Meet The Guys From The Real Life Superhero Movement: Crazed Vigilantes Or Courageous Crime Fighters?

As much as we love the elaborately designed pants off them, the one abiding problem with superheroes is they’re never around when you really need them. It’s probably because they don’t exist, but there’s a growing organisation in America which is seeking to remedy that and it’s called the Real Life Superhero Movement.

There are currently more than 200 real-life superheroes stalking our streets, fighting injustice and seeking our wrongs to right. We’re not talking about a loose collection of guys and gals with a latex fetish who meet once a month in mom’s basement to do some serious role-playing, we’re talking about grown men and women with regular jobs, families, and responsibilities, who dress up every night in elaborate and thoughtful designed costumes to patrol our streets.

This rare breed go by names such as The Guardian, RazorHawk, and my personal favourite, Purple Reign. When the sun sinks and the shadows rise, these urban crime-fighters venture into America’s neediest and most crime-riddled neighbourhoods to offer their help.

The Mirror repots that most of those involved in the Real Life Superhero Movement participate in nothing more than safe community work which involves helping the homeless and warning kids about the dangers of drugs.

Yet a select few take things further. For example, the Dark Guardian of New York City makes it his business to chase pot dealers out of Washington Square Park. He creeps up on them, and then dazzles them with a torch in their eyes before yelling, “This is a drug-free park!”

Others such as RazorHawk from Minneapolis joined the Real Life Super Hero Movement after being a pro wrestler for 15 years. And then there’s the DC Guardian from Washington who enjoys dressing up in a full-body stars-and-strips costume before taking a leisurely stroll through the troubled areas behind the Capitol building to see what stray souls he might encounter on any given night.

Perhaps most famous of all is Seattle’s Phoenix Jones and his side-kick and wife Purple Reign, whose videos on YouTube have amassed over 800,000 views.

By his own admission, Phoenix regularly dresses up in a rather fetching costume to pursue car thieves, intervene in bar fights, and of course, assist stranded strangers by changing their tyres. Phoenix describes what he and his wife do as akin to a citizen witness group, but he’s also adamant that if he sees someone in danger, he’s not about to walk away.

“We are basically a citizen eye witness group. If we see a crime, we run to the victim, see if they want to press charges, at that point we’ll go after the bad guy, catch him, and either hold them in position or dial 911 and wait until the cops arrive.

“When I see someone being a victim of crime, I’m not just going to watch it.”

His wife Purple Reign reveals that she gets upset when people accuse her and Phoenix of being crazed vigilantes and explains they are simply doing a job that needs doing.

“The police have seen how we are not out there breaking the law or hurting people, we’re helping victims and we’re capturing video evidence.”

So when you’re in danger or in a sticky situation, you can forget about being helped by Batman, he’s a billionaire nihilist brooding somewhere in a dark cave, Superman is too wrapped up in Lois Lane to be of any help, Ironman’s a slave to the bottle, Wolverine is suffering from existentialist issues, and Spiderman’s too busy playing on video games. When darkness falls and the bad guys comes out to play, we can only rely on one another for a helping hand. As Phoenix eloquently puts it.

“Real-life superheroes are needed everywhere. Any time you see something wrong, you need someone to stand up and say that is wrong.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEl4z87Vt-4