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Speaker 1: Novel. Greetings, you have reached the phone number of Tamerlane,

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Speaker 1: real life super villain. Please leave a message so we

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Speaker 1: can stay in touch and most importantly, stay evil. This

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Speaker 1: is tammer Lane, a real life super villain whose bonkers

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Speaker 1: online videos cut our attention. So we reached out to him,

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Speaker 1: and he agreed to chat with us From his secret layer.

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Speaker 1: I had to get all dolled up for you today

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Speaker 1: and put on my best leather Tamerlane did our interview

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Speaker 1: in his full super villain regalia. If you listen carefully,

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Speaker 1: you can hear his leather pants squeaking. He has a

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Speaker 1: shaved head and a beard dyed bright red. He wears

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Speaker 1: a metal gauntlet on one hand, and he accents his

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Speaker 1: look with a gold grill over his teeth and a

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Speaker 1: pair of mirrored sunglasses. Well, I just think aviators just

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Speaker 1: say to me, douche bag. When I see people in aviators,

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Speaker 1: I don't don't you don't you think they look douchey?

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Speaker 1: I do. They're like trying excessively hard to be cool,

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Speaker 1: So I adopted that as my own. Tamer Lane took

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Speaker 1: his name from a Turko Mongol conqueror rampaged across Central

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Speaker 1: Asia in the fourteenth century. He would leave piles of

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Speaker 1: humans heads outside of cities that he was going to

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Speaker 1: sack and lay siege to, and I think he left

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Speaker 1: a clear message. So he was a good inspiration for me.

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Speaker 1: But tammer Lane doesn't only take inspiration from ancient warriors.

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Speaker 1: As a child, I was a huge fan of Mr.

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Speaker 1: T So he was a little bit of an inspiration

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Speaker 1: to me as well. And in his more introspective moments,

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Speaker 1: timmer Lane would say his persona came from even closer

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Speaker 1: to home. Was there some sort of Nietzschean monster within

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Speaker 1: us all, some sort of Carl Young's belief in the

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Speaker 1: shadows cell? Yes, I would say that the disconnect I

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Speaker 1: had with my own family and my own father helped

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Speaker 1: create this character. Also my disappointment in society, trying to

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Speaker 1: be a good citizen, trying to do the right thing

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Speaker 1: and get a nine to five job and work forty

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Speaker 1: hours a week and be an obedient servant of the

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Speaker 1: fascional capitalist system. I think failing at that. And again

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Speaker 1: my disconnect from my family, Yes, helped create this character.

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Speaker 1: As you might have gathered from his voicemail, an affinity

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Speaker 1: for bloodthirsty warlords timmer Lane identifies as a real life

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Speaker 1: supervillain and a bit like Rex Velvet. He sees it

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Speaker 1: as his duty to offer a kind of meta commentary

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Speaker 1: on the superhero world. I was at home one day

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Speaker 1: and I was stroking my beloved pet, and I noticed

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Speaker 1: on the news the story came on about real life superheroes,

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Speaker 1: and mostly it would seem that these real life shoulder

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Speaker 1: here spent their time handing out sandwiches and warm socks.

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Speaker 1: And I thought to myself, what arrogance. How dare they

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Speaker 1: go around calling themselves real life superheroes when they set

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Speaker 1: the ball so low. So I said to myself, well, ourself,

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Speaker 1: you all a real life super villain by comparison. So

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Speaker 1: from that day forth, I made it my goal to

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Speaker 1: become the best real life super villain I could become.

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Speaker 1: Timmer Lane isn't above his own heroics when the moment

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Speaker 1: calls for it. One time, he says he got into

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Speaker 1: a fight with a Wolverine impersonator at a nightclub. It

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Speaker 1: was a party and he was like squirting tequila into

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Speaker 1: a to the mouths of miners, and he had a microphone.

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Speaker 1: I thought it would be a good idea to take

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Speaker 1: it from him, So I took his microphone and began

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Speaker 1: riding through the nightclub, saying, a super villain's up in

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Speaker 1: here running this bitch. He didn't like that he tackled

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Speaker 1: me from behind. His other hobbies include protesting aginst what

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Speaker 1: he calls his enemies insurrectionists, fascist Republicans, Christians, even dare

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Speaker 1: I say. He also runs a supervillain YouTube channel where

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Speaker 1: he reviews fast food. Alright, guys, this is the Derek

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Speaker 1: We Yeah, he starred in short films and he does

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Speaker 1: charity work. My charity has saved the chips dot org.

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Speaker 1: Being that I am an anthropology major, I have a

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Speaker 1: very close affinity to our chimpanzee cousins. We didn't get

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Speaker 1: to hear from tamer Lane in the main series because

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Speaker 1: tamer Lane isn't a part of the Seattle superhero scene.

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Speaker 1: He's from Miami. He's just one of many people all

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Speaker 1: over America and the world who've taken up a cape

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Speaker 1: or mask, or in this case, a pair of leather

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Speaker 1: trousers and joined the real life superhero community. And the

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Speaker 1: course of making the superhero complex, I met a lot

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Speaker 1: more than just Phoenix and his crew. So in this

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Speaker 1: bonus episode, I wanted to fire up the Batmobile one

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Speaker 1: more time and take you on a whistle stop tour

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Speaker 1: of the rest of this wild world and the folks

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Speaker 1: like Tammer Lane who inhabited I'm David Weinberg and from

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Speaker 1: the teams at Novel and I Heart Radio. This is

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Speaker 1: the Superhero Complex, Episode nine, Unsung Heroes. One person who

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Speaker 1: got to know the real life superhero world as well

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Speaker 1: as I did is writer and broadcaster John Ronson, who

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Speaker 1: we heard from an episode four. John hung out with

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Speaker 1: real life superheroes from across America, but like me, his

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Speaker 1: introduction to this weird and wild world start it in Seattle,

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Speaker 1: in true Phoenix Jones style. The first time I met him,

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Speaker 1: he was in the emergency room. I got off the

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Speaker 1: plane in Seattle and got a message that he had

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Speaker 1: been shot. I think I was stabbed. My first thought,

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Speaker 1: of course, was a shift. I've just traveled Britain and

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Speaker 1: he's been stabbed, So that's how empathetic I was after

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Speaker 1: a twelve hour flight. So I got to the emergency

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Speaker 1: room and he's there in the superhero outfit of the

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Speaker 1: emergency room, and he had been stabbed. But it's like

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Speaker 1: it's okay. You know, I was stabbed earlier tonight, but

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out and patrol some more. And I'm like,

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Speaker 1: are you sure? And then the doctor came in and

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Speaker 1: asked him about his family doctor, and he named his pediatrician,

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Speaker 1: and I said, are you a child? But it turns

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Speaker 1: out you can. He was like, twenty three and you

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Speaker 1: can be with you pede addition to the twenty four,

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Speaker 1: apparently in America. I did say to him, look, you've

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Speaker 1: just been stabbed. Are you sure that you want to patrol?

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Speaker 1: Like I can honestly wait till tomorrow. No, He's like, no,

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Speaker 1: fib ing out. A couple of nights later, they went

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Speaker 1: on the patrol where they had ultimately faced down the

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Speaker 1: crack dealers in Belltown. But before that epic showdown, John

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Speaker 1: said Phoenix was clutching its straws, trying to find crimes

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Speaker 1: to thwart. Phoenix saw somebody pass the back to someone else.

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Speaker 1: How he went yacht sie right across the road and said,

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Speaker 1: it's got its stupid superhero fits, Sir, can I see

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Speaker 1: that baggy? And it was it was pretzels, And he

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Speaker 1: was like so disappointed. I was jealous that John had

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Speaker 1: even this experience while on patrol with Phoenix, I wasn't

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Speaker 1: so lucky. We never even encountered a bag of salty

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Speaker 1: snacks being exchanged suspiciously. Comparing notes on Phoenix Jones wasn't

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Speaker 1: the only reason I wanted to talk to John. He

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Speaker 1: spent a lot of time with other different real life

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Speaker 1: superheroes too, and I was curious to learn what he

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Speaker 1: made of the whole scene. He told me in his experience,

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Speaker 1: they fell into two camps. You've got the sort of

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Speaker 1: Phoenix type ones who are into the costumes, and sometimes

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Speaker 1: they even have like the special weapons like the web

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Speaker 1: gun or the grappling hooks, So you've got that sort

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Speaker 1: of which Phoenix was the clear like leader, and they

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Speaker 1: all looked up to him. He had the best costume,

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Speaker 1: He was the most charismatic. That lot were quite camp.

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Speaker 1: I remember we were looking at this group of crack

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Speaker 1: addicts that they wanted to break up at the best

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Speaker 1: stop at three in the morning, and the crack addicts

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Speaker 1: were looking at us and the superheroes we like murmuring

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Speaker 1: to each other, and the crack addicts were presumably thinking,

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Speaker 1: you know, what are they saying to each other? And

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Speaker 1: what the superheroes were saying to each other was, oh,

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Speaker 1: I love your black and yellow color scheme. The yellow

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Speaker 1: really pops. So they were So you had that genre

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Speaker 1: her superhero who were all pretty delightful, even though I

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Speaker 1: didn't agree with what they were doing. But then you

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Speaker 1: had this other sort who I thought were much worse.

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Speaker 1: John told me he met some superheroes who represented the

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Speaker 1: second camp when he was in New York City. He

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Speaker 1: went on patrol with the group called the New York Initiative,

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Speaker 1: and they loved him feeling deeply uncomfortable. They were barely

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Speaker 1: superheroes at all. What they really were. With the Gilantes,

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Speaker 1: they didn't make much of an effort with the color scheme.

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Speaker 1: It was more just balaklavas, and they wanted to break

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Speaker 1: up drug dealers in Washington Square Park. But it was

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Speaker 1: only when they ran towards this guy with lights, like flashlights.

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Speaker 1: I mean, they were terrifying this guy. They surrounded this

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Speaker 1: guy and they had like like floodlights and we're like

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Speaker 1: lit him up, and the poor guy was like running away, saying,

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Speaker 1: you don't know me, you don't know anything about me,

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Speaker 1: you don't know why I'm here, you know this? And

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Speaker 1: I was on his side, and this guy was selling

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Speaker 1: weed to the students at n y U and they

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Speaker 1: did all of that. You know, it's terrifying the life

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Speaker 1: out of this poor guy with lights and shaming for weed.

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Speaker 1: Now a few years later, weeds legal and you can

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Speaker 1: stand in Washington Square Park and smoke weed and the

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Speaker 1: police are fine because it's legal to do it. So

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Speaker 1: out of a bad vibe with them, I thought they

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Speaker 1: were very unpleasant because after My Peace came out, this

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Speaker 1: one guy who was the ringleader of the New York Crew,

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Speaker 1: it was like really angry. It was like, you know,

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Speaker 1: let's get ronson. And remember somebody said to me, oh,

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Speaker 1: he's really troubled. I never encountered this type of superhero

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Speaker 1: in Seattle. Everyone I talked to seemed to be more

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Speaker 1: of the Phoenix camp, well meaning folks who seemed to

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Speaker 1: have their hearts in the right place. Is But John

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Speaker 1: wasn't just uncomfortable with the real life superheroes he met

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Speaker 1: in New York. He thinks the whole movement is flawed.

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Speaker 1: I don't believe in real life superheroing, Like I don't

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Speaker 1: think it's something that people should do. Look at the

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Speaker 1: real place of a flawed too, but they're flowed in

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Speaker 1: a different way. And quite often when we tried better

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Speaker 1: the justice system, we bring new problems to it. You

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Speaker 1: see that with social media shaming, and I think you

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Speaker 1: see it with the real life superhero So one of

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Speaker 1: the main things is just that they're they're too into it.

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Speaker 1: And when you're too into something, that's when that's where

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Speaker 1: the problems starts. That's when you commit miscourages of justice.

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Speaker 1: So that was my main animus was that there were

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Speaker 1: two into it. They were into the fame. It was

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Speaker 1: like a badge of honor to to thwart a crime.

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Speaker 1: And I don't think crime fighters should feel about crime

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Speaker 1: that way. It should be both pragmatic and by the book. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I found this to be true for Phoenix Jones as well.

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Speaker 1: I think his desire for fame and compulsion to find

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Speaker 1: crime don't serve him well in his attempt to live

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Speaker 1: up to the ideals of a superhero. But despite John's

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Speaker 1: reservations about the real life superhero communities crime fighting tactics,

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Speaker 1: he told me that Phoenix was his favorite. Out of

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Speaker 1: all the heroes he met, Phoenix was the best. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's why you're doing him. He was just the most charismatic, funny, charming. Inevitably,

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Speaker 1: then some of them will be like angry and troubled,

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Speaker 1: and he didn't feel like that some of them would

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Speaker 1: be like nerdy, um kind of misfits. And I think

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Speaker 1: Phoenix was a misfit, but not in a kind of

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Speaker 1: gamer type. I mean, I'm sure he is a gamer,

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Speaker 1: but he wasn't like one of those sort of nerdy

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Speaker 1: guys who just spend two long sign front of his

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Speaker 1: computer and decides to buy and outfit go out into

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Speaker 1: it on the streets of what There were other superheroes

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Speaker 1: who were like that, you know, a little out of shape,

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Speaker 1: and you could tell that they were just passing through.

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Speaker 1: I asked John if he still thought of Phoenix that

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Speaker 1: way even after his conviction on drug conspiracy charges. I

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Speaker 1: was genuinely startled and saddened. Like like everyone, one of

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Speaker 1: my least favorite things is hypocrisy, and obviously the first

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Speaker 1: thing you think as well as her hypocrite. But mainly

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Speaker 1: I just felt sad, like I know from spending that

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Speaker 1: time with Phoenix that he's a sweet guy. He wants

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Speaker 1: to do good. You know, Phoenix is a very unique person.

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Speaker 1: He's this sort of weird kind of specialness to him.

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Speaker 1: It feels like it's a little sullied now because we

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Speaker 1: wanted him to be He was setting himself up as pure,

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Speaker 1: and we wanted him to be pure. John said that

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Speaker 1: compared to the New York superheroes who just seemed angry

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Speaker 1: and vengeful when they chased down drug dealers, Phoenix had

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Speaker 1: seemed a lot more idealistic. In fact, John said when

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Speaker 1: they faced off with the crack dealers on the patrol

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Speaker 1: we heard about an episode four, he really felt Phoenix

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Speaker 1: was genuine. The conversation that I overheard with the crack

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Speaker 1: data was like, I've got no choice. This is how

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Speaker 1: I feed my family. I've got no choice. And Phoenix

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Speaker 1: was like, sir, you do have a choice. It was like,

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Speaker 1: you know, trying to be a positive. Influence said, I'm

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Speaker 1: sure that was real. That was part of what attracted

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Speaker 1: him to us was that he was innocent and sweet

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Speaker 1: and pure, and yeah he was goofy, and yeah there

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Speaker 1: were definitely some bad sides to what he did, getting

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Speaker 1: too into it, but there was a kind of goofy.

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Speaker 1: This sort of purity to him. Had the problem with

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Speaker 1: the drug allegation is that it's not pure anymore. It's

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Speaker 1: like hypocritical And I heard that. Now people yeah, hypocritic

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Speaker 1: at him as he walks down the street in Seattle. Now,

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Speaker 1: my guests is that there's a complicated set of circumstances

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Speaker 1: as to why he ended up in that situation. But

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Speaker 1: the problem is no one likes hypocrisy. That was the

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Speaker 1: same problem I had with Phoenix. But John said that

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Speaker 1: for all Phoenix's flaws, there was still one moment that

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Speaker 1: stuck in his mind. My last memory of Phoenix were

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Speaker 1: all of these kids just gathered around him like so excited.

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's Phoenix Jones. It's Phoenix Jones. And

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Speaker 1: though he was a celebrity. As I walked away, I

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Speaker 1: looked back and I saw these kids with Phoenix, and

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Speaker 1: I thought, well, he's no different to a superhero. He's

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Speaker 1: giving these kids the same joy that a real superhero would.

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Speaker 1: So he is a superhero in a way. For all

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Speaker 1: the ups and downs in Phoenix's superhero career, there's no

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Speaker 1: denying that he has genuinely inspired people along the way,

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Speaker 1: and not just in the US. The superheroes John met

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Speaker 1: and the ones I've spent time with in this series

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Speaker 1: so far are all based in America, but since the

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Speaker 1: heyday of the Rain City Crew, the real life superhero

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Speaker 1: movement has gone international. It's time to meet the Cape Crusaders,

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Speaker 1: who are fighting crime all over the globe that's coming up.

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Speaker 1: America may be the birthplace of the classic comic book

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Speaker 1: superheroes and the country where the real life superhero movement

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Speaker 1: found its feet, but all over the world there are

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Speaker 1: thriving pockets of superhero activity. Who knows, maybe there's even

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Speaker 1: a Mask Avenger in your neighborhood, sneaking out late at

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Speaker 1: night in a cape and mask to ward off muggers

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Speaker 1: or clean up the streets. So first stop on our

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Speaker 1: Superhero World tour is Japan. I guess there are about

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Speaker 1: party heroes in Japan. This is Clean Panther. She wears

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Speaker 1: a blue, red, and black kimono and a futuristic yellow

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Speaker 1: panther mask that covers her whole head. Japan has the

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Speaker 1: biggest real life superhero scene I encountered outside of America.

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Speaker 1: But whereas the groups I met in Seattle were into

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Speaker 1: crime fighting and homeless outreach, the big focus in Japan

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Speaker 1: is picking up litter. That's how Clean Panther got her name.

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Speaker 1: My main activity is clean up Tongue. So named Clean

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Speaker 1: and also combined with Panther. I love Black Panther, the

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Speaker 1: Marvel superhero Clean Panther and her superhero crew go on

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Speaker 1: litter patrols, picking up trash in Goya, Japan's fourth largest city.

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Speaker 1: They're just some of many heroes with names like Hell Hero,

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Speaker 1: Clean Arrow and Maroons Sparrow, who gear up in fantastical

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Speaker 1: masks and buddy armor to tidy up their cities. For

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Speaker 1: Phoenix Jones, a patrol that isn't focused on taking out

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Speaker 1: bad guys as a patrol wasted, so I can imagine

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Speaker 1: he wouldn't fit in too well with the Japanese scene,

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Speaker 1: but they do have one thing in common. The real

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Speaker 1: life superheroes of Japan are great at social media. They

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Speaker 1: post videos of themselves cleaning up their towns, shot like

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Speaker 1: an action film with a comic book movie soundtrack. Over

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Speaker 1: in Europe they have their own superheroes too well. Of course,

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Speaker 1: I can give you my real name, but um I

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Speaker 1: go the Colonel Spider. The Incredible Spider is from the Netherlands.

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Speaker 1: He likes to keep his superhero activities on the download,

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Speaker 1: so he asked us to disguise his voice. I want

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Speaker 1: to protect myself and UM, I don't say that I

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Speaker 1: worked outside with the law, but sometimes it really has

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Speaker 1: its benefits to not work specifically by the law, A

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Speaker 1: warming he says. He divides his time between online vigilanteism

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Speaker 1: and real life street patrols, and his costume is a

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Speaker 1: tribute to his favorite superhero, Spider Man. He was basically

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Speaker 1: the one character that really inspired me to do more,

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Speaker 1: to do all this um, and it's also a symbol

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Speaker 1: that people trust, people feel safe around Spider Man. He

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Speaker 1: wears a red suit with a white spider on the

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Speaker 1: chest over stab proof armor and a homemade protective spider mask.

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Speaker 1: He even builds his own Spider Man inspired gadgets, like

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Speaker 1: a d i y web slinger. I got some what

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Speaker 1: shooters with the fluid that has like apers mixture in it,

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Speaker 1: so if somebody were to attach me, I can like

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Speaker 1: simply pepperscrate him and they wouldn't see it. Like it's

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Speaker 1: it's all covered into suits. So people want to see

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Speaker 1: you come in. The Incredible Spider has a pretty defined aesthetic,

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Speaker 1: albeit one that borrows heavily from one of fiction's most

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Speaker 1: well known superheroes. It's not easy to come up with

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Speaker 1: your own superhero identity. Sometimes it takes time to refine it.

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Speaker 1: There's also another Dutch superhero who went through a lot

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Speaker 1: of different alter egos before he ultimately landed on the

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Speaker 1: perfect alias. My first alias I've used was Blue Tornado.

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Speaker 1: I was called Blue Tornado because those were the only

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Speaker 1: two English words I knew back at the time. After that,

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Speaker 1: it was Black Shadow, then Green Assassin for a while,

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Speaker 1: and I just jumped to my closet, like, what, what's

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Speaker 1: the most superhero combination of clothes I have right now?

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Speaker 1: And there wasn't all black suit. And that's when I

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Speaker 1: started Shadow Panther. And Shadow Panther was the alias I've

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Speaker 1: actually got arrested with because they thought I was trouble.

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Speaker 1: This was a few years ago, when Shadow Panther was

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Speaker 1: around seventeen. I was walking through a bark because the

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Speaker 1: killer clown hype was raging. Back then, if the killer

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Speaker 1: clown hype passed you by, it was an international hoax

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Speaker 1: that got a lot of traction. Around two thousand and sixteen.

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Speaker 1: They were rooms and news stories about evil clowns popping

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Speaker 1: up all over the world who supposedly preyed on children,

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Speaker 1: and it was like, Hey, I'm going out there in

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Speaker 1: the bark trying to get killy clowns. And I had

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Speaker 1: this like a huge iron barrow with me to protect myself,

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Speaker 1: you know. And this couple of guys came by and

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Speaker 1: they asked me what I was doing, so I just

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Speaker 1: started explaining. So the two guys called the police, who

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Speaker 1: weren't impressed. And what I would give to have been

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Speaker 1: there to see Shadow Panther decked out in his full costume,

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Speaker 1: explaining to the cops that he was there to fight

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Speaker 1: off killer clowns. I tried to mimic like a panther's face,

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Speaker 1: but it kind of was like like like a shnake face. Um.

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Speaker 1: It had like little teeth at the mouth opening and

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Speaker 1: stuff and safety goggles in it. It was completely made

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Speaker 1: of trash backs and dark tape. That run in with

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Speaker 1: the cops was basically the end of the Shadow Panther era.

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Speaker 1: Now he's known as Blood Slash, and he says he's

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Speaker 1: given up on ridding the world a killer clowns. I'm

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Speaker 1: there to help people out with small things, pointing the

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Speaker 1: directions and stuff, and if trouble is going down, I'm

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Speaker 1: trying to be there, to be one of the people

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Speaker 1: that has their phone in their hands, calls the alarm

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Speaker 1: number that kind of thinks I have to say to me.

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Speaker 1: The name blood Slash doesn't really say I'm your friendly

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Speaker 1: neighborhood helper Warden. But maybe it won't be the final

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Speaker 1: alias this intrepid hero tries on for size. If he

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Speaker 1: ever decided to take up the good old iron bar

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Speaker 1: again and head to Seattle, I think blood Slash would

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Speaker 1: find a kindred spirit in Midnight Jack. After all, once

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Speaker 1: upon a time, Jack was just a guy in a

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Speaker 1: mask hiding in a bush with a baseball bat. Over

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Speaker 1: in Mexico, the scene is a little different. Mexico is

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Speaker 1: home to one of my favorite offshoots of the real

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Speaker 1: life superhero World. Meet political scientist Jorge Kane is a

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Speaker 1: k A. Jorge studied urban planning and transportation in college.

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Speaker 1: When he was growing up in Mexico City, he discovered

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Speaker 1: his true passion in life, road safety. We built cities

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Speaker 1: for cars, motorized CDs, metal machines in the streets, killing

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Speaker 1: everyone literally. Jorge struggled to get other people as fired

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Speaker 1: up about infrastructure as he was. You know it could

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Speaker 1: be boring to talk about pedestrians with people, and nobody

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Speaker 1: will read the academic paper about pedestrian road safety. Then

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Speaker 1: one night, Jorge and his best friend went to catch

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Speaker 1: a Lucha libre wrestling match. It was something they did

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Speaker 1: all the time, but that night was different. Jorge watched

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Speaker 1: the mask luchi door fighters throw each other around the

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Speaker 1: ring and they're gleaming costumes, and a crazy idea popped

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Speaker 1: into his head. We need to do something fun. Uh,

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Speaker 1: why not after the match we buy a cape and

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Speaker 1: a mask and go out to the streets to fight

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Speaker 1: for the rights of pedestrians. And just like that, a

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Speaker 1: new hero was born El po that's Spanish for the pedestrian.

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Speaker 1: For his first few outings, Lato wore a five dollar cape,

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Speaker 1: but then he got an upgrade. A brother helped me

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Speaker 1: with the design of the mask. It's a crosswalk with

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Speaker 1: a pedestrian. I told my grandmother to help me design

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Speaker 1: my cape, and my cape has white and black stripes,

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Speaker 1: just like a pedestrian crosswalk. With his new supersuit, Lao

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Speaker 1: set out to brave the onslaught of rush hour in

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Speaker 1: Mexico City. He wove through road raging drivers and toxic

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Speaker 1: exhaust fumes with his black and white crosswalk cape streaming

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Speaker 1: out behind him. I pushed back cars that are obstructing

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Speaker 1: the crosswalk. I paint the sidewalks, and I paint crosswalks

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Speaker 1: and bikeways without any pyramids. And my most controversial action

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Speaker 1: in the streets is to walk on top of the

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Speaker 1: cars parked on the sidewalk, because the sidewalk is the

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Speaker 1: space of pedestrians. My mother tells me that I can

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00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:20,280
Speaker 1: get in trouble with the owner of the cars. L

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00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:23,639
Speaker 1: has a lot in common with the real life superheroes

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Speaker 1: I met in the US, but he prefers a different label.

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Speaker 1: I don't like to watch the world superhero I feel

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Speaker 1: it sounds pretentious. I don't know, but I like more

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Speaker 1: of In the Spanish the were the luchador. It's a fighter,

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Speaker 1: a fighter of the streets. Lucha libre wrestling started out

408
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Speaker 1: in the late nineteenth century, and it's famous for its

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Speaker 1: high flying takedowns and masked fighters who wear brightly colored capes.

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Speaker 1: Each luchador creates their own superhero esque persona. Some of

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00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:57,000
Speaker 1: them symbolize good and some embody evil. It's a message

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Speaker 1: that that that we're always have this struggle with the

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Speaker 1: two sides of humanity. You know, we are all good

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00:26:04,359 --> 00:26:10,679
Speaker 1: and evil by nature, and these representation with lucavores, with

415
00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:14,879
Speaker 1: these wrestlers with colorful masks and capes, and it's a

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00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:19,200
Speaker 1: great way to express these internal bottle of human being,

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Speaker 1: just like the real life superheroes who came before Phoenix

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Speaker 1: Jones Elo has his own cape wearing predecessors in Mexico too.

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Speaker 1: In the late nineteen eighties, a Lucidor in red tights

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Speaker 1: and a gold cape named super Barrio Gomez for affordable

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Speaker 1: housing after thousands of people were left homeless by an

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Speaker 1: earthquake in Mexico City. But l Peotonito's main inspiration was

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Speaker 1: a man named Antonas Mochus. He was a mathematician and

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Speaker 1: philosopher with thick glasses and a sandy beard. He roamed

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Speaker 1: the city of Bogata, Columbia, in red spandex underpants and

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Speaker 1: a cape with a letter C painted across his chest.

427
00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:05,720
Speaker 1: It stood for super c v COO super Citizen. His

428
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:08,879
Speaker 1: central mission was to use his superpowers of comedy and

429
00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:12,760
Speaker 1: performance to get people fired up about important issues. He

430
00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:15,920
Speaker 1: even turned up on TV naked. Apart from his superhero

431
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:18,960
Speaker 1: logo and took a shower to protest the lack of

432
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:24,840
Speaker 1: clean water in the city. And then he ran for

433
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,080
Speaker 1: mayor of Bogata. He won the election and he was

434
00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:34,400
Speaker 1: Mayor of Bogotan. And during his administration, he fired all

435
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:41,400
Speaker 1: the corrupt transit police and he hired minds to control traffic.

436
00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:46,240
Speaker 1: You heard that right. He hired four hundred and twenty

437
00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:51,119
Speaker 1: mimes with white painted faces and fluorescent dungarees. They fanned

438
00:27:51,119 --> 00:27:54,840
Speaker 1: out across the city, mocking people who broke traffic laws

439
00:27:54,880 --> 00:27:58,680
Speaker 1: and helping pedestrians cross the roads. The result was a

440
00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:04,760
Speaker 1: fifty drop in traffic fatalities, and this superhero mayor Supercifical,

441
00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:10,320
Speaker 1: also brought down homicide rates by with his other unusual policies.

442
00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:14,159
Speaker 1: At one point, he got forty five thousand citizens to

443
00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:18,280
Speaker 1: gather in the streets and inflate balloons. They were painted

444
00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:21,200
Speaker 1: with the image of someone who they felt had persecuted

445
00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:25,119
Speaker 1: them in some way. Together, the citizens popped the balloons

446
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:30,399
Speaker 1: in a form of citywide performance therapy. I had the

447
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:34,200
Speaker 1: privilege to talk with him about these and he told

448
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:37,320
Speaker 1: me that it's a way to have a civic theater

449
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:40,880
Speaker 1: in the streets. You know, people love to see a

450
00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:45,680
Speaker 1: theater and spectacles in the streets, and that's a great

451
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:48,720
Speaker 1: way to send a message in a peaceful way. And

452
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:52,400
Speaker 1: and then I decided, like, we need a pedestrian superhero

453
00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:55,960
Speaker 1: in Mexico City. This is a world I desperately want

454
00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:59,280
Speaker 1: to live in, one where our philosopher mayor where is

455
00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:03,120
Speaker 1: a cape to celebrate the humble citizen. A city run

456
00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:06,560
Speaker 1: by a visionary leader who hires hundreds of mimes as

457
00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:10,360
Speaker 1: traffic police. What a beautiful sight that must have been.

458
00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:14,160
Speaker 1: Why can't we have that? I would even settle for

459
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:16,680
Speaker 1: a world in which one of my elected officials was

460
00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:20,600
Speaker 1: a real life supervillain, like, oh, I don't know, lord Mole,

461
00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:24,880
Speaker 1: I've got an old Russian tank commander's helmet and a

462
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:29,000
Speaker 1: big overcoat and goggles obviously, because Mole is a mole.

463
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:32,240
Speaker 1: He's short sighted, but he needs the glasses on the

464
00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 1: goggles because he also is a scientist. Despite his supposedly

465
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:40,560
Speaker 1: villainous persona, Lord Male is actually a good guy. He

466
00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:42,280
Speaker 1: spends a lot of his time out on the streets

467
00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:46,280
Speaker 1: of Birmingham, England, doing homeless outreach or charity fundraising with

468
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:49,520
Speaker 1: his son, who is also a real life superhero. My

469
00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:54,520
Speaker 1: son Andrew was being called electro Kid by the other

470
00:29:54,600 --> 00:29:58,840
Speaker 1: heroes because of all of the treatment that he had

471
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:02,160
Speaker 1: in hospital for a ain tumor, and then electro lad

472
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:04,480
Speaker 1: as he got a bit older, and then he became

473
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:09,480
Speaker 1: proton because of the proton beam therapy. So our favorite

474
00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:14,880
Speaker 1: organization to raise money for is the Birmingham Children's Hospital.

475
00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:18,160
Speaker 1: Lord More runs a real life superhero collective called the

476
00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:21,880
Speaker 1: UK Initiative. It's part of a larger superhero network called

477
00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:25,760
Speaker 1: The Initiative, which exists all over the world. Got groups

478
00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:32,400
Speaker 1: in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Africa, South America, and obviously

479
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:35,280
Speaker 1: the UK. As it turned out, two of the leaders

480
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 1: were only a few hours away from me, just outside

481
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:40,880
Speaker 1: of San Francisco. So what's it like to run the

482
00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 1: real life equivalent of an international Avengers squad? That's coming up.

483
00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:06,240
Speaker 1: If the real life superhero movement has a spiritual home,

484
00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:10,080
Speaker 1: it's a bakery in the Bay Area called Superhero Desserts.

485
00:31:10,720 --> 00:31:12,760
Speaker 1: You'll find it in a red brick building with a

486
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:17,800
Speaker 1: glass fridge out front full of cakes with elaborate fondent toppings. Inside,

487
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:20,920
Speaker 1: it's cozy. There are fairy lights hanging up and photos

488
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:23,920
Speaker 1: on the walls of people dressed up in superhero costumes.

489
00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:28,160
Speaker 1: It's run by Edwina and Mike a k A. Rock

490
00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:31,560
Speaker 1: and Roll and night Bug. If you catch them in costume,

491
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:34,680
Speaker 1: night Bug is decked out in red and black, with

492
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:37,600
Speaker 1: a smooth red mask that covers his whole face and

493
00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:41,480
Speaker 1: black mesh holes over his eyes. Rock and Roll likes

494
00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:43,400
Speaker 1: to switch up her look, but you might find her

495
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:46,360
Speaker 1: with long, bright pink hair, knee high black boots, and

496
00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:48,880
Speaker 1: a purple cape. There are two of the leaders of

497
00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:52,040
Speaker 1: a global superhero network with chapters all over the world

498
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:56,239
Speaker 1: called The Initiative. They're also husband and wife, but they

499
00:31:56,280 --> 00:31:59,600
Speaker 1: didn't start out their real life superhero journey together. I

500
00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:05,479
Speaker 1: had been doing it without the wife's knowledge because I figured, well,

501
00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:08,120
Speaker 1: you know what, if they are completely crazy and I

502
00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:09,920
Speaker 1: go out twice and I'm like, this is not for me,

503
00:32:10,040 --> 00:32:14,000
Speaker 1: I can just forget the whole thing. Ever happened. Night

504
00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:16,360
Speaker 1: Bug had heard about some heroes in his neighborhood doing

505
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:19,160
Speaker 1: costumed safety patrols and he wanted to check it out.

506
00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:21,800
Speaker 1: So one night he pulled on a mask and stuck

507
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:25,880
Speaker 1: out to join them. Several patrols later, night Bug figured

508
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:28,000
Speaker 1: it was time to let his wife in on the secret,

509
00:32:28,160 --> 00:32:30,000
Speaker 1: and he said, Okay, you know, I know I told

510
00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:32,000
Speaker 1: you about this this movie. I want you to come

511
00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:35,560
Speaker 1: see it's it's called Superheroes. And so we went to

512
00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:38,719
Speaker 1: this theater, the Roxy in San Francisco, and there were

513
00:32:38,760 --> 00:32:41,360
Speaker 1: all these weird guys standing around in costume outside, and

514
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 1: I thought, while you guys really take these shows seriously,

515
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:47,920
Speaker 1: you're all just done. It turned out the movie was

516
00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:50,880
Speaker 1: a documentary. I realized, Oh my god, this is about

517
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:54,120
Speaker 1: people who are trying to be real life superheroes. And

518
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:57,440
Speaker 1: the arc of the movie is beautiful in that you're

519
00:32:57,560 --> 00:33:00,920
Speaker 1: laughing at these people. At first, you're you're killing them,

520
00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:03,400
Speaker 1: you know, with with the rest of the audience, and

521
00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:06,320
Speaker 1: then you see the sacrifices they make, the determination and

522
00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:08,720
Speaker 1: the just the dedication they have. By the end of it,

523
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:12,120
Speaker 1: you're rooting for these guys. I was, and so is

524
00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:14,000
Speaker 1: the audience. By the sound of it, they were all

525
00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:17,480
Speaker 1: clapping at the end. After the credits rolled, some of

526
00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:20,320
Speaker 1: the people who come dressed up in costumes assembled at

527
00:33:20,360 --> 00:33:22,440
Speaker 1: the front of the movie theater for the director's q

528
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:25,720
Speaker 1: and a night bug said he needed to use the bathroom.

529
00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:30,120
Speaker 1: The questions, happened? Is not back? Ten minutes later, I'm going, oh,

530
00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:32,440
Speaker 1: my gosh, is he okay? I'm looking at my watch

531
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:36,360
Speaker 1: and this guy in this costume walks up right to

532
00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:38,280
Speaker 1: the front of the theater where the other heroes are,

533
00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 1: and he takes his place, and they go, hey, guys,

534
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 1: this is night Book. I went to the back and

535
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:45,120
Speaker 1: I was going looking for just any man to go

536
00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:46,920
Speaker 1: into the bathroom and check out my husband. And then

537
00:33:46,920 --> 00:33:49,440
Speaker 1: I hear my husband's voice and I go, oh, thank goodness,

538
00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:52,560
Speaker 1: and I turned around, but it's not my husband talking.

539
00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:56,040
Speaker 1: It's night Bug. I felt like somebody had punched me

540
00:33:56,040 --> 00:33:58,720
Speaker 1: in the gut and I speechless. I couldn't believe it.

541
00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:01,680
Speaker 1: So that's how I was introduced it. After that, were

542
00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:03,160
Speaker 1: you like, oh this is great, or you're like I

543
00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:05,920
Speaker 1: don't know about this, or oh my god, and immediately

544
00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:09,120
Speaker 1: immediately the same things we're in through my head, Oh

545
00:34:09,160 --> 00:34:11,719
Speaker 1: my god, how long has he been doing this? How

546
00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:14,440
Speaker 1: did he keep this from me? And I love this?

547
00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:17,000
Speaker 1: How can I get into it? Edwena seemed to be

548
00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:19,440
Speaker 1: known as rock and Roll was pretty well qualified for

549
00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:23,959
Speaker 1: superhero work. We've been martial artists and instructors for decades now,

550
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:27,040
Speaker 1: and I was the head of security for a night

551
00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:29,960
Speaker 1: club in San Francisco. It felt like being a bouncer,

552
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:32,920
Speaker 1: but for the entire city of San Francisco. These days,

553
00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:35,719
Speaker 1: Nightbug and Rock and Roll are something of a superhero

554
00:34:35,760 --> 00:34:39,600
Speaker 1: power couple. They founded the California chapter of the International

555
00:34:39,640 --> 00:34:43,960
Speaker 1: superhero group the Initiative in two thousand and eleven. Thirteen

556
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:47,400
Speaker 1: More Initiative chapters have sprung up since. As it happens,

557
00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:49,879
Speaker 1: the New York branch of the Initiative is the same

558
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:52,600
Speaker 1: group John Ronson went on patrol with, though a lot

559
00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:56,000
Speaker 1: of the membership has turned over since then. From their

560
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:58,640
Speaker 1: base in California, Rock and Roll and Night Bug have

561
00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:01,920
Speaker 1: become magnets for a firing superheroes all over the world.

562
00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:05,479
Speaker 1: We used to get several emails a month from people

563
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:07,440
Speaker 1: who are like, oh yeah, I can move things with

564
00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:11,080
Speaker 1: my mind, you know, Oh yeah, can you demonstrate that?

565
00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:14,440
Speaker 1: Oh no, no no, I can't do it over video because no, no, no,

566
00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:17,880
Speaker 1: there's always some excuse. I think it's a masterpiece of

567
00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:19,680
Speaker 1: an understatement to say that we get a few. We

568
00:35:19,719 --> 00:35:23,080
Speaker 1: get like, like, out of ten people, I'd say seven

569
00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:27,839
Speaker 1: people are just unrealistic about dudes. We don't go out

570
00:35:28,239 --> 00:35:31,040
Speaker 1: taking down drug lords. It's not what we do. You'll

571
00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:34,960
Speaker 1: find out really quickly that you don't actually have superpowers.

572
00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:38,560
Speaker 1: To make sure their budding recruits stay grounded on this

573
00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:41,600
Speaker 1: plane of reality, rock and Roll and night Bug run

574
00:35:41,600 --> 00:35:45,360
Speaker 1: a Facebook page were they and other veterans superheroes offer advice.

575
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:49,239
Speaker 1: They even have their own podcast called Heroes one oh one.

576
00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:53,919
Speaker 1: The initiative wasn't the only reason I wanted to talk

577
00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:57,440
Speaker 1: to rock and Roll. In night Bug, Phoenix Jones repeatedly

578
00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:01,319
Speaker 1: claimed to be the only true real life superhero one

579
00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:04,359
Speaker 1: who was flawless at crime fighting. But as you know,

580
00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:07,360
Speaker 1: I had my doubts. So every time I interviewed a

581
00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:10,280
Speaker 1: superhero for this series, I asked them who they thought

582
00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:13,080
Speaker 1: was the best example of a real life superhero out

583
00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:17,239
Speaker 1: there today, and again and again, people told me rock

584
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:20,200
Speaker 1: and Roll and night Bug. So I was curious to

585
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:22,080
Speaker 1: meet them and find out what they were up to.

586
00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:24,560
Speaker 1: It turns out it was a lot. They started out

587
00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:27,640
Speaker 1: doing community outreach to unhoused people in their community. Every

588
00:36:27,719 --> 00:36:31,319
Speaker 1: week we were going broke. To put it plainly, we'd

589
00:36:31,320 --> 00:36:34,000
Speaker 1: make two hundred burritos and you know, every week and

590
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:36,399
Speaker 1: then bring them out with socks and water and everything else,

591
00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:39,880
Speaker 1: and and pretty soon what we can't do this anymore.

592
00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:42,560
Speaker 1: At the time, Rock and Roll had been watching a

593
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:45,359
Speaker 1: lot of The Great British Baking Show, and so I

594
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:48,040
Speaker 1: was baking so much that my friends were going, you know,

595
00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:50,640
Speaker 1: if your family is getting sick of all the sugar

596
00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:53,560
Speaker 1: and you can't do anything with it, why don't you

597
00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:55,880
Speaker 1: just have a pop up, take the money and do

598
00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:58,520
Speaker 1: something good with it. Oh my god, there you go.

599
00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:03,080
Speaker 1: That's how the Bake Superhero Desserts was born. Of their

600
00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:06,879
Speaker 1: profits go to fund superhero community outreach events. Every month.

601
00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:09,840
Speaker 1: We had fifties people the last time, sixty people the

602
00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:13,239
Speaker 1: time before, and they all got together wearing superhero costumes

603
00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:17,600
Speaker 1: and making burritos and things together. They also carry out

604
00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:21,440
Speaker 1: safety patrols, run free self defense classes, and according to

605
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:25,920
Speaker 1: their website, they've personally collected eleven thousand used needles from

606
00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:28,440
Speaker 1: the streets of California. When I talked to Rock and

607
00:37:28,520 --> 00:37:31,480
Speaker 1: Roll and night Bug about the Seattle superhero scene, they

608
00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:34,000
Speaker 1: told me they were close with Evo and Crystal Marks,

609
00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:37,160
Speaker 1: and they were big fans of Red Ranger two, but

610
00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:41,040
Speaker 1: they were less complimentary about our old friend Phoenix Jones

611
00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:44,040
Speaker 1: to be perfectly blunt in Phoenix knows this. We've said

612
00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:47,360
Speaker 1: it before to him. Phoenix has a kind heart. But

613
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:50,759
Speaker 1: Phoenix has made a lot of really bad decisions. It's

614
00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:56,160
Speaker 1: sad that he's the biggest name you see, but you know,

615
00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:58,080
Speaker 1: we don't want people thinking the rest of us are

616
00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:02,640
Speaker 1: like him. Rock and Roll and night Bug definitely fall

617
00:38:02,680 --> 00:38:06,799
Speaker 1: into the category of superhero that Phoenix derisively calls real

618
00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:10,799
Speaker 1: life sandwich handlers, though at times Phoenix has apologized for

619
00:38:10,840 --> 00:38:12,759
Speaker 1: these types of remarks and said he wants to be

620
00:38:12,800 --> 00:38:16,719
Speaker 1: able to get along and work alongside all types of superheroes,

621
00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:19,880
Speaker 1: but then he'll launch into a rant about how people

622
00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:23,480
Speaker 1: who give out food in costumes are assholes. So it's

623
00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:25,360
Speaker 1: hard to take him in his word when he claims

624
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:28,759
Speaker 1: to be above the petty superhero in fighting. Rock and

625
00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:31,040
Speaker 1: Roll and night Bug told me they are interested in

626
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:34,960
Speaker 1: doing this work for glory or fame, another accusation Phoenix

627
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:38,239
Speaker 1: often lobbs at other superheroes. We try to hammer it

628
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:42,640
Speaker 1: into the community. Look, it's awful if you think about it,

629
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:46,160
Speaker 1: to want to be someone's hero, because you're essentially hoping

630
00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:48,400
Speaker 1: that someone will have the worst day of their life.

631
00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:52,160
Speaker 1: So for you to want to be, oh, I I

632
00:38:52,239 --> 00:38:56,440
Speaker 1: want to rescue someone today, just hope that everything's quiet.

633
00:38:56,560 --> 00:38:59,320
Speaker 1: And if you happen to be there for someone that's

634
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:06,200
Speaker 1: great for you, you not so great for them. I

635
00:39:06,239 --> 00:39:09,080
Speaker 1: think that is probably an ideal attitude that any superhero

636
00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:11,080
Speaker 1: should have when they head out on a patrol of

637
00:39:11,120 --> 00:39:13,759
Speaker 1: their community. At the end of the day, I would

638
00:39:13,800 --> 00:39:16,880
Speaker 1: say that I'm a supporter of the real life superhero community.

639
00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:20,319
Speaker 1: I think if you're judging real life superheroes solely on

640
00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:23,160
Speaker 1: their ability to fight crime, I would say the movement

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Speaker 1: as a whole has underdelivered on that promise. But I

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00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:30,120
Speaker 1: personally never had any experiences with the kind of superheroes

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00:39:30,239 --> 00:39:33,200
Speaker 1: John Ronson met, the ones whose hearts did not appear

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00:39:33,239 --> 00:39:35,480
Speaker 1: to be in the right place, So my take is

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00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:38,400
Speaker 1: a little different than his. I don't see the movement

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Speaker 1: itself is flawed. I think any movement will have its

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Speaker 1: bad apples, the ones who seem to be doing more

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Speaker 1: harm than good. But at least in my experience, I

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Speaker 1: think the vast majority of real life superheroes do way

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Speaker 1: more good for society than harm. It's hard to quantify

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00:39:56,600 --> 00:40:00,840
Speaker 1: just how much good they do but attempts have been made.

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Speaker 1: A study at the University of Sydney looked at real

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Speaker 1: life superheroes and found that, on average, they spent nineteen

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00:40:06,680 --> 00:40:10,160
Speaker 1: hours a week on superhero activity, which I assume is

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00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:13,440
Speaker 1: way more time than most people spend volunteering to help

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00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:18,240
Speaker 1: their own community. And I love the idea of every

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Speaker 1: town having its own unique superheroes, its own home team,

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Speaker 1: so to speak, instead of a superhero monoculture dominated by

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Speaker 1: the large corporations that control the intellectual property of DC

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00:40:29,719 --> 00:40:34,120
Speaker 1: and Marvel. I'm all for the diversification of the superhero universe,

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00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:39,200
Speaker 1: and I wholeheartedly support people's individual expression. Who doesn't love

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Speaker 1: seeing a kick ass homemade costume. I wish there were

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Speaker 1: more of real life superheroes and every city for kids

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Speaker 1: to encounter out in the wild, for the good humanitarian

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00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:51,560
Speaker 1: work they do, and for the sheer joy of having

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Speaker 1: eccentric characters roaming the streets, living out their own fantasies

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00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:14,480
Speaker 1: of what it means to be a hero. The Superhero

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Speaker 1: Complex is hosted and written by me David Weinberg and

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Speaker 1: reported by me Amalia Sortland and Caroline Thornha. Production from

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00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:27,360
Speaker 1: Mamalia Sortland and Caroline Thornham, Sean Glenn, Max O'Brien and

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00:41:27,480 --> 00:41:32,239
Speaker 1: David Waters are executive producers. Fact checking by Andrew Schwartz,

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00:41:32,960 --> 00:41:37,120
Speaker 1: Production management from Sharie Houston, Frankie Taylor and Charlotte Wolf.

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00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:42,759
Speaker 1: Sound design, mixing and scoring by Rob Spate. Music supervision

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00:41:42,880 --> 00:41:47,800
Speaker 1: by Nicholas Alexander and David Waters. Original music is composed

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00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:52,000
Speaker 1: by Paul Housden. Special thanks to Peter Tangan, Willard Foxton,

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00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:57,960
Speaker 1: Matt O'Mara, Katrina Norvelle Beth and Macaluso, Oran Rosenbaum, Shelby

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00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:01,480
Speaker 1: Shankman and all the team e t A. For more

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Speaker 1: from Novel, visit novel dot Audio