Everyone loves a superhero origin story. Whether our eventual hero was bitten by a radioactive spider, struck by lightning, rocketed to earth by his doomed parents, or watched his parents die at the hands of muggers, we yearn to know the entire backstory of our heroic icons.
For many of the real life superheroes featured in the HBO documentary Superheroes, their origin was set in motion by an event that occurred before they were born. In March of 1964, in Queens, New York, a woman named Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death outside of her home. According to reports, neighbors and onlookers were aware of the crime as it happened but did nothing. Analysis of this social psychological phenomenon has become known as the bystander effect. This event was the inspiration that many of today’s real life superheroes attribute their willingness and desire to help and protect the public to.
UnderScoopFIRE contributor and podcaster Joe Zicari was fortunate to catch up with a couple Real Life Superheroes: Mr. Xtreme (Leader of the XJL: Xtreme Justice League) and the Urban Avenger (@UA_RLSH on Twitter). His interviews with them as well as our roundtable discussion of the HBO documentary Real Life Superheroes is featured on UnderScoopFIRE Podcast #12:
[buzzsprout episode=”35555″ player=”true”]
Listen/download on iTunes
Listen/download on BuzzSprout
Check out The Real Life Superhero Project.
Be sure to check out these other Real Life Superheroes and follow them on Twitter:
Amazonia
Dark Guardian
Zimmer Barnes
Geist
Rock N Roll X-alt
The Night Bug
