WEBVTT - 9: BONUS EP - Unsung Heroes 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:18.040 Novel. Greetings, you have reached the phone number of Tamerlane, 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:21.959 real life super villain. Please leave a message so we 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:31.280 can stay in touch and most importantly, stay evil. This 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:34.320 is tammer Lane, a real life super villain whose bonkers 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:38.040 online videos cut our attention. So we reached out to him, 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:40.480 and he agreed to chat with us From his secret layer. 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.000 I had to get all dolled up for you today 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:46.320 and put on my best leather Tamerlane did our interview 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.760 in his full super villain regalia. If you listen carefully, 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:52.839 you can hear his leather pants squeaking. He has a 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:56.200 shaved head and a beard dyed bright red. He wears 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:58.920 a metal gauntlet on one hand, and he accents his 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:01.760 look with a gold grill over his teeth and a 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:05.360 pair of mirrored sunglasses. Well, I just think aviators just 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:10.880 say to me, douche bag. When I see people in aviators, 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:12.760 I don't don't you don't you think they look douchey? 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:16.000 I do. They're like trying excessively hard to be cool, 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:19.440 So I adopted that as my own. Tamer Lane took 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:23.479 his name from a Turko Mongol conqueror rampaged across Central 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:26.640 Asia in the fourteenth century. He would leave piles of 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:30.200 humans heads outside of cities that he was going to 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.040 sack and lay siege to, and I think he left 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:35.760 a clear message. So he was a good inspiration for me. 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:39.880 But tammer Lane doesn't only take inspiration from ancient warriors. 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:43.319 As a child, I was a huge fan of Mr. 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:46.400 T So he was a little bit of an inspiration 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.680 to me as well. And in his more introspective moments, 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:52.920 timmer Lane would say his persona came from even closer 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:56.280 to home. Was there some sort of Nietzschean monster within 0:01:56.360 --> 0:02:01.240 us all, some sort of Carl Young's belief in the 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:05.400 shadows cell? Yes, I would say that the disconnect I 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:08.519 had with my own family and my own father helped 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:13.080 create this character. Also my disappointment in society, trying to 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:15.960 be a good citizen, trying to do the right thing 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:18.800 and get a nine to five job and work forty 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:21.960 hours a week and be an obedient servant of the 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:26.080 fascional capitalist system. I think failing at that. And again 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:29.760 my disconnect from my family, Yes, helped create this character. 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:33.560 As you might have gathered from his voicemail, an affinity 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:37.440 for bloodthirsty warlords timmer Lane identifies as a real life 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.800 supervillain and a bit like Rex Velvet. He sees it 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:44.320 as his duty to offer a kind of meta commentary 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:47.600 on the superhero world. I was at home one day 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:51.600 and I was stroking my beloved pet, and I noticed 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:55.760 on the news the story came on about real life superheroes, 0:02:57.560 --> 0:02:59.880 and mostly it would seem that these real life shoulder 0:02:59.880 --> 0:03:03.880 here spent their time handing out sandwiches and warm socks. 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.679 And I thought to myself, what arrogance. How dare they 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:12.480 go around calling themselves real life superheroes when they set 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:17.000 the ball so low. So I said to myself, well, ourself, 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:22.840 you all a real life super villain by comparison. So 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.840 from that day forth, I made it my goal to 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:29.480 become the best real life super villain I could become. 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:32.360 Timmer Lane isn't above his own heroics when the moment 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:35.119 calls for it. One time, he says he got into 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.280 a fight with a Wolverine impersonator at a nightclub. It 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:40.840 was a party and he was like squirting tequila into 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:44.839 a to the mouths of miners, and he had a microphone. 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:46.600 I thought it would be a good idea to take 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:49.280 it from him, So I took his microphone and began 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.040 riding through the nightclub, saying, a super villain's up in 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:56.760 here running this bitch. He didn't like that he tackled 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:00.400 me from behind. His other hobbies include protesting aginst what 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:07.400 he calls his enemies insurrectionists, fascist Republicans, Christians, even dare 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:11.240 I say. He also runs a supervillain YouTube channel where 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:16.600 he reviews fast food. Alright, guys, this is the Derek 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:20.520 We Yeah, he starred in short films and he does 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:23.920 charity work. My charity has saved the chips dot org. 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:26.960 Being that I am an anthropology major, I have a 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:33.440 very close affinity to our chimpanzee cousins. We didn't get 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:36.000 to hear from tamer Lane in the main series because 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:38.640 tamer Lane isn't a part of the Seattle superhero scene. 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:42.279 He's from Miami. He's just one of many people all 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.240 over America and the world who've taken up a cape 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:47.560 or mask, or in this case, a pair of leather 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:51.919 trousers and joined the real life superhero community. And the 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:54.480 course of making the superhero complex, I met a lot 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.120 more than just Phoenix and his crew. So in this 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:00.320 bonus episode, I wanted to fire up the Batmobile one 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:02.800 more time and take you on a whistle stop tour 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:06.160 of the rest of this wild world and the folks 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:10.760 like Tammer Lane who inhabited I'm David Weinberg and from 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.240 the teams at Novel and I Heart Radio. This is 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:44.280 the Superhero Complex, Episode nine, Unsung Heroes. One person who 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:46.440 got to know the real life superhero world as well 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:49.920 as I did is writer and broadcaster John Ronson, who 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:52.880 we heard from an episode four. John hung out with 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:56.840 real life superheroes from across America, but like me, his 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.760 introduction to this weird and wild world start it in Seattle, 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:04.640 in true Phoenix Jones style. The first time I met him, 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:06.200 he was in the emergency room. I got off the 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:08.400 plane in Seattle and got a message that he had 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:12.039 been shot. I think I was stabbed. My first thought, 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.760 of course, was a shift. I've just traveled Britain and 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:18.840 he's been stabbed, So that's how empathetic I was after 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:22.880 a twelve hour flight. So I got to the emergency 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:25.640 room and he's there in the superhero outfit of the 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.680 emergency room, and he had been stabbed. But it's like 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:31.560 it's okay. You know, I was stabbed earlier tonight, but 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.599 I'm gonna go out and patrol some more. And I'm like, 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:36.960 are you sure? And then the doctor came in and 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.360 asked him about his family doctor, and he named his pediatrician, 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:44.600 and I said, are you a child? But it turns 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:46.479 out you can. He was like, twenty three and you 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:48.280 can be with you pede addition to the twenty four, 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:52.120 apparently in America. I did say to him, look, you've 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:56.120 just been stabbed. Are you sure that you want to patrol? 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:58.919 Like I can honestly wait till tomorrow. No, He's like, no, 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:03.280 fib ing out. A couple of nights later, they went 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:05.600 on the patrol where they had ultimately faced down the 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:09.640 crack dealers in Belltown. But before that epic showdown, John 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:13.440 said Phoenix was clutching its straws, trying to find crimes 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:18.040 to thwart. Phoenix saw somebody pass the back to someone else. 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:23.440 How he went yacht sie right across the road and said, 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:29.040 it's got its stupid superhero fits, Sir, can I see 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:34.280 that baggy? And it was it was pretzels, And he 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:40.320 was like so disappointed. I was jealous that John had 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.640 even this experience while on patrol with Phoenix, I wasn't 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:46.840 so lucky. We never even encountered a bag of salty 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:52.080 snacks being exchanged suspiciously. Comparing notes on Phoenix Jones wasn't 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:54.560 the only reason I wanted to talk to John. He 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.080 spent a lot of time with other different real life 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.040 superheroes too, and I was curious to learn what he 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:03.320 made of the whole scene. He told me in his experience, 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:07.200 they fell into two camps. You've got the sort of 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:12.720 Phoenix type ones who are into the costumes, and sometimes 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:15.080 they even have like the special weapons like the web 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:18.760 gun or the grappling hooks, So you've got that sort 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:25.040 of which Phoenix was the clear like leader, and they 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:26.960 all looked up to him. He had the best costume, 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:30.640 He was the most charismatic. That lot were quite camp. 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:33.280 I remember we were looking at this group of crack 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:35.440 addicts that they wanted to break up at the best 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:39.400 stop at three in the morning, and the crack addicts 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:42.480 were looking at us and the superheroes we like murmuring 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:45.920 to each other, and the crack addicts were presumably thinking, 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.080 you know, what are they saying to each other? And 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:52.119 what the superheroes were saying to each other was, oh, 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:56.080 I love your black and yellow color scheme. The yellow 0:08:56.120 --> 0:09:00.840 really pops. So they were So you had that genre 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:04.439 her superhero who were all pretty delightful, even though I 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:06.400 didn't agree with what they were doing. But then you 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:08.760 had this other sort who I thought were much worse. 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:14.839 John told me he met some superheroes who represented the 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:17.560 second camp when he was in New York City. He 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:20.840 went on patrol with the group called the New York Initiative, 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:25.360 and they loved him feeling deeply uncomfortable. They were barely 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:28.840 superheroes at all. What they really were. With the Gilantes, 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:32.880 they didn't make much of an effort with the color scheme. 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:39.559 It was more just balaklavas, and they wanted to break 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:43.840 up drug dealers in Washington Square Park. But it was 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:48.520 only when they ran towards this guy with lights, like flashlights. 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.320 I mean, they were terrifying this guy. They surrounded this 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:54.800 guy and they had like like floodlights and we're like 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:58.800 lit him up, and the poor guy was like running away, saying, 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:00.760 you don't know me, you don't know anything about me, 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:03.240 you don't know why I'm here, you know this? And 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.040 I was on his side, and this guy was selling 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:08.679 weed to the students at n y U and they 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:13.640 did all of that. You know, it's terrifying the life 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:18.760 out of this poor guy with lights and shaming for weed. 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:23.679 Now a few years later, weeds legal and you can 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:27.880 stand in Washington Square Park and smoke weed and the 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:30.800 police are fine because it's legal to do it. So 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:34.560 out of a bad vibe with them, I thought they 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:37.960 were very unpleasant because after My Peace came out, this 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:42.280 one guy who was the ringleader of the New York Crew, 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:44.880 it was like really angry. It was like, you know, 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:49.199 let's get ronson. And remember somebody said to me, oh, 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:53.040 he's really troubled. I never encountered this type of superhero 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:55.839 in Seattle. Everyone I talked to seemed to be more 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:58.680 of the Phoenix camp, well meaning folks who seemed to 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.320 have their hearts in the right place. Is But John 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.360 wasn't just uncomfortable with the real life superheroes he met 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:07.680 in New York. He thinks the whole movement is flawed. 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:11.600 I don't believe in real life superheroing, Like I don't 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:15.560 think it's something that people should do. Look at the 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:19.240 real place of a flawed too, but they're flowed in 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.360 a different way. And quite often when we tried better 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:27.400 the justice system, we bring new problems to it. You 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:31.200 see that with social media shaming, and I think you 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:32.959 see it with the real life superhero So one of 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.840 the main things is just that they're they're too into it. 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:39.679 And when you're too into something, that's when that's where 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:43.440 the problems starts. That's when you commit miscourages of justice. 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:47.439 So that was my main animus was that there were 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.480 two into it. They were into the fame. It was 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.000 like a badge of honor to to thwart a crime. 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:56.679 And I don't think crime fighters should feel about crime 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:00.320 that way. It should be both pragmatic and by the book. Yeah, 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:03.480 I found this to be true for Phoenix Jones as well. 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.400 I think his desire for fame and compulsion to find 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:10.680 crime don't serve him well in his attempt to live 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:14.360 up to the ideals of a superhero. But despite John's 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:18.040 reservations about the real life superhero communities crime fighting tactics, 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:20.840 he told me that Phoenix was his favorite. Out of 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:24.000 all the heroes he met, Phoenix was the best. I mean, 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:30.439 that's why you're doing him. He was just the most charismatic, funny, charming. Inevitably, 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:34.679 then some of them will be like angry and troubled, 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:38.280 and he didn't feel like that some of them would 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:44.920 be like nerdy, um kind of misfits. And I think 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:47.760 Phoenix was a misfit, but not in a kind of 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:50.400 gamer type. I mean, I'm sure he is a gamer, 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:53.079 but he wasn't like one of those sort of nerdy 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:55.240 guys who just spend two long sign front of his 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:57.719 computer and decides to buy and outfit go out into 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:01.360 it on the streets of what There were other superheroes 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:04.439 who were like that, you know, a little out of shape, 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:07.200 and you could tell that they were just passing through. 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:13.160 I asked John if he still thought of Phoenix that 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:18.400 way even after his conviction on drug conspiracy charges. I 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:24.240 was genuinely startled and saddened. Like like everyone, one of 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:28.360 my least favorite things is hypocrisy, and obviously the first 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.959 thing you think as well as her hypocrite. But mainly 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.200 I just felt sad, like I know from spending that 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:37.800 time with Phoenix that he's a sweet guy. He wants 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:42.240 to do good. You know, Phoenix is a very unique person. 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:47.960 He's this sort of weird kind of specialness to him. 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:53.880 It feels like it's a little sullied now because we 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:57.720 wanted him to be He was setting himself up as pure, 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:02.520 and we wanted him to be pure. John said that 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:05.600 compared to the New York superheroes who just seemed angry 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.880 and vengeful when they chased down drug dealers, Phoenix had 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:12.080 seemed a lot more idealistic. In fact, John said when 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:14.480 they faced off with the crack dealers on the patrol 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:17.600 we heard about an episode four, he really felt Phoenix 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:20.720 was genuine. The conversation that I overheard with the crack 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:22.920 data was like, I've got no choice. This is how 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:25.320 I feed my family. I've got no choice. And Phoenix 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:28.400 was like, sir, you do have a choice. It was like, 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:30.720 you know, trying to be a positive. Influence said, I'm 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:33.480 sure that was real. That was part of what attracted 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:37.000 him to us was that he was innocent and sweet 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.920 and pure, and yeah he was goofy, and yeah there 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:44.560 were definitely some bad sides to what he did, getting 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:47.000 too into it, but there was a kind of goofy. 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:49.880 This sort of purity to him. Had the problem with 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:55.600 the drug allegation is that it's not pure anymore. It's 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:59.560 like hypocritical And I heard that. Now people yeah, hypocritic 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:01.920 at him as he walks down the street in Seattle. Now, 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:05.440 my guests is that there's a complicated set of circumstances 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:07.320 as to why he ended up in that situation. But 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:13.240 the problem is no one likes hypocrisy. That was the 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:16.160 same problem I had with Phoenix. But John said that 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:19.360 for all Phoenix's flaws, there was still one moment that 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:22.520 stuck in his mind. My last memory of Phoenix were 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:26.280 all of these kids just gathered around him like so excited. 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:29.000 Oh my god, it's Phoenix Jones. It's Phoenix Jones. And 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:32.200 though he was a celebrity. As I walked away, I 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:35.000 looked back and I saw these kids with Phoenix, and 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:38.480 I thought, well, he's no different to a superhero. He's 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:43.480 giving these kids the same joy that a real superhero would. 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:47.720 So he is a superhero in a way. For all 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:50.960 the ups and downs in Phoenix's superhero career, there's no 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:54.000 denying that he has genuinely inspired people along the way, 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:57.640 and not just in the US. The superheroes John met 0:15:57.760 --> 0:15:59.880 and the ones I've spent time with in this series 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.320 so far are all based in America, but since the 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:06.360 heyday of the Rain City Crew, the real life superhero 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:10.800 movement has gone international. It's time to meet the Cape Crusaders, 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.960 who are fighting crime all over the globe that's coming up. 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:40.480 America may be the birthplace of the classic comic book 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:44.000 superheroes and the country where the real life superhero movement 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:46.760 found its feet, but all over the world there are 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:51.640 thriving pockets of superhero activity. Who knows, maybe there's even 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:54.720 a Mask Avenger in your neighborhood, sneaking out late at 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.560 night in a cape and mask to ward off muggers 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:00.560 or clean up the streets. So first stop on our 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:05.080 Superhero World tour is Japan. I guess there are about 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:09.680 party heroes in Japan. This is Clean Panther. She wears 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.800 a blue, red, and black kimono and a futuristic yellow 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:16.080 panther mask that covers her whole head. Japan has the 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:19.320 biggest real life superhero scene I encountered outside of America. 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:22.480 But whereas the groups I met in Seattle were into 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.040 crime fighting and homeless outreach, the big focus in Japan 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.920 is picking up litter. That's how Clean Panther got her name. 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:35.119 My main activity is clean up Tongue. So named Clean 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:40.600 and also combined with Panther. I love Black Panther, the 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:45.280 Marvel superhero Clean Panther and her superhero crew go on 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:50.119 litter patrols, picking up trash in Goya, Japan's fourth largest city. 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:53.520 They're just some of many heroes with names like Hell Hero, 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:59.280 Clean Arrow and Maroons Sparrow, who gear up in fantastical 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:03.119 masks and buddy armor to tidy up their cities. For 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:06.600 Phoenix Jones, a patrol that isn't focused on taking out 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:10.040 bad guys as a patrol wasted, so I can imagine 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:12.480 he wouldn't fit in too well with the Japanese scene, 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:15.200 but they do have one thing in common. The real 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:18.719 life superheroes of Japan are great at social media. They 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:21.600 post videos of themselves cleaning up their towns, shot like 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:31.920 an action film with a comic book movie soundtrack. Over 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:35.280 in Europe they have their own superheroes too well. Of course, 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:37.879 I can give you my real name, but um I 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:42.320 go the Colonel Spider. The Incredible Spider is from the Netherlands. 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:45.040 He likes to keep his superhero activities on the download, 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:48.120 so he asked us to disguise his voice. I want 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:52.639 to protect myself and UM, I don't say that I 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:56.240 worked outside with the law, but sometimes it really has 0:18:56.280 --> 0:19:00.080 its benefits to not work specifically by the law, A 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:04.000 warming he says. He divides his time between online vigilanteism 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:07.399 and real life street patrols, and his costume is a 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:12.000 tribute to his favorite superhero, Spider Man. He was basically 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:15.320 the one character that really inspired me to do more, 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:17.800 to do all this um, and it's also a symbol 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:22.399 that people trust, people feel safe around Spider Man. He 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:24.440 wears a red suit with a white spider on the 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:28.639 chest over stab proof armor and a homemade protective spider mask. 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.199 He even builds his own Spider Man inspired gadgets, like 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:34.800 a d i y web slinger. I got some what 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:38.080 shooters with the fluid that has like apers mixture in it, 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:40.720 so if somebody were to attach me, I can like 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:43.200 simply pepperscrate him and they wouldn't see it. Like it's 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:45.440 it's all covered into suits. So people want to see 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:50.080 you come in. The Incredible Spider has a pretty defined aesthetic, 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:53.320 albeit one that borrows heavily from one of fiction's most 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:56.359 well known superheroes. It's not easy to come up with 0:19:56.400 --> 0:20:00.080 your own superhero identity. Sometimes it takes time to refine it. 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:03.399 There's also another Dutch superhero who went through a lot 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:06.720 of different alter egos before he ultimately landed on the 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:12.720 perfect alias. My first alias I've used was Blue Tornado. 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:15.960 I was called Blue Tornado because those were the only 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:19.720 two English words I knew back at the time. After that, 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:23.720 it was Black Shadow, then Green Assassin for a while, 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:27.200 and I just jumped to my closet, like, what, what's 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:30.520 the most superhero combination of clothes I have right now? 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:33.359 And there wasn't all black suit. And that's when I 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:37.920 started Shadow Panther. And Shadow Panther was the alias I've 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:42.320 actually got arrested with because they thought I was trouble. 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:45.480 This was a few years ago, when Shadow Panther was 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:49.000 around seventeen. I was walking through a bark because the 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:53.320 killer clown hype was raging. Back then, if the killer 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:56.480 clown hype passed you by, it was an international hoax 0:20:56.560 --> 0:20:58.960 that got a lot of traction. Around two thousand and sixteen. 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:02.600 They were rooms and news stories about evil clowns popping 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:05.680 up all over the world who supposedly preyed on children, 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:08.320 and it was like, Hey, I'm going out there in 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:11.240 the bark trying to get killy clowns. And I had 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:14.240 this like a huge iron barrow with me to protect myself, 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:17.600 you know. And this couple of guys came by and 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:19.520 they asked me what I was doing, so I just 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:23.200 started explaining. So the two guys called the police, who 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:26.360 weren't impressed. And what I would give to have been 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:30.000 there to see Shadow Panther decked out in his full costume, 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:33.359 explaining to the cops that he was there to fight 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:37.359 off killer clowns. I tried to mimic like a panther's face, 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:42.320 but it kind of was like like like a shnake face. Um. 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:44.760 It had like little teeth at the mouth opening and 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:49.120 stuff and safety goggles in it. It was completely made 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:51.760 of trash backs and dark tape. That run in with 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:54.800 the cops was basically the end of the Shadow Panther era. 0:21:55.520 --> 0:21:58.400 Now he's known as Blood Slash, and he says he's 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:01.440 given up on ridding the world a killer clowns. I'm 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:03.800 there to help people out with small things, pointing the 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:07.320 directions and stuff, and if trouble is going down, I'm 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:09.639 trying to be there, to be one of the people 0:22:09.800 --> 0:22:12.439 that has their phone in their hands, calls the alarm 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:16.960 number that kind of thinks I have to say to me. 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:21.040 The name blood Slash doesn't really say I'm your friendly 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:24.359 neighborhood helper Warden. But maybe it won't be the final 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:28.399 alias this intrepid hero tries on for size. If he 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:30.480 ever decided to take up the good old iron bar 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:33.480 again and head to Seattle, I think blood Slash would 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:36.920 find a kindred spirit in Midnight Jack. After all, once 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:39.199 upon a time, Jack was just a guy in a 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:43.680 mask hiding in a bush with a baseball bat. Over 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:46.480 in Mexico, the scene is a little different. Mexico is 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:48.320 home to one of my favorite offshoots of the real 0:22:48.320 --> 0:22:53.480 life superhero World. Meet political scientist Jorge Kane is a 0:22:53.680 --> 0:23:00.600 k A. Jorge studied urban planning and transportation in college. 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:03.520 When he was growing up in Mexico City, he discovered 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:08.119 his true passion in life, road safety. We built cities 0:23:08.200 --> 0:23:13.960 for cars, motorized CDs, metal machines in the streets, killing 0:23:14.080 --> 0:23:18.240 everyone literally. Jorge struggled to get other people as fired 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:21.120 up about infrastructure as he was. You know it could 0:23:21.160 --> 0:23:24.440 be boring to talk about pedestrians with people, and nobody 0:23:24.480 --> 0:23:28.560 will read the academic paper about pedestrian road safety. Then 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:31.600 one night, Jorge and his best friend went to catch 0:23:31.600 --> 0:23:34.399 a Lucha libre wrestling match. It was something they did 0:23:34.440 --> 0:23:37.960 all the time, but that night was different. Jorge watched 0:23:38.000 --> 0:23:40.480 the mask luchi door fighters throw each other around the 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:44.679 ring and they're gleaming costumes, and a crazy idea popped 0:23:44.680 --> 0:23:48.800 into his head. We need to do something fun. Uh, 0:23:49.440 --> 0:23:52.720 why not after the match we buy a cape and 0:23:52.800 --> 0:23:55.960 a mask and go out to the streets to fight 0:23:56.119 --> 0:23:59.679 for the rights of pedestrians. And just like that, a 0:23:59.760 --> 0:24:05.840 new hero was born El po that's Spanish for the pedestrian. 0:24:06.640 --> 0:24:11.080 For his first few outings, Lato wore a five dollar cape, 0:24:11.880 --> 0:24:14.320 but then he got an upgrade. A brother helped me 0:24:14.400 --> 0:24:18.919 with the design of the mask. It's a crosswalk with 0:24:18.960 --> 0:24:24.360 a pedestrian. I told my grandmother to help me design 0:24:24.440 --> 0:24:29.120 my cape, and my cape has white and black stripes, 0:24:29.880 --> 0:24:35.679 just like a pedestrian crosswalk. With his new supersuit, Lao 0:24:36.040 --> 0:24:38.679 set out to brave the onslaught of rush hour in 0:24:38.760 --> 0:24:42.680 Mexico City. He wove through road raging drivers and toxic 0:24:42.720 --> 0:24:46.320 exhaust fumes with his black and white crosswalk cape streaming 0:24:46.320 --> 0:24:50.680 out behind him. I pushed back cars that are obstructing 0:24:50.680 --> 0:24:57.120 the crosswalk. I paint the sidewalks, and I paint crosswalks 0:24:57.119 --> 0:25:04.120 and bikeways without any pyramids. And my most controversial action 0:25:04.440 --> 0:25:09.199 in the streets is to walk on top of the 0:25:09.280 --> 0:25:14.720 cars parked on the sidewalk, because the sidewalk is the 0:25:14.760 --> 0:25:17.760 space of pedestrians. My mother tells me that I can 0:25:17.840 --> 0:25:20.280