Dude! Have you read about a character called "Penance?" He used to be a "sissie" superhero. Then he joined a team of superheroes. They had a bunch of kicks and hijincks. Got bored with things, started a reality TV show. Them as superheroes going for the bad guys. They got all the ratings and such; and then, one day, they got hold of a juicy one (their ratings were beging to fade and they needed to up the ante). The bust in on a whole bunch of super baddies, start cleaning up the place; but....This one super baddie he goes "nuke" and detonates, killing everyone around (a whole town and a bunch of people, gone) and it's all caught on tape. Thus began "Civil War". An ok series. Had huge potential as far as I was concerned, but didn't realize it. Had some good stuff, but not enough for me to continue after it finished.
Anyhoo, Speedball was this character. Happy, unafraid teenager type, the only one who survived the detonation because his power allowed him to absorb and redirect kinnetic energy - he got thrown a very far distance away. Surviving. Lost his powers. The world turned on him. He gets to go to prison. He feels very bad about everything. All that poo poo stuff. But.
His powers come back. Only now, they only come back when he feels pain. He wears a suit of armor that has needles that are always pushing against his skin. When he fights the "bad" guys, they hurt him, and he gets more powerful.
Really twisted. One of the few points that I really liked in Civil War.
PS: Check out Bomb Queen, too. She's funny, over the top and lethal as piss.