Real Life Superheroes

Caught these guys on Good Morning America today. Someone needs to get the ninja boys to Icon, asap!!

Again with this? Didn't the Guardian Angels teach people anything? Go big or go home!

I'm just impressed that RLSHs are carring tasers now!

Again with the spandex heroes? So these are the crazies running around Seattle.

<-----Thinks it's time for "purge".

They just need some Real Life Super Villains. Guarantee they will quit when they realize how silly a man in tights look and when they tackle them.


On second thought, that is a very scary idea. Nevermind.

I heard about this a couple months ago as I live in neighboring Tacoma. I thought it was cool. Considering the piss poor quality of cops we've had in this area (a few have gone insane and murdered their families), these masked vigilantes are a breath of fresh air.

Technically, though, they're costumed crimefighters as they don't actually have any superpowers. One can only hope that they eventually acquire them, however.

Phoenix Jones has his lair through a secret bookcase at his local comic book store. Saw it on a clip posted from his local TV news station.

Until the day when some costumed individual or group appears on the scene to truly impress the world with their heroic abilities or resources, most law enforcement is going to scoff along with most of us. Still, costumed crime-fighters probably aren't the worst thing hitting the streets. Bad guys exist in all kinds of varieties in our all-too real world, so I'm not going to complain much if a bunch of good guys start coming out of the woodwork.

I may not agree with all of their methods, but they may be able to fill a niche that will make it easier in some cases for law enforcement to come in and bag the criminals. This has proven true in some cities where local law enforcement maintains close contacts within groups of costumed "citizen patrollers". Mostly because citizen patrollers need less probable cause to check out a suspicious situation; and some police officers have become more accepting of a handful of costumed patrollers who seem to have picked up some self-defense and first-aid training (and are extremely easy to distinguish from a group of bad guys). This has been going on for years, believe it or not.

That doesn't describe the majority, unfortunately.

And it doesn't begin to describe the problem with costumed vigilantes who have actual urban combat skills and gear, and who might take the law into their own hands. Though thankfully, the world hasn't witnessed that yet. No, Phoenix Jones doesn't qualify for Batman's iconic status--some of the local cops like him too much, for one thing, hee.

But could heroes like Phoenix Jones eventually inspire someone who has the capability to be the world's first Batman? Say, some guy with a fat wallet, questionable mental state and loads of military training? Hmm. Maybe. I think so. Though he might not last as long as the Batman from the comics. That's the problem with real life.

But life imitates art. And personally, I suspect the future will deliver something impressive for the national and world headlines to chomp on, though in what form or moral alignment is anyone's guess. It probably won't happen this decade, maybe in the next twenty-five or thirty years. But as technologies continue to advance, the unfortunate drawback is that we may see it coming, or we will at least be far less surprised (along with the bad guys) than we would be if it happened in 2011.

@Scythus

I can understand what your saying I guess, but it is hard to wrap the mind around people like KickA$$ and Watchmen running around in what we call reality. But if they had powers I am sure they would not last long.

At least they're trying to stop crime, rather than support it (or ignore it). Which is more than most people will do (see: instances of people getting mugged and bystanders laughing and taking cell phone videos/pictures).

I used to think these guys were ridiculous, but the more I've seen them on the news and the more I've seen my hometown go down the crapper, the more I start to think these guys might be on to something.

I find it funny however, that everyone seems to be blaming (for lack of a better word) Kick-*** for this "movement". To me, it seems more like Kick-*** just brought these real-world superheroes into the light.

I think it's a double-edged sword. Ultimately, this 'costumed hero' business is a response to something in society that these people feel motivated to do something about and it's a sense of civic-mindedness that a lot of people talk a lot about but very rarely follow through on. People ultimately believe concrete actions over words, and seeing people (however ludicrous we think they may look) in outfits in public trying to inspire public confidence is not a bad thing.

The obvious downsides are what's been already covered here; the lack of training and skill and resources. I believe there's a website in existence already that is a respository for guidelines on how to coordinate with the police and what you can actually do as a private citizen to help enforce the law. What I could predict happening is the formalisation of such a movement into an organisation (it's a little cliche to say something like the Justice League, but still) that would actively promote the training, skill management and provide resources for such individuals. I find that a much more likely scenario than a single Batman-esque individual coming forth.

That being said, I don't disagree with the prediction that such a person will appear in society in some form. It's an interesting phenomena that the infusion of comics as popular culture has manifested in people willing to emulate these characters, but it's that emulation that has people accepting of them even if they initially see them as joke figures or at worst dangers to themselves and other people.

It is a form of social movement and may pay off to something later on; this I think will be largely dependent on what happens once for example the current run of superhero and hero-themed movies cycles out, which it will as it does with any form of mass entertainment.

I certainly hope it continues, but it does highlight the lack of faith the average person has in the institutions of law and order we ourselves put in place.


S.

Wise words Mr. Oz, wise words indeed.

I agree with SuperOz.

I have friends who are cops, but I also know that they're normal people working for a paycheck who, like me, get tired of their jobs, get worn out by the monotony of the day-in, day-out DUIs and shoplifters.

I like to think that the average criminal would be a bit skeptical of commiting a crime in a neighborhood he knows is the area of Knight Templar (example real world superhero) and even though the chances are very slim he'll catch them breaking into a store, they still might think twice about doing it.

Kind of like the scene in "The Dark Knight" where the dealer turns down the client.

Then again, these RWS's might find themselves in a heap of trouble if they come across an organized crime hit or something worse. They, and their families and friends could become targets of the criminals.

Not to mention, vigilante justice is illegal in the US as well.

Here's the trick about being a vigilante, become the target. Legally you can't jump in and start assaulting someone, but you can put yourself in harms way. In the case of an armed robbery, or armed assault, getting the target to turn their weapon on you makes everything after that self defense.

I always see real life superheroes as crazy, mainly because of the largely impractical and dangerous ways they have of going about their goal. Last thing you'll get from the spandex wearers is a productive turn-around for society that will reduce or diminish crime. Even more so how impractical it is that, wandering around the square miles of a city, you'll happen upon a crime that you can actually do something about more effectively than trained officers can.


There are other ways that you can try to solve the crime problem. Improving the education system seems to be a big part of it, since people who are more informed tend to be less likely to solve their problems illegally. Ignorance, poverty, and violence are a a nasty trifactor that self-reinforce, and just giving money to the poor doesn't "help" them. External pressures like cultural disputes contribute to the problem, but ultimately responsibility lies with the individual to act responsibly, and they probably won't do so if they don't know how.

Another big part is having a well armed/defended populace. When every citizen, or even any citizen is a hornets nest of problems that you don't want to disturb, the more ubiquitous malevolence like aimless robbery find themselves reduced. This insures that those who don't act responsibly aren't in a position to seamlessly wield power over others.

And helping people to do either of these can happen anywhere. I'm reminded of a show I saw about prisons, where a life-sentenced convict decided to make his own education program to teach other inmates math, reading, and problem solving skills. He would brag to the show that his program had a higher success rate than the state-sponsored program.

As cheesy as it is to go "yay community", that's the stuff that actually works.

Anyone who dedicates their time and money to saving lives in any way they can, whether that be by keeping drunks from driving, giving food to the hungry, or physically stopping a violent crime is okay in my book. How they dress is not the issue here. They could be dressed in frilly, bullet-proof skirts for all I care. The issue is "are they helping anyone?" If the answer is yes, then I see nothing wrong with what they do.