News

Furtado, Peyton. Sept 10, 2025. "Greenville Spider-Man saves two stuck on downtown waterfall." WYFF4 (Greenville, SC).
Cashman, Chris. Aug 25, 2025. "Red Ranger: Seattle's real-life hero." King 5 (Seattle, WA).
KIRO 7 Staff. Mar 7, 2025. "Gets Real: Emerald City ‘heroes’ offer helping hand to Seattleites". KIRO 7 News (Seattle, WA).
Jones, Amanda. March 2025. "Real-Life NYC Superhero Stories: The True Events That Inspired Comic Book Legends." Vocal Media (New York, NY).
WGRD. Aug 14, 2024. Did You Know Michigan Used To Have Real Life Super Heroes? WGRD 97.9 (Michigan).
Harris, Chris. May 18, 2024. NYC’s last superhero: On patrol with real-life crimefighter — the Brooklyn Devil. NY Post (New York, NY).
Opong, Diana and Cowan, Alec. May 9, 2024. A night on patrol with Seattle's 'real-life superheroes'. KUOW (Seattle, WA).
KIRO 7. Mar 7, 2024. GETS REAL: The real-life superheroes of Seattle. KIRO 7 (Seattle, WA).
Kaucher, Terrell. Feb 23, 2024. "CAPTAIN STICKY THE ONLY REAL 70’s SUPER HERO". Medium (New York, NY).
Heritage, Stuart. Apr 12, 2022. Who is that masked man? The real-life superhero who inspired a wild podcast. The Guardian (New York, NY).
Sn0vvy. Mar 15, 2022. The History of Real-Life Superheroes! Medium (USA).
Venkatesh, Vinodh. July 12, 2021. How Latin America’s protest superheroes fight injustice and climate change – and sometimes crime, too. The Conversation (Waltham, MA).
CBC Radio. Sept 30, 2020. These real-life Canadian superheroes don masks and capes to help the homeless — and say you can do it too. CBC Radio (Toronto, ON).
Firestone, Andrew. Sept 29, 2020. Interview: Peter Nowak Talks Philosophy of American Individualism in 'Rise of Real-Life Superheroes'. Screenrant (Montreal, Quebec, Canada).
Alam, Aleeya. July 14, 2020. "Opinion: The mentality behind ‘real life superheroes’." LA Times (Los Angeles, CA).
Ramirez, Quixem. Jan 27, 2020. "Real-life superhero 'Phoenix Jones' in super trouble, facing drug charges." KOMO (Seattle, WA).
Delloye, Tate. Jan 26, 2020. The Xtreme Justice League: The secret lives of San Diego's costume-wearing, crime-fighting, real-life superheroes. Daily Mail (London, UK).
Kohn, Isabelle. Nov 12, 2019. "Fighting Crime With San Diego’s Real-Life Superhero Squad." MEL Magazine (Marina del Rey, CA).
Beahm, Jason. Mar 21, 2019. Real Life Superhero: Is Phoenix Jones Seattle's Batman? Find Law (Eagan, MN).
Guzzo, Paul. Sept 29, 2018. Clearwater's real-life superhero is hanging up his suit. The Ledger (Tampa Bay, FL).
Barnett, Marina. Aug 8, 2018. Group of 'Real Life Superheroes' aim to cut down on crime in Harrisonburg. WHSV 3 (Harrisonburg, VA).
Matthews, Scotty. Feb 1, 2018. Remember When Rochester Had it’s Own Real-Life Superhero? KROC 106.9 (Rochester, NY).
Pride, David. Dec 8, 2017. New York's Real Life Superhero. Huffington Post (New York, NY).
Ferguson, Elliot. Aug 11, 2017. Who is that masked man? Whig Standard (Toronto, ON).
Saul, Louise. June 6, 2017. We Can Be Heroes: These 15 IRL Superheroes Will Save Your Day. CBR (Saint-Laurent, Quebec).
Hassan, Chris. May 18, 2017. Anyone Can Be A Hero: An Interview With Real-Life Superhero Civitron. AIPT Comics (Somerville, MA).
Master, Julian. Aug 13, 2016. Photos of a Day in the Life of a Real-Life Superhero. Vice (Nashville, TN).
Kamen, Matt. Jul 3, 2015. London has its own real-life superhero. Wired (New York, NY).
Blake, Mike. Jan 20, 2015. Real Life Superheroes. Reuters (San Diego, CA).
The Week Staff. Jan 8, 2015. Seattle's real-life superheroes: An instant guide. The Week (Seattle, WA).
CBC News. Nov 21, 2014. Polar Man, Iqaluit’s homegrown superhero, heads south. CBC News (Toronto, ON).
Jones, Julia. Nov 14, 2014. I Spent a Night Patrolling with LightStep, Montreal’s Real-Life Superhero. Vice Canada (Nashville, TN).
WIRED. Dec 9, 2013. Chris Baker Responds to YouTubers About Kick-Ass 2 and the Real-Life Superheroes Trend. Wired (New York, NY).
Guest Writer. July 11, 2013. Interview with Real-life Superheroes – Phoenix Jones & Purple Reign! Geek Town (UK).
Veselinovic, Milena. June 20, 2013. Caped crusaders on patrol - meet the real life superheroes. CNN (Atlanta, GA).
Berben, Vanessa. Jan 8, 2013. "Real Life Superhero El Caballero: Fighting Crime, Staying Classy." Huffington Post (New York, NY).
Glionna, John M. Aug 25, 2012. Real-life masked crusaders fight crime their own way. Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA).
Harvey, Chelsea. Jul 19, 2012. Real life super-heroes prove vigilante psychology is very real. The Red & Black (Athens, GA).
Estournet, Stephanie. Dec 2, 2011. Interview With A Superhero: A Rabbi's Son Transforms Into A Masked Crusader. World Crunch (Paris, France).
Prieto, Bianca. Sept 26, 2011. Master Legend: Florida’s real-life super hero. The Seattle Times (Seattle, WA).
Wright, Olivia. Sept 22, 2011. The world could use a few more real-life superheroes. Philly Burbs (Philadelphia, PA).
Ronson, Jon. Aug 4, 2011. It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's...Some Dude?! GQ Magazine (New York, NY).
Howard, Dave. May 12, 2011. 'Real life superheroes' fighting crime in New York. BBC (London, UK).
Luschek, Mathew. Mar 29, 2011. Real Life Super Heroes on the Streets of SF. NBC Bay Area (San Francisco, CA).
Memmott, Mark. Mar 14, 2011. "DC's Guardian And Phoenix Jones: Real Life Superheroes Open Up — A Bit." NPR (Washington DC).
Duell, Mark. Mar 10, 2011. Meet 'Nyx': The 21-year-old 'Superhero' accountant who dons a black catsuit at night to patrol the streets and help the homeless. Daily Mail (London, UK).
ABC News. Jan 7, 2011. Vigilante Justice: Real Life Superheroes Fight Crime. ABC News (New York, NY).
Coxworth, Ben. Nov 8, 2010. Real-life gadgets for real-life superheroes. New Atlas (San Francisco, CA).
Packer, S. (2010). Superheroes and Superegos: Analyzing the Minds Behind the Masks. United States: ABC-CLIO.
Cohen, Ariella. Oct 1, 2009. Superhero subculture. RLSH.Net Archive (US).
AFP. Sept 22, 2009. FEATURE : Real-life ‘superheroes’ patrol streets in US. Taipei Times (Taipei, Taiwan).
France 24. Aug 13, 2009. Entomo, a real-life “superhero” in Naples. France 24, The Observers (France).
Johnson, Craig. June 4, 2009. "Amid hard times, an influx in real superheroes." CNN (New York, NY).
Pescovitz, David. Dec 29, 2008. Real life superheroes in the news. Boing Boing (Brooklyn, NY).
Bearman, Joshuah. Dec 17, 2008. The Legend of Master Legend. Rolling Stone (New York, NY).
Rubrecht, Ward. Jan 16, 2008. Superheroes in Real Life. City Pages (Minneapolis-St.Paul, MN).
Brownlee, John. May 2, 2007. Citizen Prime: Arizona's Caped Crusader. Wired (New York, NY).
Stoddard, Grant. Nov 5, 2004. The Anti-Cupid. NY Magazine (New York, NY).
Scrivener, Zoltan. Nov 1, 2004. At Last—A Real Superhero! Car and Driver (Harlan, IA).
BBC News. Sept 16, 2003. 'Superhero' takes on clampers. BBC News (London, UK).
ABC News. Nov 4, 2002. Meet the Anti-Sex in the City Superhero. ABC News (New York, NY).
Ortiz, Michelle Ray. Oct 24, 1999. Mexico’s Real-Life ‘Superheroes’ Are Caped Crusaders for Justice. Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA).
Kline, Chris. July 19, 1997. Defender of justice Superbarrio roams Mexico City. CNN (New York, NY).

White Papers

Santos, I. L. S., de Lira, Y. P. B., Braz, A. L. R., Silva, E. F. V., Camelo Oliveira, L., & Pimentel, C. E. (2025). Real life Superheroes: a pilot study of a superhero media intervention to enhance prosocialness in adolescents. Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 42(2), 226–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/20590776.2025.2499565
Possamai, A. (2024). Real Life Superheroes (RLSH) and Human Potential Ethic. In: Allison, S.T., Beggan, J.K., Goethals, G.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48129-1_393
Gavaler, C. (2023). Superheroes and Ethical Philosophy. In: Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17125-3_138-1
Meade, B., & Castle, T. (2021). “It’s What I Do that Defines Me”: Real Life Superheroes, Identity, and Vigilantism. Deviant Behavior, 43(9), 1088–1102. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2021.1953948
Iouchkov, V. (2017). 'The hero with a thousand graces': A socio-criminological examination of the 'real-life superhero' phenomenon (Order No. 10833366). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (2034372036).
Burrus, E. R. (2016). Real Life Superheroes: An Ethnographic Exploration Behind Cosplay and Politics. https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.42705
Possamai, Adam and Iouchkov, Vladislav. 2016. "An implicit hyper-real religion: real-life superheroes". Fiction, Invention and Hyper-Reality. Pages 19. 1st edition. ISBN: 9781315582283.
White, D., Szabo, M., Tiliopoulos, N., Rhodes, P., Spurrier, M., & Griffiths, S. (2016). Look Up in the Sky: Latent Content Analysis of the Real Life Superhero Community. The Qualitative Report, 21(2), 178-195. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2016.2485
Fishwick, E., & Mak, H. (2015). Fighting crime, battling injustice: The world of real-life superheroes. Crime, Media, Culture, 11(3), 335-356. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659015596110 (Original work published August 2015)
Iouchkov, V. and Birch, P. (2015), "“Masked crusader”: a case study of “crime-fighting” activities by a “real-life superhero”", Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 56-64. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRPP-05-2015-0012
Weston, G. (2012). Superheroes and comic-book vigilantes versus real-life vigilantes: an anthropological answer to the Kick-Ass paradox. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 4(2), 223–234. https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2012.682624
The Psychology of Superheroes: An Unauthorized Exploration. (2008). United Kingdom: BenBella Books.