Speaker 1: Novel. In the aftermath of Phoenix's arrest, there was a
Speaker 1: lot of local news coverage of the pepper spray incident.
Speaker 1: The same real life superheroes we introduced you to in
Speaker 1: November are now stirring up trouble for Seattle police. Are
Speaker 1: they superheroes or a super problem? People in Seattle started
Speaker 1: to question Phoenix's methods. Was he really out there fighting
Speaker 1: crime or was he just wandering around at two am
Speaker 1: with a can of pepper spray looking to break up
Speaker 1: bar fights. Among the many Seattleites watching Phoenix's troubles unfold
Speaker 1: was a mysterious figure lurking in the shadows. Eventually he
Speaker 1: would emerge from the darkness, but for now, he was
Speaker 1: watching the coverage from his secret layer. You gotta have
Speaker 1: a villain, can't be a hero without a On the
Speaker 1: rain City superheroes had their detractors, but a single voice
Speaker 1: rose above the rest. A new enemy was about to surface.
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome Rex Velvet. Seattle's greatest real life supervillain
Speaker 1: was born. Though he looked more like a character you
Speaker 1: might find on a bottle of mustache wax than a
Speaker 1: super villain. He wore dapper outfits like velvet waistcoats and
Speaker 1: shiny suits, sometimes with a bow tie. He had an
Speaker 1: eye patch, a cartoonish mustache, and a flair for the dramatic.
Speaker 1: My Dean Citty, I can recall a time when I
Speaker 1: could leave this layer and conduct my duties proudly and
Speaker 1: without distraction. But now he's out there while with this
Speaker 1: silly gang of mismit power ranges, disturbing the peace. He
Speaker 1: called himself the people's villain, and he vowed not to
Speaker 1: rest until he destroyed the famous Phoenix Jones. It's time
Speaker 1: to get real, Jones. The community would be better off
Speaker 1: without you. You're doing more harm than good, and I'm
Speaker 1: willing to bet that a sensible, sane majority would agree
Speaker 1: with me. You're a nuisance, a snitch shake. He must
Speaker 1: be stopped once and for all. Bollocks. Rex Velvet burst
Speaker 1: onto the scene in two thousand and twelve. He made
Speaker 1: his entrance into the world in slick, high production videos
Speaker 1: that he shot and released online. If this grand battle
Speaker 1: was to be judged on the quality of the videos
Speaker 1: they posted, Rex would have been the clear winner. His
Speaker 1: videos mocking Phoenix and his team started attracting hundreds of
Speaker 1: thousands of views, these days. Like Phoenix, Rex Velvet doesn't
Speaker 1: have a secret identity. He posted his videos under his
Speaker 1: real name, Ryan Corey. He's the social villain. He's the
Speaker 1: culmination of all those old comic book villains that are
Speaker 1: part campy, part comically cowardly. You know, if Batman and
Speaker 1: Robin were to show up, the Riddler would just laugh
Speaker 1: and run away. In his civilian life, Rex is a
Speaker 1: video producer. He'd been watching the rain City superheroes growing
Speaker 1: popularity and increasingly frequent TV appearances, but he was skeptical
Speaker 1: about them, especially after Phoenix's pepper spraying controversy. He had
Speaker 1: the idea of coming up with a character to call
Speaker 1: out what he saw as hypocrisy and to hold Phoenix
Speaker 1: to account, to make people think about, Okay, well, is
Speaker 1: this really serving the community or is this serving an individual.
Speaker 1: Unlike Phoenix, Rex saw his supervillain identity as a make
Speaker 1: belief character. It was kind of like playing WWF bad
Speaker 1: guy wrestler. This is a soap opera where Phoenix has
Speaker 1: told me many times he's not playing a game. And
Speaker 1: that's not the only thing that Rex and Phoenix don't
Speaker 1: see eye to eye on. Rex said he tried to
Speaker 1: reach out to Phoenix several times. When a friend of
Speaker 1: his approached Phoenix in the gym on his behalf, Phoenix
Speaker 1: seemed annoyed and flat out refused to speak to Rex.
Speaker 1: I thought back then, oh, maybe we can do some
Speaker 1: fundraising work. Maybe we can work with some nonprofits. Rex
Speaker 1: told me he'd done some work as a super villain
Speaker 1: for to make a Wish Foundation. When you're being involved
Speaker 1: at levels like that, you think, huh, why wouldn't this
Speaker 1: guy want to also be involved in charity work. Rex
Speaker 1: wasn't convinced by Phoenix's approach. I believe you want to
Speaker 1: lead a good life, and you see this as your
Speaker 1: maybe method for helping. I just wonder about the tact
Speaker 1: in which he's executing the vision and is it effective,
Speaker 1: is it getting the results you want? And is it
Speaker 1: serving the community or is it playing dress up? I
Speaker 1: can see why Rex would have rubbed Phoenix the wrong
Speaker 1: way with his over the top comedy villain persona. As
Speaker 1: you know by now, Phoenix doesn't think there's anything funny
Speaker 1: about crime fighting. I also wonder if maybe it was
Speaker 1: an ego thing as well. The Phoenix didn't want to
Speaker 1: share the spotlight. But when I asked Phoenix about it.
Speaker 1: He said he had other reasons for his hatred of Rex.
Speaker 1: His whole thing was like, oh, I thought it would
Speaker 1: be fun to like play up our rivalry and use
Speaker 1: it as a way to raise money for charity. Basically,
Speaker 1: that's not what he wanted to do. He went to
Speaker 1: vodka he called me trying to get me to get
Speaker 1: on T shirts to sell vodka and make money, and
Speaker 1: he was talking about shopping the profits and going on
Speaker 1: fucking tour. What a fucking liar. You wanted to sell
Speaker 1: T shirts go on a fake crime fighting tour and
Speaker 1: fight each other in the city with fake fights and
Speaker 1: sell tickets and T shirts. That's what that do want
Speaker 1: to do? That he is a liar. After hearing Phoenix
Speaker 1: talk openly about lying to the media to promote his
Speaker 1: own cause, it was curious to hear him get so
Speaker 1: fired up about truth telling. To strike back at Rex,
Speaker 1: Phoenix says he concocted a dastardly plan of his own.
Speaker 1: I copyrighted the name Rex Velvet and took the copyright
Speaker 1: leagal ownership of it and then told him to season desist.
Speaker 1: Really yeah him. Rex never mentioned this or the alleged
Speaker 1: vodka deals when we spoke, but when we put it
Speaker 1: to him afterwards, he replied, I'll say this, none of
Speaker 1: that information is true. This is the first time I've
Speaker 1: ever heard of it. Rex also said he never met
Speaker 1: Phoenix and that all his attempts to reach out to
Speaker 1: him so they could quote meet as men and discuss
Speaker 1: potential superhero collaborations had been unsuccessful. Just f y I.
Speaker 1: If you search the U S Copyright Office database, the
Speaker 1: only copyright filings for Rex Velvet are three videos and
Speaker 1: a logo, all registered to Ryan Corey, not Phoenix Jones
Speaker 1: or his alter ego Ben Photo. If you believe Phoenix's
Speaker 1: side of the story, Rex Velvet as an opportunist who
Speaker 1: tried to make a buck or maybe just promote his
Speaker 1: work as a video producer. According to Rex, Phoenix is
Speaker 1: stuck up and delusional, taking himself way too seriously. But
Speaker 1: as Phoenix himself told me, history is written by the winners,
Speaker 1: and either way, it wasn't long before Rex Velvet was
Speaker 1: sucked into the world of Phoenix Jones and his team.
Speaker 1: People started coming to Rex with allegations about Phoenix as
Speaker 1: if he were a real villain in search of dirt
Speaker 1: on Seattle's own hero. The magnet of Rex Velvet was
Speaker 1: drawing people in that really wanted to destroy, and you
Speaker 1: get threats aims not at you, but at the hero
Speaker 1: people would play informant on the Internet. I don't think
Speaker 1: he understands how far I've gone to make sure that
Speaker 1: people aren't attacking the guy. I don't want to see
Speaker 1: this guy hurt. I don't want to see the city attacked.
Speaker 1: And I go, whoa, whoa, whoa, not signing up for that. No,
Speaker 1: thank you. I'm gonna put a pause on this. They
Speaker 1: weren't all just random internet trolls either. Some of the
Speaker 1: people coming with stories about Phoenix and about Ben Fodor
Speaker 1: seemed like they were close to him. I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: like you call yourself Ben's friends, Like you're kind of
Speaker 1: talking smack about your your boy here behind us back.
Speaker 1: It's funny. It's as if everyone that joined his cause
Speaker 1: doesn't like him, and the only person left who really
Speaker 1: is more than ever interested in liking him is me.
Speaker 1: And the most sinister thing that Rex could say is well, well,
Speaker 1: well no more, friends, guess you're stuck with me. In
Speaker 1: Seattle in two thousand and twelve, the line between heroes
Speaker 1: and villains looked thinner than ever. Fresh from the trauma
Speaker 1: of the Nicole Westbrook shooting, Phoenix was going rogue out
Speaker 1: on patrols. Meanwhile, his fellow superheroes were dishing dirt to
Speaker 1: his arch enemy, and soon the world of the Rain
Speaker 1: City Superheroes would descend into costumed chaos. I'm David Weinberg
Speaker 1: and from the Team's at novel and I heart Radio.
Speaker 1: This is the Superhero Complex, Episode six, Kryptonite. By early
Speaker 1: two thousand and twelve, Phoenix was struggling. He had clashed
Speaker 1: with the authorities over the Pepper Sprayer arrest, He'd lost
Speaker 1: the job he loved working with artistic kids, and he
Speaker 1: was also having to spend a lot of his time
Speaker 1: trying to prove to the state that he wasn't insane.
Speaker 1: A lot of his personal life it often be in shambles.
Speaker 1: His words, actually, that's Evocatus Phoenix is former right hand
Speaker 1: man an unofficial chauffeur. He says that it was obvious
Speaker 1: that Phoenix was having money problems. I knew things weren't
Speaker 1: going well because he would always be sniffing around for money,
Speaker 1: or one time he came up this idea. And this
Speaker 1: was one of the many nights I was giving him
Speaker 1: a ride. There's a long avenue full of bars and
Speaker 1: clubs way north of Seattle, up in the U District.
Speaker 1: He pitched this idea to me. Alright, but what do
Speaker 1: you think of this? So all these bars, all these clubs.
Speaker 1: What if I talked to the owners and say, we
Speaker 1: can watch and pay special attention to your club, stand
Speaker 1: out front of your club. You know, we'll end up
Speaker 1: a contract. It'll be all over formal, you know, if
Speaker 1: you give us, you know, say a hundred dollars a
Speaker 1: week or something, or you know, we'll write it to
Speaker 1: the team. You know, I'll manage the funds of course.
Speaker 1: And uh, I'm like, dude, this is the mafia. This
Speaker 1: is what a mafia does. Your offering air quotes protection
Speaker 1: from businesses who paid. What are you hearing yourself? This
Speaker 1: is the worst idea and the long sad history of
Speaker 1: bad ideas. You can't be seriously, Oh oh yeah, that's
Speaker 1: that strike. I guess I didn't think about that, but
Speaker 1: he would end up actually doing exactly this. I think
Speaker 1: maybe two out of over a dozen businesses you know
Speaker 1: give I think one gave him like forty bucks, and
Speaker 1: he did with one of them, and you know, he
Speaker 1: would like get a bunch of selfies and like he
Speaker 1: would kind of be like almost like an Instagram influencer
Speaker 1: of that, like, hey, come on down to whatever the
Speaker 1: name of the bar was. And money was a big
Speaker 1: thing for him, and that would also affect his mood
Speaker 1: pretty significantly. Evo had a theory about what was driving
Speaker 1: Phoenix's fixation on money. He sent me text messages or
Speaker 1: he would show me pictures of Hey, is what I
Speaker 1: was at last night. It would be a picture of
Speaker 1: him both arms holding kind of like a hug pose
Speaker 1: of a giant stack of poker chips, and like you
Speaker 1: could tell now this was legit at a casino, and
Speaker 1: it's like, oh man, I should quit my job and
Speaker 1: just do this full time and and be living a
Speaker 1: high life. And the very next patrol everybody. I know,
Speaker 1: it's only the tenth of the month, but if everyone
Speaker 1: can have their dues for next month paid, that would
Speaker 1: be great, thank you. I mean, like that would happen
Speaker 1: all the time. So in my particular case, you just
Speaker 1: flat out admit that, you know, I love gambling, and
Speaker 1: he's incredibly smart, and you know, probably borders on like
Speaker 1: card reading levels of genius there. But gambling is gambling too,
Speaker 1: and that comes with its own dangers. Other members of
Speaker 1: the rain City Superheroes told me similar stories. Here's Midnight Jack.
Speaker 1: I think that he was really trying to be a
Speaker 1: good dude in the beginning. He was focusing all his
Speaker 1: energy into this superhero stuff, and over time he's kind
Speaker 1: of got beaten down started gambling. I mean, the man
Speaker 1: is just not in a good place. I asked Phoenix
Speaker 1: about all of this, and he flatly denied it. You
Speaker 1: who also said that you had a gambling problem? Is
Speaker 1: that true? No, that's weird, Like what kind of gamling
Speaker 1: from you were really into gambling, and that he worried
Speaker 1: that some of the money that had been going to
Speaker 1: stuff got gambled away, and that you would send him
Speaker 1: photos of you at like a poker table and things
Speaker 1: like that. That's all true, absolutely, Okay, now I know
Speaker 1: he's talking about absolutely yet. So I played a ship
Speaker 1: ton of poker, but it would have been a hard
Speaker 1: to have a gambling problem doing that. Phoenix told me
Speaker 1: he played tournament poker, where you just pay a flat
Speaker 1: fee of fifty dollars to buy into the competition. So
Speaker 1: I play a tournament every Friday, And I said, my
Speaker 1: friends pictures of me with like thirty thousand ships. So
Speaker 1: they're seeing these poker tip things and they're thinking I'm
Speaker 1: making mad cash. But that's not how it works. Do
Speaker 1: you play poker at all? Not really, I've been I
Speaker 1: went through a poker phase when it was popular, so
Speaker 1: you understand when you bind too a tournament, the chips
Speaker 1: in front of you are not representative of money. This
Speaker 1: seems like a reasonable explanation to me, and for what
Speaker 1: it's worth, I believe Phoenix, but I do think it
Speaker 1: seems credible that he might have had some financial difficulties
Speaker 1: after his arrest. And as for charging nightclubs money to
Speaker 1: protect them, Phoenix says that is one accurate sort of Yeah.
Speaker 1: I definitely suggested that, but but not in the mob
Speaker 1: shakedown way. I don't see. I just feel like he
Speaker 1: was saying, like it's a murky line to be like
Speaker 1: some of you get extra productions and some of you
Speaker 1: we're gonna let go. I don't think it's an extra line. Like,
Speaker 1: for example, we had sixteen shootings take place outside of
Speaker 1: one nightclub, and they're like, we love when you're out here.
Speaker 1: Fuck you, bro, if you want me to come and
Speaker 1: stand out front of your club, you're gonna give me
Speaker 1: a some money for that. Like, that's stupid. We're supposed
Speaker 1: to be helping random real crime. This is crime. It
Speaker 1: takes place because of your establishment. So if you want
Speaker 1: me to stand outside your stabution so you can use
Speaker 1: Phoenix Jones to pimp that, everybody's okay, you're gonna at
Speaker 1: least paying me money for that. I don't even consider
Speaker 1: that a bad thing. Yeah, but I definitely said it,
Speaker 1: and I shared it with the team because you're supposed to.
Speaker 1: And then the money never happened, so we didn't do it.
Speaker 1: We just did regular as patrols. I could go on
Speaker 1: and on letting Phoenix respond to the many wrongs that
Speaker 1: his former teammates accused him of, and in fact, I
Speaker 1: spent a lot of my time with Phoenix doing just that.
Speaker 1: There are moments when Phoenix did admit to some of
Speaker 1: those wrongs. Other times, like with the quote unquote protection money,
Speaker 1: it just seemed to be a difference of opinion on
Speaker 1: the morality of what happened. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, Phoenix says that all of these disputes with
Speaker 1: his former crime fighting friends are issues of the past,
Speaker 1: and rehashing them is a waste of time. These guys
Speaker 1: are so petty and stupid. There was just so many
Speaker 1: more important things. I mean, even if everything they assumed
Speaker 1: was right and everything they told you was right, Let's
Speaker 1: say I had a crazy gambling problem. Let's just say
Speaker 1: these things right. None of them change any of the
Speaker 1: patrolling or effects we did zero, So why are you
Speaker 1: still talking about that? I do think that Phoenix is
Speaker 1: wrong on this point. Phoenix's teammates all felt that his
Speaker 1: erratic behavior and failure to communicate did in fact have
Speaker 1: an impact on their ability to fight crime, which makes
Speaker 1: total sense. Phoenix was always the leader of the rain
Speaker 1: City Superheroes, and a group is only as effective as
Speaker 1: its leadership. And if Phoenix is going to take credit
Speaker 1: for all his team's success, shouldn't he also take responsibility
Speaker 1: for some of their failures. But then to do that
Speaker 1: would mean that Phoenix would have to admit that he
Speaker 1: is not perfect at crime fighting, and he won't. Over time,
Speaker 1: the tension between Phoenix and his teammates built up, until finally,
Speaker 1: one day, it all came to a head on a
Speaker 1: disastrous patrol that would tear the team apart. That's coming up.
Speaker 1: In late April of two thousand and twelve, the rain
Speaker 1: City Superheroes were preparing for their biggest patrol of the year,
Speaker 1: but according to Evocatus, Phoenix had become an absent leader.
Speaker 1: We patrol and we we're from three to five nights
Speaker 1: a week, and we would get wildly different results kind
Speaker 1: of based on the day he said, or you know,
Speaker 1: if he was hurting for money, or if he was
Speaker 1: having relationship problems or something. That would always be kind
Speaker 1: of something going on, and we never quite knew what
Speaker 1: we would get. Anytime you didn't want to be answered
Speaker 1: to anyone or didn't want to be accountable for anything,
Speaker 1: he would just shot off. He would get real angry
Speaker 1: and real pouty, call everyone traders, and would disappear. Everything
Speaker 1: came to a head on May Day, two thousand and twelve.
Speaker 1: May Day has always been a big day in Seattle.
Speaker 1: Thousands of people take to the streets to march for
Speaker 1: labor rights. There are protests all over the city. I
Speaker 1: asked Phoenix if he thought that day was a turning
Speaker 1: point for the team. You mean, clowns got caught as clowns,
Speaker 1: and then eventually you have to ask yourself why you
Speaker 1: didn't show up. I don't think that's a turning point.
Speaker 1: I think you were bitches before and that showed it.
Speaker 1: Phoenix and the rain City superheroes often showed up on
Speaker 1: May Day to keep watch over the crowds and to
Speaker 1: help keep the peace if things went awry, which is
Speaker 1: exactly what happened in two thousand and twelve. El Caballero
Speaker 1: was right there in the thick of it. There's always
Speaker 1: two big protests in Seattle. The first one was the
Speaker 1: labor unions and the Native rights and stuff, and that
Speaker 1: was always peaceful, and there was another element that would
Speaker 1: show up, well, I guess they call them black block
Speaker 1: They would go out and look like hooding ninjas and
Speaker 1: go and break windows and spray paint. And I think
Speaker 1: we all agree that there's a lot of corporations and
Speaker 1: entities that are ripping people off and taking money and
Speaker 1: don't really care. But there's ways to go about things,
Speaker 1: and these people are just terrorists, terrorizing people, terrorizing things
Speaker 1: and scaring the Bejesus said, folks. The Rain City Heroes
Speaker 1: didn't go blindly into these situations, They came prepared and
Speaker 1: that year it was Eva who made detailed plans for
Speaker 1: the May Day patrols. There's an awful lot of like
Speaker 1: logistical planning that would go into something like this because
Speaker 1: we have people. That was literally a contribution to the
Speaker 1: team was to do a lot of research ahead of time.
Speaker 1: How do we safely patrol? How do we access vehicles
Speaker 1: if we need to get out of there? How do
Speaker 1: we get first ato somebody if we need when roads
Speaker 1: are closed. According to Evo, Phoenix had decided on his
Speaker 1: own unusual strategy for monitoring the crowds the night before
Speaker 1: May Day had happened. Phoenix said, tell you forget all that.
Speaker 1: Here's what we're gonna do. I gotta buddy of mine.
Speaker 1: He works at the front desk at this hotel, and
Speaker 1: he's gonna let us go in and using one of
Speaker 1: his hotel rooms. We're gonna turn on the TV. We're
Speaker 1: gonna party in a music and we're just gonna be
Speaker 1: watching all the local news stations. And when some fight
Speaker 1: breaks out on TV, we'll put on a gear and
Speaker 1: we'll run out the door and don't save the day.
Speaker 1: The entire rest of us are just kind of sitting
Speaker 1: around blinking, just what what on earth? No, I mean
Speaker 1: by the time we'd see it on TV, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's obviously will long have passed. Well, what about all
Speaker 1: the research we did and all the intel work ahead
Speaker 1: of time and the Index didn't want anything to do
Speaker 1: with it. The next morning, when a disgruntled set of
Speaker 1: rain seedy heroes gathered in a parking garage to start
Speaker 1: the patrol, Phoenix turned up empty handed. He was really
Speaker 1: really upset because his buddy or something was sick that
Speaker 1: day or he couldn't make it, and basically we didn't
Speaker 1: have a hotel room with our name on it, so
Speaker 1: it's kind of like, well, okay, we're just gonna walk.
Speaker 1: Then they followed the crowds through Seattle and began the patrol.
Speaker 1: People of all ages had come to protest with painted
Speaker 1: faces and colorful signs, bearing irreverent slogans, But even in
Speaker 1: this eclectic crowd, the superhero stood out with their costumes
Speaker 1: and shiny masks. They jostled through the pack streets. Ebo
Speaker 1: says Phoenix wasn't sticking to the plan or communicating to
Speaker 1: the team. He wouldn't listen to anyone on the team
Speaker 1: you had people that were professionally trained medics and e
Speaker 1: M t s. He had former military that was me
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, we'd have a couple of the
Speaker 1: former veterans from time to time on the team with
Speaker 1: actual boots on the ground combat experience. He wouldn't listen
Speaker 1: to the inputs anytime. He didn't want to be answered
Speaker 1: to anyone, or he didn't want to be accountable for anything.
Speaker 1: He would just shot off. Around twelve thirty, the protests
Speaker 1: started to escalate. Explosions and pepper spray in downtown Seat
Speaker 1: may Day breaks down to Mayhem in Seattle. Demonstrations turned violent.
Speaker 1: There's thousands of people clogged downtown streets. A group of
Speaker 1: about seventy five anarchists entered the fray. They streamed into
Speaker 1: the downtown area and mixed in with the crowds marching
Speaker 1: towards Westlake Park. They were dressed all in black, and
Speaker 1: many of them were wielding bats and hammers as they
Speaker 1: snaked through the protest, hurling rocks and shattering the windows
Speaker 1: of shops and banks. Police officers in riot gear clashed
Speaker 1: with the crowds. If we are disappointed in the police,
Speaker 1: people launched flares and smoke bombs into the air. Paint
Speaker 1: bombs and blood red and fluorescent green streaked the pavements
Speaker 1: and buildings. The downtown streets, normally packed with tourists, were
Speaker 1: filled with the smell of smoke and pepper spray. At
Speaker 1: the epicenter of the chaos was the old Federal Courthouse.
Speaker 1: Here's midnight Jack. This big, huge standoff ensues at the
Speaker 1: Federal courthouse where they're throwing improvised explosives into The building
Speaker 1: is occupied with people that worked there. A roving group
Speaker 1: of the protesters had gathered outside the courthouse. They smashed
Speaker 1: in the glass doors and windows with flagpoles and bats.
Speaker 1: Someone tried to fire a smoke bomb into the building,
Speaker 1: but it bounced off and burst into flames. Phoenix told
Speaker 1: me that's where he wanted to be, in the heart
Speaker 1: of the action. There was twelve of us. Right we
Speaker 1: get word that they're gonna put a bomb in the
Speaker 1: Federal building and blow it up. I don't I put
Speaker 1: out the radio call that I need my team to
Speaker 1: show up. I need to got the family right now.
Speaker 1: We gotta get it together. Club about people, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I got with Guess who shows up? El Caballero with Jack.
Speaker 1: That's it, so Cavy, Jack and Phoenix assembled at the courthouse.
Speaker 1: I'm looking out and see like sixty people in front
Speaker 1: of us. They're throwing stuff. Ses heros held off a
Speaker 1: group of sixty protest It's been I'm destroying a federal building.
Speaker 1: I'm like, where's my team at? You know, were you
Speaker 1: at Ebo? Oh, I'm in the military. I'm big. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go fight some crime. You're not gonna fight sixty
Speaker 1: iron clad terrorists, are you. You're just gonna make me
Speaker 1: look like the clown I'm standing in front of the building.
Speaker 1: I got Midnight Jack, the least trained of us all,
Speaker 1: never been in a fight with batons that don't know
Speaker 1: how to use. Got El Caballero in hot pants, girls
Speaker 1: hot pants dragging on the back of his shirt, a
Speaker 1: luchador mask, and a sombrero that served no prayers but
Speaker 1: to offend Mexican people, and short it was a highly
Speaker 1: costumed shit show. We're trying to fucking stop them from
Speaker 1: storming the building and throwing explosives and firebombs. It's just
Speaker 1: me in front of that door, cleaning Mike Tyson punch
Speaker 1: out with the dudes who come up while Midnight Jack
Speaker 1: just douses everything you can see with pepper spray while screaming,
Speaker 1: and El Caballeros on the phone with I didn't have anything.
Speaker 1: I was just moving my arms and holding people back,
Speaker 1: and people were like, oh, that one guy. Pepper sprayed people.
Speaker 1: Pepper sprayed people. I sprayed probably sixty people that day.
Speaker 1: I don't regret any of it. If you stepped up,
Speaker 1: asked a certain point, I sprayed you. You threw something
Speaker 1: at me, I sprayed you. You try to hit me
Speaker 1: with something, I sprayed you. Go look through the world.
Speaker 1: It might sound exciting, but El Cavallero was really not
Speaker 1: a fan of the situation that Phoenix had put him in.
Speaker 1: There's this romanticized Hollywood version of fighting criminals, and any
Speaker 1: battle I've ever been in is ugly. It feels awkward,
Speaker 1: it sucks, it's lame. That whole moment in space time
Speaker 1: is frustrating, lame, and annoying. It's not sexy, it's not cool.
Speaker 1: It's not a fucking thing that's awesome. It's lame. And
Speaker 1: the violence, the hatred, the anger, It's like, where are
Speaker 1: these people coming from? Why are you trying to hurt
Speaker 1: other people? Why are you doing these negative things. It's
Speaker 1: like and then to know that people's lives are in
Speaker 1: danger at the same time. It's not like a cookie
Speaker 1: cutter movie. It's like real life, intense stuff. By three PM,
Speaker 1: the Mayor of Seattle had signed a proclamation of civil emergency,
Speaker 1: and just before seven PM, a rainstorm hit the city,
Speaker 1: causing the crowds to finally dissipate. An independent report commissioned
Speaker 1: by the Seattle Police into the May Day riots singled
Speaker 1: out the Rain City superheroes and said their involvement resulted
Speaker 1: in allegations of assaults and crimes. The report recommended that
Speaker 1: next year, the Seattle Police Department should collaborate with the
Speaker 1: City Attorney's office to determine legal strategies to restrict superheroes
Speaker 1: from creating time and interfering with law enforcement operations. Phoenix
Speaker 1: took to social media to complain, this is crazy and
Speaker 1: I am super mad. We see crime, we call police,
Speaker 1: and we stop people from getting hurt. That's not against
Speaker 1: the law. What you're saying is you don't like us,
Speaker 1: you don't like that work different, and because we're different
Speaker 1: from you, you're gonna make these rules and try to
Speaker 1: shut us down. He even called out the author of
Speaker 1: the report by name Michael Hillman. I hope your kids
Speaker 1: don't have Batman posters or anything in their house because
Speaker 1: you're a superhero hater. When we hung out, Phoenix claimed
Speaker 1: that Homeland Security and the FBI actually thanked him for intervening.
Speaker 1: Homeland Security comes up to us with these shotguns at
Speaker 1: the end, and I'm thinking, so I get on the
Speaker 1: ground and you're like, what are you doing? Like we
Speaker 1: means like, Jones, get up, You're fine. I was like, okay.
Speaker 1: They gave over, They shook her hand, and they brought
Speaker 1: us to this like a suv. There was this guy
Speaker 1: in of like the leader of our regional branch of
Speaker 1: the FBI. Phoenix told me that the FBI agent asked
Speaker 1: him for help and identifying violent protesters from the courthouse,
Speaker 1: and that he said, quote Jones, I like your work.
Speaker 1: He was like, I'm gonna tell the Seattle please to
Speaker 1: leave you alone. But you sunk up. You sunk up.
Speaker 1: He's like, you don't think you have superpowers. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: I don't want superpowers. He's like okay, And that was
Speaker 1: the beginning of our relationship. I wasn't able to confirm
Speaker 1: any of this. When we asked the FBI about it,
Speaker 1: they said, quote, we will not be able to provide
Speaker 1: any information on this inquiry. The FBI has conversations with
Speaker 1: individuals for a variety of reasons on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: whether they are a witness, victim, subject, or someone providing information.
Speaker 1: We cannot verify whether the FBI spoke to a particular individual,
Speaker 1: but if this was supposedly the beginning of Phoenix's budding
Speaker 1: relationship with the FBI, it was also one of the
Speaker 1: final chapters of the Rain City Superheroes. When asked about
Speaker 1: Phoenix's view that his team had hung him out to
Speaker 1: dry that day, Eva was having none of it. It's
Speaker 1: the ultimate irony to hear that he didn't feel backed
Speaker 1: up or in reality, he was just doing whatever came
Speaker 1: across his head at the moments. That's what he would say.
Speaker 1: It's like, well, I just felt, you know, abandoned, or
Speaker 1: you know, you guys betrayed me, or you know, I
Speaker 1: just didn't feel like you know, you guys, you guys
Speaker 1: just wanted to get up on me, or no one
Speaker 1: wanted to follow my expertise. No, dude, you just stopped
Speaker 1: showing and it would be so wildly unpredictable and sporadic,
Speaker 1: nobody could trust him or rely on him, or have
Speaker 1: any idea what version of Phoenix for getting any particular
Speaker 1: night if you would show So that's a long winded
Speaker 1: way of saying that's rich coming from him. Whatever the
Speaker 1: truth is, the way Phoenix told it. May Day was
Speaker 1: the final straw. That's when I stopped caring. I'll go, fuck,
Speaker 1: they don't care. That just didn't feel different between everyone
Speaker 1: after that. I mean, I guess there's no feeling because
Speaker 1: you guys matter. You did not show up. You left
Speaker 1: me in front of a fucking riot. Who cares what
Speaker 1: they fucking think? Fuck that I wrote with you guys, untrained,
Speaker 1: out of shape and ridiculous outfits, acting clowns every single
Speaker 1: day when I'm a professional warrior and you can't show
Speaker 1: up one time when I have sixty people trying to
Speaker 1: murder me with a bomb. Evening arrived on Mayday and
Speaker 1: the dust began to settle across Seattle. The police cars
Speaker 1: filled with the protesters who've been arrested made their convoy
Speaker 1: to the county jail. The swap police headed home, and
Speaker 1: the last stragglers from the march dispersed. Shop owners boarded
Speaker 1: up the jagged holes in their windows, and the debris
Speaker 1: on the streets was swept away, But there's no cleaning
Speaker 1: up the mess that the rain City Superheroes were in.
Speaker 1: That's coming up. When you talk to Phoenix, he makes
Speaker 1: it sound like he stopped trusting his teammates after the
Speaker 1: May Day debacle. He claims he decided to go it
Speaker 1: alone after that, But actually that's not how things went down,
Speaker 1: because after the May Day protests, Phoenix continued to patrol
Speaker 1: with some of the rain City superheroes for over a year.
Speaker 1: And that, dear listener, that's how we get to what
Speaker 1: is maybe the most fitting way I can think of
Speaker 1: for a team of comic book inspired costume warriors to dissolve,
Speaker 1: not in a blaze of crime fighting glory, but in
Speaker 1: a petty dispute over a piece of clothing, a controversy
Speaker 1: that has come to be known as helmet Gate. How
Speaker 1: did your relationship with the rains City Here's end or
Speaker 1: what caused you to leave the life that was all
Speaker 1: about my purple helmet. This was news to me kind
Speaker 1: of because I had heard the story of the falling
Speaker 1: out between El Caballero and Phoenix long before I met
Speaker 1: either of them. But the story that I found on blogs,
Speaker 1: long lost Facebook pages, and podcasts was that they went
Speaker 1: from best friends to despised enemies because Phoenix had stolen
Speaker 1: El Kaballero's sombrero. Apparently, no one fact checked any of
Speaker 1: those accounts, because while it is true that these two
Speaker 1: grown men did in fact have a falling out over
Speaker 1: a piece of headwear, it was not a sombrero, but
Speaker 1: a purple army helmet, a mitch helmet, a nice tactical
Speaker 1: bulletproof helmet with the padding inside so I wouldn't get
Speaker 1: scrambled brains. It all started on a typical downtown patrol
Speaker 1: one night and two thousand and thirteen, after the patrol
Speaker 1: ended Caddy forgot his helmet, I left it in Phoenix
Speaker 1: Jones's car for an evening. It was another night where
Speaker 1: we had fought real criminals and done real stuff, and
Speaker 1: I just, act said, minorly left it in his vehicle.
Speaker 1: Evil remembers the saga of the purple helmet. Well, he says,
Speaker 1: at first, the helmet just went missing. No one could
Speaker 1: find his helmet, and it was the most aggravating series
Speaker 1: of I guess backwards drama that honestly started getting pretty embarrassing.
Speaker 1: I would start losing sleep over stuff like this, where
Speaker 1: people would call me because I was a guy that
Speaker 1: kind of ran the team on the back end. Evil
Speaker 1: claims that Phoenix accused his girlfriend Purple Rain of stealing
Speaker 1: the helmet that dr hearns, like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: Why on earth would I want l caberleiro stinky helmet?
Speaker 1: That's gross? For whatever reason, we think he just gave
Speaker 1: it to, you know, a pretty young fan or something
Speaker 1: like that. It all sounds so petty to me, But
Speaker 1: for Cabby it was no joke. It really struck a
Speaker 1: chord with me. This guy who I trust with my life.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're literally dodging bullets and knives and crazy terrorists.
Speaker 1: This guy trusted in my life made my helmet disappear
Speaker 1: and it got it weird? Why did it get weird? Like,
Speaker 1: I don't know. For what it's worth, Phoenix has a
Speaker 1: response to the purple helmet story. He says it was
Speaker 1: in his car, which got towed and impounded, and that
Speaker 1: he was too embarrassed to admit this to his crew.
Speaker 1: Helmet gate wasn't the first time things had allegedly gone
Speaker 1: missing around Phoenix, Crystal Marks told me that Phoenix couldn't
Speaker 1: be trusted when it came to money. He was charging
Speaker 1: people like money per month for medical insurance that the
Speaker 1: team's never saw the benefit for. He would say, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll buy you a tactical vest, give me money, and
Speaker 1: then he would never provide the vest. Evo said he
Speaker 1: personally had to reimburse team members. He sent me a
Speaker 1: photo of a receipt he kept for a vest he
Speaker 1: paid for out of his own pocket to give to
Speaker 1: a fellow superhero. Soon these disputes spilled out onto the
Speaker 1: Rain City Superheroes social media accounts. P J has been
Speaker 1: proven to be consistently dishonest, unreliable, and untrustworthy. He's a
Speaker 1: liar and a bump. You shouldn't be asking people for
Speaker 1: money or playing to the media the way he does
Speaker 1: here is replaceable. Friendship, loyalty, and trust are not the
Speaker 1: theft allegations and the mud slinging escalated. Phoenix held a
Speaker 1: fundraiser for Purple Rains anti domestic violence campaign. Someone accused
Speaker 1: them of embezzling funds, and things got nasty. If you
Speaker 1: want to show how honest. This campaign is usink. Slanderous
Speaker 1: language is illegal. Some people don't deserve to have any
Speaker 1: secret identities. Never understood by that cow was not on patrol.
Speaker 1: She does not have any athletic ability or street skill.
Speaker 1: She flirted with all the guys on the team and
Speaker 1: wanted to be the center of attention. I refused to
Speaker 1: involve myself in this textual spewit and ask that my
Speaker 1: name we kept out of these theatrics. Hi strong and
Speaker 1: suggest you research the term harassment and take a good
Speaker 1: hard look in the mirror. The accusation of embezzlement turned
Speaker 1: out to be false. The Seattle Weekly did a piece
Speaker 1: about it. The charity confirmed that they had received the money.
Speaker 1: Phoenix was vindicated, but then he launched another fundraiser for himself.
Speaker 1: This time he wanted to raise ten thousand dollars for
Speaker 1: a new supersuit. The campaign offered incentives for donations. For
Speaker 1: the entry level ten dollars, you could get a rubber
Speaker 1: Phoenix Jones bracelet. It went all the way up to
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars or more. For that you were promised
Speaker 1: the whole pile of Phoenix merch of Phoenix Jones replica
Speaker 1: helmet build as fits most normal sized heads, is bullet
Speaker 1: and blunt trauma resistant, plus the honor of having your
Speaker 1: name engraved on phoenix brand new suit. He posted the
Speaker 1: link for donations on Purple Rains Anti Domestic violence website.
Speaker 1: It even caught the eye of actor Rain Wilson, who
Speaker 1: plays Dwight in the Office. He posted about it on Facebook.
Speaker 1: Given her previous experiences with Phoenix, Crystal Marks was not impressed.
Speaker 1: I think Phoenix Jones is a liar. I mean, come
Speaker 1: at me for whatever you need to for saying it.
Speaker 1: But raising money for his supersuit, which so ridiculous to
Speaker 1: say those words out loud. But like this high end,
Speaker 1: like tactical suit that was like super bullet proof and
Speaker 1: like stab proof. He did to go fund me for it?
Speaker 1: Tons of money. Where's the suit, dude? Like it never happened.
Speaker 1: The tide of public opinion looked to be turning on Phoenix.
Speaker 1: More allegations against him started surfacing. A superhero named Urban
Speaker 1: Avenger called Phoenix an ego centric glory hound, and a
Speaker 1: blog post titled Phoenix Jones sells snake oil calls it
Speaker 1: a supersuit. The Seattle Weekly ran a piece called the
Speaker 1: Emperor's new suit, with a cartoon of Phoenix straining to
Speaker 1: pull his rubber supersuit on over his bloated belly, which
Speaker 1: is labeled Hubris. One of the rain City superheroes took
Speaker 1: to Facebook to claim that Phoenix had stolen his go
Speaker 1: pro to boot. Then The Seattle Weekly published another story
Speaker 1: that quoted a superhero saying Phoenix Jones is a con artist, thief,
Speaker 1: steve link from his closest friends and fans, with zero
Speaker 1: integrity for his community. El Caballero went to the press too,
Speaker 1: telling the Seattle Weekly quote, I've always thought of Phoenix
Speaker 1: as our quarterback, but I feel betrayed by his actions
Speaker 1: and certain trusts have been broken. Soon after that, Cabby
Speaker 1: formally announced his departure from the rain Ceaity Heroes. On
Speaker 1: his Facebook page. He said quote effective immediately attention family
Speaker 1: and friends, fans, law enforcement, and even my entities. I
Speaker 1: will no longer I said that part louder because it
Speaker 1: was in all caps. I will no longer be working
Speaker 1: with Phoenix Jones. After three years of patrols, I see
Speaker 1: loyalty is worth nothing to him. I feel betrayed by
Speaker 1: a man I called my brother and that hurts his dishonesty, manipulation,
Speaker 1: and Deceit has caused me to not want to be
Speaker 1: associated with someone I can't trust. I will continue to
Speaker 1: wear my mask and patrol the streets of Seattle, but
Speaker 1: will henceforth not be aligned with him or the rain
Speaker 1: City Superhero Movement. I respect the team members individually. The
Speaker 1: Phoenix has nose dived into the flames, and I'm done
Speaker 1: with him. After El Caballero's departure, Morale also took a
Speaker 1: nose dive. Phoenix's girlfriend, Prebble Rain, announced that she was
Speaker 1: officially leaving the team too, and that she and Phoenix
Speaker 1: were no longer together. Discontent was brewing in what remained
Speaker 1: of the rain City Superhero movement. Even said everyone came
Speaker 1: to him with their grievances. They wanted to know what
Speaker 1: had really gone down between Cabby and Phoenix. Everyone was
Speaker 1: very much on edge, and every person on the team
Speaker 1: stop me if this sounds familiar, had heard a different
Speaker 1: version of this same story, and we had all been
Speaker 1: talking about and realized that, Okay, someone has fallen. Shipp
Speaker 1: called the denominator. Here is Phoenix Jones. The superheroes gathered
Speaker 1: for a crisis meeting. Their plan was to challenge Phoenix
Speaker 1: on everything that had been going down and to hold
Speaker 1: him accountable. So we get to this meeting just kind
Speaker 1: of like, Okay, here's what we're gonna do with forward
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, and here's what actually happened, and
Speaker 1: here's how's al it. You want nothing of the sword?
Speaker 1: He said, all right, well, all medical insurance stuff is
Speaker 1: going to go through my friend Dave, so any questions
Speaker 1: go through him, and we're gonna put schedules on a
Speaker 1: new Facebook page, and uh, everything's fine going forward. Any questions,
Speaker 1: all right, let's go on. I'm like, oh, hold up,
Speaker 1: and then nothing has been answered? What this? What? We
Speaker 1: have so many questions about what just happened. And you know,
Speaker 1: if this happened to El Caberro, one of your most
Speaker 1: trusted allies, and you're doing this stuff to him, like
Speaker 1: what else are you gonna do. The more his teammates
Speaker 1: challenged him, the more Phoenix dismissed their claims, and things
Speaker 1: got heated. I almost threw a table out of mo
Speaker 1: so mad they confronted their former leader, and Phoenix lost
Speaker 1: his cool. He through the world's biggest internettangent, which I
Speaker 1: still have screenshots of him talking about while you're all
Speaker 1: betrayers and you're all traders, and I started a team
Speaker 1: so I can end it. So the r C s
Speaker 1: M is officially resolved. P J out and that was that.
Speaker 1: Soon after the final blowout, Phoenix posted his resignation from
Speaker 1: the rain City Superheroes on his Facebook page. It was
Speaker 1: written in all caps and full of typos and grammatical errors.
Speaker 1: Here's a condensed version. First off, I'm sorry. I started
Speaker 1: fighting crime years ago and inspired a lot if people
Speaker 1: to do the same. I really thought of having a
Speaker 1: large group of civilian crime fighters was a good idea.
Speaker 1: I was wrong. It takes a certain type of person
Speaker 1: to do this job correctly, and unfortunately I have inspired,
Speaker 1: worked with, and even taught some of the wrong kinds
Speaker 1: of people. As of today, the rain City superhero movement
Speaker 1: is over. I will be patrolling solo with supers I trust.
Speaker 1: I will not go into many details, but I feel
Speaker 1: you deserve a few reasons why we can no longer
Speaker 1: work together. Certain members cannot run two point five miles
Speaker 1: in thirty minutes, or do five pull ups or sit
Speaker 1: ups in two minutes, or believe it is okay to
Speaker 1: carry illegal weapons or want to patrol with other superheroes
Speaker 1: that have a track record of making bad choices that
Speaker 1: are potential dangerous. I love being a superhero, and I
Speaker 1: believe there's a certain level of professionalism that goes with that.
Speaker 1: When I or any member of the r C s
Speaker 1: M show up to help you, I want you to
Speaker 1: know that we have first Aid CPR training, we have
Speaker 1: taking blood borne pathogens training, and that we will only
Speaker 1: work with others who are equally physically and medically trained.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry if I let anyone down. I will continue
Speaker 1: to patrol and help people. I just can't, in good
Speaker 1: conscience continue to put my seal of approval on people
Speaker 1: I feel are not loyal or properly trained as always
Speaker 1: be safe, make good choices, and I'll see you in
Speaker 1: the streets. When we talked about the team breakup, Phoenix
Speaker 1: said that people are fickle and driven by the attention,
Speaker 1: and that no one on his team brought up these
Speaker 1: disputes back in their crime fighting heyday. It was only
Speaker 1: later after things went south with the team that he
Speaker 1: says these grievances started surfacing. When we had these arguments
Speaker 1: and disagreements that was pre people knowing my identity. After
Speaker 1: my identity came out, we got all popular and everyone
Speaker 1: was doing these interviews and everything was going on. So
Speaker 1: all of us were all buddy, buddy, Fine. Then we
Speaker 1: went and have these arguments later and they brought up
Speaker 1: all this ship from past, saying when we never solved
Speaker 1: all this and we stuck with you for four years
Speaker 1: and you're this and you're that, And I'm thinking, if
Speaker 1: you want to come with me, Slee, than fuck you.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm a sucker. But I always believed Phoenix whenever
Speaker 1: I was with him, From the first moment I met him,
Speaker 1: he told me that he would answer me honestly about
Speaker 1: any accusation someone made against him. He also told me
Speaker 1: there were other things that he'd done that were wrong,
Speaker 1: but he would never admit them to me. I would
Speaker 1: have to find out for myself, and if I did,
Speaker 1: then he would answer truthfully about the incident. This policy
Speaker 1: felt reasonable to me, and I took Phoenix at his word,
Speaker 1: and I thought it was an indication that he was
Speaker 1: willing to admit when he was wrong. I bought into
Speaker 1: his logic because it seemed to make sense to me,
Speaker 1: and I also agree with him that so much of
Speaker 1: the beef between him and his crew always felt a
Speaker 1: little petty, like who cares about what happened to a
Speaker 1: purple helmet? Does it even matter in the grand scheme
Speaker 1: of things. But looking back on it, I don't think
Speaker 1: he lived up to his promise of answering everything truthfully.
Speaker 1: A lot of it I think is tied up in
Speaker 1: his desire to be the best at everything. I think
Speaker 1: that desire was what made him a champion bowler an
Speaker 1: mm A fighter, but I think it is also the
Speaker 1: quality that made him an ineffective leader. It blinded him
Speaker 1: to the possibility that he could be wrong, or that
Speaker 1: someone in his group might have a better idea for
Speaker 1: how to be good crime fighters. And I felt like
Speaker 1: he was still blinded by it when he talked about
Speaker 1: his former crew. I don't know how I associated with
Speaker 1: these clouds for so long that, Like, that's the one
Speaker 1: thing I am curious about. Like, on one hand, you
Speaker 1: seemed because I carried them to stay and because I
Speaker 1: carried them, I carried these motherfucker's. I carried them because
Speaker 1: you were lonely or like well, because they believed in
Speaker 1: what I believed in when no one else believed in it.
Speaker 1: You always like to get up and get dressed every
Speaker 1: day and put on a rubber suit and people laugh
Speaker 1: at you in the streets like it fucking sucks. So
Speaker 1: even if you're huge and fat, or you're out of
Speaker 1: shape where you're former freaking drug out a homeless kid,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna say, I believe in you too, let's
Speaker 1: go walk together. I would rather do that with you.
Speaker 1: People who believe in me, believe in the concept. If
Speaker 1: it's about me letting them down, you let me down.
Speaker 1: I gotta stab for you, out cavaler because you want
Speaker 1: how to do a disarmed lydon said you want to
Speaker 1: do knife fighting skills, You fucking don't, And I can stab,
Speaker 1: like for real, I got fucking stabbed and you want
Speaker 1: to talk about a helmet? Fuck you, Jack Jack. Jack
Speaker 1: can't even run. He has asthma. He can't even run.
Speaker 1: There's videos where I run into after bad guys and
Speaker 1: he can't run, Like what the fuck? It's clear, but
Speaker 1: there's genuine hurt and betrayal behind Phoenix's anger and also
Speaker 1: on the side of the other Rain City superheroes. Just
Speaker 1: because they wear goofy outfits doesn't mean they aren't people
Speaker 1: with real feelings, and for all the bitterness, I think
Speaker 1: the reason there's so much hurt involved in this highly
Speaker 1: costumed severance is because all of them once bought into
Speaker 1: the belief that Phoenix talks about the mission that had
Speaker 1: united them. And maybe that's hard to understand from the outside,
Speaker 1: but to enter into the world of real life superheroes,
Speaker 1: you have to rethink certain beliefs about how the world works,
Speaker 1: because the belief in their mission is to believe that
Speaker 1: a guy in a sombrero and purple hot pants is
Speaker 1: actually the man who might at any moment save your
Speaker 1: life from a hammer wielding mugger lurking in an alleyway.
Speaker 1: That's the thing I find so fascinating about all of this,
Speaker 1: the mash up of the absurdity with the seriousness of
Speaker 1: what these masked adventurers were trying to pull off. Their
Speaker 1: dream was powerful, too powerful to be totally crushed by
Speaker 1: a purple army helmet and some snarky Facebook comments. After all,
Speaker 1: this wasn't the end for Phoenix Jones. After the breakup,
Speaker 1: he would set out on a bid to conquer the
Speaker 1: world in a different arena, and in a way, it
Speaker 1: wasn't the end of the rain City Superhero movement. Either
Speaker 1: the team may have disbanded, but the legend they built
Speaker 1: together lived on and out of the darkness, a new
Speaker 1: generation of superheroes would rise up to unite behind it.
Speaker 1: That's coming up next time. The Superhero Complex is hosted
Speaker 1: and written by Me David Weinberg and reported by me
Speaker 1: Amalia Sortland and Caroline Thornhum. Production from Mamalia Sortland and
Speaker 1: Caroline Thornhum, Sean Glenn, Max O'Brien and David Waters are
Speaker 1: executive producers. Fact checking by Andrew Schwartz. Production management from
Speaker 1: Sharie Houston, Frankie Taylor and Charlotte Wolf. Sound design, mixing
Speaker 1: and scoring by Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempson. Music supervision
Speaker 1: by Nicholas Alexander and David Waters. Original music is composed
Speaker 1: by Paul Housden. Special thanks to Peter Tangan, Willard Boxton,
Speaker 1: Matt o'mera, Katrina Norvelle Beth and Macaluso, Born Rosenbaum, Shelby
Speaker 1: Snkman and all the team at U t A. For
Speaker 1: more from novel, visit novel dot Audio