Friday, August 26, 2011

WHITE SKULL: Dead, not dead, etc.


Last week I began to see news circulating on Facebook and a RLSH forum that the internet "real life supervillain" White Skull, a member of internet villain/ parody group ROACH (Ruthless Organization Against Citizen Heroes) had died due to a complication with brain surgery.

To be honest, I never quite knew what to make of the White Skull, which I suppose is fitting of a mysterious villain with a skull for a head that transmits messages from a space craft. He very aggressively criticized various RLSH online, most notably Master Legend's Army and the RLSH in the backyard of his hometown of San Diego- the Xtreme Justice League.

However, he did also sign up on therlsh.net forum, where I saw him participate in some good natured joking and chat about comics. He even tried to extend a bony hand to the XJL. Here is the last comment he left on the Heroes in the Night blog, on an entry about the HOPE 2011 handout in San Diego:

Can you please do me a favor, Mr. Krulos? Next time you stop in to San Diego with any RLSH, please give me a call or send me an email or a Facebook message. I live here and I've been wanting to help out with one of these events for the last two years, and yet every year, no one ever lets me know in advance.

I know I give the RLSH a lot of crap, but I do appreciate the ones that help the homeless and would love to help out.


See- that was a nice thing to say!

On hearing about his death, I couldn't help but be skeptical. Faking his death merely to come back to taunt his superhero foes yet again? It sounded like a supervillain plot to me. Second hand reports that someone had talked to his "widow" weren't convincing me either, because it is entirely possible a wife can be in league with her husband. Hell, maybe it was her idea.

Faking a death is a perennial favorite. Mark Twain based the plot of Huckleberry Finn on it. The punk band The Dwarves faked the death of their guitarist because "it was the punk thing to do."

So I was determined not to deliver a Shakespearean style eulogy until I saw the obit of White Skull's secret identity which is [NAME DELETED].

The obit never surfaced which is because the White Skull is alive and LOL-ing on the space station Damocles, as he mocks in a blog entry here:
transmissionsfromthedamocles.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/329/

Yes, sir. Supervillains- always something with those guys (and gals).

Thursday, August 25, 2011

CAPTAIN BLACK COMIC BOOK


It's been awhile since I've written on Nadra Enzi aka Captain Black, but it recently caught my eye that he has a comic version of himself out there. The comic, Captain Black #1, was created by Enzi and artist Tya Keith of Pendeka Press. It features some background on Captain Black and then launches into a story about the Captain confronting a crew of villains and bounty hunters. It looks like issue 2 is currently in the works.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
The comic is $10 for a print version, $2 for a digital download:
www.lulu.com/product/paperback/captian-black-%231/16585543

The Captain also maintains a blog here- captainblack.reallifesuperheroes.org
His most recent column is a great explanation about what he does as a RLSH and is reprinted below.

WHAT MAKES SUPERHEROES "REAL?"


In real life superhero (RLSH) terms I've literally fought folks Phoenix Jones style; did crime prevention speeches like the retired Citizen Prime and made coalitions the way Silver Sentinel does.

Toss in regular food giveaways in the tradition of Life and my Good Citizens Supporting Good Cops effort and you pretty much have my RLSH menu.

The topic of what makes RLSH "real" rears its pointy head periodically, usually in the wake of national publicity.

I address this topic periodically so here's the latest opinion:

There's no pecking order among RLSH and extreme altruists (X-ALTS). Those imposing them are limiting a limitless concept. Free people can express their vision of creative activism without bias.

It's not a zero sum choice between crime fighting verses unconventional philanthropy.

The only choice is what kind of creative activism you select.

My choices to date include:

* Regularly buying food for the homeless at a Canal St. fast food restaurant off its dollar menu- remember, I'm saving my part of the world on a sneaker-string budget (lol).

* Giving cold bottles of water to New Orleans Downtown Development District (DDD) street custodians and public safety rangers; police and hotel valets on scorching days.

* (Along with two other concerned citizens) pulling an abusive boyfriend off the woman and child in a stroller he'd struck until officers arrived.

* I've also stopped two separate suicide attempts this year.

Which actions are more "real" than others?

None.

NADRA ENZI AKA CAPT BLACK promotes finding your " super" through creative crime prevention; homeless outreach and political advocacy.

Friday, August 19, 2011

NYI: Trial by Mud


Mud champs: L-R, Snipe, Zero, Short Cut after the sparring session.

ALSO- CALIFORNIA INITIATIVE OPENS AS THIRD INITIATIVE BRANCH

New York Initiative
members Zero, Short Cut, Snipe, Lock, Adro and Thre3 had a sparring session slated recently and rather than let the rain deter them, they drew a circle in the mud and began to spar.

Towards the end of the four hour session, after they "had beaten the tar out of each other," says Zero, and Snipe caught some photos of the grappling challenge.
Photobucket
Lock, left, and Short Cut throw down

"It poured all day, it was incredible," says Zero."The pictures don't even do this day justice- the smell of the rain, the white, foggy atmosphere, the feel of the mud between our toes."

The NYI was featured in the recently aired HBO documentary Superheroes and since then has had a mass number of people asking to sign onto the team. Zero explained to Heroes in the Night that the team is in the process of interviewing these prospects. "We're being extremely selective and imposing some specific rules for recruitment, plus a preliminary evaluation," He says.
Photobucket
Zero, left, grapples with Adro

It was also revealed that the third branch of the Initiative, the California Initiative (CAI) is now open and being ran by Bay area couple Night Bug and Rock N Roll. Heroes in the Night got a chance to meet these two at HOPE 2011. We also previously reported on Virginia Initiative(VAI)operated by Death's Head Moth and Ira Ui'Raghallaigh HERE.

All three groups are working on recruitment and training.
Photobucket
Night Bug (far left) and Rock N. Roll (far right) of the CAI with Good Samaritan, a RLSH from the LA area
Photobucket
Rock N. Roll in action leading a free women's self defense class

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

HERO PROFILE #77: Warpspider


Operates out of: the internet

Activities: Patrols online sites like MySpace, Second Life and Zanga looking for internet stalkers.

Quote: "I've seen what happens online. All the trash that sneaks and hides on the net. I've made it my goal to hunt the hunters and keep the innocent safe. One person at a time."

Author's notes: Warpspider is unique in that he is an internet based RLSH. And by that, I don't mean a kid that has created a Facebook page and claims they are a RLSH but doesn't do anything outside the internet. Warpspider's stated goal is to search the internet for cyberstalkers and so he is represented here by an online avatar he created.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

THE CHALLENGERS FEATURED in WISCONSIN TRAILS MAGAZINE


photo by Jerry Luterman- Wisconsin Trails magazine- The Challengers in Gordon Park

Local Real Life Super Hero team The Challengers will be featured in an upcoming issue of Wisconsin Trails magazine and photographer Jerry Luterman shares the photos and some Q and A with the members here-

wisconsintrails.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/the-challengers/

The featured members include The Watchman, Blackbird, Charade and Crimson Crusader of the Milwaukee area and Electron from Madison.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

THE STATESMAN GIVES FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF RIOT


BRITISH REAL LIFE SUPERHERO ENTERS BIRMINGHAM RIOTS- HELPS COUPLE REACH TRAIN STATION SAFELY, NABS LOOTER, HELPS CLEAN UP AND MORE

On rare occasions I like to invite members of the Real Life Super Hero community to share a write up of a first hand account of something going on in their world for Heroes in the Night readers. I have been following the story of the spreading rioting in Britain, and noticed that the Birmingham area RLSH known as The Statesman was posting occasional updates on his Facebook page. I asked him if he could share his story of what he is seeing on the streets and how he has tried to help out as a RLSH. His account, in full, follows.


This is a fairly stripped down, blow-by-blow account of my experiences during the riots currently affecting the major cities of the UK. I’m offering it here at Tea’s request, because I feel that it offers a ground-level story of the kind crisis situation that will, I believe, become increasingly common during the difficult years ahead of us all. There will, obviously, be areas that concern “superheroes” directly, but I’d like to take a moment before I begin to make two points clear.

Firstly, I am under no illusion that hundreds of men and women from our police forces, many of whom have worked tirelessly over the last 48 hours to make safe our homes, have done more than I could ever hope to. They are often vilified, and I sometimes question some of their actions as much as any free-thinking person, but have been exemplary throughout these few days. I for one am incredibly grateful to them all.

Secondly, I have done nothing over the last two days that I couldn’t have done in normal clothes. I have, however discovered a benefit to some of the very soft media that I have been a party to: In the middle of a large crowd of rioters, all of which are of a similar age, all with masks and scarves on their faces, both police and civilians recognized me for who I am and what I do. I cannot over-emphasize how much this helped me to get around; at one point, even allowing me passage through a police cordon.

If there’s anything that you would like to know, any questions that you want to ask, any comments that you would like to offer or any criticisms you feel need to be made, then feel free to add them after this article.

I found out about the escalating situation in Birmingham city centre through my iPhone; a fellow RLSH who goes by the name Citizen Obsidian sending me a heads up that things there had turned nasty. I was, at the time, in the neighboring town of Dudley, enjoying a meal with my girlfriend. I had heard about the “protests” during the daytime, but as I was at work and carrying a painful injury to my left leg I had decided to stay clear. I explained that I felt that I had to go, and we paid up and left for home.

I used the ride home to make a few phonecalls; to check on family and friends in the area, and to get an idea of what was happening, and where. At this point, things were just starting to get heated; police had formed three lines blocking the main access ramp into a shopping precinct called the Pallasades, with “protesters” who had started to throw bottles and bricks. I got home, geared up, and jumped in a taxi to head into town. It was quite an odd sight; floods of taxis and buses were streaming away from the centre of the city, but we were the only people heading in. The time now was around 9.30pm.

As I arrived in town, it was obvious that something had happened. The heavy internet rumour-mongering had, if anything, underestimated how much damage was being done to the city. After leaving the taxi, I jogged down to the most obvious police picket line outside New Street train station. Some eight or nine officers were spread across the roadway entry to the station, trying to stop the steady flow of out-of-town commuters from wandering into the uncontrolled parts of the city.

I introduced myself, and after a shared laugh about my outlandish dress, they soberly advised me to take myself home. “Have you got enough bodies on the ground as it is, then?” I asked. They answered, of course, no.

My first sight of the rioters came soon. As I was talking to these first officers, a group of 30-40 youths in hoodies, wearing scarves around their faces, boiled up from a stairwell across the street. They were chanting, “Fuck the pigs” over and over, and the officers radioed in support from their reserves inside the station.

A young Scottish man and his girlfriend stood behind the lines, loaded with wheeled suitcases and duffel bags. I approached them to see if they were okay, and they told me that this was their first night living in Birmingham; they were literally straight off the train, on the way to their first apartment together. They were scared; they had no idea how to get to the next train station- Snow Hill- which was located on the opposite side of the “Hot Zone”.

I explained that my name was the Statesman, and Craig (the young man) grinned and said that he’d seen me in the paper and recognised my moustache! We shared a laugh at that, which seemed weird with bottles starting to shatter on the road behind us. I took one of their bags, and led them off down a sideroad towards the other side of town.

The town was a wasteland. Shops were dark and empty, windows shattered with the tills and furniture strewn around outside. We came past the Information Centre, with a clothes rack still wedged through the security glass of it’s frontage.

I led them up a stairwell, and in the curve of the first landing, had to wade almost shin-deep through a huge quantity of clothes hangers. Looters had taken pretty much everything from the Primark store on the main high street, and dumped the useless hangers here. There was an underpass nearby, and I assume that they had parked a series of cars, stripped the clothes, and loaded up here; out of sight of passing police, and near enough to the main streets that they could make return journeys to the shops.

I raised my shield and shouted a warning twice at threatening groups as we crossed Corporation street. Groups of rioters in twos and threes, some riding bikes, were roaming around at will. I could see about three hundred yards down the main street, where a man was running away from a small group who jeered and threw bottles after him. It became clear that the police were holding a small cordon around each transport hub, and the church in the centre of town, but everywhere else was essentially the Wild West- gangs roamed at will, casually wandering through the smashed-open shops and helping themselves to whatever they wanted. It was not a safe place for an individual, and I was glad to have accompanied my erstwhile companions. I dread to think of what could have happened to two strangers, lost in this kind of environment.

I changed tack at this point- moving towards the nearest cordon by the quickest route. A policeman saw us coming, and I explained that I was escorting these people to Snow Hill. He nodded, joked that I should draw a wage, and let us through the cordon. We made good time, coming out almost on top of Snow Hill station- the police there had been informed via radio that we were coming through, and took the two visitors to where they needed to be. They said their thanks, and I said my goodbyes.

I spent another hour ferrying individuals and small groups between the two train stations.

It was now around 11.40pm, and all transport services had stopped. The central police cordon had expanded through most of the town centre- police in riot gear were now more apparent, having been drawn in from nearby towns. The main body of the mob had been pushed down through Chinatown, and I followed in their wake. My only violent confrontation took place here.

A young afro-Caribbean man of around twenty was smashing a rock into the store-front of a Sainsbury’s Local near the Mailbox shopping centre. I kept quiet, making as to walk past him. All night, I had been avoiding confrontations with bigger groups of rioters that I couldn’t hope to confront safely. As I drew level, I saw him do a brief double take at my appearance. I grabbed his arms, forcing them back and down. He twisted, and we struggled. It is INCREDIBLY difficult to grapple someone down who doesn’t want to be. My sleeve rose up, and he raked his nails down my forearm. I got his hands behind his back, and after a further struggle, he eventually gave up the fight. I zipped his wrists, tight over his sleeves, and took his by the arm to the Gala casino. Police took him off me there; although for a long while, they were going to apprehend me, too. I explained that it really WAS a citizen’s arrest, and prompted them to check for any CCTV in the area.

It took a long time. Resources must have been spread pretty thin, but after about twenty minutes, I was told to leave. They took my guy to a waiting minibus with a half-dozen sullen-looking figures inside. I headed towards Chinatown.

Around this time, people were leaving the Hippodrome Theatre in large numbers; families in smart clothes, who did not seem to be aware of the situation outside. I couldn’t believe that in the middle of the crazy situation that was developing, such a large group could have missed what was going on. I stood, waving my arms, directing them away from the Arcadian shopping mall, where a huge group of 100 yobs were still smashing up the bars and clubs, towards the safer roads that were now to be found towards the centre of town.

The night went by in a blur; I passed a liquor store being looted by six men, and not fancying my chances in a confrontation, ran to flag down a patrol car. All six were arrested. I paid for a taxi to take a Polish woman to the address she had written on a piece of paper, who did not speak a single word of English and was lost and alone. I helped three riot police, drawn in from Wolverhampton, to secure a burnt-out record store while youths jeered from across the road. My gear, when the mask is covered by a hoody, turned out to have an unexpected benefit- several times, mobs of rioters would run away as I passed, apparently thinking in the darkness that I was an off-duty cop. It turned out to be very useful!

I ended up on Soho Road, in Handsworth, trailing the last large body of the original mob. The police station here, though unmanned, had been petrol-bombed. It became apparent at this point that I was never going to start fighting against these kind of numbers, so I called a cab.

In the cab ride home, we passed a police car as it skidded to a stop on a petrol-station forecourt, and two policemen chased off a dozen thugs behind stealing fuel from the pumps. They ran to the back of the street, and started filtering through the alleys back towards us. I got out of the cab, and blocked a roadway between two buidings as one of the gang was running towards me. He balked, turned back, and the following copper clattered into him, bearing him to the ground. He gave me a nod, before I jumped back in the cab and, having a bit of a laugh with the driver, headed home.

The morning after (my day off from work) I headed back to Birmingham. A volunteer cleanup crew had gathered at around 10 o’clock. Work was already underway replacing windows and the major structural damage. We got to work sweeping, nailing up boards, and bagging up broken glass into rubble sacks.

All was clear until about 3pm, when the city-centre banks and offices closed early. There was a rumour of further violence… but none yet materialised.

I stayed into town til about 6pm, and while there were a few moments of tension when a group looked likely to charge a police picket, but the cops charged and they scattered.

I left the city centre as the night got on, instead heading out to Aston and surrounding residential areas. I talked to as many people as I could. There was growing anger against the rioters, and the general consensus was that any intent to “protest” was swiftly lost on day one; we were now looking at thugs and fools trying to steal whatever they could and get something for free.

The mood was tense, and at least once my patriotic style of costume caused suspicion with a band of asian youths who had formed to protect their street. There were rumours going around about the three men who had been killed with a car; anything from an attempted car-bombing of a mosque, to a revenge attack by the proto-fascist English Defence League under cover of the mayhem. It took several tense minutes of explaining before the situation cooled, and I took my leave.

All in all… I still don’t feel that I have adequately explained the extent or severity of the damage done by the crowds. This account was typed over a quiet afternoon at work because, frankly, I’ve been out almost every spare minute trying to help out. I’ve filled three pages and haven't talked about the emergency homeless shelter, pushing broken down cars off the expressway minutes before a mob arrived to smash windows in. Or the old woman who was walking up and down the street, trying to talk the younger guys into going home.

It is clear that without either gathering new recruits to the cause or joining an official body, one person can make a minimal impact. It also made me think about the need for more protection than I’m currently using. Anyway. I’m running out of time, so I’ll leave it there.

Monday, August 8, 2011

"SUPERHEROES" STORMS HBO TONIGHT!

SPECIAL VIDEO OF HOPE 2011 ALSO RELEASED TODAY

The Real Life Super Hero documentary Superheroes premieres tonight on HBO (check local listings) to much anticipation. As I've stated before, I'm glad to see the documentary has achieved the success it has (in addition to being picked up by HBO, its received several festival awards) because the doc covers much of the same ground I have and talked with the exact same RLSHs I did in writing Heroes in the Night.

Here's the HBO trailer:


Also, the Superheroes makers put together a short video about HOPE 2011 in San Diego. You can see me in a couple of the shots helping the RLSHs out- I'm the big dude trying to look California cool in sunglasses and a blue Hawaiian style shirt. I'm told this short might be included as a bonus on the Superheroes DVD.

Check it out below (and tune to HBO tonight.)

Friday, August 5, 2011

ON THE BBC!

Heroes in the Night author Tea Krulos made a brief appearance on the BBC Lincolnshire Radio program "Lincolnshire Lunch with Les Sheehan" today.

As noted in the Hero Profile on Dark Spartan yesterday, Britain is going through another wave of RLSH media attention, stemming from a BBC4 TV documentary that aired today titled "Superheroes of Suburbia."

In the brief chat with Les Sheehan, some basic questions were answered about Heroes in the Night.

The interview can be found at the link below, starting around the 1:38:00 mark. It'll be online for six more days.

Link:www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00j6zsw

Thursday, August 4, 2011

HERO PROFILE #76: Dark Spartan


Operates out of: Torbay (United Kingdom)

Team Affiliation: Justice Union

Activities: Night patrols, escorts drunks home

Quote:“My goal is to squash the socially acceptable apathy our country has adopted. I want to motivate 'normal people' to help others."

Author's Notes: The British RLSH have gotten another wave of media attention to tie in with a TV documentary premiering Friday night on BBC4. It is titled "Superheroes of Suburbia" (article HERE) and follows Dark Spartan and his Justice Union team mates. Of course Heroes in the Night is way ahead of the curve- you can read about the Justice Union in an article I wrote for the magazine Delayed Gratification HERE.