Overview

Step aside Batman, here come real citizen superheroes

Tracing the author's journey into the strange subculture of Real Life Superheroes (RLSHs), this book examines citizens who have adopted comic book–style personas and have hit the streets to fight injustice in a variety of ways. Some RLSHs concentrate on humanitarian or activist missions—helping the homeless, gathering donations for food banks, or delivering toys to children—while others actively patrol their neighborhoods looking for crime to fight. By day, these modern Clark Kents work as dishwashers, pencil pushers, and executives in Fortune 500 companies, but by night they become heroes for the people. Through historic research and extensive interviews, this work shares not only their shining, triumphant moments, but also some of their ill-advised, terrifying disasters.

Reviews

"It probably would have been easy for Krulos to make fun of these people, but, for the most part, he treats RLSH with respect because, if you factor out the comicbookish elements, these are men and women who are risking their own safety to make others feel a bit safer. And it’s hard to make fun of that."—Booklist

A "colorful new page-turner." —Milwaukee AV Club

Author Biography

Tea Krulos is a freelance journalist and creator of the blog Heroes in the Night. He lives in Arcadia, Florida.