{"id":946,"date":"2008-03-05T01:37:29","date_gmt":"2008-03-05T08:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reallifesuperheroes.org\/?p=946"},"modified":"2008-03-05T01:37:29","modified_gmt":"2008-03-05T08:37:29","slug":"the-adventures-of-zetaman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/2008\/03\/05\/the-adventures-of-zetaman\/","title":{"rendered":"The Adventures of Zetaman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"10489\"It\u2019s a tough job being Portland\u2019s only superhero.<\/strong>
\nOnce a week for the past 18 months, Zetaman has donned his costume and patrolled downtown Portland, seeking out the needy with gifts of food and clothing.
\nHe goes armed with an extendable steel baton, pepper spray, and a Taser that delivers 30,000 volts\u2014enough to put a man on the ground. Those tools of the trade are to defend himself or people in trouble. But he doesn\u2019t pick fights, and so far he hasn\u2019t been forced to draw his weapons or apprehend anybody.
\nLike the men under the Burnside Bridge one recent Saturday night when temperatures fell into the low 40s, most of the people Zetaman encounters are grateful for the help.
\nBut they also fail to ask the obvious question: What possesses a stocky 29-year-old to put on a homemade costume and prowl the city streets in the dead of night?
\nThe answers lie both in Zetaman\u2019s own past and on the Web, where in recent years hundreds of other self-styled \u201creal-life superheroes\u201d have sprung into existence around the country.
\nZetaman was hesitant to reveal his secrets when contacted by WW. But in the end he agreed to be interviewed and allow a reporter to spend two nights on patrol with him, in hopes that the publicity will inspire more people to become costumed heroes.
\n\u201cThis is not about me,\u201d he insists. \u201cAnyone could do this. I\u2019m nothing special.\u201d He doesn\u2019t even like the term \u201csuperhero,\u201d preferring to call himself a \u201cman of mystery.\u201d
\nBut he admits being a costumed avenger is addictive after the first taste of parading in public with a \u201cZ\u201d on your chest.
\n\u201cI couldn\u2019t stop after that,\u201d he says. \u201cI feel great about myself. I\u2019m staying active in the community. And I like comic books, I like great and noble ideas\u2014like He-Man and Spider-Man. And they all have this thing about noble responsibility.\u201d
\nOn the pages of MySpace.com and in Internet chat rooms, the superheroes plan missions and exchange tips on fighting crime. That is, when they\u2019re not sniping at each other, forming rival superteams, or weathering real-life attacks from mysterious supervillains. But more on the rivalries later.
\nMost heroes say they\u2019re in the business to make a positive impact. Or just to have a good time.
\n\u201cPeople will tell you they had a calling or a vision,\u201d says \u201cSuperhero,\u201d a 39-year-old former pro wrestler from Clearwater, Fla., who patrols his hometown in a souped-up \u201975 Corvette. \u201cI used to tell people I was trying to be a symbol. Then I realized it was a bunch of crap, and I do it \u2019cause it\u2019s hella fun.\u201d
\nIn a world where sci-fi has come true and flip phones are as commonplace as pencils, the Eye<\/a>, a 49-year-old superhero in Mountain View, Calif., says there\u2019s nothing left to stop people from living out their comic-book fantasies.
\n\u201cEvery citizen should do something of that nature,\u201d says the Eye, who says he uses his skills as a former private eye to solve crimes. \u201cI just use the persona to protect the identity and do it with a little style, I suppose.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s easy for the casual observer to wonder what the hell Zetaman or any superhero is accomplishing when the country is dealing with serious issues like the fifth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq or the threat of a recession. And it\u2019s just as easy to laugh at any superhero\u2019s MySpace page, Zetaman\u2019s<\/a> included.
\nIf you went online right now and accused him of being a supergeek, you certainly wouldn\u2019t be the first.
\nBut consider this: If our life is basically a quest for identity and purpose, real-life superheroes have a huge advantage on ordinary mortals. And for that, they credit the Internet\u2014a world where users can instantly create new personas and seek out others with the same interests.
\nDr. Gordon Nagayama Hall, a University of Oregon psychology professor, says real-life superheroes probably have an inflated sense of self-worth, even as they help the innocent.
\n\u201cSome of us might do those things without the costume,\u201d he says. \u201cThe sort of bizarre nature of it suggests to me they might be looking for some kind of recognition that might stem from some narcissistic process.\u201d
\nThe Web merely feeds that impulse, he says. \u201cThese Internet groups create this support that actually emboldens people to go out there and act out their fantasy.\u201d
\nOr as Zetaman puts it, in less academic terms: \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty easy club to join. All you need is a costume and a MySpace page.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s taboo in the superhero world to call them by their real names. But by day, Zetaman is Illya King, a married man with no kids. He makes about $40,000 a year, lives in a two-bedroom apartment in Beaverton, drives a 1998 Ford minivan with 96,000 miles on it, and has no criminal record.
\nZetaman declined to reveal where he works or what he does for a living, because, he says, he\u2019s concerned about strangers showing up and harassing him on the job.
\nHis stated motives for being a superhero range from the quotidian (\u201chaving a cool costume, having a cool identity\u201d) to the quixotic (\u201chelping as many people as I can as selflessly as I can\u201d).
\nHe hesitated to reveal his name for this story because, he says, his true identity is inconsequential. He insists he doesn\u2019t want to draw attention to himself, but to serve as an example. And there\u2019s another, more pressing reason Zetaman hesitates to identify himself: an alarming incident last month in California.
\nIn an unprecedented turn, Zetaman\u2019s superhero buddy Ragensi<\/a>, who patrols the town of Huntington Beach, Calif., in a black ninja costume, says he was attacked by what appeared to be an unknown supervillain.
\nNothing is known of the attacker, Zetaman says, except that he wore special pads used by other superheroes and seemed to be well-prepared, lurking in wait. He used martial-arts moves against Ragensi, who managed to escape using his own fighting skills.
\nRagensi did not respond to WW<\/em>\u2019s requests for an interview. But Zetaman says the unprovoked attack made him redouble his reluctance to identify himself. \u201cWe\u2019re still pretty freaked out by the whole thing,\u201d Zetaman says.
\nCrazy as it may sound to the rest of us, the superhero community has long feared the possibility that supervillains may emerge to confront them. But even after Ragensi\u2019s run-in, Zetaman says it never occurred to him that he could be a target. His costume is more low-profile than Ragensi\u2019s ninja garb, and on the nights WW<\/em> patrolled with Zetaman, he drew no stares on the streets of downtown. Even the people he helps rarely realize he\u2019s a superhero.
\nZetaman\u2019s origins date back to 2006, a time when he was going through a rough stretch in his personal life. Both he and his wife had temporarily lost their jobs, and at the same time they were hit with thousands of dollars in medical bills when his wife suffered a miscarriage. As the couple sank into debt, collection agencies turned nasty, filing claims against them in court for more than $5,000.
\nBut the Portland megachurch they were attending put more of an emphasis on money than other churches they had gone to, pushing the faithful to give at least 10 percent of their pre-tax income to receive the full blessings of God. The couple couldn\u2019t put up that kind of cash. Friends began praying for them.
\n\u201cWe felt like we were charity cases,\u201d Zetaman says. He made a vow. \u201cI\u2019m gonna find a way to make my name for something. I\u2019m basically gonna stick it to the man. That\u2019s how it started off.\u201d
\nA comics fan since he was a kid growing up in California, Connecticut and Vancouver, Wash., he was tooling around online and found a website for Mr. Silent<\/a>, an Indianapolis-based superhero. A search brought him to others, including Dark Guardian<\/a> and Squeegeeman<\/a>, both in New York.
\n(Squeegeeman is on the campy end of the superhero spectrum. His MySpace page claims he fights \u201ccrime and grime,\u201d and shows videos of him participating in the 2007 AIDS Walk New York and giving out water during the city\u2019s 100-degree heat wave last summer.)
\nZetaman was impressed, but his search turned up no local superheroes. \u201cI was kind of shocked that there was nothing like this in Portland,\u201d Zetaman recalls. \u201cOur motto is \u2018Keep Portland Weird.\u2019 Where\u2019s all the weird people?\u201d
\nHe created a Yahoo account to establish a new identity online. He started working out, dropping 10 pounds on his 5-foot-6-inch frame, bringing him down to 200 pounds. And he hit the stores to buy his first costume: a spandex shirt from Wal-Mart, leather jeans from Hot Topic and boots from cryoflesh.com, a goth website. At Party City he bought a zebra mask and remodeled it to fit his first identity: the Cat.
\nHe made his public debut on Aug. 18, 2006, when he planned to patrol while a movie was showing on Pioneer Square. He arrived at a downtown parking garage about 10 pm, donned his Cat mask and stood gazing out over the city, when a woman got off the elevator to walk to her car and started screaming. Two bicycle cops swooped in to question him.
\n\u201cI thought, this is not cool. This is not gonna work at all,\u201d he says. \u201cI want to be a positive force, not some kind of a thug.\u201d
\nGoing against the advice of other heroes, he ditched the mask altogether and switched to Zetaman\u2014a combination of Zorro and Superman, two of his favorite heroes, riffing off the Greek name for the letter Z.
\nWithout the mask, he no longer incited public panic. But the costume remained a work in progress. He paid $70 for a full-length spandex costume from Minneapolis-based Hero Gear<\/a>, which outfits many of the Internet\u2019s real-life superheroes. But the full-body suit didn\u2019t fly.
\n\u201cIt kind of sucked,\u201d Zetaman says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t feeling it.\u201d
\nA $45 spandex shirt with the stylized \u201cZ\u201d on the chest worked out better. But his leather pants brought unwanted attention from certain men on Southwest Stark Street, so he switched to cargo pants instead. He says that cut down on the catcalls.
\nHe keeps his identity secret from everyone but a few family members. His parents are still in the dark. \u201cHere I am, almost 30, and I still care about what my parents think,\u201d he says. \u201cI have an outfit, I run around in the middle of the night, and I hang out with homeless people. So yeah, I\u2019ve kind of avoided that conversation.\u201d
\nHis wife of seven years, Allison King, 30, says at first she was apprehensive because she worried about his safety. But now she fully supports him. \u201cHe\u2019s just my hero,\u201d she says. \u201cOne of the things I fell in love with him for, he cares about other people so much.\u201d
\nNow Allison accompanies him on patrol in civilian clothes, helping him pass out food and occasionally filming video she posts on YouTube. \u201cIt\u2019s not how I thought I would be spending time with my husband,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it\u2019s awesome.\u201d
\nZetaman\u2019s not into superhero kink, but he once slipped into bed in uniform. It didn\u2019t work out. \u201cIt just felt too stupid,\u201d he says. \u201cI was just laughing.\u201d
\nVigilante justice has a controversial history, from Old West posses seeking revenge against Native American tribes to today\u2019s Minuteman Civil Defense Corps patrolling the Mexican border. But the work of Zetaman and other superheroes appears to stay within the law.
\nMost states allow a citizen\u2019s arrest if a crime is being committed. No permits are needed to carry Zetaman\u2019s chosen weapons of batons, Mace or Tasers, at least in Portland. And while it may be eccentric to do community service in spandex, no one\u2019s been arrested for impersonating a superhero.
\nA nationwide community-policing group called the Guardian Angels has existed legally for decades, including a local chapter that patrols the MAX line in Portland in their trademark red berets.
\nThough controversial with some critics, Guardian Angels leaders insist the group is a benefit to the public. Carrying no weapons, they travel in groups, concentrating on public places where people feel menaced. Zetaman and other heroes say their mission is little different.
\n\u201cI certainly applaud him,\u201d says Curtis Sliwa, who founded the Guardian Angels in New York in 1979. \u201cHe\u2019s not getting paid for this. He\u2019s risking his life, and he\u2019s helping those who can\u2019t help themselves.\u201d
\nCops take a different view of Zetaman.
\n\u201cI think he\u2019s going to get in big trouble,\u201d says Sgt. Doug Justus of the Portland Police Bureau\u2019s Drugs and Vice Division. \u201cAs soon as you start interfering with a crime in progress, if the guy doesn\u2019t identify you as a police officer, I think you\u2019re asking to get hurt.\u201d
\nThe upsurge in superhero activity across the country appears to have caused no complaints elsewhere. Even in Mountain View, Calif., where the Eye claims he uses light-emitting diodes to temporarily blind people while he\u2019s solving crimes, local police spokeswoman Liz Wylie says cops there have never heard of him.
\nZetaman says he\u2019s only once stopped a crime in progress\u2014honking his horn to scare off a guy trying to steal cars downtown. He\u2019s lectured a few drug dealers, but unless there was a person in immediate danger, he says he\u2019d be more likely to call the police on his cell phone than try to stop a crime himself.
\n\u201cI guess it sounds kind of less heroic, but I don\u2019t want to die,\u201d he says. As for taking out gangs and other organized crime, he says he simply doesn\u2019t have the time or the resources. \u201cI wish I had a million dollars, like Batman,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019m just one guy out there. I\u2019m not strong enough.\u201d
\nIn the past two years, superheroes say their numbers have exploded, largely due to MySpace, the social networking site that\u2019s grown over the same time with its M.O. of allowing users to forge a fake identity and communicate with each other while remaining completely anonymous.
\nHundreds of MySpace users pose as superheroes, but Zetaman\u2014who\u2019s intensely involved in the superheroes\u2019 online community and set up several of their most popular bulletin boards\u2014estimates fewer than 30 nationwide actually go out on patrol. As Zetaman suggests, the only requirements to be a superhero seem to be a costume and a nickname, though several also claim to have psychic powers.
\nMaster Legend<\/a>, a superhero from Winter Park, Fla., claims he can sense when people are in danger. He also says he has super strength and healing powers. And he\u2019s not afraid to beat up bad guys like crack dealers, starting out by taunting them in his superhero costume.
\n\u201cThey just don\u2019t know what to think of that. It shocks them,\u201d he says. \u201cThey can\u2019t help themselves any longer, and they come and attack me, and it\u2019s showtime. And you can hear from me laughing how much I love it. I love to jump into action.\u201d
\nHeroes in Florida and New York claim to have no trouble finding street crime, but Portland\u2019s darkest alleys are a safety zone by comparison. Zetaman tried patrolling in the parks around Portland State University (don\u2019t people get mugged in parks?). Still no dice.
\nHis 70-plus nights on the street have led him to the conclusion that in Portland, the homeless are the real people in need. Now he wears a backpack stuffed with blankets, hats, gloves and socks to give away. He lugs bags of food and soda. One night last month he gave out five double cheeseburgers and five chicken sandwiches from McDonald\u2019s, along with a 12-pack of Shasta cola.
\nDespite the fact that he\u2019s still paying off his own debts, he says he spends about $100 a month out of his own pocket helping the homeless.
\nBesides giving out food, blankets and clothing, he also offers help getting to a shelter, or into a drug treatment program. But few accept the offer. \u201cIt sounds bad,\u201d he says, \u201cbut people have to want help in order to get help. It took me a while to learn that.\u201d
\nZetaman\u2019s do-gooder philosophy has taken heat from heroes who claim to take a more vigilante approach. His critics include Tothian, a New Jersey-based hero whose MySpace page says he \u201cdestroys evil.\u201d Tothian told WW<\/em> in an email that he once beat up seven armed men while on patrol.
\nThe two heroes tangled on Internet chat boards last April after Tothian declared himself \u201cleader\u201d of the superhero community. But Tothian declined to criticize Zetaman in a WW<\/em> interview. \u201cSome things are not for the public eye or the media,\u201d Tothian says.
\nLike many so-called online communities (see some of Oregon\u2019s blogs on the political left<\/a> and right<\/a> as examples), legitimate differences and personal attacks have gradually eroded some of the group spirit that once united superheroes. Just like heroes and villains in comic books, they\u2019re now divided into a number of opposing teams that occasionally come into open conflict online.
\nThe conflict deepened when some heroes began calling openly for violence. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty bizarre, the emoed-out kids that are more into the dark side of doing this,\u201d Superhero says. Zetaman says he regrets his role in designing one of the message boards. \u201cNow it\u2019s more like this mini homeland-terrorism site, and it pisses me off,\u201d he says.
\nAfter a tiff that Zetaman dismisses as \u201cInternet drama,\u201d Tothian kicked Zetaman off that bulletin board, known as Heroes Network. Zetaman in turn founded the Alternates, a group that includes the Eye and Ragensi. The three are holding a secret meeting in San Jose this May to get better organized, hoping to form a new West Coast superhero squad.
\nZetaman also hopes to start up a Portland-based group. \u201cI want to move on to where it\u2019s not just me,\u201d he says. \u201cI think more people should pick up a comic book and say, you know, maybe I don\u2019t have to be so gray all the time.\u201d
\nWhile most of the online community refer to themselves as \u201creal-life superheroes,\u201d Zetaman says actual real-life superheroes are police, firefighters and other first responders.Zetaman broadcasts a superhero-themed live radio show online each Thursday night at midnight. You can hear it any time at blogtalkradio.com\/thealternates.
\nSuperbarrio, a real-life superhero in Mexico City, has gained fame since 1995 by organizing labor rallies and protests and filing petitions to stop government corruption.
\nFind real-life superheroes online:<\/strong>
\nen.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Real-life_superhero
\nfreewebs.com\/heroesnetwork\/
\nthealternates.org
\nmyspace.com\/zetamanofportland
\nmyspace.com\/masterlegend
\nmyspace.com\/ragensi
\nmyspace.com\/eyewatch_24_7
\nmyspace.com\/darkguardianhero
\nmyspace.com\/squeegeerific
\nmyspace.com\/tothian
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Portland\u2019s superhero bunks in the \u2019burbs and drives a minivan\u2014when he\u2019s not keeping our streets safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[411,421,665,690,1109,1180,1258,1620,1787,2077,2146,2181,2490,2548,2642,2663,2748,3018],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946"}],"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=946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}