April 5, 2022 • 34 mins
Welcome to the world of real life superheroes - ordinary people who put on outrageous costumes and head out to fight crime. Journalist David Weinberg sets out to uncover the truth about Seattle’s masked crusader, Phoenix Jones.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Novel. One Night in two thousand and eleven, a guy
named Dan was walking through a parking lot downtown Seattle
when he came upon a menacing looking dude trying to
break into a car. Dan pulled out his phone to call,
(00:29):
but before he could reach the police, something totally insane happened.
From the right. This guy comes dashing in wearing this
skin tight rubber, black and golden suit and starts chasing
him away. Dan isn't the only one to have a
(00:58):
chance encounter like this. Around two thousand and nine, the
rumors started to spread stories of a masked vigilante jumping
out of the shadows to help the citizens of Seattle.
People kept seeing this masked man patrolling the streets at night.
One person said he stopped a mugging. Someone else caught
a glimpse of him sprinting through the backstreets downtown. Rumor
(01:19):
had it he even stopped a terrorist attack. The accounts
all said he was tall and pretty ripped. He wore
a hooded rubber mask that covered his eyes like the
batman cowl. He had black gloves and a black chest
plate molded into a six pack with a gold chevron
across the chest and an American flag on his bicond.
(01:42):
When Dan tried to tell his friends about what happened
the night he witnessed the attempted car breaking, they were skeptical.
People are saying, no way, dude, no way. They're like, oh,
you were probably drunk. But Dan wasn't drunk. Well, maybe
he was, but what he saw was real. The rooms
were true. There was a dark knight out there patrolling
(02:05):
the streets of Seattle, and he called himself Phoenix Jones.
An ordinary citizen becomes a dark knight known as Phoenix Jones,
self appointed crusader, Phoenix Jones, Phoenix Jones, Phoenix Jones, Phoenix Jones,
Phoenix Jones. A real life superhero. Superman can fly, Batman
has his gadgets, Spider Man has his webs and super
(02:27):
sharp senses, and then there's Phoenix Jones. Maybe not quite Superman,
but an extraordinary one. Real life superheroes are people who,
inspired by comic book characters, create their own superhero persona,
make their own costume, sometimes weapons, and then head out
(02:49):
into the streets to fight crime in the real world.
And Phoenix Jones at his peak, was the most famous
of all the real life superheroes. His goal was to
strike fear into the hearts of Seattle's criminals, but in
it was Phoenix who was led away in handcuffs, caught
with four grams of suspected cocaine. So how did Seattle's
(03:18):
greatest independent crime fighter end up getting busted on drug charges? Well,
it depends on who you believe. Phoenix says he's the
victim of a corrupt and ineffective police department that snagged
him in a classic case of entrapman and the police,
while they have their own version of the story. So
(03:38):
what exactly is real and the world of real life superheroes.
Is Phoenix Jones a shining example of a brave citizen
fighting for justice? Or is he a misguided vigilante who
used a superhero persona to disguise his own criminal activity.
(03:59):
I'm going to take inside the world of real life
superheroes as I try to answer these questions. Along the way,
there will be danger and heartbreak, friendship and betrayal, and
of course all the elements you would find in any
story about criminals, drugs and violence, and a good chase
scene here and there. And maybe, if you're like me,
(04:21):
you'll come out on the other side of this adventure,
with a deeper understanding of these people who are often
treated as a joke. Going into this story, I never
thought I would identify with the type of person who
puts on a homemade suit and claims to be a superhero.
It's hard to take someone like that seriously. It's much
easier to dismiss them as crazy or naive. But now
(04:44):
that I've gotten to know some of the men and
women who call themselves real life superheroes, I'm starting to
think maybe it's the other way around. Maybe we should
question our beliefs about who the real heroes are. I'm
David Weinberg and from the team's at Novel and I
heart Radio. This is the Superhero Complex, Episode one out
(05:08):
of the Shadows. I can only imagine what it must
have been like for those lucky few people in the
(05:29):
midst of distress who were suddenly saved by a real
life superhero. And just like in the movies, the police
and the citizens of Seattle wanted to know who is
this masked crusader chasing down bad guys in the streets.
Phoenix broke up a brawl and one of the guys
churned on him. Phoenix called, put the guy in a hold,
(05:52):
and waited for police to arrive. What the police saw
when they arrived was a guy who looked a lot
like Batman. Phoenix clearly put a lot of work into
his costume. By the way, he hates it when you
call his superhero get up a costume. I find it offensive,
like ridiculous. Phoenix prefers the term super suit. It's bulletproof,
(06:13):
it can't be lit on fire. It has a heart
sensor monitor in it. It's connected to fucking WiFi. If
someone calls Phoenix, it connects to a headset in his helmet.
My suit does its job. It's made of de three
oh non Anttonian fluid. That means it's soft to touch,
but it gets harder when you hit it with force.
My suit is so awesome that the government of Seattle
said I couldn't wear it anymore because it gave me
too much protection if they decided they wanted to get me.
(06:36):
Before long, Phoenix became a local celebrity. Several nights a
week he carried out patrols of downtown Seattle, where he'd
searched for criminals to apprehend or those in need, and
people came up to him and asked for photos. Reporters
flew in from all over the world to interview him.
Writer and broadcaster John Ronson even did a profile of
(06:57):
him for g Q. Phoenix cent go to Bowtown to
break up a kind of crack deals. There was about
five or six different groups of crack dealis on different
street corners, and they came back and walked towards us,
and Phoenix said, are we standing? Are we leaving? They
(07:17):
all said was standing. It helped that Phoenix had something
the other superheroes and the comic books didn't. His own
media strategy. He filmed his exploits and posted the videos online.
He even added his own commentary, All douchebags depicted in
these videos are innocent until proven guilty in a court
of law. One thing's for sure, it's fun as hell
(07:40):
to watch videos of Phoenix taking down bad guys. One
of my favorites is a video titled Phoenix Jones versus
Helicopter Dick, which is a surprisingly accurate description of what
went down that night. Phoenix rolls up to a bar
where something bad is clearly going down. According to a
caption in the video, a guy has exposed himself to
(08:02):
some women at the bar, and then attacked a bouncer,
and Phoenix is talking to the bouncer While they're chatting,
the suspect appears, pulls his dick out again and starts
twirling it while yelling Helicopter Dick. Phoenix rushes over and
grabs the guy by the ear like an angry father
disciplining his kid, and drags him down the sidewalk until
(08:24):
someone steps in and pulls them apart, but Helicopter Dick,
who's clearly drunk, lunges at Phoenix. Phoenix takes a step
back and says to the guy, if you do that again,
I will pepper spray. Eventually, the police come and cuff
Propeller Phenis and load him into the back of a
squad car, while Phoenix has a quick chat with one
(08:45):
of the officers, telling him that he has the whole
thing on video and can hand it over to them
for evidence. Phoenix says, when you start showing your drunk
two girls, that's a different kind of sick and you
end up in a police car. He signs off with
his signature raised have a good night and I'll see
you in the streets. Not all the videos that Phoenix
(09:08):
posts are about crime fighting. Sometimes he makes videos hyping
himself up. You want to blaze now, man, I'm already
blazing blaze an attractive son. Wow, got my gold spiny
glue boots on? How could you beat that? Wasna? Yeah? Man, seriously,
I make Elton John looks straight right now. That's the
sub he gets vulnerable. I wanted to be a superhero
(09:29):
my whole life. The first year fighting crime, I was arrested.
I've been shot, I've been stabbed. So many bad things
happened to me for something that I believed in. And
this is real as it gets. He buys ice cream
for kids. The ice cream Shucks showed up in my neighborhood,
so I bought all the kids ice cream because I'm
rich now so I can do crazy things. And even
(09:51):
if he is the self proclaimed greatest living superhero and
a model of perfection, he still likes to sing in
the car like us Mortal Superman, god Man. I'm only one,
and it seems that being a superhero comes with perks.
(10:14):
He's landed several sponsorship deals with local health and fitness brands.
After a hard workout, it's pretty much only long thing
that your boy needs and thank god they gave me
the Secret Souls epic smoothie Baby. He even got invited
on a press tour to England to promote a new
model of cell phone. Phoenix became a sensation. He seemed
(10:37):
to tap into people's mistrust of the institutions that are
supposed to keep us safe. But long before his drug charges,
Phoenix Jones was not popular with Seattle's law enforcement. In
one video, Phoenix comes across a bartender on the street
who says a guy assaulted him. Phoenix sees the suspect
in a bloody shirt outside the bark. Don't give me
(11:01):
a nine one one call police, thank you, and Chase ensues.
The suspect hides in the back of a truck and
Phoenix and his sidekick pretend that they don't know where
he is while they call the police. But when the
police arrive on the scene, they see more piste off
at Phoenix than the alleged criminal. Um gonna talk to me,
(11:26):
Phoenix tells the police, Yes, video, that would be useful evidence,
but we have to give you a statement in our video,
and they don't seem interested. Well, could I could? I
could have an Internet number, though, please, because I'd like
to file all my stuff. No, it's gonna work. The
video stops. Text appears on the screen, which criticizes the
(11:49):
Seattle Police for their incompetence and says that Phoenix is
going to file a formal complaint. It ends, quote, it
is the job of the police to arrest and investigates
suspected criminals. Your feelings about my protective outfit and your
politics should not impair your legal obligation to the people. Sincerely,
(12:11):
Phoenix Jones. This scenario plays out time and time again
on Phoenix's YouTube channel. Whenever he encounters a criminal, he
detains them, calls one, and waits for the police to
arrive on the scene, the same police that he says
are about to get him. I've been arrested a hundred
(12:32):
eighteen times. I've only had four charges ever stick, and
none of the charges of the Phoenix Jones have ever
stuck because I'm flawless at that job. The police have
repeatedly told Phoenix to leave the crime fighting to them.
Unless you are the victim of a crime, you are
not allowed to corner somebody holds somebody. You cannot do
that because then it becomes a crime where you are
(12:55):
the suspect. And they have also taken to the media
to discourage copycat superheroes. Well, they say it's not illegal
to dress up and calls him and patrol, but they're
asking the superheroes to just call nine. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the
dislike between the police and Phoenix is mutual. The police
are just a gang man. I mean, I hate to
(13:17):
be like that, but they're a gang. And then people
are gonna get mad at me for this, but that's
because you're stupid. As Phoenix got more famous, the tension
between him and the police escalated. When it finally boiled over,
it's spilled out of the superhero world and into his
civilian life with disastrous consequences. But we'll get to all
that later. First we've got to meet Phoenix's superhero ancestors.
(13:43):
That's coming up. Phoenix Jones was not the first person
to dawn a mask an attempt to become a real superhero,
but it's hard to know for sure who the first
(14:03):
the original real life superhero was. Some say it was
Master Legend, and that's a lesson for all those people
who like to abuse little kids. In the nineties, he
was a fixture on the streets of New Orleans, handing
out water to the homeless in a cape and stormtrooper
vest with long hair sticking out from under an old
(14:24):
army helmet. And he's still at it today in Florida,
though his methods are questionable. Here he is shooting eggs
out of a cannon he made out of PBC pipe
and spray painted silver. Master Legend hard boil the eggs.
There there it is the yep splattered. He's one of
(14:45):
the only real life superheroes who claims to have supernatural powers,
super strength, speed, and the ability to see the future.
There's even a TV show about his life, The Legend
of Master Legend. Who are you? I'm Master Legend. I'm
a real life superhero registered in two counties. I love
(15:14):
Master Legend, but the idea that he fights crime was
beer gut and goofy outfit does seem a bit preposterous,
more like a piece of performance art than an effective
crime fighter. And before Master Legend was Master Legend, there
was Willie Perry, a k a. The Birmingham Batman. Willie
(15:37):
drove around Birmingham, Alabama, and a souped up nine thunderbird
with a Batman license plate and rescue ship painted on
the hood. Mostly he focused on helping stranded motorists car
he'll flitch out, I didn't. He was fair and I
was stranded. I was only how me and my kids
who won't stopped to him, And along came It's strange
(16:00):
m And in nineteen sixty Chicago, a school teacher called
Jim Phillips called himself the Fox. It said that he
took his name from the Fox River, which runs through
northern Illinois west of Chicago. He defended his community against
(16:20):
the heartless corporations that were dumping toxic waste into rivers.
His calling card was a note signed with a fox
face and the place of the letter Oh. Legend has
it he'd canoe down the river to put caps on
drainage pipes that were releasing pollutants into the water. Once
he even dumped fifty pounds of sewage from Lake Michigan
(16:41):
into the office of the company responsible for its sort
of one man guerrilla force against pollution. He has become
a local hero sorts. And then there are groups like
the Guardian Angels, a nonprofit started in New York City
in nineteen seventy nine by Curtis Sliwa, who recently ran
(17:02):
from mayor of New York City. We are going to
do what we can in a nonviolent way, without having
any weapons available to us whatsoever, to curb this violent
crime that is on a continuous round page. The Guardian
Angels started by patrolling the subway in New York, a
bit like Phoenix Jones on the streets of Seattle, and
their numbers grew. Today there are thousands of members spread
(17:25):
out in chapters around the country. Also like Phoenix, the
Guardian Angels prided themselves on their ability to stop crime
without carrying guns, but there are lots of examples of
groups who did arm themselves, like the Minutemen, for example.
A few different groups using that name have been around
since the early two thousands, and they execute armed border
(17:48):
patrols looking for undocumented immigrants. They named themselves after the
civilian militia groups who fought during the American Revolutionary War.
Robert Crook's sixty seven year old retire reef less Vegas
patrols the US Mexican border and treks what he calls
invaders and enemies of the United States of America did
(18:08):
not come in this way and if they do, I'll
be your wait for watching. And long before any of
these groups, there was the Bald Knaubers, this group that
wore masks and executed vigilante justice in the wild West. T.
(18:30):
Crulos is the author of the book Heroes in the
Night Inside the real life superhero Movement. I put a
research into any sort of vigilante movement that I thought
might be sort of a president for the real life superheroes.
The Bald Nabbers dispensed vigilante justice in Missouri from nine.
(18:55):
They took their name from a mountaintop where they met.
Their leader was a bar owner named Nathaniel and Kenny.
They wore soup coats backwards and donned homemade masks with
devil horns protruding from the top and red and white
stitching around their eyes and mouth. It must have been
a terrifying sight to see them tearing across the plains
(19:16):
on horseback with their whips in hand, looking to kill
suspected horse thieves. Each member of the group lived by
this oath. Our purpose is to punish the evil doer
among us. The courts have failed us, we administer punishment
to those the arm of the law cannot or will
(19:36):
not reach in doing this, we do not break the
law because we have no evil intent. So they started
out by, you know, hanging people that were cattle thieves
or stuff like that. But as their rain sort of
went on, they became a little bit more petty, like
you could be visited by the Bald Knobbers and whipped
(19:59):
if you were accused of being ordinary. And it wasn't
just people with an irritable disposition that the Knobbers went after.
Back then, many of the poorer couples in the community
couldn't afford to pay marriage license fees, so they were
technically not married, but lived together as though they were.
The bald Knobbers believed these unwed couples were living in sin,
(20:21):
and so they went around beating them. One day, some
of the Knobbers set out to kill a man who
criticized them. They ended up killing two of his family
members in a shootout, and they were jailed. Their leader
was also killed, and, as Crulos writes in his book,
the condemned Knobbers were hung on a poorly constructed gallows
(20:41):
in a scene described as gruesome. The knobbers feet dragged
on the ground as they writhed in pain. The gallows
were quickly fixed and the knobbers were hung again. It's
kind of an example of vigilanteism that spun out control.
(21:04):
One of the main arguments I've heard people make against
the real life superhero movement is that they are nothing
more than modern day bald knobbers, vigilantes, people who take
the law into their own hands. But Phoenix and the
other real life superheroes I've met don't consider themselves vigilantes
because when they apprehend a criminal, they immediately call and
(21:28):
hand them over to the police so they can be
prosecuted within the legal system. In fact, Phoenix argues that
it's the police, not superheroes like him, that act like
they're above the law. It's one of the reasons he's
not a fan of the cops. The job for the
police union is to make sure the police officers do
not get in trouble, right, they have the inner policing system.
(21:50):
All the inner policing system is run by police. There's
no outside accountability in the police department at all. There
are lots of examples throughout American history where the police
have often been protected from punishment by the very system
that is supposed to keep them in check. So where
does that leave Phoenix Jones. Well, it's complicated. He relies
(22:13):
on the police to complete the work he started, but
he despises the way they do their job. Phoenix isn't
alone in his standoff with the cops though, After all,
what's a superhero without sidekicks? That's coming up, you know how.
(22:41):
In the Batman series, Commissioner Gordon shined a giant bat
chick spotlight into the sky whenever a hero was needed
to save Gotham City the bat signal. Well, Phoenix Jones
never had one of those, but his rise to fame
turned him into the human uivalent of that call to action.
(23:02):
Because as news stories about Phoenix spread around the world
of him stopping car thieves and breaking up street fights,
regular citizens were inspired to join him in his fight
against evildoers, and before long, Phoenix had a crew of
masked Avengers who fought crime by his side. Together, this
band of ragtag heroes, former soldiers, reformed criminals, aspiring activists,
(23:27):
and medics all patrolled the streets of Seattle under the
leadership of Phoenix, striking fear into the heart of Seattle's
criminal underworld. They called themselves the rain City Superheroes, and
the media ate it up. Brain City superhero crime fighting movement,
life superhero live superheroes, real life superheroes, Digilanni crime stoppers
(23:51):
in Seattle, the Patrol Seattle, looking for crime, prepared to
fight it? Are they for real? To find find out
more about Phoenix, I needed to speak to the one
group of people who knew his crime fighting days better
than anyone else. Shirt left. When you watch any video
(24:13):
of the rain City Superheroes on Patrol, it's easy to
see where they got so much media coverage. They are
a spectacle. Phoenix wears his black and gold super suit
and he does look like a superhero from a movie,
but the rest of the crew looks a lot more.
How can I put this without sounding mean ridiculous. There's
(24:35):
Midnight Jack, who claims to be a former gang member
with a new set of skills charity outreach, homeless hand out,
animal rescue, and pedophile investigations. He's wearing regular street clothes,
black cargo pants and a black and gray fleece and
a black spiderman mask, basically the kind of kid would
wear on Halloween. There's Ghost, a veteran who joined Phoenix's
(24:58):
band of crime fighters after returning from a tour of
duty in Iraq. I put on my white bandana for
the first time and someone tried to stab someone else
and I did a palm strike right in their diaphragm.
They collapsed, and then I was ghost. He looks like
a waiter who just got off work. He's wearing black
slacks and a white button down collared shirt and a
black ski mask. There's Phoenix's girlfriend, Purple Rain. She's wearing
(25:25):
a cross between a leather jacket and purple spandex, with
a black leather beret and a purple mask that looks
like the one that's Scorpion from Mortal Kombat wears. I
helped up from the sidelines, kind of behind the scenes,
and then it was only a matter of time before
I took on a mouth with my own. There's Evocatus,
another war van. He's in black motorcycle leathers and a
(25:45):
silver mask that covers his entire head. He looks like
a cross between a medieval night and a member of
daft punk. At least once a week, ups, are you
a cop? And just like, why what cop do you
know that? Looks like this but okay. And then there's
Phoenix's best friend and right hand man. Uh, my name
(26:08):
is El Caballero. About protection and safety from human beings.
L Caballero looks like a cross between seventies era Hugh
Hefner and a Mexican luchador. He wears a purple top
that straddles the line between cape and vest. It has
a purple fur collar and giant fur covered cuffs and
(26:30):
a gold embroidered dragon on the back. And he's wearing
black bell bottoms with a tactical belt similar to Batman's.
And to top it all off, a red and purple
sequined lucid or a mask with some sort of pyramid
looking emblem that he's sewed onto the forehead. This is
the camera guy. You make sure he does not get punched.
(26:51):
It is very hard not to laugh out loud when
you see them together. You should be lookout. The video
footage of their patrol has the feel of a mockumentary
about nerds who think they are warriors, and this is
pretty typical of the type of media coverage that the
rain City superheroes got at the peak of their fame.
A mix of look at these goofballs and a heartwarming
(27:14):
snapshot of some passionate do gooders. And while it is
easy to mock them, you can see in the videos
of their patrols that Phoenix and his crew are actually
doing good in their community. They help stranded motorists and
make sure drunk people get home safe. Are you a cap?
Did you get my friends a ride? Back? Down? Here?
(27:34):
They administer first aid to the injured, and sometimes they
save lives. A man was getting violent with security at
a nightclub. He proceeded to get violent with me and
my group of friends. Here's a clip from the daytime
talk show Life Changers hosted by Dr Drew featuring a
guy named Fabio who says that Phoenix saved his life.
Phoenix ran in and Pepper spread the guy and diffuse
(27:57):
the entire situation. Dr Drew then turns to Phoenix and
Purple Rain, who are seated on stage and their superhero suits.
How did you hear about it? Had you? We have
eaten dinner in the restaurant or you know? Most situations
aren't like this one. I happened to be on top
of the parking garage across the street and I saw
the thing. That thing happened, and I was able to
There's like a little pole and I was able to
(28:18):
jump from the top should be the pole down and
get into the situation, racing over rooftops, descending drain pipes,
icing bad guys. The rain Ceedy Heroes had a good
run from They were a fixture of downtown Seattle. They
were local celebrities, but a lot of the media coverage
(28:38):
felt like it was laughing at them rather than with them.
But it also legitimized them. They formed the type of
bond that comes from being in the foxhole together, risking
their lives for a righteous cause. But it didn't last,
and when things went wrong, it seems to have started
(28:59):
Phoenix's down all. Maybe the group's demise was inevitable given
Phoenix's belief that he is the only one who is
a real superhero. I'm not a part of that group
at all. Like me, I'm a crime fighter. I'm a
mass adventurer. That's what I do. You know what I mean.
(29:19):
You guys are playing superhero. I am a superhero. I'm
the world's first legally defined superhero. It's in legal documents.
The FBI has me as a superhero I'm not playing
a game. You guys got dressed up. I put on
my uniform. It's different. I tried to verify Phoenix's claim,
(29:42):
but when I asked the FBI about this, they said,
the FBI does not provide endorsements. There's no single moment
in time you can point to and say this was
the day the rain City Superhero Movement died. Each member
of the team had their own reasons for quitting, but
(30:02):
they all blame Phoenix in one way or another. Here's
Midnight Jack. Phoenix Jones was so hooked on the attention.
It was so hooked on the media following and the
celebrity status and things like that that it it was
a problem, which kind of led to a lot of
us kind of losing respect for him and uh and
(30:25):
wanting to be disassociated from things. Um. Admittedly I was
the last person to leave him, but you know, I mean,
when you're in a cult, you don't necessarily understand you're
in a cult. And and that's really what rain City
was at the end, was a cult. Midnight Jack was
not the only one referred to the rain City Superhero
Movement as a cult. Here's Evocatus. There's one person in
(30:47):
charge fundamentally, for better or for worse. If you see
anything that challenges this person, it all falls apart. If
you question it or ask for further clarification or anything
you say, it all falls apart and you were ostracized.
It's cult like in the we had a cult leader.
I guess today none of the rain City superheroes who
(31:09):
I spoke to are on good terms with Phoenix. I
think Phoenix Jones sociopath is what. I think he's a
master gas lighter. I think Phoenix Jones is a liar.
He pawned a bunch of team equipment for drugs. Dude,
this this is the mafia. This is this is what
a mafia does. At first, the rain City superheroes were
(31:32):
inspired by Phoenix, and they were willing to risk their
lives because they believed in his mission. But over time
they came to see Phoenix Jones as less than a
hero and more of a fraud. So how did it
all go so wrong? How did the world's greatest real
life superhero fall so spectacularly from grace, alienated from his
(31:56):
crime fighting friends, A defender of justice who you is
to chase down drug dealers, but ended up pleading guilty
to a drug charge. Over the course of the last year,
I've spent a good amount of time with real life superheroes.
I've patrolled the streets with them, seeing firsthand with their
version of crime fighting looks like, and I've gotten to
(32:18):
know the people behind the masks. I have to say,
it's been a wild ride and disorienting. At times, I've
been convinced that Phoenix Jones is an egomaniac who uses
his superhero persona as a means to enrich himself. Other times,
I've felt that Phoenix is the only sane person in
(32:40):
a society that has lost its goddamn mind. Everyone in
Phoenix's orbit has their own version of what happened. Each
of them is the hero of their own story. Honestly,
I'm still trying to make sense of it all. You
never know what anyone says. It's true, ever, right? You
should always know that. So what do you say? We've
fire her up the old batmobile, take it for a spin.
(33:03):
We've got a lot of superheroes to meet and the
truth to uncover. Oh and I forgot to mention the
real life supervillains, So you better bring your grappling hook
because we might get into some sticky situations. The Superhero
(33:28):
Complex is hosted and written by Me, David Weinberg and
reported by Me, Amalia Sortland and Caroline Thornham. Production from
Mamalia Shortland and Caroline Thornham. Sean Glenn, Max O'Brien and
David Waters are executive producers. Fact checking by Andrew Schwartz.
Production management from Sharie Houston, Frankie Taylor and Charlotte Wolf.
(33:48):
Sound design, mixing and scoring by Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempson.
Music supervision by Nicholas Alexander and David Waters. Original music
is composed by Paul How's It Special thanks to Peter Tangan,
the Unplanned America Team, Willard Foxton, Matt O'Mara, Katrina Norvelle
Beth and Macaluso, Rin Rosenbaum, Shelby Shenkman, and all the
(34:12):
team at U t A. For more from novel, visit
novel dot Audio
Novel. One Night in two thousand and eleven, a guy
named Dan was walking through a parking lot downtown Seattle
when he came upon a menacing looking dude trying to
break into a car. Dan pulled out his phone to call,
(00:29):
but before he could reach the police, something totally insane happened.
From the right. This guy comes dashing in wearing this
skin tight rubber, black and golden suit and starts chasing
him away. Dan isn't the only one to have a
(00:58):
chance encounter like this. Around two thousand and nine, the
rumors started to spread stories of a masked vigilante jumping
out of the shadows to help the citizens of Seattle.
People kept seeing this masked man patrolling the streets at night.
One person said he stopped a mugging. Someone else caught
a glimpse of him sprinting through the backstreets downtown. Rumor
(01:19):
had it he even stopped a terrorist attack. The accounts
all said he was tall and pretty ripped. He wore
a hooded rubber mask that covered his eyes like the
batman cowl. He had black gloves and a black chest
plate molded into a six pack with a gold chevron
across the chest and an American flag on his bicond.
(01:42):
When Dan tried to tell his friends about what happened
the night he witnessed the attempted car breaking, they were skeptical.
People are saying, no way, dude, no way. They're like, oh,
you were probably drunk. But Dan wasn't drunk. Well, maybe
he was, but what he saw was real. The rooms
were true. There was a dark knight out there patrolling
(02:05):
the streets of Seattle, and he called himself Phoenix Jones.
An ordinary citizen becomes a dark knight known as Phoenix Jones,
self appointed crusader, Phoenix Jones, Phoenix Jones, Phoenix Jones, Phoenix Jones,
Phoenix Jones. A real life superhero. Superman can fly, Batman
has his gadgets, Spider Man has his webs and super
(02:27):
sharp senses, and then there's Phoenix Jones. Maybe not quite Superman,
but an extraordinary one. Real life superheroes are people who,
inspired by comic book characters, create their own superhero persona,
make their own costume, sometimes weapons, and then head out
(02:49):
into the streets to fight crime in the real world.
And Phoenix Jones at his peak, was the most famous
of all the real life superheroes. His goal was to
strike fear into the hearts of Seattle's criminals, but in
it was Phoenix who was led away in handcuffs, caught
with four grams of suspected cocaine. So how did Seattle's
(03:18):
greatest independent crime fighter end up getting busted on drug charges? Well,
it depends on who you believe. Phoenix says he's the
victim of a corrupt and ineffective police department that snagged
him in a classic case of entrapman and the police,
while they have their own version of the story. So
(03:38):
what exactly is real and the world of real life superheroes.
Is Phoenix Jones a shining example of a brave citizen
fighting for justice? Or is he a misguided vigilante who
used a superhero persona to disguise his own criminal activity.
(03:59):
I'm going to take inside the world of real life
superheroes as I try to answer these questions. Along the way,
there will be danger and heartbreak, friendship and betrayal, and
of course all the elements you would find in any
story about criminals, drugs and violence, and a good chase
scene here and there. And maybe, if you're like me,
(04:21):
you'll come out on the other side of this adventure,
with a deeper understanding of these people who are often
treated as a joke. Going into this story, I never
thought I would identify with the type of person who
puts on a homemade suit and claims to be a superhero.
It's hard to take someone like that seriously. It's much
easier to dismiss them as crazy or naive. But now
(04:44):
that I've gotten to know some of the men and
women who call themselves real life superheroes, I'm starting to
think maybe it's the other way around. Maybe we should
question our beliefs about who the real heroes are. I'm
David Weinberg and from the team's at Novel and I
heart Radio. This is the Superhero Complex, Episode one out
(05:08):
of the Shadows. I can only imagine what it must
have been like for those lucky few people in the
(05:29):
midst of distress who were suddenly saved by a real
life superhero. And just like in the movies, the police
and the citizens of Seattle wanted to know who is
this masked crusader chasing down bad guys in the streets.
Phoenix broke up a brawl and one of the guys
churned on him. Phoenix called, put the guy in a hold,
(05:52):
and waited for police to arrive. What the police saw
when they arrived was a guy who looked a lot
like Batman. Phoenix clearly put a lot of work into
his costume. By the way, he hates it when you
call his superhero get up a costume. I find it offensive,
like ridiculous. Phoenix prefers the term super suit. It's bulletproof,
(06:13):
it can't be lit on fire. It has a heart
sensor monitor in it. It's connected to fucking WiFi. If
someone calls Phoenix, it connects to a headset in his helmet.
My suit does its job. It's made of de three
oh non Anttonian fluid. That means it's soft to touch,
but it gets harder when you hit it with force.
My suit is so awesome that the government of Seattle
said I couldn't wear it anymore because it gave me
too much protection if they decided they wanted to get me.
(06:36):
Before long, Phoenix became a local celebrity. Several nights a
week he carried out patrols of downtown Seattle, where he'd
searched for criminals to apprehend or those in need, and
people came up to him and asked for photos. Reporters
flew in from all over the world to interview him.
Writer and broadcaster John Ronson even did a profile of
(06:57):
him for g Q. Phoenix cent go to Bowtown to
break up a kind of crack deals. There was about
five or six different groups of crack dealis on different
street corners, and they came back and walked towards us,
and Phoenix said, are we standing? Are we leaving? They
(07:17):
all said was standing. It helped that Phoenix had something
the other superheroes and the comic books didn't. His own
media strategy. He filmed his exploits and posted the videos online.
He even added his own commentary, All douchebags depicted in
these videos are innocent until proven guilty in a court
of law. One thing's for sure, it's fun as hell
(07:40):
to watch videos of Phoenix taking down bad guys. One
of my favorites is a video titled Phoenix Jones versus
Helicopter Dick, which is a surprisingly accurate description of what
went down that night. Phoenix rolls up to a bar
where something bad is clearly going down. According to a
caption in the video, a guy has exposed himself to
(08:02):
some women at the bar, and then attacked a bouncer,
and Phoenix is talking to the bouncer While they're chatting,
the suspect appears, pulls his dick out again and starts
twirling it while yelling Helicopter Dick. Phoenix rushes over and
grabs the guy by the ear like an angry father
disciplining his kid, and drags him down the sidewalk until
(08:24):
someone steps in and pulls them apart, but Helicopter Dick,
who's clearly drunk, lunges at Phoenix. Phoenix takes a step
back and says to the guy, if you do that again,
I will pepper spray. Eventually, the police come and cuff
Propeller Phenis and load him into the back of a
squad car, while Phoenix has a quick chat with one
(08:45):
of the officers, telling him that he has the whole
thing on video and can hand it over to them
for evidence. Phoenix says, when you start showing your drunk
two girls, that's a different kind of sick and you
end up in a police car. He signs off with
his signature raised have a good night and I'll see
you in the streets. Not all the videos that Phoenix
(09:08):
posts are about crime fighting. Sometimes he makes videos hyping
himself up. You want to blaze now, man, I'm already
blazing blaze an attractive son. Wow, got my gold spiny
glue boots on? How could you beat that? Wasna? Yeah? Man, seriously,
I make Elton John looks straight right now. That's the
sub he gets vulnerable. I wanted to be a superhero
(09:29):
my whole life. The first year fighting crime, I was arrested.
I've been shot, I've been stabbed. So many bad things
happened to me for something that I believed in. And
this is real as it gets. He buys ice cream
for kids. The ice cream Shucks showed up in my neighborhood,
so I bought all the kids ice cream because I'm
rich now so I can do crazy things. And even
(09:51):
if he is the self proclaimed greatest living superhero and
a model of perfection, he still likes to sing in
the car like us Mortal Superman, god Man. I'm only one,
and it seems that being a superhero comes with perks.
(10:14):
He's landed several sponsorship deals with local health and fitness brands.
After a hard workout, it's pretty much only long thing
that your boy needs and thank god they gave me
the Secret Souls epic smoothie Baby. He even got invited
on a press tour to England to promote a new
model of cell phone. Phoenix became a sensation. He seemed
(10:37):
to tap into people's mistrust of the institutions that are
supposed to keep us safe. But long before his drug charges,
Phoenix Jones was not popular with Seattle's law enforcement. In
one video, Phoenix comes across a bartender on the street
who says a guy assaulted him. Phoenix sees the suspect
in a bloody shirt outside the bark. Don't give me
(11:01):
a nine one one call police, thank you, and Chase ensues.
The suspect hides in the back of a truck and
Phoenix and his sidekick pretend that they don't know where
he is while they call the police. But when the
police arrive on the scene, they see more piste off
at Phoenix than the alleged criminal. Um gonna talk to me,
(11:26):
Phoenix tells the police, Yes, video, that would be useful evidence,
but we have to give you a statement in our video,
and they don't seem interested. Well, could I could? I
could have an Internet number, though, please, because I'd like
to file all my stuff. No, it's gonna work. The
video stops. Text appears on the screen, which criticizes the
(11:49):
Seattle Police for their incompetence and says that Phoenix is
going to file a formal complaint. It ends, quote, it
is the job of the police to arrest and investigates
suspected criminals. Your feelings about my protective outfit and your
politics should not impair your legal obligation to the people. Sincerely,
(12:11):
Phoenix Jones. This scenario plays out time and time again
on Phoenix's YouTube channel. Whenever he encounters a criminal, he
detains them, calls one, and waits for the police to
arrive on the scene, the same police that he says
are about to get him. I've been arrested a hundred
(12:32):
eighteen times. I've only had four charges ever stick, and
none of the charges of the Phoenix Jones have ever
stuck because I'm flawless at that job. The police have
repeatedly told Phoenix to leave the crime fighting to them.
Unless you are the victim of a crime, you are
not allowed to corner somebody holds somebody. You cannot do
that because then it becomes a crime where you are
(12:55):
the suspect. And they have also taken to the media
to discourage copycat superheroes. Well, they say it's not illegal
to dress up and calls him and patrol, but they're
asking the superheroes to just call nine. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the
dislike between the police and Phoenix is mutual. The police
are just a gang man. I mean, I hate to
(13:17):
be like that, but they're a gang. And then people
are gonna get mad at me for this, but that's
because you're stupid. As Phoenix got more famous, the tension
between him and the police escalated. When it finally boiled over,
it's spilled out of the superhero world and into his
civilian life with disastrous consequences. But we'll get to all
that later. First we've got to meet Phoenix's superhero ancestors.
(13:43):
That's coming up. Phoenix Jones was not the first person
to dawn a mask an attempt to become a real superhero,
but it's hard to know for sure who the first
(14:03):
the original real life superhero was. Some say it was
Master Legend, and that's a lesson for all those people
who like to abuse little kids. In the nineties, he
was a fixture on the streets of New Orleans, handing
out water to the homeless in a cape and stormtrooper
vest with long hair sticking out from under an old
(14:24):
army helmet. And he's still at it today in Florida,
though his methods are questionable. Here he is shooting eggs
out of a cannon he made out of PBC pipe
and spray painted silver. Master Legend hard boil the eggs.
There there it is the yep splattered. He's one of
(14:45):
the only real life superheroes who claims to have supernatural powers,
super strength, speed, and the ability to see the future.
There's even a TV show about his life, The Legend
of Master Legend. Who are you? I'm Master Legend. I'm
a real life superhero registered in two counties. I love
(15:14):
Master Legend, but the idea that he fights crime was
beer gut and goofy outfit does seem a bit preposterous,
more like a piece of performance art than an effective
crime fighter. And before Master Legend was Master Legend, there
was Willie Perry, a k a. The Birmingham Batman. Willie
(15:37):
drove around Birmingham, Alabama, and a souped up nine thunderbird
with a Batman license plate and rescue ship painted on
the hood. Mostly he focused on helping stranded motorists car
he'll flitch out, I didn't. He was fair and I
was stranded. I was only how me and my kids
who won't stopped to him, And along came It's strange
(16:00):
m And in nineteen sixty Chicago, a school teacher called
Jim Phillips called himself the Fox. It said that he
took his name from the Fox River, which runs through
northern Illinois west of Chicago. He defended his community against
(16:20):
the heartless corporations that were dumping toxic waste into rivers.
His calling card was a note signed with a fox
face and the place of the letter Oh. Legend has
it he'd canoe down the river to put caps on
drainage pipes that were releasing pollutants into the water. Once
he even dumped fifty pounds of sewage from Lake Michigan
(16:41):
into the office of the company responsible for its sort
of one man guerrilla force against pollution. He has become
a local hero sorts. And then there are groups like
the Guardian Angels, a nonprofit started in New York City
in nineteen seventy nine by Curtis Sliwa, who recently ran
(17:02):
from mayor of New York City. We are going to
do what we can in a nonviolent way, without having
any weapons available to us whatsoever, to curb this violent
crime that is on a continuous round page. The Guardian
Angels started by patrolling the subway in New York, a
bit like Phoenix Jones on the streets of Seattle, and
their numbers grew. Today there are thousands of members spread
(17:25):
out in chapters around the country. Also like Phoenix, the
Guardian Angels prided themselves on their ability to stop crime
without carrying guns, but there are lots of examples of
groups who did arm themselves, like the Minutemen, for example.
A few different groups using that name have been around
since the early two thousands, and they execute armed border
(17:48):
patrols looking for undocumented immigrants. They named themselves after the
civilian militia groups who fought during the American Revolutionary War.
Robert Crook's sixty seven year old retire reef less Vegas
patrols the US Mexican border and treks what he calls
invaders and enemies of the United States of America did
(18:08):
not come in this way and if they do, I'll
be your wait for watching. And long before any of
these groups, there was the Bald Knaubers, this group that
wore masks and executed vigilante justice in the wild West. T.
(18:30):
Crulos is the author of the book Heroes in the
Night Inside the real life superhero Movement. I put a
research into any sort of vigilante movement that I thought
might be sort of a president for the real life superheroes.
The Bald Nabbers dispensed vigilante justice in Missouri from nine.
(18:55):
They took their name from a mountaintop where they met.
Their leader was a bar owner named Nathaniel and Kenny.
They wore soup coats backwards and donned homemade masks with
devil horns protruding from the top and red and white
stitching around their eyes and mouth. It must have been
a terrifying sight to see them tearing across the plains
(19:16):
on horseback with their whips in hand, looking to kill
suspected horse thieves. Each member of the group lived by
this oath. Our purpose is to punish the evil doer
among us. The courts have failed us, we administer punishment
to those the arm of the law cannot or will
(19:36):
not reach in doing this, we do not break the
law because we have no evil intent. So they started
out by, you know, hanging people that were cattle thieves
or stuff like that. But as their rain sort of
went on, they became a little bit more petty, like
you could be visited by the Bald Knobbers and whipped
(19:59):
if you were accused of being ordinary. And it wasn't
just people with an irritable disposition that the Knobbers went after.
Back then, many of the poorer couples in the community
couldn't afford to pay marriage license fees, so they were
technically not married, but lived together as though they were.
The bald Knobbers believed these unwed couples were living in sin,
(20:21):
and so they went around beating them. One day, some
of the Knobbers set out to kill a man who
criticized them. They ended up killing two of his family
members in a shootout, and they were jailed. Their leader
was also killed, and, as Crulos writes in his book,
the condemned Knobbers were hung on a poorly constructed gallows
(20:41):
in a scene described as gruesome. The knobbers feet dragged
on the ground as they writhed in pain. The gallows
were quickly fixed and the knobbers were hung again. It's
kind of an example of vigilanteism that spun out control.
(21:04):
One of the main arguments I've heard people make against
the real life superhero movement is that they are nothing
more than modern day bald knobbers, vigilantes, people who take
the law into their own hands. But Phoenix and the
other real life superheroes I've met don't consider themselves vigilantes
because when they apprehend a criminal, they immediately call and
(21:28):
hand them over to the police so they can be
prosecuted within the legal system. In fact, Phoenix argues that
it's the police, not superheroes like him, that act like
they're above the law. It's one of the reasons he's
not a fan of the cops. The job for the
police union is to make sure the police officers do
not get in trouble, right, they have the inner policing system.
(21:50):
All the inner policing system is run by police. There's
no outside accountability in the police department at all. There
are lots of examples throughout American history where the police
have often been protected from punishment by the very system
that is supposed to keep them in check. So where
does that leave Phoenix Jones. Well, it's complicated. He relies
(22:13):
on the police to complete the work he started, but
he despises the way they do their job. Phoenix isn't
alone in his standoff with the cops though, After all,
what's a superhero without sidekicks? That's coming up, you know how.
(22:41):
In the Batman series, Commissioner Gordon shined a giant bat
chick spotlight into the sky whenever a hero was needed
to save Gotham City the bat signal. Well, Phoenix Jones
never had one of those, but his rise to fame
turned him into the human uivalent of that call to action.
(23:02):
Because as news stories about Phoenix spread around the world
of him stopping car thieves and breaking up street fights,
regular citizens were inspired to join him in his fight
against evildoers, and before long, Phoenix had a crew of
masked Avengers who fought crime by his side. Together, this
band of ragtag heroes, former soldiers, reformed criminals, aspiring activists,
(23:27):
and medics all patrolled the streets of Seattle under the
leadership of Phoenix, striking fear into the heart of Seattle's
criminal underworld. They called themselves the rain City Superheroes, and
the media ate it up. Brain City superhero crime fighting movement,
life superhero live superheroes, real life superheroes, Digilanni crime stoppers
(23:51):
in Seattle, the Patrol Seattle, looking for crime, prepared to
fight it? Are they for real? To find find out
more about Phoenix, I needed to speak to the one
group of people who knew his crime fighting days better
than anyone else. Shirt left. When you watch any video
(24:13):
of the rain City Superheroes on Patrol, it's easy to
see where they got so much media coverage. They are
a spectacle. Phoenix wears his black and gold super suit
and he does look like a superhero from a movie,
but the rest of the crew looks a lot more.
How can I put this without sounding mean ridiculous. There's
(24:35):
Midnight Jack, who claims to be a former gang member
with a new set of skills charity outreach, homeless hand out,
animal rescue, and pedophile investigations. He's wearing regular street clothes,
black cargo pants and a black and gray fleece and
a black spiderman mask, basically the kind of kid would
wear on Halloween. There's Ghost, a veteran who joined Phoenix's
(24:58):
band of crime fighters after returning from a tour of
duty in Iraq. I put on my white bandana for
the first time and someone tried to stab someone else
and I did a palm strike right in their diaphragm.
They collapsed, and then I was ghost. He looks like
a waiter who just got off work. He's wearing black
slacks and a white button down collared shirt and a
black ski mask. There's Phoenix's girlfriend, Purple Rain. She's wearing
(25:25):
a cross between a leather jacket and purple spandex, with
a black leather beret and a purple mask that looks
like the one that's Scorpion from Mortal Kombat wears. I
helped up from the sidelines, kind of behind the scenes,
and then it was only a matter of time before
I took on a mouth with my own. There's Evocatus,
another war van. He's in black motorcycle leathers and a
(25:45):
silver mask that covers his entire head. He looks like
a cross between a medieval night and a member of
daft punk. At least once a week, ups, are you
a cop? And just like, why what cop do you
know that? Looks like this but okay. And then there's
Phoenix's best friend and right hand man. Uh, my name
(26:08):
is El Caballero. About protection and safety from human beings.
L Caballero looks like a cross between seventies era Hugh
Hefner and a Mexican luchador. He wears a purple top
that straddles the line between cape and vest. It has
a purple fur collar and giant fur covered cuffs and
(26:30):
a gold embroidered dragon on the back. And he's wearing
black bell bottoms with a tactical belt similar to Batman's.
And to top it all off, a red and purple
sequined lucid or a mask with some sort of pyramid
looking emblem that he's sewed onto the forehead. This is
the camera guy. You make sure he does not get punched.
(26:51):
It is very hard not to laugh out loud when
you see them together. You should be lookout. The video
footage of their patrol has the feel of a mockumentary
about nerds who think they are warriors, and this is
pretty typical of the type of media coverage that the
rain City superheroes got at the peak of their fame.
A mix of look at these goofballs and a heartwarming
(27:14):
snapshot of some passionate do gooders. And while it is
easy to mock them, you can see in the videos
of their patrols that Phoenix and his crew are actually
doing good in their community. They help stranded motorists and
make sure drunk people get home safe. Are you a cap?
Did you get my friends a ride? Back? Down? Here?
(27:34):
They administer first aid to the injured, and sometimes they
save lives. A man was getting violent with security at
a nightclub. He proceeded to get violent with me and
my group of friends. Here's a clip from the daytime
talk show Life Changers hosted by Dr Drew featuring a
guy named Fabio who says that Phoenix saved his life.
Phoenix ran in and Pepper spread the guy and diffuse
(27:57):
the entire situation. Dr Drew then turns to Phoenix and
Purple Rain, who are seated on stage and their superhero suits.
How did you hear about it? Had you? We have
eaten dinner in the restaurant or you know? Most situations
aren't like this one. I happened to be on top
of the parking garage across the street and I saw
the thing. That thing happened, and I was able to
There's like a little pole and I was able to
(28:18):
jump from the top should be the pole down and
get into the situation, racing over rooftops, descending drain pipes,
icing bad guys. The rain Ceedy Heroes had a good
run from They were a fixture of downtown Seattle. They
were local celebrities, but a lot of the media coverage
(28:38):
felt like it was laughing at them rather than with them.
But it also legitimized them. They formed the type of
bond that comes from being in the foxhole together, risking
their lives for a righteous cause. But it didn't last,
and when things went wrong, it seems to have started
(28:59):
Phoenix's down all. Maybe the group's demise was inevitable given
Phoenix's belief that he is the only one who is
a real superhero. I'm not a part of that group
at all. Like me, I'm a crime fighter. I'm a
mass adventurer. That's what I do. You know what I mean.
(29:19):
You guys are playing superhero. I am a superhero. I'm
the world's first legally defined superhero. It's in legal documents.
The FBI has me as a superhero I'm not playing
a game. You guys got dressed up. I put on
my uniform. It's different. I tried to verify Phoenix's claim,
(29:42):
but when I asked the FBI about this, they said,
the FBI does not provide endorsements. There's no single moment
in time you can point to and say this was
the day the rain City Superhero Movement died. Each member
of the team had their own reasons for quitting, but
(30:02):
they all blame Phoenix in one way or another. Here's
Midnight Jack. Phoenix Jones was so hooked on the attention.
It was so hooked on the media following and the
celebrity status and things like that that it it was
a problem, which kind of led to a lot of
us kind of losing respect for him and uh and
(30:25):
wanting to be disassociated from things. Um. Admittedly I was
the last person to leave him, but you know, I mean,
when you're in a cult, you don't necessarily understand you're
in a cult. And and that's really what rain City
was at the end, was a cult. Midnight Jack was
not the only one referred to the rain City Superhero
Movement as a cult. Here's Evocatus. There's one person in
(30:47):
charge fundamentally, for better or for worse. If you see
anything that challenges this person, it all falls apart. If
you question it or ask for further clarification or anything
you say, it all falls apart and you were ostracized.
It's cult like in the we had a cult leader.
I guess today none of the rain City superheroes who
(31:09):
I spoke to are on good terms with Phoenix. I
think Phoenix Jones sociopath is what. I think he's a
master gas lighter. I think Phoenix Jones is a liar.
He pawned a bunch of team equipment for drugs. Dude,
this this is the mafia. This is this is what
a mafia does. At first, the rain City superheroes were
(31:32):
inspired by Phoenix, and they were willing to risk their
lives because they believed in his mission. But over time
they came to see Phoenix Jones as less than a
hero and more of a fraud. So how did it
all go so wrong? How did the world's greatest real
life superhero fall so spectacularly from grace, alienated from his
(31:56):
crime fighting friends, A defender of justice who you is
to chase down drug dealers, but ended up pleading guilty
to a drug charge. Over the course of the last year,
I've spent a good amount of time with real life superheroes.
I've patrolled the streets with them, seeing firsthand with their
version of crime fighting looks like, and I've gotten to
(32:18):
know the people behind the masks. I have to say,
it's been a wild ride and disorienting. At times, I've
been convinced that Phoenix Jones is an egomaniac who uses
his superhero persona as a means to enrich himself. Other times,
I've felt that Phoenix is the only sane person in
(32:40):
a society that has lost its goddamn mind. Everyone in
Phoenix's orbit has their own version of what happened. Each
of them is the hero of their own story. Honestly,
I'm still trying to make sense of it all. You
never know what anyone says. It's true, ever, right? You
should always know that. So what do you say? We've
fire her up the old batmobile, take it for a spin.
(33:03):
We've got a lot of superheroes to meet and the
truth to uncover. Oh and I forgot to mention the
real life supervillains, So you better bring your grappling hook
because we might get into some sticky situations. The Superhero
(33:28):
Complex is hosted and written by Me, David Weinberg and
reported by Me, Amalia Sortland and Caroline Thornham. Production from
Mamalia Shortland and Caroline Thornham. Sean Glenn, Max O'Brien and
David Waters are executive producers. Fact checking by Andrew Schwartz.
Production management from Sharie Houston, Frankie Taylor and Charlotte Wolf.
(33:48):
Sound design, mixing and scoring by Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempson.
Music supervision by Nicholas Alexander and David Waters. Original music
is composed by Paul How's It Special thanks to Peter Tangan,
the Unplanned America Team, Willard Foxton, Matt O'Mara, Katrina Norvelle
Beth and Macaluso, Rin Rosenbaum, Shelby Shenkman, and all the
(34:12):
team at U t A. For more from novel, visit
novel dot Audio
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com