Real Life Superheroes are Fighting Crime and Spreading Kindness

• Theater Alliance
• August 24, 2012
• News
• reals
• 0 Comments

“Simple acts of kindness are within the reach of all of us.”

-The Real Life Superheroes Project

They keep on popping up on the local news. They have professional photographs of themselves in action. They have army grade armor to protect themselves on the job. Some focus on service, some on crime. They are a contingent of citizens who help those in need- and they’re doing it in costume.  Their credo is the following: to follow and uphold the law, to fight for what is right, to help those in need, to be role models, to be positive and inspirational, and to create a better tomorrow. However, the world is having a mixed reaction to their actions.

Colorado’s Wall Creeper helped shut down a nightclub’s OxyCotin ring.  Geist runs crime deterrent patrols in Minnesota.  Child brother and sister duo Soundwave and Jetstorm hand out marbles in Virginia that they claim remind people to love America.  The movement is also not confined to the United States: the UK’s Angle-Grinder Man walks the streets in Kent and London, looking for drivers who have had their wheels clamped and setting their cars free, and Superbarrio roams Mexico City, symbolically protecting poor squatters and labor unions by leading protest rallies, filing petitions, and challenging court decisions. Some of the real life supers shun the press. Some of them will only meet in costume.

The District’s own DC Guardian is one of the great ones. He is former military, and now patrols the metro area of the capital, handing out copies of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence. He is a member of the Skiffytown League of Heroes, which focuses on service, and has worked for Make-A-Wish, The Joyful Heart Foundation, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Army Fisher Houses, the Autism Research Institute and more. He has spoken to high school students about peer pressure and their responsibilities to their community.  However, he is not as well known as some of the flashier real life superheroes.

Phoenix Jones, founder of the Rain City Superhero Movement, is perhaps the best know real life superhero. He has been cited by GQ as the “baddest-ass ‘real life superhero’ of them all, having sustained injuries like stab wounds in his fight against crime.”

He has a fan following, including his own t-shirts, and is well known on the streets of Seattle, where he patrols late at night. He has also stirred up a lot of controversy. He faced a trial when accused of pepper spraying people leaving a nightclub.  Police officers while discussing Jones have explicitly stated that they do not want people who are not officers putting them in danger.  Jones has claimed that he has had “over 30 bullets shot at him or in his general direction” and “been threatened with murder and stabbed” and is now attempting to raise money for costume pieces, some of which are worth roughly $100,000.

Other real life superheroes have blasted him, pinning him as a glory hound who wants limelight more than he wants to help other people.  In spite of his controversies, however, he remains one of the most visible parts of the movement, even while sharply contrasting heroes like Master Legend.  Master Legend lives forever on the edge of eviction in Florida, more concerned with helping others pay their bills and get food than for his own needs. He was one of the first to call himself a real life superhero.

Most real life superheroes can be found on the World Superhero Registry.

Melissa Englander is the Theater Alliance’s Artistic Assistant. She is a recent graduate of American University’s Theatre Arts program.