{"id":32156,"date":"2010-04-11T08:25:01","date_gmt":"2010-04-11T15:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reallifesuperheroes.org\/?p=3164"},"modified":"2010-04-11T08:25:01","modified_gmt":"2010-04-11T15:25:01","slug":"nycs-own-superheroes-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/2010\/04\/11\/nycs-own-superheroes-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC&#039;s own superheroes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Originally posted: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nypost.com\/p\/news\/local\/evildoers_nyc_own_superheroes_beware_C07qjscAB2eh34P1CsUOCO\">http:\/\/www.nypost.com\/p\/news\/local\/evildoers_nyc_own_superheroes_beware_C07qjscAB2eh34P1CsUOCO<\/a><br \/>\nBy James Fanelli<br \/>\nWith great costumes comes great responsibility.<br \/>\n\u201cKick-Ass,\u201d an action movie opening this week, spins a tale of average Joes becoming masked crime fighters, but New York has been home to real-life caped crusaders for years.<br \/>\nGotham\u2019s legion of real-life superheroes includes a leather-clad martial-arts expert who battles drug dealers, a masked religious hipster who feeds the homeless and an engaged pair of relationship counselors, Arjuna Ladino, 42, and Shanti Owen, 50, who don star-spangled spandex as the \u201cTransformational Warriors\u201d to spread the power of love.<br \/>\n&#8220;We are just people who really care and try to go out and make a difference,\u201d says Chris Pollak, 25, whose alter ego, \u201cDark Guardian,\u201d strikes fear in the hearts of drug peddlers in Washington Square Park. \u201cThe idea is to be this drastic example of making change in your community.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\nThe Staten Islander has been patrolling city streets for the last seven years, frequently putting himself in harm\u2019s way. A drug dealer flashed a gun at Pollak once, and he has almost come to blows with thugs.<br \/>\n\u201cMy fianc\u00e9e is very supportive, but she gets worried if I\u2019m doing anything that involves danger,\u201d Dark Guardian said. \u201cWhen I met my fianc\u00e9e, I told her I liked to do this thing where I go out and help the homeless and patrol the streets. I didn\u2019t get into the whole costume thing \u2014 I waited until a little bit into the relationship.\u201d<br \/>\nOccasionally, Dark Guardian gets an assist from two fellow superheroes, Chaim \u201cLife\u201d Lazaros, 25, and Ben Greenman, 23, a k a \u201cCameraman,\u201d who has videotaped the Washington Square showdowns. The plucky pair also hands out food to the city\u2019s homeless at least once a week.<br \/>\nLazaros, who shares a Harlem hideout with Cameraman, said it takes a certain type to don a mask and do good. \u201cThey all have extremely strong personalities and a desire to change the world,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nThat\u2019s not to say all real-life superheroes seek change through crime-fighting.<br \/>\n\u201cThe Phantom Zero,\u201d a 33-year northern New Jersey-based superhero, raises money for charities and donates to the homeless. He has also accompanied Dark Guardian on some of his patrols. \u201cI was scared out of my gourd,\u201d The Phantom Zero said, declining to give his real name.<br \/>\nBut his 20-year-old masked sweetheart, \u201cNyx,\u201d has shown some gumption. Before moving to New Jersey to be with her super man, she lived in Kansas, where she would secretly snap shots of meth labs and send them to the authorities.<br \/>\n\u201cI used to carry weaponry with me. But seeing as how I\u2019m in New York . . . I don\u2019t,\u201d Nyx said.\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James Fanelli reports on New York&#8217;s Real Life Superheroes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[690,1203,1508,1830,1841,1902,2031,2181,2760,2894],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32156"}],"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=32156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}