Archives 2006

by Cameron Lawrence
Supposedly art imitates life, but all evidence suggests a more cyclical relationship. Live-action role playing (LARPing), where fantasy enthusiasts live out their favorite stories and characters — medieval, vampire, “Lord of the Rings,” or something else — is one thing. With LARPing the fantasy is restricted to a controlled environment governed by rules. In short, live-action role playing is a game. Even superhero-based LARP groups subject themselves to specific rules and limitations, drawing a clear line between play and everyday living. But what happens when real-life superheroes emerge in our cities, fighting crime in full costumes with bona fide (in most cases) super hero names?
According to INtake Weekly, super heroes are emerging in cities all over the world, and a life of reading comics aside, these fledgling super personalities got their inspiration from one place: Indianapolis, Indiana. Mr. Silent, named for his abilities to traverse the crime-ridden streets of Indianapolis with absolute stealth, and Doktor DiscorD (3D for short), have been patrolling the city’s streets for over a year — their faces covered in masks and adorned in full costumes. Mr. Silent sports a black derby, a pin-striped suit sans the jacket, and a silver tie. What tops it off is a menacing silver cane he carries in the name of Lady Justice. Doktor DiscorD also carries a cane and wears a pair of large goggles with one red and one blue lens to compliment his mostly-black ensemble.

Article no longer available on source site
This crime fighter may be silent, but he’s far from being deadly.
By Kimiko Martinez
A young man stands on the south side of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. The ominous stone memorial looms above him as he waits on the top steps dressed in black pinstriped pants and vest, a pressed black button-down shirt, a black felt hat and silver gloves.
This man, who refuses to reveal his real name when in costume, carries a silver-topped cane. A silver mask hides any expression, revealing little more than soft brown eyes.
While his costume does plenty to conceal his identity, it belies a fit physique. His stealth movements, inspiration for his superhero name Mr. Silent, evidence years of martial arts.
Above him, “To Indiana’s Silent Victors” is etched in the limestone and sculptures representing men who’ve fought for justice adorn the 284-foot tall shrine.
It’s an interesting parallel.
“Hey, what are you?” a passerby asks. “A mime?”
“No,” he responds, handing him a card that reads simply: “Mr. Silent,” along with the Japanese characters for “quiet repose” and an e-mail address.
“Hey, you’re supposed to be Mr. Silent; you just talked,” the man says, looking up from the card. “So what do you do?”
“I fight crime.”
The man in black
Mr. Silent gets this a lot.
“People are always asking: ‘Are you a mime?’ or ‘What are you guys doing?’ ” the 27-year-old tells me. Usually he has his partner Doktor DiscorD along. Not surprisingly, two men in costumes walking around Downtown incite odd reactions.
Mr. Silent just brushes it off. People aren’t accustomed to seeing superheroes patrolling the city . . . yet. But since the duo began this “experiment,” as Mr. Silent calls it, the superhero trend has started to catch on. Others have e-mailed the duo asking how they can join and superheroes have popped up in other cities worldwide, he said.
“A lot of people have told us that they’ve been waiting for something like this to happen,” he said. “Like there was a hole in them; they always wished that something like this was real.”
Certainly people are familiar with the likes of Superman and Batman. Comic book characters are practically ingrained in American culture, as evidenced by the slew of movies released each year. X-Men, Superman and “My Super Ex-Girlfriend” are all on the summer movie circuit. But in real life?
“People have tried to invent time machines because of H.G. Wells or teleporters because of Star Trek,” Mr. Silent said. “It almost makes you wonder why no one has done this before.”
After discussing the idea for quite some time, he and Doktor DiscorD decided to hit Indianapolis streets about a year ago.
“It was just a big experiment to see how people would react,” he said. “We’ve gotten some good responses.”
Unlike Bruce Wayne, Mr. Silent’s alter ego isn’t a billionaire. He has a full-time job to tend to, so he only makes it out about once per week, cruising the alleys of Downtown after dark, looking to help where needed.
Although he isn’t afraid to throw a punch, Mr. Silent is quick to point out that he prefers to avoid confrontations. “We’re really more towards the hero aspect than the vigilante thing,” he said.
Helping people is the focus, even if it means handing out heat packs to the homeless in the winter when hard-pressed to find something to do.
“You don’t have to have superpowers to be a superhero,” Mr. Silent said. “We see heroes every day. We’re just the ones with the costumes on.”
Mr. Silent speaks up to answer our burning questions

So what does it take to become a superhero?

I think the prerequisites are a good imagination and not going overboard. I had this friend who wanted to join, but I think he was using it as an excuse to hurt people.

What’s your superpower?

We’re more along the Batman line. We don’t have any real powers. Although I do have this uncanny ability to spin for a long time without getting dizzy. If there ever comes a time where I can fight crime by spinning, I’ll be set.

Tell me about your name.

Doktor DiscorD is more outgoing than I am, so at first it was an excuse to not have to say anything. But now it’s more because of the way I move. I’m very quiet when I walk, pretty stealthy.

What’s your kryptonite?

Bullets, I’d imagine. Or knives. Anything that can do damage to a human can do damage to me. I don’t wear a Kevlar vest or anything.

Batman or Superman?

I’d say Superman, just because of his ideologies — freedom and all that stuff. Plus, he was the first superhero I was introduced to. I used to hum his theme song when I was running around as a kid.

Lois Lane or Mary Jane?

Lois Lane seems more the powerful type, so I’m going to say Lois Lane. Mary Jane is always getting herself in trouble and needing to be rescued.

What super-toy/tool would you most want?

Maybe grappling hooks, the kind that Batman had.

Marvel or DC Comics?

DC. I’m a big Grant Morrison fan. And they tend to be more superhero-oriented.

What do you get out of superhero life?

Wearing the mask has actually kind of changed me. It’s kind of like the mask took over. I developed a responsibility to do good things because I had the mask on. I’ve started to want to help out at soup kitchens and do things that never crossed my mind before. I feel like I can do more.
In real life, I’m pretty shy, kind of introverted. But when I have the costume on, it’s like I’m a completely different person. The mask kind of becomes like a shield. And now, (the two sides of my personality) have kind of meshed into each other.

In a city such as New York there are always dangers. Taxi drivers, muggers and icy pavements in the winter, to name a few. Then there’s the night – the clientele of bars, clubs and parties all over the city taking risks, gambling with their lives. And more often than not the innocent victims are women. Women who may have had a little too much tipple, or are being led up the garden path by the ‘alpha’ male in the crowd. And who is there to protect those women from these dangers? Superheroes like Spider-Man or Batman? The Amazon goddess herself, Wonder Woman? No, these are purely characters of comic books and imagination. However, there is a real hero out there, and yes she does wear a cape and sport a mask!
I protect the single girl living in the big city.
That mysterious woman in scarlet costume, red knee-high leather boots and swirling cape? That’s Terrifica! Together with a blonde wig, golden mask and matching Valkyrie¹ bra, she is every part the superhero, providing help where it’s needed (and sometimes not).
Devoid of any real superpowers – no superspeed, superstrength, X-ray vision or amazing mutant abilities, all she has is her ‘utility belt’ – a bumbag² containing pepper spray for emergencies, a mobile phone, lipstick, camera, notebook, Terrifica fortune cards, condoms and ‘energy pills’ (Smarties chocolates). And with no superhuman abilities to protect her from harm, Terrifica does take chances. She has often been abused by both women and men when offering her own style of ‘freedom-fighting’, but mostly she is berated by bartenders trying to ply their wares.
First coming to prominence in 1995, Terrifica took her self-proclaimed mission of protecting single women to the bars and nightclubs of the Brooklyn area of New York, in particular 7th Avenue, seeking out women she felt were being taken advantage of by male ‘predators’. She would speak to potential victims, offering advice over a ‘Shirley Temple’³, and either handing over condoms or her trademark fortune cards, which gave tips on how to deal with unwanted sexual advances or a ‘break up‘ peaceably. One ‘rescuee’, 24-year-old painter Lauren, reported:

She asked if we were going to hook up tonight… offered us a condom and said that if I was going to be tricked into having sex, at least it should be safe.

Terrifica soon became a common and often welcome sight, in some cases purely for the gimmick and ridicule, at many ‘frat’ parties⁴ and Wall Street clubs in Brooklyn during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

I had a couple of run-ins with men that really shocked me, left me feeling confused and really hurt.

Mild-mannered Sarah⁵ works for a computer consulting company in the city. Little is known of her childhood and past, as she ensures her true identity remains a secret, so as she can live a ‘normal’ life. Sarah’s superhero side came into being when, after moving from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to New York City, her then boyfriend broke off their relationship. Upset and alone in the big city, she continued to make the best of things and eventually met another man while out clubbing.
However, the course of true love does not run smooth and in a short space of time her new boyfriend also ended their relationship. It was this event that spurred 30-something Sarah into action, deciding that no other single woman should suffer as she had. ‘Terrifica’ was born – a heroine that would protect other potential ‘Sarahs’ from the possibility of emotional or physical harm caused by ill-advised or drunken decisions.

We have crossed paths from time to time.
– Fantastico

Terrifica’s arch-nemesis, Fantastico, is a partygoer who likes to dress in velvet and considers himself a bit of a ladies’ man. Terrifica has thwarted his attempts of ‘getting to know women a little better’ many a time. An intriguing character – unemployed, but with a penchant for the finer things in life, Fantastico is convinced that Terrifica is not a superhero, but merely a ‘miserable, lonely woman who does not want anyone else to be happy’. It is not just her enemies that have labelled her a ‘crazy broad’ however, with club-owners, partygoers, new-age feminists and even the New York Police Department frowning upon her vigilante actions.

It’s dangerous work that I must do alone.

Despite her critics, many women have benefited from Terrifica’s intervention. The heroine once planned to set up a telephone hotline to help women when they needed relationship advice, but she also concocted an equivalent of the Bat-Signal – the ‘Terrific-Signal’, which would shine a huge ‘T’ over the skyline of New York in order that she could race to where she was needed – but unfortunately, these ideas never came to fruition.
Even though Terrifica wanted to carry on her mission – as long as there were still women getting drunk, going home with men they barely knew and then wondering why the phone would not ring the next day – it appears as if she has hung up her bumbag and folded away her cape – for now…
Terrifica’s lasting message to the young single women of New York?

Don’t get drunk in bars.

---

¹ A Valkyrie is a Norse legend, a female warrior with golden armour.
² Otherwise known as a ‘fannypack’ in the United States.
³ Non-alcoholic drink.
⁴ Parties held by American College Fraternities, in which college boys get drunk with college girls and all sorts of chaos ensues.
⁵ Her full name is kept secret to maintain her anonymity.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A11755145

Article no longer availible on-line
By Hunter Clauss, Editor-In-Chief
Spandex-clad superheroes like Batman, Spider-Man and Superman have found homes in the colorful panels of comic books, movie theaters and the imaginations of readers around the world, but there is a growing community of real-life superheroes who are taking to the streets.
The popularity of the real-life superhero scene is growing almost as fast as an old-timey locomotive moves thanks to the Internet. The visibilty of this blooming community has led to a new Sci Fi Channel reality-television show that is currently in the works. “Who Wants To Be A Superhero?” will feature 11 real-life superheroes fighting through various obstacles in order to prove they have what it takes to be the best real-life superhero.
“It’s so ingrained in our public consciousness that somebody’s got to be doing it,” said Arizona-based hero Kevlex, whose heroic deed is taking part in his own neighborhood watch by patrolling around in a mask and light body armor. Kevlex refused to give his real name so that his secret identity could remain safe.
While these real-life superheroes do not possess superpowers like super strength or x-ray vision, heroes like Kevlex are motivated to take action by their outrage at criminal behavior.
“There are people out there actively promoting child molesting,” he said, refering to the North American Man Boy Love Association.
Kevlex believes that groups and organizations that promote racism or crime should not have a place in today’s diverse society. Kevlex said that he always wondered why there were not any superheroes making a stand against crime.
“It’s making a stand as well as being a symbol,” he said.
Kevlex searched for websites that covered the superhero scene but wasn’t impressed by what he found.
“There were a few sites that dealt with it in passing or dealt with it as a curiosity, but nothing that really pulled everything into focus,” he said.
So to help find other real-life superheroes, Kevlex created the World Superhero Registry, www.worldsuperheroregisrty.com, as a forum for active players in this scene to communicate with each other.
The registry keeps track of real-life superheroes around the world. But in order to be recognized by the World Superhero Registry as a real-life superhero, certain criteria must be met. Superheroes must have a well-thought out costume, perform heroic deeds for their communities and be personally motivated.
Among those real-life superheroes listed on the World Superhero Registry is Angle Grinder Man. Living in England, this modern-day Robin Hood frees automobiles from police clamps or boots with his trusty power grinder.
Also listed on the World Superhero Registry is Terrifica, who has been featured in New York magazine and on NPR’s “Wait, Wait—Don’t Tell Me!” Donning a blond wig and a golden Valkyrie bra, Terrifica patrols New York City’s bars and protects intoxicated women from being taken advantage of by men.
There are also crime-fighting super teams listed on the registry. The Crimefighter Corps is one such group that patrols the streets of Jackson, Mich. The team includes the Queen of Hearts, Crimefighter Girl and Captain Jackson, whose alter-ego, Thomas Frankini, was arrested for driving under the influence in 2005.
While the World Superhero Registry has listings from all over the globe, Kevlex believes there are more real-life superheroes roaming the streets than those listed.
“The people who are the most serious tend to not talk much,” he said.
Kevlex believes these hardcore heroes are ones who are going after organized crime bosses, as well as performing other highly dangerous activities. Kevlex mentioned that these kinds of heroic deeds are extremely dangerous, but that he would also come to the aid of anyone in trouble no matter how risky the situation might be.
But not all superheroes have their own powers, and some superheroes, like the fictional Batman of Gotham City, rely on gadgets for their personal safety as well as to fight crime. Real-life superhero inventor Professor Thaddius Widget strives to invent these same gadgets and accessories for the needs of his superhero clients.
“Many of the items I create are potentially hazardous,” Widget said in an e-mail, so as not to reveal his secret identity. “Some are ridiculously dangerous.”
Widget invents and sells anything from steel-reinforced gloves to grappling hooks. Two projects he is currently working on are a compact grappel launcher and an electrified fighting staff.
Since he creates and sells such devices, Widget said that keeping his identity a secret is important so he can’t be held accountable for his inventions.
“I refuse to be sued because someone uses a grappling hook improperly and falls to their death, or puts out an eye with a pointy bit of equipment,” he said. “I expect my customers to take personal responsibility for their purchases and their actions.”
While real-life superheroes have the best of intentions when it comes to patrolling their neighborhoods, Sgt. Eugene Mullins of the Chicago Police Department thinks they should find other ways to help fight crime.
“We don’t want any citizen to go out and hurt themselves to try and be a vigilante,” Mullins said. “They can be in spandex and a cape if they want to—as long as they don’t interfere with a police investigation.”
Mullins said citizens should call the police department if a crime is taking place rather than take matters into their own hands. He also encourages people to problem solve with the police department on how crime can be reduced in their neighborhoods.
“That promotes a healthy neighborhood,” he said. “We don’t want anybody going out and getting themselves hurt.”

Orignially posted: http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=1712
Doktor DiscorD and Mr Silent are self-invented superheroes.

so tonight is the first night in a new era here in indianapolis. the dawn of the age of superheroes. after realizing the total lack of justice in the world, my friends and i have decided to become superheroes in order to balance this fracturing planet of ours. tonight, with my partner in crime fighting “Mr. Silent”, we went around the city helping people and stopping fights,drunk drivers,and a group of young dumb kids hitting an old woman’s car.

Here’s the note the good Doktor sent me the other day:

mr. ellis
hi,i’m a superhero…..seriously.
some friends and i have become tired of the muggers, rapists, and general riff raff causing problems in our city.
this is not a joke.
we’ve started a group called the Justice Society of Justice (offering twice the Justice as the leading competitors) and we go out and fight crime on a semi nightly basis.
we’ve only got about 8 hardcore members that go out with us right now,but we’re hoping to raise that number tenfold.
recently,some japanese street fashion kids have found our myspace pages and added us..so within 3 days we’ve had roughly 3-4 japanese weirdo kids adding us per hour…japan seems much more accepting of this concept than the states.
originally,we just thought it’d be funny to go out as superheroes and “fight crime” as a sort of street theater…but after the first hour and the sheer exhilaration of it all,we completely changed our mind. there are real problems,and no one wants to deal with them. some one has to do something.
many people have read about the adventures of your heroes, but soon (hopefully), they’ll be writing about their own adventures. i made a few blog entries about some of our patrols with pictures and stuff…so if you ever want to see how well superheroes work out in the regular world as opposed to paper one,check it out.
say a small prayer to jack kirby for us.
dokdiscord

Mr Silent @ MySpace | Doktor DiscorD @ MySpace

Captain Jackson, costumed defender of the citizens of Jackson, Mich., has to hang it up after pleading guilty to impaired driving, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Local factory worker Thomas Frankini, 49, donned his crime-fighting tights a few years ago — along with a purple cape — to patrol city streets struggling with gangs, amass awards from community groups, chase shady characters from dark corners, and help merchants be sure to lock up.
“It was a cold winter night, as I remember it,” said George Davis, the former manager at Jackson’s historic Michigan Theater, to the Free Press. “We were playing a Cary Grant movie or something like that and he suddenly appeared and held the door open for seniors.”
As word of his feats spread, Captain Jackson, with an amused wink from the cops, even began to pose for photos with visiting Elvis impersonators, celebrities, elected officials — even the new postmaster for the city.
“Believe me, I didn’t ask for this job,” Captain Jackson said last year on his Web site,
www.captainjackson.org.
But as the caped crime fighter’s glory reached new heights, there was only that much further to come crashing down.
The Dec. 14 edition of the Jackson Citizen Patriot greeted readers with a headline that dealt the worst blow for vigilantes in tights since J. Jonah Jameson went after Spider-Man:
“Crime fighter busted for drunken driving.”
Even worse, the paper exposed the Captain’s secret identity, and that he’d suited up his daughter and girlfriend as his super sidekicks: Crime Fighter Girl and Queen of Hearts.
Now, Captain Jackson is considering hanging up his cape and leaving town.
“My patrol days are over, I’m afraid,” Frankini told the Free Press in a phone interview last week, before he failed to appear for an interview with the paper on Tuesday.
“We’re gonna keep going, but I guess not in Jackson. We’re definitely in danger, I know that,” he told the paper. “We’re like David Hasselhoff from ‘Baywatch’ — he had this singing career and he was popular everywhere but America. Why they decided to destroy one of the best things I know in Jackson, I have no idea.”
If he does move away, disappointed local residents say maybe their fallen hero will don his tights yet again elsewhere.
“Maybe,” Davis suggested, “he could become Captain Parma, Captain Hillsdale, or something like that.”
— Thanks to Out There readers Steve P. and Daniel H.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,180375,00.html