News & White Papers
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KIRO 7 Staff. Mar 7, 2025. "Gets Real: Emerald City ‘heroes’ offer helping hand to Seattleites". KIRO 7 News (Seattle, WA).
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WGRD. Aug 14, 2024. Did You Know Michigan Used To Have Real Life Super Heroes? WGRD 97.9 (Michigan).
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Harris, Chris. May 18, 2024. NYC’s last superhero: On patrol with real-life crimefighter — the Brooklyn Devil. NY Post (New York, NY).
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Opong, Diana and Cowan, Alec. May 9, 2024. A night on patrol with Seattle's 'real-life superheroes'. KUOW (Seattle, WA).
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KIRO 7. Mar 7, 2024. GETS REAL: The real-life superheroes of Seattle. KIRO 7 (Seattle, WA).
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Kaucher, Terrell. Feb 23, 2024. "CAPTAIN STICKY THE ONLY REAL 70’s SUPER HERO". Medium (New York, NY).
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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
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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
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Heritage, Stuart. Apr 12, 2022. Who is that masked man? The real-life superhero who inspired a wild podcast. The Guardian (New York, NY).
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Sn0vvy. Mar 15, 2022. The History of Real-Life Superheroes! Medium (USA).
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Venkatesh, Vinodh. July 12, 2021. How Latin America’s protest superheroes fight injustice and climate change – and sometimes crime, too. The Conversation (Waltham, MA).
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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
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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).
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Firestone, Andrew. Sept 29, 2020. Interview: Peter Nowak Talks Philosophy of American Individualism in 'Rise of Real-Life Superheroes'. Screenrant (Montreal, Quebec, Canada).
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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).
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Beahm, Jason. Mar 21, 2019. Real Life Superhero: Is Phoenix Jones Seattle's Batman? Find Law (Eagan, MN).
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Guzzo, Paul. Sept 29, 2018. Clearwater's real-life superhero is hanging up his suit. The Ledger (Tampa Bay, FL).
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Barnett, Marina. Aug 8, 2018. Group of 'Real Life Superheroes' aim to cut down on crime in Harrisonburg. WHSV 3 (Harrisonburg, VA).
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Matthews, Scotty. Feb 1, 2018. Remember When Rochester Had it’s Own Real-Life Superhero? KROC 106.9 (Rochester, NY).
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Pride, David. Dec 8, 2017. New York's Real Life Superhero. Huffington Post (New York, NY).
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Ferguson, Elliot. Aug 11, 2017. Who is that masked man? Whig Standard (Toronto, ON).
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Saul, Louise. June 6, 2017. We Can Be Heroes: These 15 IRL Superheroes Will Save Your Day. CBR (Saint-Laurent, Quebec).
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Hassan, Chris. May 18, 2017. Anyone Can Be A Hero: An Interview With Real-Life Superhero Civitron. AIPT Comics (Somerville, MA).
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Master, Julian. Aug 13, 2016. Photos of a Day in the Life of a Real-Life Superhero. Vice (Nashville, TN).
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Burrus, E. R. (2016). Real Life Superheroes: An Ethnographic Exploration Behind Cosplay and Politics. https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.42705
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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.
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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
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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)
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Kamen, Matt. Jul 3, 2015. London has its own real-life superhero. Wired (New York, NY).
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Blake, Mike. Jan 20, 2015. Real Life Superheroes. Reuters (San Diego, CA).
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The Week Staff. Jan 8, 2015. Seattle's real-life superheroes: An instant guide. The Week (Seattle, WA).
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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
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CBC News. Nov 21, 2014. Polar Man, Iqaluit’s homegrown superhero, heads south. CBC News (Toronto, ON).
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Jones, Julia. Nov 14, 2014. I Spent a Night Patrolling with LightStep, Montreal’s Real-Life Superhero. Vice Canada (Nashville, TN).
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WIRED. Dec 9, 2013. Chris Baker Responds to YouTubers About Kick-Ass 2 and the Real-Life Superheroes Trend. Wired (New York, NY).
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Guest Writer. July 11, 2013. Interview with Real-life Superheroes – Phoenix Jones & Purple Reign! Geek Town (UK).
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Veselinovic, Milena. June 20, 2013. Caped crusaders on patrol - meet the real life superheroes. CNN (Atlanta, GA).
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Glionna, John M. Aug 25, 2012. Real-life masked crusaders fight crime their own way. Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA).
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Harvey, Chelsea. Jul 19, 2012. Real life super-heroes prove vigilante psychology is very real. The Red & Black (Athens, GA).
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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
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Estournet, Stephanie. Dec 2, 2011. Interview With A Superhero: A Rabbi's Son Transforms Into A Masked Crusader. World Crunch (Paris, France).
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Prieto, Bianca. Sept 26, 2011. Master Legend: Florida’s real-life super hero. The Seattle Times (Seattle, WA).
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Wright, Olivia. Sept 22, 2011. The world could use a few more real-life superheroes. Philly Burbs (Philadelphia, PA).
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Ronson, Jon. Aug 4, 2011. It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's...Some Dude?! GQ Magazine (New York, NY).
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Howard, Dave. May 12, 2011. 'Real life superheroes' fighting crime in New York. BBC (London, UK).
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Luschek, Mathew. Mar 29, 2011. Real Life Super Heroes on the Streets of SF. NBC Bay Area (San Francisco, CA).
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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).
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ABC News. Jan 7, 2011. Vigilante Justice: Real Life Superheroes Fight Crime. ABC News (New York, NY).
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Coxworth, Ben. Nov 8, 2010. Real-life gadgets for real-life superheroes. New Atlas (San Francisco, CA).
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Packer, S. (2010). Superheroes and Superegos: Analyzing the Minds Behind the Masks. United States: ABC-CLIO.
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Cohen, Ariella. Oct 1, 2009. Superhero subculture. RLSH.Net Archive (US).
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AFP. Sept 22, 2009. FEATURE : Real-life ‘superheroes’ patrol streets in US. Taipei Times (Taipei, Taiwan).
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France 24. Aug 13, 2009. Entomo, a real-life “superhero” in Naples. France 24, The Observers (France).
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Pescovitz, David. Dec 29, 2008. Real life superheroes in the news. Boing Boing (Brooklyn, NY).
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Bearman, Joshuah. Dec 17, 2008. The Legend of Master Legend. Rolling Stone (New York, NY).
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Rubrecht, Ward. Jan 16, 2008. Superheroes in Real Life. City Pages (Minneapolis-St.Paul, MN).
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The Psychology of Superheroes: An Unauthorized Exploration. (2008). United Kingdom: BenBella Books.
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Brownlee, John. May 2, 2007. Citizen Prime: Arizona's Caped Crusader. Wired (New York, NY).
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Stoddard, Grant. Nov 5, 2004. The Anti-Cupid. NY Magazine (New York, NY).
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Scrivener, Zoltan. Nov 1, 2004. At Last—A Real Superhero! Car and Driver (Harlan, IA).
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BBC News. Sept 16, 2003. 'Superhero' takes on clampers. BBC News (London, UK).
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ABC News. Nov 4, 2002. Meet the Anti-Sex in the City Superhero. ABC News (New York, NY).
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Ortiz, Michelle Ray. Oct 24, 1999. Mexico’s Real-Life ‘Superheroes’ Are Caped Crusaders for Justice. Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA).
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Kline, Chris. July 19, 1997. Defender of justice Superbarrio roams Mexico City. CNN (New York, NY).