Tag san diego

Maybe it is due to the popularity of “Watchmen,” which featured crime-fighters with little or no super powers. Or maybe in the “Dark Knight” was a harbinger of things to come, when masked vigilantes tried to emulate Batman on their meager budgets. The Great Recession may be the single largest factor in this growing movement. Men and women are donning costumes and hitting the streets, to protect the public, across the nation, and yes, even around the world.
What is a Real Life Superhero? According to Superheroes Anonymous, the mark of a Real Life Superhero (RLSH) is someone who sees injustice in the world, and in costume, does something about it. Over the past three years Superheroes Anonymous has help validate the purpose of RLSH, ordinary people who go out of their way to help others.
Many of these latter-day Guardian Angels help feed the homeless, perform various community services, and inspire others to take positive social action. Their members are doctors, students; people from all walks of life. Some attribute their altruism to being disillusioned with chasing the almighty dollar, after being laid off from their jobs. Others are repenting for past transgressions during their youth. The one thing they have in common is an overarching desire to make the world a better place.
Some even fight crime in the literal sense, those who do usually keep their real identities a secret. Mr. Ravenblade found his calling when he prevented a mugging/rape. Mr. Xtreme, who founded the Xtreme Justice League, patrols neighborhoods to stop violent crime in San Diego. The Black Monday Society members Insignis, Ghost, and Oni help keep Salt Lake City, Utah safe. Crimson Fist may sound like a hardened crime-fighter, but he mainly helps feed the homeless.
In New York, Terrifica, a female crime-fighter, has been protecting inebriated women at bars and parties from being taken advantage of by men since the mid-1990’s. Dark Guardian, a martial arts instructor, helps keep bad elements at bay, gives inspirational speeches, and will even clean up trash or graffiti. Life not only helps the homeless, he also teams up with other superheroes to attack drug dealers. Most of these superheroes are law-abiding citizens who help police catch real criminals. On the occasions when they do cross the line, they tend to keep it very close to the chest.
RLSH say that the main reason they don masks is more to raise public awareness than to strike fear in the hearts of criminals. They are hard to ignore which helps drive their message of community activism. They also seem to prefer myspace to Facebook. Just don’t expect an up-to-date report on their sites. They are too busy keeping us safe.
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Superheroes Anonymous trailer from beginnorth on Vimeo.

By Kari Luu, Staff Writer
To some, he’s just a man skulking through the night for an overdue Halloween party; but to others, he’s a symbol, a crusader and a giver. His identity is a secret. His weaknesses are on par with any other man, but he gets his kicks from doing good and his adrenaline rush comes from sweet justice. He’s just your neighborhood friendly superhero: Mr. Xtreme.
Donning a lucha libre mask and armed with a utility belt stuffed with a tactical flashlight, pepper spray, handcuffs, first-aid kit and a stun-gun, Mr. Xtreme is a homemade superhero who patrols San Diego areas by night in an effort to prevent crime. He sifts through various San Diego areas such as downtown, City Heights, Pacific and Mission beaches and more. On patrols, he occasionally hands out food and drink to homeless people and sometimes works with a superhero from another town.
Mr. Xtreme is one of the more active and visible members of the local Real Life Superheroes Organization, which is an international online community of nearly 300 comic book fans that stays connected through Web sites such as worldsuperheroregistry.com. These heroes spend their free time fighting crime and doing good deeds for society behind the anonymity of a mask and cape.
By day, Mr. Xtreme works as a security guard. As a native San Diegan, he was a witness to the city’s wave of crime in the early ‘90s. He grew infuriated by the public’s apathy and began his mission three years ago to deter crime in this town and promote safety awareness.
Mr. Xtreme’s primary method of crime prevention is acting as a visual deterrent — raising awareness by being highly visible and intervening in situations when a victim is involved. However, he is often invigorated by the gawks and stares he receives because of his outrageous attire.
“We’re not here to take law into our hands,” he said. “We’re not vigilantes. And we’re not here to harass people or violate their civil rights. Our role out there is a neighborhood watch: Deter crime and make sure it doesn’t happen in the first place or raise awareness: So I don’t mind if people get on their cell phones or call the police or try to shake me down.”
Mr. Xtreme cares more about the message he sends to society rather than what people think of him.
“At least I’m getting people to see what I’m doing and hopefully that will get them into the habit of calling the police when there are problems and suspicious activities,” Mr. Xtreme said.
As a young man, Mr. Xtreme himself fell victim to various crimes such as physical abuse, bullying and was even held at gunpoint by a gang. From his experiences, Mr. Xtreme was inspired to become the neighborhood superhero.
“I take the violent victimization of innocent people very personally,” he said. “Even if I don’t know the victims I feel that I can relate to them.”
Although this is not something he can put on his resume, Mr. Xtreme is just in the business to do good. He uses his own money for most of the charity work he does, such as printing flyers when a violent rapist was loose in San Diego. He also distributes food to the homeless and even offered $1,500 of his own money to whoever caught the sexual assault suspect last year. He’s no sellout either. He was offered to be on a reality show, which he turned down.
“I’m trying to give back to the community and do something positive,” Mr. Xtreme said. “All this apathy just kind of bewilders me and makes me kind of lose faith in humanity sometimes because nobody cares. ‘Another victim, another statistic’ and all we hear is, it’s time for a wakeup call and I’m tired of hearing of wakeup calls and instead of getting on with our lives we need to devote and dedicate our lives to take a stand.”
Despite how some may scoff at Mr. Xtreme’s lack of experience and odd ways of applying his justice, he has been training for the last year by learning various martial arts such as jiu-jitsu and judo. He has also taken classes in defensive tactics, handcuffing, first aid, batons and citizen arrest procedures.
“I’ve worked in the security field for several years and worked in a field that’s closely related to what I do here as Mr. Xtreme,” he said. “So I do have some experience in making citizen arrest, dealing with hostile aggressive people and dealing with the police.”
Mr. Xtreme said he hopes to recruit more superheroes in the near future and patrol the College Area.
“When I go out and do this it feels really rewarding,” Mr. Xtreme said. “I’m not bound by society’s rules, I don’t have to be a kissass and I’m trying to do something positive and give back to the community in a time when not too many people care.”
For more information on Mr. Xtreme, visit www.reallifesuperheroes.org.
http://www.thedailyaztec.com/features/travel-adventure/superhero-makes-san-diego-a-better-place-1.2059296

Friday October 9, 2009
Apparently “Superheroes” are not just for the movies or comic books anymore. Motivated by difficult economic times, high crime and homelessness, a new movement of real life “Superheroes” has sprung up across the country.
Real life “Superheroes”….for real? Yep, and some of them are even dressed in tights.
One of these masked men is Mr. Ravenblade, a former Microsoft employee who was laid off who now helps to fight crime in Seattle. According to “Superheroes Anonymous,” based in New York, there are hundreds of Superheroes out there today doing what they can to help out in theri communities. According to the World Superhero Registry, in order to be a “Real Superhero” one must be “committed to doing good for the benefit of mankind” above and beyond the call of duty.
Some of the other SuperHeroes on the streets today are:
– Mr. Xtreme, who patrols the streets of San Diego.
– The Dark Guradian, a martial arts teacher committed to giving back in New York.
– Crimson Fist, who fights homelessness with food and water on the streets of Atlanta.
– Chaim “Life” Lazaros, of Superheroes Anonymous, who helped raise money children at St Mary’s Hospital and provides supplies to theri local homeless.
Here’s the Real Life Superheroes Creed: (I love this!)
We are Real Life Superheroes.
We follow and uphold the law.
We fight for what is right.
We help those in need.
We are role models.
We will be positive and inspirational.
We hold ourselves to a higher standard.
Through our actions we will create a better brighter tomorrow.
Don’t you just love these people! It makes me want to run out and get a costume.
What about you….is there a Superhero inside of you? So here’s my question:
If you were a Superhero, who would you be and what would be your cause?
I’d love to hear your comments.
See photo gallery of real life Superheroes for a little creative inspiration.
Peace and Blessings and May the Force Be with You!
posted by Deborah Price @ 3:34pm
http://blog.beliefnet.com/yourdailyspiritualstimulus/2009/10/good-news-friday-superheroes-anonymous.html

(CNN) — Mr. Ravenblade, Mr. Xtreme, Dark Guardian and hundreds of others. Some with elaborate costumes, others with haphazardly stitched outfits, they are appearing on city streets worldwide watching over the populace like Superman watched over Metropolis and Batman over Gotham City.
As people become disillusioned from financial woes and a downtrodden economy and look to put new purpose in their lives, everyday folks are taking on new personas to perform community service, help the homeless and even fight crime.
“The movement is growing,” said Ben Goldman, a real-life superhero historian. Goldman, along with Chaim “Life” Lazaros and David “Civitron” Civitarese, runs the New York-based Web site Superheroes Anonymous as part of an initiative dedicated to organizing and making alliances with superhero groups.
According to Goldman, who goes by the moniker Cameraman because of his prowess in documenting the movement, economic troubles are spawning real life superheroes.
“A lot of them have gone through a sort of existential crisis and have had to discover who they are,” Goldman said. People are starting to put value in what they can do rather than what they have, he said. “They realize that money is fleeting, it’s in fact imaginary.”
Estimates from the few groups that keep tabs put the worldwide total of real-life superheroes between 250 and 300. Goldman said the numbers were around 200 just last summer.
Mr. Ravenblade, laid off after a stint with a huge computer technology corporation, found inspiration for his new avocation a few years ago from an early morning incident in Walla Walla, Washington.
“I literally stepped into a woman’s attempted rape/mugging,” Mr. Ravenblade said. While details were lost in the fog of the fight, he remembers this much: “I did what I could,” he said, adding that he stopped the crime and broke no laws. “And I realized after doing what I did, that people don’t really look after people.”
Public response to real-life superheroes has been mixed, according to Mr. Xtreme, who founded the Xtreme Justice League in San Diego, California.
“Sometimes it’s been really positive with people saying, ‘Woohoo, the superheroes are here,’ and then the usual barrage, saying ‘Oh, these guys are losers.’ Other times people will look kind of freaked out, and then sometimes people just don’t know what to think about us.”
Like Peter Parker kept his Spider-Man identity from his editor boss, Mr. Extreme and Mr. Ravenblade have asked CNN editors to keep their identities secret.
The current superhero movement started a few years ago on MySpace, as people interested in comics and cool caped crusaders joined forces, Goldman said. It goes beyond the Guardian Angel citizen patrols of the early 1980s, as the real-life superheroes of today apply themselves to a broadly defined ethos of simply doing good works. Watch Crimson Fist help the homeless in Atlanta »
Chris Pollak, 24, of Brooklyn, New York, can attest to the appeal. “A lot more people are either following it or wanting to go out and do it,” Pollack, who goes by the name Dark Guardian, said. By “do it,” he means patrol the harrowing streets late at night.
“A lot of kids say they’re real-life superheroes [on MySpace],” Mr. Ravenblade said. “But what are you doing? Being in front of a computer is not helping anybody.”
Comic book legend Stan Lee, the brain behind heroes such as Spider-Man and the X-Men, said in his comic books doing good — and availing one’s self — was indeed the calling card for superheroes.
“If somebody is committing a crime, if somebody is hurting some innocent person, that’s when the superhero has to take over.” See a photo gallery of some real-life superheroes »
“I think it’s a good thing that people are eager enough to want to help their community. They think to do it is to emulate the superheroes,” Lee said. “Now if they had said they had super powers [that would be another thing].”
Without super powers, real life superheroes confess to a mere-mortal workload, including helping the homeless, handing out fliers in high-crime areas and patrolling areas known for drug-dealing.
Mr. Ravenblade said he and some of his superfriends would soon be trying to organize a Walk for Babies fundraiser in Portland, Oregon.
“We work with charities that help children,” he said. “We think a lot of crimes happen because of people who didn’t get a lot of love when they were younger. We do what we can to help that there.”
“Homeless outreach is the main thing I like to do,” said Chaim “Life” Lazaros, of Superheroes Anonymous. “We give out food, water, vitamins, toothbrushes. A lot of homeless people in my area know me, and they tell us about what they need. One homeless guy said ‘I need a couple pair of clean underwear.'”
For Christmas, Lazaros said his group raised $700 in gifts and brought them to kids at St. Mary’s Children’s Hospital in New York. “They were so excited to see real-life superheroes,” Lazaros said. iReport.com: Searching for Cincinnati’s caped crusader
Many of the real-life superheroes even initiate citizen’s arrests, but what’s legal varies by state. And in North Carolina citizen’s arrests are illegal. Real-life superheroes who grab a suspected villain may find themselves under a specter of trouble.
“Not a good idea,” said Katy Parker, legal director for the ACLU of North Carolina. “Seeing as how there’s no citizen’s arrest statute [in the state], people who do this are running a serious risk of getting arrested for kidnapping, and being liable for false imprisonment.”
“Vigilantism is never a good thing,” said Bernard Gonzales, public information officer for the Chula Vista, California, Police Department. He’s had some interactions with real-life superheroes. “The very best thing a private citizen can do is be a good witness.”
Mr. Ravenblade said he’s just that.
“If you’re a real-life superhero you follow the law. If you catch somebody you can’t just tie them up and leave them for the cops, that’s for the comics. You have to wait for the cops and give them a statement,” Mr. Ravenblade said. iReport.com: Cincinnati superhero speaks
While citizens helping out in the community is encouraged, Gonzales said the costumes can go.
“Where these people are out in public, and there’s children around and everything, and these people are not revealing their identities, it’s not a safe thing.”
But the costumes go with the gig, right down to the do-it-yourself approach to good deeds, including, apparently, recycling.
“The costume I have is simple,” said Mr. Xtreme. “I made it myself. I had a graphic designer design it for me and just took it down to the swap meet and had somebody imprint it on for me.”
“The mask,” an old bullfighter’s piece, “I got from Tijuana.”

Where to find real-life superheroes

There is a growing diaspora of superheroes worldwide. Here are a few resources.
World Superhero Registry: A virtual who’s who of the larger real-life superhero community, including who’s active and who’s not.
Superheroes Anonymous: A New York-based initiative to organize and document the scattered real-life superhero diaspora.
ReallifeSuperheroes.org: A repository of all things supehero, to encourage and set up real-life superheroes in various communities
RLSH-manual.com: So, you want to be a real-life superhero? Need a uniform, you say? 

Where to find real-life superheroes

There is a growing diaspora of superheroes worldwide. Here are a few resources.
World Superhero Registry: A virtual who’s who of the larger real-life superhero community, including who’s active and who’s not.
Superheroes Anonymous: A New York-based initiative to organize and document the scattered real-life superhero diaspora.
ReallifeSuperheroes.org: A repository of all things supehero, to encourage and set up real-life superheroes in various communities
RLSH-manual.com: So, you want to be a real-life superhero? Need a uniform, you say?
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/06/04/real.life.superheroes/

SDNN
It is a typical Sunday; launching a public awareness campaign to bring a home-invasion rapist to justice.
Well, maybe not a typical Sunday – at least, not for the average citizen. San Diego’s resident superhero Mr. Xtreme – as the missing vowel suggests – is far from average.
Think Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, or Mighty Morphin Power Rangers – just less … super. No high-flying, no web-slinging, no expensive gadgetry, no dino-morphing; essentially, none of the frills that make a superhero super.
That isn’t to say Mr. Xtreme isn’t super – or a hero. Quite the opposite, in fact. It takes an out-of-the-ordinary person to sacrifice his Sunday to hand out flyers warning women about a sexual assault suspect who has been on the loose since June 2008. And it takes an extraordinary person to offer an out-of-pocket $1,500 reward for information leading to the “evildoer’s” capture.
He must be brought to justice, Mr. Xtreme says, and he’s just doing his part to help.
The 30-something superhero has read news releases about a drop in crime in the county. He has no reason to believe crime is on the rise, but, he says, “Try to tell a victim’s family there’s been a drop in crime – they’ll tell you to get lost.”
“Victims of violent crimes shouldn’t be treated as a statistic,” says Mr. Xtreme, who asked we keep his identity a secret.
Sure, he talks a big game, but Mr. Xtreme has no illusions of grandeur; he isn’t secretly developing an Xtreme-mobile, or jumping from building to building in the East Village after dark.
It’s a pretty simple operation, to tell you the truth. He patrols neighborhoods in his costume – black cargo pants, a green “Xtreme Justice League” shirt, black boots and a camouflage lucha libre mask – and he wears a utility belt, equipped with a stun gun, 2.5 ounces of pepper spray, and a flashlight.
The Xtreme Justice League, the organization his shirt refers to, is a small, loose network of superheroes Mr. Xtreme works with to coordinate patrols and fight crime. Locally, he doesn’t have much help. He’s the most active, visible member of the local Real Life Superhero (RLS) community, which stays connected through sites like WorldSuperheroRegistry.com.
Mr. Xtreme’s primary goal is to be a visual deterrent to crime; a would-be evildoer, for example, might see the masked man patrolling, and rethink his malevolent misdeeds.
But, Mr. Xtreme said, if push comes to shove, he isn’t afraid to intervene in gang violence, a carjacking or a sexual assault.
“If someone’s safety is at stake, if a victim’s life is at stake, I’ll step in no matter how dangerous the situation and risk getting injured, or even risk losing my life to save the day,” he deadpans.
OK. Hmmm. That may be a little beyond the call of duty. But, it’s all in a day’s work, the superhero says.
Every now and then, Mr. Xtreme delivers a line or uses a phrase that borders on melodramatics. And, in part, that’s the purpose. He enjoys the theatrics.
He’s a building security manager by day. So, I ask him: Why not work with a community patrol group that collaborates with the police department? Instead, he operates independently, a pariah at public forums (he’s often asked to leave) and a nuisance to the cops. Sure, with an organized community patrol, he’d have more status in neighborhoods. But, he’d be missing the theatrics – missing the fun.
“I grew up in a household of abuse, I was bullied in school, and I see all the apathy and indifference in society,” he says. “It really strikes a nerve with me. I looked up to superheroes when I was a child; they were role models. And they’re still role models today.”
“I have so much respect for what community patrols do, but I want to be out and interact with the community,” he says. “I couldn’t do that from a car. And being a real-life superhero is really a symbol to illustrate my commitment to an ideal, and it can inspire people … I want to send a message to youth. You can live an ‘extreme’ lifestyle and you don’t have to be a killer or a gang member or a thug or a waste of human life or a parasite.”
So, for the time being, Mr. Xtreme doesn’t mind being an outsider – just don’t call him a vigilante.
“I don’t condone vigilante behavior; I condemn it,” he says. “It’s an insult when someone calls me a vigilante. A vigilante wouldn’t try to go to community meetings to interact with the public. A vigilante wouldn’t try to work with police.”
The superhero hopes to build a working rapport with the police. It doesn’t seem likely, but he’s hopeful. He seems eternally optimistic; that he can build bridges in communities; that he can prevent crime; that he can make a difference in the world. He may not have a super-utility belt, or a super-power, but this superhero’s heart is in the right place.
The Sunday I tag along with Mr. Xtreme, we canvass shopping centers in Kearny Mesa, handing out “WANTED” flyers, with information about the sexual assault suspect. This case really irks him.

The home-made flyers are more eye-catching than your run of the mill posters. They say “WANTED” in bold, Sharpie’d letters. A sketch of the sexual assault suspect has the word evildoer written on it. The Xtreme Justice League logo is pasted at the top and a “no evil” logo is pasted near the bottom.
He approaches people in shopping centers to give them flyers. Surprisingly, very few dodge him. It may help he’s being followed by a reporter and a film crew, who is interested in making a documentary film about real-life superheroes.
By and large, the response to Mr. Xtreme’s effort is enthusiastic.
He greets one woman sweeping a sidewalk outside a big-box business.
“Hi ma’am, I’m with the Xtreme Justice League, and we’re looking for a rapist,” he says, handing her a flyer.
“For real? Him? Still?” the woman says. The suspect has been at large for a year.
“Yes ma’am,” he says.
“That son of a bitch. Well, I hope to God you find him. I warn my kids every day. If you have any other flyers, I’ll help put them up.”
Later, he meets another grateful citizen.
“You guys are doing good work,” the man says, taking a flyer from Mr. Xtreme. Mr. Xtreme thanks him and walks away. The man’s young daughter runs out of a nearby store to see what her dad is up to.
“Daddy, who are you talking … OH MY GOSH WHY IS THAT MAN …?” The little girl isn’t quite sure what to make of her father cavorting with Mr. Xtreme.
At a market down the road, our superhero greets a woman he’s met before in the restaurant she owns. She has his flyers posted there – but she has a question.
“Why do you have to have a mask on?” she asks.
“Well, it’s a part of my uniform,” he says. “I’m a superhero.”
“Oh …”
“Oh” seems to be the standard response, when Mr. Xtreme explains himself; it’s as if no one quite knows what to make of him, but aren’t comfortable prying, so they say, “Oh.”
For every passerby who seems a bit confused by the getup, there’s the driver who honks his horn, or waves. They might recognize him from television news spots, or the Union-Tribune story about him, or the cover of The San Diego Reader. He welcomes the media attention. After all, it makes his job crime fighting a little easier.
“Some superheroes think I do this for popularity,” he says. “That’s not the case. We’re trying to build community support to make our jobs easier.”
Despite the name recognition, it’s a lonely life, he says. “My social life is basically non-existent. That’s the sacrifice I choose to make so I can be able to do this. It can be difficult to get people to understand. I usually only speak in depth to folks who want to listen. If they’re going to come at me with a barrage of nonsense, I usually just walk away or ignore them. I just take things as they come and do my thing, and not care what people think if it’s negative. No time for negativity.”
Nope. No time for negativity for Mr. Xtreme. Saving the world, after all, is daunting task. Even for a superhero.
Joseph Peña is a contributing editor for San Diego News Network.
Tags: SDNN
Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-05-29/lifestyle/local-superhero-fights-crime-his-own-way#ixzz0Vm4t6HOd

ARJUN RAMACHANDRAN
It’s certainly not a bird, or a speeding bullet, or a plane. It looks more like a guy in a silly lycra outfit.
Wearing masks and the full superhero get-up, a band of “real life superheroes” are patrolling the world’s cities trying to clean up the streets.
So claim the comic book-like crime-fighters, a loose association of costumed do-gooders who say they are taking up the fight for justice for ordinary people.
Boasting names like Dark Guardian, Citizen Prime, and Green Scorpion, the mainly US-based characters say they need to wear outfits to protect their identities from the evil-doers they attack.
Most have MySpace pages where they reveal the philosophy of their superheroism.
Florida superhero Amazonia wrote why she was prompted to strap on the black Zorro-like mask and defend her city, Ocala:
“I finally had enough of seeing the gangs terrorizing the downtown section of my city. They would mug, beat and otherwise harass senior citizens and women.
“So I took up the mantle of Firebird and set out to do what I could to help others.”
Many of the superheroes say they are armed with weapons such as stun guns, which can be legally carried in the US.
“Shadow Hare”, a 1.7 metre, slight-of-stature 21-year-old Cincinnati resident who carries handcuffs, a stun-gun and pepper spray, boasts: “I’ve stopped many evil doers … such as drug dealers, muggers, rapists, and crazy hobos with pipes.”
Many of the superheroes’ good deeds are of a civic nature – such as volunteering with charities or feeding the homeless.
But some make more bolder claims of actual crime-fighting.
Shadow Hare said he dislocated his shoulder two years ago while helping a woman who was being attacked.
He also said he was working with a San Diego-based superhero called Mr Extreme to “track down a rapist”.
On his MySpace page, Dark Guardian writes of the moment he saw two men with baseball bats waiting to beat someone up outside their house late at night.
“I park across the street from them. I wait and watch them. I make sure they see me so they know someone is watching, soon after they leave.
“I didn’t have to go and fight two guys with bats to stop a crime. I just made my presence known and they decided to stop what they were trying to do.”
On another occasion he writes of confronting a deranged man trashing a store.
“I stood in front of him and made sure everyone got out of the store. I tried talking him down. The store had already called the cops.
“Once the police came he cooperated and was hauled away. If he came at me or anyone else this story would end differently and I would have been in court myself because I had my knife at the ready.
“Glad it ended the way it did.”
Some superheroes also formed together under different banners to tackle crimes in unison, such as the Allegiance of Heroes.
One such group, titled the Justice Society Of Justice, claims to offer “twice the JUSTICE as the leading competitors!”.
An online “Superhero Registry” lists members of the “the Real-Life Superhero community”, outlining their speciality (for example public service or crime-fighting), where they patrol, whether their identity is secret and if their status as a superhero has been confirmed.
The website states the superheroes are not just role-playing, but that this is “a movement among ordinary people to make the world a better place in an extraordinary way”.
“There are always those who will take something less seriously, but the Real-Life Superhero community is generally composed of sincere, well meaning people who have finally decided to go out and make a difference.”
The heroes wear costumes to inspire others, protect their privacy, and “conceal vulnerabilities in one’s protective gear”, the site says.
People can also make their own submissions to be added to the registry but acceptance usually requires evidence of heroic activities through “media documentation of such activities, or testimonials from established Real-Life Superheroes”.
On his MySpace page, superhero Dark Guardian also writes of the weight of expectation on real superheroes.
“What I got most out of being a Real Life Superhero is living up to the name. I have to be the living embodiment of a superhero. With that comes great responsibility.
“I have walked away from being a Real Life Superhero before , but I couldn’t give it up. It is who I am. It is what I believe in.
“And it will help change the world.”
But police appear not to have warmed to the idea.
“We expect people to report crime to the police and not put themselves in jeopardy,” New York Police Department spokesman Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said in an article about the “superheroes” last year.

© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2009/01/18/Cops-not-fans-of-real-life-superheroes/UPI-64571232303637/

It was an unusually warm night for January, and the sidewalks of East Village bustled with activity – people walking to the corner store, the homeless squatting in front of their tents, rock ‘n’ roll types smoking outside a tattoo shop.

It was also the kind of night that might draw evildoers out of the shadows.

So, armed with a belt full of gadgets (stun gun, pepper spray, handcuffs), Mr. Xtreme did what any superhero would do. He patrolled the streets by the light of the full moon.

He doesn’t scale buildings like Spider-Man or emit beams from his eyes like the X-Men’s Cyclops. But like his comic book counterparts, Mr. Xtreme insists on keeping his identity secret, helped by a camouflage wrestling mask with bug-shaped mesh eyes.

Mr. Xtreme is a Real-Life Superhero, part of an international online community of about 300 comic book fans who spend their free time fighting crime and doing good deeds for mankind behind the anonymity of a mask and cape.

There’s Dark Guardian, who patrols the streets of New York City as part of the superfluously named Justice Society of Justice. He wears a black spandex body suit, black cape and hard-shell mask. And in Utah, Ghost puts the fright into bad guys with his skeleton mask, long white wig and black cape.

Other superheroes hail from Michigan, Florida, Mexico City, Italy and England. San Diego’s only other known superhero goes by the name MidKnight.

They are connected via several online networks, including the World Superhero Registry and MySpace, where they share tips on patrol tactics, costume design and dealing with the police.

“Police automatically label us vigilantes,” said Mr. Xtreme, a 30-something security guard who asked The San Diego Union-Tribune to keep his identity private. The newspaper agreed after conducting a background check on him.

“I say we’re more costumed activists. Vigilantes render punishment onto criminals. We don’t harass people, don’t violate their civil rights. First and foremost, we prevent crime. We do what we are allowed to do legally as citizens.”

Birth of a superhero

Mr. Xtreme, who was raised in San Diego, said a wave of violence in the early 1990s – and the public’s apparent apathy to it – left an impression on him.

“They just want to look the other way and pretend it doesn’t exist,” he said. “I felt I needed to do something.”

Then in 2006, he got to thinking: What if the world had real superheroes? What kind of place would it be?

He joined the online community soon after and created his first persona, The Nag. But the heavyset bachelor was looking for something catchier.

Deciding to combine his love of the comic book superhero team Justice League of America with his passion for the Xtreme Football League, he came up with the Xtreme Justice League.

His costume is still in development. Besides the mask, he wears black tactical pants, boots and a long-sleeved, camouflage shirt under a green Xtreme Justice League T-shirt. His belt bulges with pepper spray, handcuffs, two cell phones, a first aid kid, a Double Trouble stun gun and a long Mag flashlight.

He has designed a sweet new costume in his head for when he can get some money together. “I’m going to have a Kevlar tactical helmet, tactical goggles with custom lenses. Obviously I’m going to have a cape, body armor.”

In March, Mr. Xtreme and superhero associate Shadow Hare of Cincinnati spent an afternoon in Chula Vista handing out fliers about a sexual predator wanted by police. They advertised a reward of $1,000 of their own funds for information leading to an arrest.

Then the gang unit showed up and had a conversation with the masked men. Chula Vista police spokesman Bernard Gonzales said the officers were just doing their due diligence.

“Anyone who goes out and tries to assist law enforcement by handing out fliers and being proactive against the criminals is appreciated,” said Gonzales. “But when you start physically involving yourself in crime fighting, that’s vigilantism.”

‘Every little bit helps’

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared Oct. 13 the Day of the Superhero after about 250 superheroes converged on the city to meet and march, but that was a rare display of official recognition.

Most police officers are uncomfortable with anonymous, masked characters walking neighborhoods carrying weapons.

Mr. Xtreme has tried to attend community meetings at the police station in the Mid City Division, but police asked him to leave when he refused to take off his mask, said San Diego police spokeswoman Mónica Muñoz.

“It didn’t work out too well,” Mr. Xtreme admitted.

Police also are concerned that the superheroes are putting themselves at risk.

“What we’re looking for is for the community to be our eyes and ears. If you see a crime, report it. Be a good witness,” said San Diego police Capt. Chris Ball. But “you shouldn’t be carrying weapons and you shouldn’t be confronting people.”

Police have had similar doubts about other citizen patrol groups, such as the Guardian Angels, who seem to have developed an amicable partnership with authorities, and the Sentinels, a Los Angeles group that disbanded in the early 1990s after a member beat an accused drug dealer.

Mr. Xtreme countered the vigilante accusations by saying he has studied the law carefully when it comes to carrying legal self-protection and knows when it is and is not appropriate to make citizen arrests. He said he hasn’t made an arrest as a superhero but has exercised the right in the past.

He plans to reach out to San Diego police in hopes of finding his own Commissioner Gordon, Batman’s sympathetic confidant at the Gotham City Police Department.

Preventing crime, serving the less fortunate and empowering others to take action are at the core of his message.

“When drug dealers see us, they’ll go to the other corner. That carjacker, he’s going to take the night off,” he said.

During a patrol in the Gaslamp Quarter last Saturday night, he drew plenty of gasps, nudges and stares.

A few people stopped to ask what he was all about.

“At first thought, it’s kind of funny,” said Dushaun Fairley, a Chula Vista Realtor who questioned the costume from the patio of Nicky Rotten’s on Fifth Avenue. “But at the end of the day, every little bit helps.”

Staff researcher Michelle Gilchrist contributed to this report.

A long-ago superhero

Mr. Xtreme and MidKnight are not the only superheroes to make a go of protecting San Diegans.

In the 1970s and ’80s, a self-appointed crusader named Captain Sticky squeezed his 350 pounds into blue tights, a gold cape and glittery boots to fight for justice.

The former fiberglass contractor, also known as Richard Pesta, was credited with helping launch statewide investigations into nursing homes and campaigning against rental-car rip-offs and sugary cereal.

He eventually retired the persona but later grabbed headlines when he was investigated by San Diego police for letting his home be used to film an X-rated movie. He testified against the film’s producer in exchange for immunity. He also sold sex tours in Thailand, but the Thai government shut him down.

Sticky, whose name derived from his love of peanut butter and jelly, died in 2004 of complications from heart bypass surgery in Thailand.

Online: For more on Real-Life Superheroes, go to worldsuperheroregistry.com and freewebs.com/heroesnetwork

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jan/17/1n17heroes002224-dynamic-do-gooders-contribute-lor/?zIndex=38829

Photo essay originally published online at Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University
In 1989, Superbarrio made his first18-day California tour, “Superbarrio Vs Agente Fronterizo” [Superbarrio vs. INS Officer]. The goal of this cross-border solidarity campaign was to discuss with farm workers, university and community leaders the rights of immigrants, Mexican-Americans and Chicanos/as—particularly their struggle with police brutality and abuse of members from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). He visited San Diego, Encinitas, Los Angeles (where he was detained by the INS during his speech), Fresno, Berkeley, San Jose and other places. Meanwhile, on the Mexican side of the border, the Assembly presented a petition to the Mexican government to prosecute those Mexican custom officials who extort Mexican visitors crossing the border south.

Photo essay originally published online at Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University
Superbarrio’s urban politics collapse the thin border between the “inside” and the “outside” of the wrestling ring. For the legendary Mexican wrestler El Santo, wrestling assumed the risk of dying. “Not many have, but some did.” El Santo explains that the highest risks took place in seconds, for instance, when he “flew” outside the ring into the audience’s chairs. The “outer ring” was the easiest location to break one’s head, or the head of somebody else in the audience. Lethal accidents had to be controlled during actions that took place in seconds. “To think in a second, while I am flying, so that by the time I am landing, I know almost simultaneously how to hit the floor and what to do next.” Superbarrio, like El Santo, performs in the confines of the “outer ring”; he risks his head, and his mask, in the dangers of political activism. Superbarrio inverts the wrestling rings inside out turning the streets into a ring of urban politics and performance.