Speaker 1: Around two thousand and nine, the rumors started to spread
Speaker 1: stories of a masked vigilante jumping out of the shadows
Speaker 1: to help the citizens of Seattle. A guy in a
Speaker 1: skin tight rubber suit, tall and pretty ripped. He wore
Speaker 1: a hooded rubber mask that covered his eyes like the
Speaker 1: Batman cowl. He had black gloves and a black chest
Speaker 1: plate molded into a six pack with a gold chevron
Speaker 1: across the chest. One night, a guy named Dan was
Speaker 1: walking through a parking lot in downtown Seattle when he
Speaker 1: came upon a menacing looking dude trying to break into
Speaker 1: a car. Dan pulled out his phone to call nine one,
Speaker 1: but before he could reach the police, something totally insane happened.
Speaker 1: The masked man emerged from the shadows and chased the
Speaker 1: would be car thief away. Someone else said the guy
Speaker 1: in the costume stopped mugging. Another person saw him break
Speaker 1: up a fight outside a bar. There were more and
Speaker 1: more encounters like this. It became clear the rumors were true.
Speaker 1: There was a dark knight out there patrolling the streets
Speaker 1: of Seattle, and he called himself Phoenix Jones. I am
Speaker 1: a superhero. I'm the world's first legally defined superhero. I'm
Speaker 1: David Weinberg in my new podcast series The Superhero Complex
Speaker 1: from the teams at Novel and I Heart Radio. I
Speaker 1: want to take you on a wild journey into the
Speaker 1: world of real life superheroes. All over the world, there
Speaker 1: are people who put on costumes and head out into
Speaker 1: the streets to fight crime, and the most legendary of
Speaker 1: them all is Phoenix Jones. I am just a crime fighter.
Speaker 1: I just happen to have a freaking Dobeufin. Phoenix and
Speaker 1: his crew sidekicks, the Rain City Superheroes, patrolled the streets
Speaker 1: of Seattle. Their goal was to strike fear into the
Speaker 1: hearts of Seattle's criminals. I've been in seventeen knifelights, and
Speaker 1: I've taken down six gunmen. I stopped a sex trafficking ring.
Speaker 1: I technically stopped a Homelight act of terror, but in
Speaker 1: it was Phoenix who found himself on the wrong side
Speaker 1: of the law, caught with four grams of suspected cocaine.
Speaker 1: I've spent months getting to know these self proclaimed superheroes,
Speaker 1: and in this bizarre world, what's real is never that certain?
Speaker 1: Like are they actually heroes in the first place? When
Speaker 1: you're in a cult. You don't necessarily understand you're in
Speaker 1: a cult. This is the mafia. This is what a
Speaker 1: mafia does. Is Phoenix a model citizen standing up for
Speaker 1: justice or is he a misguided vigilante who used his
Speaker 1: superhero persona to get away with his own crimes. He
Speaker 1: pawned a bunch of team equipment for drugs. He's a
Speaker 1: master gas lighter. Phoenix Stones is a liar. As I
Speaker 1: try to find out, they'll be danger and heartbreak, friendship
Speaker 1: and betrayal, and like any self respecting superhero story, a
Speaker 1: good chase scene here and there. This is what cromefighters do.
Speaker 1: We run on buildings, we swinging from ropes like I'm ready,
Speaker 1: you know? So, how about we fire up the Batmobile
Speaker 1: and take it for a spin. And if you're like me,
Speaker 1: maybe you'll come out on the other side of this
Speaker 1: questioning your own beliefs about who the real heroes are.
Speaker 1: I'm a trained warrior, I'm not playing the game. Listen
Speaker 1: to The Superhero Complex starting on April five on the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts.