{"id":15628,"date":"2011-07-19T21:07:19","date_gmt":"2011-07-20T04:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reallifesuperheroes.org\/?p=15628"},"modified":"2011-07-19T21:07:19","modified_gmt":"2011-07-20T04:07:19","slug":"vancouvers-masked-superhero-thanatos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/2011\/07\/19\/vancouvers-masked-superhero-thanatos\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver's masked superhero: Thanatos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally posted: http:\/\/www.straight.com\/article-404514\/vancouver\/vancouvers-masked-superhero-thanatos<\/a>
\nby Adrian Mack<\/a> on July 19, 2011 at 6:05 PM
\nThanataos, aka the Dark Avenger, patrols the Downtown Eastside in a Rorschach-like uniform topped off with a creepy green and black skull mask. He hands out water, energy bars, peanut butter, blankets, and other necessities to those in need, and leaves behind a card inscribed with the motto \u201cI do what I can, when I can\u2026\u201d He\u2019s a pretty pragmatic real life superhero.
\nLike any masked avenger, Thanatos also keeps his real identity secret, although filmmaker Michael McNamara got a rare glimpse behind the mask when he was filming Thanatos for the “Real Life Superheroes” episode of Fanboy Confessional<\/em>, airing Wednesday night (July 20), on SPACE.
\n\u201cWe were in Vancouver for probably the hottest days last summer,\u201d the Toronto-based director tells the Straight<\/em>, \u201cand he was out delivering water and energy bars during the day, and at night he was bringing the bundles of blankets and food and stuff, and it was really, really, really hot. And he ultimately revealed himself to us. But we\u2019re all sworn to secrecy.\u201d
\nMcNamara adds that it still took a long while for Thanatos to finally fold. He says that the Vietnam vet is \u201cincredibly fit\u201d for a man in his 60s. “He can take care of himself. My whole crew was wilting, and he was ready to go,\u201d he says.
\nThanatos is an oddly noble figure, well known to the police and the locals of the DTES. As he tells McNamara in the show, \u201cIf hell has a street address, it\u2019d be Main and Hastings\u2026 This is the real world.\u201d He finances his superhero work out of his own pocket. \u201cHe\u2019s not poor, but he\u2019s certainly by no means upper middle class,\u201d McNamara says. \u201cLike a lot of people involved in these kinds of fandoms, they make a choice about what they\u2019re going to do with their disposable income, and so he actively chooses to augment his persona and come up with the raw materials he needs to help out.\u201d
\nIn contrast to McNamara\u2019s other subject in the “Real Life Superheroes” episode of the six-part series, there\u2019s a genuine gravity to Thanatos. DC\u2019s Guardian, on the other hand, is a well-meaning but somewhat goofy patriot who stalks the Mall of the US capitol sharing his fuzzy all-American values with anyone who happens to get in his way. It’s reassuring to hear that he’s more innocent than delusional.
\n\u201cPeople like DC do have a sense of humour about what they do,\u201d says McNamara, chuckling. \u201cAnd they do realize that what they do borders on obsession.\u201d He knows of what he speaks. McNamara is a proud fanboy himself, being a lifelong record collector (and friend of Allan Zweig, who made the slightly disturbing documentary Vinyl<\/em> about what you might call pathological record collectors). Indeed, the overriding impression left by the Fanboy Confessional<\/em>series is that the nerds really have inherited the earth, and that it\u2019s not a bad thing at all.\u201cYou can come home from work and you can veg in front of the television, or you can come home from work and make a ray gun,\u201d as one LARPer (live action role-player) told McNamara. \u201cThere\u2019s something really cool about that,\u201d he says, \u201cand it\u2019s the same way with the cosplayers. The girls are learning skills like how to sew, and leather studding, and bead work, and they\u2019re building communities, and trading these things around, and getting involved, and they\u2019re getting out in the world, and doing cool things. It\u2019s a way to get out of your parent\u2019s basement. It\u2019s a completely different kind of fandom now. There\u2019s a kind of sharing going on that\u2019s quite vital.\u201d
\nThe show is also quite thought provoking. Thea Munster, who pioneered the Zombie Walk in Toronto, tells McNamara in the “Horror” episode that “North American culture has no celebration of death.” Suddenly, something that seems silly becomes surprisingly profound.
\nLaughs McNamara, “It\u2019s very deep for a zombie!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanataos, aka the Dark Avenger, patrols the Downtown Eastside in a Rorschach-like uniform topped off with a creepy green and black skull mask. He hands out water, energy bars, peanut butter, blankets, and other necessities to those in need, and leaves behind a card inscribed with the motto \u201cI do what I can, when I can\u2026\u201d He\u2019s a pretty pragmatic real life superhero.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[710,892,1634,2173,2181,2548,2637,2795,2835,3026],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15628"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}