{"id":32157,"date":"2010-06-05T23:26:31","date_gmt":"2010-06-06T06:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reallifesuperheroes.org\/?p=3903"},"modified":"2010-06-05T23:26:31","modified_gmt":"2010-06-06T06:26:31","slug":"weird-wicked-weird-maines-real-life-superheroes-yup-for-real-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/2010\/06\/05\/weird-wicked-weird-maines-real-life-superheroes-yup-for-real-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Weird, Wicked Weird: Maine's Real Life Superheroes. Yup, for real."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"L-A's<\/a>
\nOriginally posted: http:\/\/www.sunjournal.com\/city\/story\/844777<\/a>
\nBy Kathryn Skelton, Staff Writer<\/a>
\nHer mom thought she was doing drugs, slipping out at night, wandering the streets.
\nMom didn\u2019t realize her little girl was actually busy atoning and avenging.
\nAs the self-styled superhero “Dreizehn” (that\u2019s the number 13 in German), she\u2019d slip out and look for trouble, interrupting drug deals and vehicle break-ins. Think \u201cKick-Ass,\u201d but in real life. Sometimes it worked, sometimes the teenager got beaten up, badly.
\nDreizehn moved to Maine from a big city outside New England a few months ago to join her similarly self-styled superhero boyfriend, “Slapjack.” Several nights a week they walk Lewiston-Auburn for hours on end as roving Good Samaritans, looking for trouble.
\n

\"""Slapjack,"<\/a>

“”Slapjack,” left, and “Dreizehn” walk past the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Lewiston on a quiet Tuesday night in May, looking for anyone in need. They will call for police or tow trucks if needed. Dreizehn has broken up a drug deal, for which she took “a pretty severe beating,” she said.<\/p><\/div>
\nThe streets here? Much less mean, in her limited experience.
\nMost nights their foot patrol means giving bottled water and granola bars to the homeless and maybe yelling at a graffiti artist, all the while costumed and armed with batons, knife-proof protective wear and brass knuckles electrified with Tasers.
\nDreizehn and Slapjack are in their 20s. Their parents? They still have no clue.
\n\u201cYou kind of have to be a little unstable to do it,\u201d Dreizehn said. \u201cGoing out at 2 a.m. with a mask on and thinking you\u2019re going to save the world, it says a lot about you.\u201d
\nOrigin stories
\nThey got started for different reasons. About four years ago, Slapjack said he read an article in VIBE magazine on the Real Life Superheroes movement, a worldwide community, to which they now belong, of people who dress up, assume names and do varying degrees of charity work and criminal deterrence.
\nClose friends of Slapjack had their home broken into. Another was hit by a drunk driver, part of Slapjack’s motivation now to hang outside bars. He calls police to report plate numbers when he sees people that he suspects have had too much to drink get behind the wheel.
\n\u201cI believe in civilian patrols. The police can only be so many places at once, especially at night,\u201d Slapjack said. \u201cI think it\u2019s everyone\u2019s responsibility to keep an eye on their communities.\u201d
\nHe picked his code name from a favorite card game played with his grandmother.
\nThe younger Dreizehn has been going out longer, since 2003.
\n

\"Self-proclaimed<\/a>

Self-proclaimed Real Life Superhero “Dreizehn” walks down a quiet Lewiston street in May. The RLS website has members worldwide.<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cI started out, really, just bored, and didn\u2019t want to cause trouble,\u201d she said.
\nIn looking to thwart mischief, there was also an element of making amends for her brother.
\n\u201cHe was robbing and completely destroying our family through his actions,\u201d Dreizehn said. \u201cIt made me want to do something so nobody had to go through the pain I had to.\u201d
\nShe dresses to add bulk to her frame \u2014 a compressed chest, a man\u2019s trench, men\u2019s boots. Sometimes, in her experience, just walking up to someone is enough to make them stop whatever it is they’re doing, mainly because she appears to be a 200-plus-pound man wearing a full black and red mask with sheer white fabric eye holes.
\nOnce on patrol, Slapjack found an unconscious man collapsed in the middle of the street and dragged him to the side of the road, potentially saving him from being run over.
\nBut it doesn\u2019t always go swimmingly.
\n\u201cI got hit by a car,\u201d Dreizehn said. And once, in what she believed was a meth buy, \u201cI got ahold of what they were dealing. I ended up really taking a beating. I had my mask taken off. I managed to crawl and bite my way out of it. I had a death grip on (the meth).\u201d
\nShe picked her code name as a nod to her German heritage.
\nWhy the names at all if everything\u2019s on the up and up?
\nTheir reasons are threefold. First, they say they don\u2019t want their workplaces or families finding out, then worrying, questioning or demanding they give it up. Second, the couple doesn\u2019t want to be harassed; they are, occasionally, snitches. A superhero named “Shadow Hare” began showing his face around Cincinnati too much and \u201cthe city completely turned on him,\u201d Dreizehn said.
\nLastly, putting on the costume, and wearing the name, is like becoming someone else.
\n\u201cYour fear goes away,\u201d Slapjack said.
\nAdded his girlfriend, Dreizehn: \u201cI wanted to be able to put a mask on so I could be somebody greater and better.\u201d
\nThey met through the Real Life Superheroes group. There aren\u2019t too many others in Maine. He can name two, “The Beetle” and “Mrs. The Beetle.”
\nTaking it to the street
\nThey go out on foot patrol two or three nights a week, often between roughly 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. She likes walking both cities. He prefers Lewiston.
\nDreizehn and Slapjack cover about 5 miles at a stretch, carrying food, water, note pads, flashlights, cameras, night-vision goggles and cell phones. Ninety to 95 percent of the time, they\u2019re just two people out for a walk. Two costumed, very prepared people.
\nIf and when it comes to it, she\u2019s clearly the scrapper. He\u2019s never gotten in a physical confrontation.
\n\u201cYou\u2019re McGruff; I\u2019m the Punisher,\u201d Dreizehn teased, walking through Kennedy Park on a Tuesday night in May.
\nThursday, Friday and Saturday tend to be busiest, with more people on the street.
\n\u201cBut you never know; crime never takes a day off,\u201d Slapjack said.
\nHe keeps a map at home synced up to the local police crime bulletins, looking for neighborhoods or streets with patterns and familiarizing himself with people wanted on warrants.
\nLewiston police Lt. Mark Cornelio checked around the station \u2014 no one he spoke with was aware of a pair of costumes on the street.
\n\u201cWithout knowing what their crime-fighting (is), it would be tough to say whether we agree with it or disagree with it,\u201d Cornelio said. \u201cMy thing, I would rather have people be good witnesses.\u201d
\nThere\u2019s also a reason for official police training and the lessons that come with it, he said.
\nDreizehn and Slapjack said they were inspired to make themselves known now because of the \u201cKick-Ass\u201d movie.
\nIt\u2019s not as easy as it looks on the screen.
\n\u201cIt was a funny little movie,\u201d Dreizehn said. \u201cBut it\u2019s completely disillusioned. It\u2019s nothing like we do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Slapjack and Dreizehn are interviewed by the Sun Journal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[282,782,1149,1573,1828,2173,2181,2313,2433,2548,2648,2893],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32157"}],"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=32157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}