The Pros and Cons of Real-Life Superheroes
Comic superheroes are so popular that hundreds of people around the world have started donning tights and playing vigilante. Bizarre, laughable, but true.
Video footage of the increasingly popular movement starts off the way you’d expect…. An old man who goes by “Master Legend” holds a beer while explaining to the camera that he has “powers beyond that of ordinary mortal people”.
A top-ten list of outrageous real-life superheroes spotlights Roger, aka Knight Warrior, who is skinny as a beanpole and lives with his mother. The jaw-dropping audacity of Real Life Superheroes (aka RLSH) often leaves you wondering if you should reach for a camera or a straightjacket.
While public reaction to this movement has mostly revolved around making fun of real-life superheroes (because it’s easy and fun to do), there has been little scholarly discussion regarding the motivations, effectiveness, and comparative methodologies of various superheroes.
I will offer a fair explanation of the pros and cons of superhero activity, discuss sanity and ego, provide specific examples to gauge RLSH effectiveness, and explain their core purpose.
To balance out publicly available information with an insider’s perspective, I was privileged to interview Zimmer, a much-respected superhero who has patrolled city streets for almost a decade.
Zimmer was one of the subjects of the Superheroes documentary aired by HBO in 2011, and she’s as close to the real Batman as you can get. Aside from an arsenal of non-lethal gadgets she’s made himself, she’s also invested in EMT training, legitimate combat and parkour abilities, friends to back her up, and ridiculous physical endurance. A video of Zimmer’s training routine shows her doing 17 pull-ups in a row without slowing. Though she’s not someone to mess with, during our interview she was surprisingly humble, articulate, and human.
Self-Preservation
The first objection people have to real-life superheroes is the obvious idiocy of putting yourself in danger. When medical institutions train First Responders, the very first rule of emergency intervention is “don’t become a victim”. First Responders are required to stop, carefully survey the scene for possible safety threats, and only step in once they are certain they can enter the area without endangering themselves. Playing vigilante seems to violate this rule. This is the primary reason police try to discourage superhero patrolling.
This is a legitimate concern, but it stems from a misunderstanding about what superheroes do. Not all RLSHs are “beat ’em up” style vigilantes. Superheroes engage in a wide variety of community service, which ranges from cleaning up graffiti, confronting companies about dumping toxic sludge in a river, feeding the homeless, escorting drunks home, and more.
When asked how she felt about the problem of untrained, overenthusiastic superheroes trying to confront criminals, Zimmer responded, “We’re not asking people to put themselves in danger. The question is: What problem bothers you so much that it keeps you up at night? And what can you do about it? What skills and resources do you already have? Do that.”
In order to protect themselves, mature superheroes employ a few basic principles.
First, if you intend to fight, you need training and lots of it. Celebrity superhero “Phoenix Jones’ is a champion MMA fighter who patrols Seattle, and is more confrontational than most heroes, but only because he feels up to the challenge. In September 2015, he was credited by the police for preventing a murder.
Second, even with training, the best superheroes only fight as a last resort. Many heroes use weapons that startle the opponent, rather than inflicting injury, such as bright flashlights and basic tasers, for this reason.
Physical harm is not the only danger superheroes face. The dapper superhero “Life” likes to give candy bars to the homeless to cheer them up, along with basic necessities like toothbrushes, lotion, and soap. Laughing, he admitted, “I’m in serious credit card debt” due to his charitable activities.
“Mr. Extreme” is another example of a RLSH making massive sacrifices to keep patrolling. He takes the combat approach to superhero work and patrols at night to make the streets safer. He wants to be able to defend others, but his combat skills are currently insufficient to win even a basic street brawl. After losing his first jujitsu tournament and being unable to obtain his white belt, Mr. Extreme moved out of his apartment and started living out of a van so that he could invest more money in equipment, printing, and training needs.
Prospective heroes need to decide how much money they’re willing to invest, and how much time. This is one of the practical values of having a persona. It helps heroes say, “This is my problem. I know I can’t solve everything, so I’m dedicating myself to this particular cause.” Setting this boundary helps them narrow their vision so they don’t stretch their time and resources too thin.
Costumes
“Okay, great, serve your community. Why do you have to do it in a costume?”
This is the second source of skepticism RLSHs face. Flamboyant homemade outfits raise red flags in the public mind, rather than inspiring confidence. Citizens wonder whether too much time in the basement playing D&D has gotten into their heads.
The flashy exterior does not always serve them well. Some RSLH outfits are horror-themed and resemble the scarecrow mask from The Dark Knight more than looking like a hero. Masks in particular make people uneasy.
On the other hand, some superhero groups have brighter, more circus-like outfits, complete with capes. While these superheroes are definitely less intimidating, they also tend to look ridiculous. When superheroes who look absurd still take themselves seriously, it leaves people wary, wondering what other social skills might be missing.
However, RLSHs do have several good reasons for using costumes, despite their drawbacks. Scientific research has studied the psychological value of wearing a uniform and found that other people’s perceptions of us affect our performance. Uniforms can make us dumber or smarter or faster.
Zimmer felt that costumes were extremely valuable. Putting on a dedicated outfit can also make people feel like they have permission to help.
Zimmer’s costume is very discreet. She uses a simple T-shirt with the numbers 01011010 on it — binary for the letter “Z”. Flexible pants give her freedom of movement. She never wears a mask because she likes to be accessible. Sometimes she wears wrist bracers, gloves, and/or a backpack loaded with simple gadgets and a first-aid kit. To those who know of her, Zimmer is very recognizable, but the average stranger on the street wouldn’t look twice. This is a very good balance that allows her to incorporate what’s valuable about costumes, without alienating anyone or needing to explain herself to everyone she passes.
Why Not Let The Police Handle It?
A social phenomenon psychologists call Diffusion of Responsibility means that an individual’s willingness to intervene when there is an emergency depends on the number of bystanders. The greater number of people present, the less likely people are to take action or feel a sense of responsibility.
In research studies, 85% of participants responded with intervention when alone, 62% of participants took action when only one other person was present, and only 31% responded when there were four other bystanders.
The tragic story of Kitty Genovese is often used to illustrate this problem. In 1964, Kitty was attacked, raped, and stabbed to death outside her apartment in Queens, New York, while at least a dozen witnesses observed some portion of the attack. One witness yelled “leave her alone!” out his window, but did not physically come to the rescue. Most neighbors dismissed it as a lover’s quarrel or drunken brawl.
The fact that the severity of the attack was not immediately apparent highlights the importance of being willing to step in when you become aware of a potential emergency, even a small one, and staying until you are certain everyone is safe. When someone decides to become a superhero, it’s not really about the cape. It’s just a promise to not give in to diffusion of responsibility.
A few months ago, I witnessed first-hand why concerned citizens can be more powerful than police. As I was driving home, I noticed a police vehicle parked in the middle of the road with its lights on. Since it was a small residential neighborhood, I was forced to stop and wait.
Up ahead, a lone police officer appeared to be intervening in a domestic violence situation. The cop was trying to talk to a man who was much larger than him, and very angry. They were gesturing to a distressed woman standing nearby.
As I watched, the man shoved the police officer against the squad car and started slamming the car door on him. Horrified, I thought about jumping from my car, but my First Responder training kicked in and said, “This is not a safe situation. You’re just one woman. If you try to confront them, you’ll probably get hurt. Call 911.”
As I reached for my phone, I saw a group of 7 or 8 people running down the road faster than I’ve ever seen someone run. Together, they tackled the man abusing the police officer, and pinned him to the ground. The woman standing by started to cry, and a few of the bystanders who had intervened put their arms around her and tried to comfort her while the police officer (shaken, but not badly hurt) cuffed the man on the ground.
That situation would have turned out very differently if bystanders hadn’t jumped in to help. If the police officer had been forced to wait for backup, he would have been in serious trouble. Average police response time is 10 minutes. In this situation, concerned citizens did what the police couldn’t do.
Aside from the reason that the police can’t be everywhere at once, city services also have a limited budget. Superheroes who are willing to assume part of the burden of public services can have an enormous impact. In California, a team of superheroes has decided that their purpose is to pick up used needles, which are often found in large quantities at playgrounds. Zimmer said her friends have found 200 needles at a single playground in a single night. “Now that’s something the city doesn’t have to hire people to do,” she said. “It probably wasn’t getting done because the city didn’t have the resources to do it.”
With these powerful examples in mind, there are a few legitimate reasons why superheroes should respect police boundaries and leave law enforcement to them. Lieutenant Andra Brown pointed out in the HBO Superheroes documentary that superheroes “don’t have the protocols and procedures…. to make sure people’s constitutional rights are protected.” (And while this is somewhat laughable in light of the raging police scandals brought unignorably into the public eye these past few years, it is true that cops have protocols they are supposed to follow, while RLSHs have no regulation whatsoever.)
More importantly, police methods are designed to guarantee the legal integrity of evidence so that criminals don’t walk free on a technicality.
The best scenario seems to occur when superheroes develop a positive relationship with local police. Some superheroes have done a really good job of balancing personal assertiveness with respect for the limits of their own authority.
One online video showed “Dark Guardian”, a NYC superhero, kicking a drug dealer out of a park. In the video, Dark Guardian approaches the dealer, tells him he can’t sell drugs in this neighborhood, explains that he has the dealer on video and audio selling drugs, and asks him to leave. The dealer started swearing aggressively and told him “it’s none of your business”. Dark Guardian asserted that it was his business. When the dealer started getting heated, the superhero backed up, pulled out his phone, and calmly dialed 911. He talked with the police (with the dealer watching) and started to describe the man and his location.
The dealer was furious but left immediately. The exchange demonstrates a balance of involving the police without waiting for them to do everything.
Effectiveness
While fighting is generally not the best way for superheroes to do good, Zimmer made an impressive case for those who do choose aggression. “You have to understand. A lot of these superheroes come from really rough backgrounds. A lot of them have done or dealt drugs. When you spend years in that environment, you pick up a certain skill set.”
Zimmer told a story about a man she knew who single-handedly took down a meth lab. Meth-making chemicals are volatile and the people who run meth labs are dangerous, so it’s very expensive both in man-hours and in clean-up equipment for a police force to do the same thing. They also have to wait, sometimes for months, before they have enough evidence to convict people. Meanwhile, the lab is actively manufacturing and dispersing hard drugs. So it’s a big deal for a single man who is well-versed in meth lab environments and truly capable of taking one down, to step in and do so.
Surprisingly, one of the places where being a superhero has become most popular is in Mexico.
In his book The Rise of Real-Life Superheroes, Toronto-based journalist Peter Nowak discovered large groups of Mexican citizens started using bandanas and ski masks to cover their faces, and working together to address issues the police were ignoring. When a member of their community was kidnapped and his captors threatened to kill him, masked citizens with firearms and machetes volunteered to stand at checkpoints blocking every road out of their town. Within two days, their friend was returned unharmed.
Afterward, the Mexican vigilantes assembled a little more formally, started calling themselves the “community police”, and volunteered in regular shifts to keep problem areas safer. One troop commander said, “This road, this whole section, is where they used to dump bodies. People killed with machetes, guns, horrible things. We don’t allow the state or federal police to go through here, because they’re accomplices of everything that’s been happening here.” Now that village’s roads are free of murder victims and local kidnappings have completely stopped.
I started this research intending to write a comical piece, but the more I learn about these leotard-clad community activists, the more I have to admit that they are probably the best thing that’s ever happened to our cities. We laugh at “Real Life Superheroes” because it strikes us as utterly absurd that individuals think they can confront drug dealers, rapists, and thieves and 1) do anything truly useful and 2) not get screwed over in the process. That’s what surprises me most. They do make a difference. They prevent kidnappings. They prevent police racketeering when nothing else can.
What about the wimpy ones? Do they make a difference too, or just get in the way? To answer that, I’d like to talk a little more about Roger Hayhurst, who I made fun of in the introduction.
This lanky, soft-spoken teenager patrolled Merseyside, England for two years as the Knight Warrior, mostly searching for drunk people and helping them get home without hurting anybody or getting hurt. He finally quit after a group of young men saw him walking on the sidewalk one day, recognized him out of costume, and beat him up. It shook him deeply enough that he decided to hang up his cape.
Despite being the least of the superheroes, Roger can boast two years of thrice-weekly patrolling, during which he diffused fights, intercepted combative drunks, and just… cared. The kid who I planned to make the most fun of has done more than I’ve dared in my entire life.
The Superhero Experience
Zimmer provided a very clear-headed glimpse of what it’s like to be a superhero. There seems to be a maturing process that RLSHs go through.
Zimmer explained that most heroes start out patrolling, sort of aimlessly wandering the streets. She felt this was a good thing. “Get a lay of the land. It’s very primal. But once you’ve scouted the area, to continue to scout without a goal is not a good idea. That’s when people get stuck in a rut.”
Instead of waiting for something bad to happen, Zimmer makes herself available in places and during hours when crime is still likely, but she doesn’t waste time. “I identify areas with gang graffiti and remove it. Go out to homeless people and give them socks. Identify something that’s wrong or move to a new area.” The point is to dedicate time every week to help your community, and then do what you can within that time.
Zimmer felt like joining up with other superheroes to form a team was a huge improvement. Finding a team is an important phase in the maturing process. It’s better for safety, and fresh perspectives help her notice new ways she can help in overworked territory. Zimmer said working with other superheroes are her favorite moments of the entire superhero experience. She feels inspired when she hears the stories of people who have had lives much worse than hers. “They have this horrible past, and now they can use that to help other people. It’s really fun to be alongside someone that cool.”
Zimmer also tried to focus on patrolling during times where conflict was more likely and police were probably swamped. “St. Patty’s Day and Halloween are always busy days because everyone is drunk and in public and doing things they wouldn’t ordinarily do.” She was also clever enough to sign up for a grassroots protest newsletter, so she could get notifications for when protests were going to happen. “We’d send people in undercover with first-aid kits. The worst was Occupy Wall Street. I was there for 11 days, 12 hours at a time, all night long.”
When I asked Zimmer if she ever meets supers who make her feel awkward, she laughed. “Yes. It’s a grassroots movement, there’s no bouncer at the door. And unfortunately, it sometimes attracts people with mental illnesses or 12-year-olds… We’ve gotten better at addressing these issues…. We try to help them gain some meaning in their life without putting themselves in danger.”
A very high percentage of superheroes have chosen to focus on helping the homeless. In a world full of villains, meth labs, disoriented drunks, and kidnappers, it might seem like a cop-out to help the beggars, who are easier to find and easier to face. However, the filmmaker of Superheroes said wandering with superheroes into the true underworld where the homeless live changed his life. “Look, we all know the homeless exist, but you have no idea until you really see it — it’s sickening — and it’s the most important thing these guys do.”
Superheroes don’t patrol forever. After a car accident shattered Zimmer’s elbow, she was forced to cut back on street patrolling and has looked for other ways to contribute. She said, “You carry that experience forward and it changes the way you engage in situations forever. Like, if you’re at a party at work and someone has a medical emergency, you naturally step in. So I don’t see it as quitting.”
When I last spoke with Zimmer, she was employed in Beijing, using her technical skills to find solutions for air pollution. She sees this as an extension of her superhero work. She explained that 40% of air-related deaths are in China. 4,000 people a day die there from the poor air quality. She hopes to make the problem 1% better and is very satisfied with this approach. “I think you could watch any Batman movie and he probably didn’t save 40 people a night,” she laughed.
Overall, Zimmer loves being a superhero. “I will never quit this movement. These activists are family to me and I’ve never been more passionate and committed to anything in my life.”
Conclusion
Being a real-life superhero is not a sexy Hollywood adventure where you flirt with extravagant danger. Nor is it a 3D version of Dungeons and Dragons. Done right, it’s a respectable, desperately needed movement that asks for nothing and gives everything. It’s not a venue for glory. It only works if it’s not about you.
The purpose of superheroes is to raise awareness of public inaction and beg us to put an end to apathy. They’re not asking for superhuman sacrifices, just a psychological shift in the way we think about other people’s problems. Let go of the idea that “it’s none of your business.” Foster a willingness to engage, set aside a little time to admit that there are things in this world that are more important than you. Make a promise to find a way to do something.
If you’re having a hard time getting started, groups can be more effective. It’s easier to overcome inhibitions when you’re with people who have committed to do the same thing. Talk with your friends, find something you can do together, and do it.
In the end, my favorite question the one Zimmer kept repeating:
“What keeps you up at night?”
