Tag Stan Lee

Originally posted: http://geekoverture.com/2011/10/06/superheroes-bfi-london-film-festival-preview/

Some things are just too surprising to be believed and too cool not to share. Visiting the BFI London Film Festival on October 18th, 19th and 21st is Michael Barnett’s documentary Superheroes, an insightful and, by all appearances, even-handed exploration of the expanding world of real-life superheroes in the United States.
In a style that raises fond memories of the pro-wrestling documentary Beyond the Mat, Barnett devotes to screen some pretty intriguing characters, all of whom are driven by some desire to do what they see as being right, some of whom are more convincing than others. The New York Initiative is a group based in Brooklyn who set out with some pretty admirable, if vague, goals: Lucid, a heavily-built, distinctively-tattooed hero described as being “from all over”, wants “to do something, to do anything […] I’m sick of the corruption I see everywhere I look, whether it is the boss at your work or the dude you know from next door who’s been beating his wife for twenty years.”
On the other hand, there’s Master Justice and Super Hero. You decide.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I1p3mKnD08
What connects them is a kind of thinking that comes straight out of comic book rhetoric, using words like ‘deeds’ and ‘vigilante’, and there’s an impression that a major motivation is self-centred. They’re trying to become the hero of their own stories by emulating a stock character: the lone good man in a corrupt world, all couched in the terms used by Batman, Wolverine and the rest. But does that make them crazy, misguided or even wrong to do so? The documentary enlists psychologists, members of the police force and even the man himself Stan Lee to dig into the question.
Superheroes have saturated popular culture in the past decade, and with this and comic/movies like Kick-Ass and Super emerging in recent years, it seems the phenomenon has only tightened its grip on our imagination.Update: The first showing of Superheroes has already sold out. Get your tickets while you can!

Originally posted: http://flickeringmyth.blogspot.com/2011/10/55th-bfi-london-film-festival-brings.html
The BFI London Film Festival brings you the real Kick-Ass with Superheroes
If, like Aaron Johnson’s character in the award-winning film Kick-Ass, you’ve ever had the urge to don a mask and fight crime, it seems you’re not alone as insightful documentary Superheroes hits the big screen at the 55th BFI London Film Festival this month.
Journeying into the world of real-life caped crusaders, Superheroes follows a group of superhero fans from across North America, who are taking the law into their own hands. From the steel-plated ‘Master Legend’ in Orlando to evil-defeating ‘Thanatos’ in Vancouver, director Michael Barnett uncovers and documents this growing cultural phenomenon of vigilantes inspired by their comic book idols.
Introducing several of the US’ most famous masked heroes, the feature documentary follows individuals such as real-life Kick Ass, Mr Extreme, a 33 year old security guard by day who by night patrols the streets protecting the innocent, and organised crime-fighting group, The New York Initiative who bait traps to lure evildoers. Though their motives may differ and there powers are less than super, their intentions to protect the community and fight for the greater good unites them along with a shared love of comics.
With interviews from Marvel Comics supremo, Stan Lee, psychologists and police representatives, Superheroes smartly addresses a number of serious issues about an individual’s responsibility, and provides a compelling portrait of these real-life superheroes as they try to make the world a better place.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zxCLbPncGk

Originally posted: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/hbos-real-life-superheroes-are-gallant-yet-unsettlingly-goofy/2011/08/05/gIQAnjyz0I_story.html

Here they come to save the .?.?. well, that’s the problem with adopting the secret lifestyle and ethical codes of a “real-life superhero”: Nobody requires your services nearly as much as you’re hoping to provide them.Ultimately, as we learn in Michael Barnett’s compelling yet conflicted HBO documentary “Superheroes,” today’s supermen (and the occasional wonder woman) wind up handing out rolls of toilet paper to homeless people.
In “Superheroes,” which airs Monday night, Barnett travels the country to profile a handful of the 300 or so self-styled characters who are attempting to live a comic-book ideal. These are not the people you’ve seen at amusement parks and Comic-Con and along Hollywood Boulevard, who are simply playing dress-up for photo-ops. Something in the comics lore has spoken to real-life superheroes on a personal level, and they are serious — if perhaps a touch delusional. They see society as troubled, and they are especially disenchanted with law enforcement. “The N.Y.P.D., even the government is completely unreliable,” says Lucid, a Brooklyn-based superhero.Mr. Xtreme, a lonely San Diego bach­elor and frustrated jujitsu student, works by day as a security guard and spends his evenings wearing padded green-and-yellow regalia (including a limp polyester cape and a bug-eyed helmet), prowling the streets, searching for a sexual predator the TV news stations have dubbed “the Chula Vista Groper.”Meanwhile, in Orlando, the eccentric Master Legend drives around in a beat-up van and offers his services to the downtrodden, stopping frequently to treat himself to a can of beer from the ice chest he keeps in the back.Back in Brooklyn, Lucid and his more edgy clutch of masked avengers — they go by Z, Zimmer and a heroine named T.S.A.F. (which she says stands for “The Silenced and Forgotten”) — like to skateboard the city’s streets in the wee hours, hoping to attract muggers.Barnett employs an appealing style of comic-book panel animation to enliven the narrative transitions and give viewers a heightened sense of the ad­ven­ture that the heroes imagine themselves having — even if none of their adventures necessarily pan out.
Zimmer, a gay man who chooses not to wear a mask or use a hero name because it reminds him of being in the closet, glams himself up in hopes of luring nighttime gay-bashers. Lucid and the others wait in the shadows to come to his aid. When that doesn’t work, T.S.A.F. dons a miniskirt and lipstick and tries her luck at baiting rapists.
This tendency toward entrapment is where things get creepy, despite the tender care “Superheroes” takes to understand its subjects without mocking them. Many superheroes exhibit depressingly sour feelings about the larger world. They like to keep photos of Kitty Genovese on their walls and refrigerators for inspiration. She was the New York woman stabbed to death 47 years ago as dozens of witnesses overheard (and ignored) her screams. Genovese’s murder set off a popular and lasting notion of an uncaring, indifferent society.
What the superheroes in “Super­heroes” seem to willfully ignore is the remarkable drop in violent crime statistics over the past two decades — to say nothing of the post-Sept. 11 Homeland Security era that lit up our nights with security cameras and deputized every smartphone owner with the ability to upload crimes in progress to YouTube, which has helped catch miscreants of all kinds.
Yet things get darker (and dorkier) during a montage scene in which super­heroes proudly show Barnett the assorted weapons they’ve incorporated into their spandex ensemble: knives, nunchucks, sharp spikes, Tasers, retractable batons, maces, pepper sprays, blinding spotlights and lasers.
They’re all dying for some action, which has a way of making them seem more marginal, and embittered. A San Diego police lieutenant worries that these self-anointed vigilantes are going to hurt themselves (or hurt someone else); a psychologist wonders about their depend­ence on an alter ego.
Although the movie ends on a somewhat brighter note — following the heroes as they look after the homeless in their communities — even Stan Lee, the father of the Marvel Comics universe, expresses bafflement at these wannabes. If Stan Lee thinks you’re extreme, you might want to chill.
Superheroes
(83 minutes) airs Monday at 9 p.m. on HBO.

 

Originally posted: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/06/a_brief_conversation_with_mich.php
By Keegan Hamilton
Just when you think the media coverage of real life superheroes has reached a critical mass (see: Jones, Phoenix), somebody goes and makes a feature-length documentary film about the entire subculture. That somebody is director Michael Barnett, and his movie, titled simply, Superheroes, screens tonight and tomorrow as part of the Seattle True Independent Film Festival. (It’s also been picked up by HBO, and premieres on cable August 8.) Barnett, who is in town and will make a cameo tonight at Central Cinema, was kind enough to offer his thoughts on costumed crusaders and, of course, the Phoenix Jones phenomenon.
Why did you decide to make a documentary about real life superheroes?
Probably the same thing that drew you to it. It was fascinating. I just sort of stumbled upon these adult men who are putting on costumes to fight crime and help their communities. I just couldn’t believe it was real.
What surprised you most about these people?
It’s really tough to generalize. Everybody was so different. I guess what surprised me most was, we sort of went out looking for this pop culture phenomenon and found so many of these guys — there are literally hundreds of them — so we had to weed through the ones who are just online personalities, doing it as a sort of a cosplay thing. Then we sniffed out the ones who are really doing things — Mr. Xtreme in San Diego, Zetaman in Portland, Dark Guardian and Life in New York, and Thanatos in Vancouver — and focused on them.
A lot of people’s first impression when you explain the concept of real life superheroes seems to be something along the lines of, ‘Those people are nuts.’ How did you try and normalize them, or rationalize what they do? Or did you even try to do that?
Our first approach was to try and make people realize that each person is sort of eccentric in their own way, and they have their own reasons for doing what they do. It’s not a rational thing to do, to put on a costume and walk around a dangerous neighborhood. A lot of these guys don’t have proper training to do that sort of thing — some do — but most don’t. And in some states the laws allow them to carry some pretty serious weapons.
The other thing is showing their situation in life. Quite a few of them don’t have the resources to do what they do. But they want to help their community. Some of them were sad — financially, personally, and just in general. But it’s showing that out of that darkness they could rise above and try to do something good. It’s not all cookies and rainbows, though, it’s profoundly sad and tragic on a certain level.
You interviewed Stan Lee — the Godfather of comics, and the and former president and chairman of Marvel — for the film. What was that like and what were his thoughts on these so-called superheroes?
Stan is the man. He’s amazing. He’s awesome. And he’s 88-years-old!
We thought about trying to interview all kinds of figures in the comic world but ultimately we realized there was only one person we needed to talk to and that was Stan. He understands what it means to be a superhero better than anybody. A lot of these guys (the real life superheroes) are very wary of the media and kind of protective of their community. But once they heard Stan was involved it was pretty easy to get them at least on the phone.
Mostly [Stan] was worried that one of these guys is going to get killed or injured. And yeah, somebody is probably going to get hurt. It’s going to be a sad day for the superhero community when that happens but it seems inevitable.
Phoenix Jones isn’t in the film at all. Why? And have you met the guy? What are your thoughts on him and his impact on the superhero world?
Never met the guy, never had a conversation with him. There’s so many of these guys and we were meeting them [Phoenix Jones] didn’t even exist yet. When we were shooting we rolled through the Pacific Northwest and never even heard his name. And then while we were in production he sort of came out of nowhere and was suddenly everywhere. So I don’t know what my opinion is. If he is just in it for the attention it’s a bad thing. But he is trying to be iconic, and for a message of good so that’s a good thing.
Superheroes screens tonight at 7 p.m. at Central Cinema, and Barnett will be in attendance, along with several members of Seattle’s superhero scene. (Barnett notes that two other Seattle superheroes, Skyman and White Baron, appear briefly in the film.) The movie also will also be shown tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. at the Jewelbox Theatre and the Rendezvous. Ticket info here.

Originally posted: http://www.pressplus1.com/cdnfilm-festival-reviews/hot-docs-superheroes.html
Hot Docs Review
Superheroes
World Showcase
82 minutes | USA | Language: English | International Premiere | Rating: PG
The conceit of the graphic novel and film Kick Ass is the idea that no one before in real life has had the thought of putting on a costume and fight crime as a superhero, and if they did, and they took it seriously, then they would have to be insane. There’s a fine line between genius and inspiration, and the people profiled in Michael Barnett’s documentary Superheroes definitely mark that line as their own.
To anyone that’s ever read a comic or seen a superhero movie, the language and the iconography used by the so-called superheroes featured in Barnett’s doc are all too familiar. From the streets of Orlando, to the borough of Brooklyn, a nationwide fraternity of costumed avengers are striving to make a difference in their towns in the flamboyant and chivalrous traditions of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Joe Shuster and Bob Kane. Real life superheroes are alive and well and patrolling down sidewalks and back alleys in a town near you.
Barnett maintains a difficult tone with his movie. On the one hand, many of these “superheroes” describe terrible, painful and downright abusive backgrounds that spurn them to make the leap to costumed crime fighting. On the other hand, one has to admire these people. In their communities, despite the jeers and despite the looks, they are delivering a kind of hope to people in precious need of some. It’s not all about beating up bank robbers or rescuing orphans from fires. It’s also about giving a helping hand, assisting a drunk man home, giving a man whose foot is run over medical assistance, and handing out needed essentials to homeless people.
But despite their good intentions, it’s hard to deny that some of these people suffer from some kind of mental malady. Mr. Extreme, a California-based hero, gives up his apartment and lives in his van in order to free up more money for the cause, plus this way he can remain mobile lest unscrupulous characters find out where he lives. In Orlando, Master Legend happily takes a break from patrolling to either grab a pint from the bar, or out of the back of his van. It doesn’t do much to brace the confidence in these heroes, but hearing them talk about their personal abuse stories, you’re glad that their emotional turbulence found a rather benign outlet like playing superhero.
The final scene of the documentary takes us to San Diego in July, the setting for the biggest annual gathering of all things geeky and superheroish, the San Diego Comic Con. But a few blocks away from the convention centre where fans dress up as comic book strong men and Hollywood studios preview superhero films, a gathering of so-called real life superheroes are helping San Diego’s homeless. These two things juxtaposed, it becomes really hard trying to figure out just who the crazy people are in this scenario. Who are the real pretenders here, and do these people truly understand the idea of superheroes better than the thousands than honour them as fans? That’s for the audience to decide.
Mon, May 2 9:00 PM Bloor Cinema
Wed, May 4 4:00 PM TIFF Bell Lightbox 2
Sun, May 8 7:00 PM The Royal Cinema

Originally posted: http://honoluluweekly.com/film/current-film/2011/03/no-capes/
By Ryan Senaga

Superheroes looks at ordinary “crime fighters.”
Superheroes / Just in time to reality-check us before the gluttonous orgy of comic-book-inspired summer blockbusters is Superheroes, an examination of real-life superheroes that walk among us.
These are people who dress in costume to fight crime. An Albert Einstein quote opens the documentary: “The world is a dangerous place not because of those who do evil but because of those who look on and do nothing.” On the flip side of that is Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee, who deadpans, “I figure that person could get hurt.” Some of the people who patrol the streets in costumes could very well get into serious trouble.
Mr. Xtreme is a slightly overweight shut-in who eventually moves into his van to keep up his lifestyle. At one point he admits, “I don’t really have a social life.” And it’s heartbreaking when he attributes this to his dedication to his “job.”
There’s more. Zimmer, an openly gay superhero, dresses in a red fishnet shirt and swishes femininely down a street after midnight to “bait” someone into mugging him. (His crew tails him in hiding to assist with any potential attack.)
Master Legend takes frequent breaks to refresh himself with an ice-cold can of beer.
While telling an anecdote about the life of a superhero, the Vigilante Spider mentions that superheroes kiss their girlfriends goodbye before heading out, just like any normal person would. The interviewer asks, “So you have a girlfriend?” Vigilante Spider answers, “Oh, just metaphorically speaking.”
Still, there is a sense of humanity that paints these folks as genuine Good Samaritans. While they seem like nutballs–and some definitely are–director Michael Barnett makes us feel for these people and what they are trying to do.
Zetaman and his girlfriend, Apocalypse Meow, hand out care packages that contain essentials, such as toilet paper, to the homeless in Oregon. And the money for these supplies come from their own pockets.
At one point, a map of the US is shown with pins marking the states that have real-life superheroes. Hawaii isn’t marked.
While it’s nice to know there aren’t fat people in spandex walking the Honolulu sidewalks, perhaps more people with purposeful intentions to do good wouldn’t be such a bad thing for the Islands.

Originally posted: http://current.com/entertainment/movies/blog/92969198_real-life-superheroes-get-their-own-film.htm
Superheroes aren’t just for fiction anymore — no longer restrained to the pages of comic books, the large and growing community of Real Life Super Heroes (RLSH) are on the streets as agents of change — with mixed results. No magical-power infused mega-beings, they do what they can to make a difference in home-made costumes, sometimes armed with pseudo-weapons — as an antidote to the pumped-up versions usually presented in films. And now they’ve been lovingly captured in a film of their own, the documentary Superheroes, which premiered at Slamdance. Producer Theodore James and director Michael Barnett gave us the low-down on the process, the provenance, and what comes next.
Q: Many of these real-life superheroes could be discounted as dorks or weirdos, but by the end of the film you manage to tease out their eloquence. What were the main traits of these people that you wanted to portray in the film? Is there something that you think they all have in common?
MB: There is definitely one thing the whole community has in common, and that’s altruism. I wanted to the audience to leave the film knowing that every single real life superhero does something heroic in his or her own way, to make their communities a better place, regardless of resources.
Q: Do you think they’re escapists?
MB: There is definitely a level of escapism for some RLSH but by and large, after donning the costume and experiencing what it’s like to actually help somebody, most superheroes become deeply entrenched in the notion that they can make a difference, be it big or small, and that seems to be the driving force for most of them. That, and it’s “hella fun,” according to a super hero we know from Clearwater.
Q: Was there any point where you wondered about any of your subjects’ sanity?
MB: Absolutely not! Not even with Master Legend. I think these guys — I’m speaking of the ones in the film, because of course its hard to speak for the whole community — are eccentric dudes and ladies. They put on a costume, and they realize something: That they can step outside of themselves and their lives, and maybe even become iconic in their communities. It really does something for them. Also, they all have day jobs. For example, Zetaman works at a packaging plant, Mr. Extreme is a security guard, Master Legend is an air conditioning repairman, some of them are tattoo artists… But a lot of them are trying to find a way to do it full time.
It’s funny how our culture treats people who calls themselves superheroes– they’re either ridiculed or adored in their community, but never treated with apathy. There are so many news stories are out there on them, and some of them make fun of them, and some celebrate them… But even when just putting a costume on and walking down the street – people will always react to them.
Q: Do they develop relationships in their communities?
MB: It depends, of course. Life helps people around his neighborhood in Harlem — homeless people, for instance. His community knows him well, and he knows his community. But then Mr. Extreme works differently — he listens to the police scanners and then he goes out and patrols the area where he hears there is a lot of criminal activity. The result is that the communities he helps don’t necessarily know him. But he’s still out there on the streets, at least four days a week. We wanted to deconstruct the “superhero” myth, in our society, and then rebuild a sense of what it means to be a real life superhero: Some want to fight crime, and others want to give food out.
TJ: A few of the subjects in the film confront drug dealers and try to bait criminals into committing crimes. During those nights of filming we were all a bit nervous. Thankfully nothing happened to the subjects or the crew.
Q: Many of your subjects never divulge their true identity to you… Did you find this was something that made it hard to build trust between you and your subjects?
MB: The opposite! Making this film has helped me understand that it is not necessary to know somebody’s real name in order to truly know them as a person. If anything, our lack of needing to know their true names helped them open up to us.

I think when we approached them and they didn’t tell us their names and bios, we were like “That’s cool, we don’t need them. it’s not part of our story.” Which is different from how reporters react — they need a name to print a story. But what’s a name, really? If someone wants to identify themselves as Mr. Extreme, then that’s who he is, to us. But, for instance in Mr Extreme‘s case, I nonetheless got to know him deeper than the costume. He’s a guy that I’ve gone to a couple times a month over the course of the last however many years, have spent hours on end with talking about his life, his family, and getting to know him. I don’t need a name to truly know him.
Q: How did you come across this subject, in the first place? And what made you decide to make a film about it?
MB: I stumbled upon this vast community online. Go ahead, google Real Life Superheroes. I dare ya!I’ve been a cinematographer for 15 years, and have shot a lot of films. I started directing a few years ago, and was making a film for a TV network that, that Theodore [James, the producer] was producing. He was looking for a project, and I mentioned that I’d been gathering some research on this thing. I turned the research in, to him, and he was amazed. He started doing more research, we got in touch with Mr. Extreme and we went to shoot him. He was the first one to agree to work with us. When we got home and we looked at the footage of him we just knew. We realized that this guy is fascinating, and we could just do a film about him alone! But it expanded: We got in touch with Stan Lee, and when he agreed, the community just fell into place.
Q: Were there any scenes that didn’t make the final cut that you miss terribly?
MB: We had to cut a lot of Zetaman, who is an exceedingly noble and humble guy. The work he does with the homeless is heartbreaking and inspiring. He is a true hero in every sense of the word and I’m bummed that we had to lose segments of his story line in the film. I’m also bummed that we had to lose Master Legend‘s “House of Death” scene. Keep an eye out for the DVD, it will definitely be on there!

Who: The Sunscreen Film Festival is a 501 (C) 3 non-profit charity dedicated to promoting the art of filmmaking, providing educational opportunities for individuals of all ages in all aspects of film and it’s related crafts, and creating economic development in the State of Florida and the Greater St. Petersburg/Tampa area through film and filmmaking.
What: The Sunscreen Film Festival is bringing together several Film Producers and Comic Book experts along with a group of Real Life Superheroes (Team Justice, also a 501 © 3 nonprofit charity) to present panels and workshops relating to comics and film during the 2010 Festival. Currently confirmed guests for this include;
Ralph Winter, Producer: X-men, Fantastic Four, Original Star Trek Films and many more Dan Lin, Producer: New Sherlock Holmes movie, Terminator Salvation, The Departed, Dean Batali, Producer, Showrunner: That 70’s Show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer,Leo Partible, Screenwriter, comic books, films: Behind the Screen: Insiders on Faith, Film and Culture, The Gospel According to Superheroes: Religion and Pop Culture (with a Foreword by Stan Lee)
When: During the Sunscreen Film Festival, which is from Wednesday April 14, 2010 to Sunday April 18, 2010.
Where: Muvico 20 &IMAX and the Baywalk Entertainment Complex in downtown St. Petersburg,FL.
Why: To further the non-profit missions of these two organizations. Additionally During the fest Sunscreen is partnering up with the Children’s Dream Fund to fulfill the wishes of several terminally ill children. This event will coincide with the Children’s Dream Fund event as well.
Sunscreen Film Festival
The Festival has been able to rapidly expand its reach by attracting top talent both in front of and behind the camera. Guests have included John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Patrick Wilson (Watchmen, Phantom of the Opera), and Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice, Changeling) along with accomplished screenwriters Steven DeSouza (Die Hard, 48 Hours) and Timothy Sexton (Children of Men). In addition, each year the festival draws professionals from all areas of the entertainment business and sponsors workshops to encourage and inform up-and-coming filmmakers looking to learn from some of the most knowledgeable people in the entertainment industry.
The Sunscreen Film Festival was recently named one of the “25 Coolest Film Festivals” of 2009 by MovieMaker Magazine.
Information about the Sunscreen Film Festival:
http://reallifesuperheroes.org/wp-content/uploads/Sunscreen_Film_Fest_Comics_Film.pdf

(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/