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.

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.

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.

Night Bug (far left) and Rock N. Roll (far right) of the CAI with Good Samaritan, a RLSH from the LA area

Rock N. Roll in action leading a free women's self defense class

San Fran Media Blitz...

...AND A SF RLSH ON THE RUN

By now, I think the readers of Heroes in the Night know how this shakes down- one media outlet goes "Hey! We got superheroes here!" and then the rest of the local press dog piles on.

We had a fair media blitz here in Milwaukee in October/ November last year. New York City/ New Jersey is a perennial favorite. London has pretty "keen" on the story the last couple of months. An of course Phoenix Jones has Energize Bunny'd the Seattle media since November.

Even smaller towns have had mini blitzes--consider for example the Bar Harbor Batman or the Viper.

Next up looks like San Francisco.

It starts with an article in a publication called The Bold Italic by Justin Juul titled "San Francisco Bay Guardians" in which the author follows around Motor-Mouth, Night Bug, Justified, and Kingsnake. Juul has a humorous and frank take on the story, dressing up as a RLSH himself ("Nightman") for a patrol and sharing the ups and downs of being on street level. The lay out of the article is pretty spectacular- it includes several illustrations of an artist's interpretation of RLSHs and a video at the end.
You can find the article here:
thebolditalic.com/JustinJuul/stories/777-san-francisco-bay-guardians

The story was then picked up by the local NBC affiliate and a website called SFist.

My only complaint is that two out of three of these sources have one very major fact wrong- they claim RLSHs were born because of Kick-Ass in 2008. That is completely false. As my well informed readers know, the term Real Life Superhero can be dated back to the 1980 secret superhero manual "How to be a Superhero," penned by the mysterious Night Rider. Other prototypes existed before him. The more modern incarnation of the RLSH began to develop in 2005-2006.

HELLPOOL ON THE RUN

Also related, this breaking news out of San Francisco: Motor-Mouth claims that his former team mate, Hellpool (formerly Hellhound), not only swiped half his name and his aesthetics from comic book character Deadpool, but engaged in actual thievery as well. Heroes in the Night did a Hero Profile on Hellpool back in early September HERE.

In a bulletin titled "RLSH WARNING ABOUT THE RLSH KNOWN AS HELLPOOL" Motor Mouth warns:

"So it was brought to my attention on Saturday by a fellow Californian RLSH that Hellpool, my former teammate, is city hopping (currently in San Diego). To give all of you fair warning, he is NOT to be trusted. He is wanted for a burglary case in San Francisco besides having a lengthy rap-sheet from Oregon to California (a journalist I know & trust investigated that via the SFPD). Again, he is nothing more then a con-man & is NOT to be trusted."

Motor Mouth also added to me in an e-mail: "(Someone)did some digging into Hellpool and discovered that he is indeed wanted by the SFPD. Any RLSH's doing work with him are for sure putting themselves at risk, both legally & reputation wise."

HERO PROFILE #65: Night Bug

[Introducing: X-ALTS]

Operates out of: Oakland, CA

Team affiliation: CAI

Activities: Patrolling, crime fighting

Quote: "Another näive hopeful X-ALT, trying to bring some sanity and peace to an insane, violent world."

Author's notes: In yesterday's write up, "Introducing X-ALTS," we explored a new, alternate term for "Real Life Superheroes," a term that was suggested by Night Bug.