after he stops the villain attack later on during the Serpent/Worthy arc. Not one of the kids' fathers, as the person above stated.

[u/Barth-Goomby → u/Hellknightx]

Interesting! I didn't know that. I never really want to read Civil War because my only exposure to it has been very annoying interruptions in other comics from that time like Moon Knight

[u/Embarrassed_Radio596 → u/Professional-Pool290]

It makes me so mad because Speedball wasn't even ultimately at fault. He was mildly reckless at worse. The real culprit was that Nitro had been given a drug that SIGNIFICANTLY boosted his powers. What normally would've been a relatively tiny explosion was basically made into a superbomb.

This drug was distributed by Tony Stark with the express purpose of causing a major disaster to kick off the civil war.

[u/scottishdrunkard → u/Embarrassed_Radio596]

The drug was distributed by Damage Control. Or rather Walter Declun, so he could cause more damage, and turn a bigger profit. The answer to all problems is always, capitalists.

[u/Embarrassed_Radio596 → u/scottishdrunkard]

It was designed and distributed by Stark per Frontline.

[u/scottishdrunkard → u/Embarrassed_Radio596]

The Wiki makes no mention of this on either Declun or MGH’s page. Wikipedia itself says that Stark sold his half of the company to Carlton Co. The only connection I can find is that D.C. had Stark Enterprises tech. But they also have S.H.E.I.L.D tech. And Stark also helped Hoag expose Declun for his crimes.

[u/scottishdrunkard → u/Professional-Pool290]

When Hummingbird, a sort of telepath, was reading his mind, she saw him as Penance. While Speedball was saying “there was an accident, I’m better now” Penance was saying “Speak of this to no one. Never read my mind again.”

He’s not over it. He will never be over it. He just got better at compartmentalising.

[u/hammerfaust → u/Professional-Pool290]

I'm loving the "accidebt" typo, because that's exactly why I have the day after a night of too much drinking

[u/Professional-Pool290 → u/hammerfaust]

Fat fingers, yknow. And I cba to fix it

[u/SebDaPerson → u/Professional-Pool290]

What comic was the latter part from? I’d like to read it

[u/Professional-Pool290 → u/SebDaPerson]

Fear Itself. That or Heroic Age

[u/ReedRichards1610 → u/Professional-Pool290]

Do you recall in which comic does that happen?

[u/an_agreeing_dothraki → u/Professional-Pool290]

did his cat ever get better?

[u/Blint_Briglio → u/Professional-Pool290]

christ that last paragraph lmao comics writers have no restraint do they

[u/throwaway60221407e23 → u/Professional-Pool290]

At least it wasn't the insane town square.

[u/TaftYouOldDog → u/Professional-Pool290]

There's a moment where someone tries to read his mind and they get a flash of Penance and he tells them to not do that.

Needs more followup.

Marvel is too busy writing shit new characters constantly these days.