 Hey guys, welcome back today. I want to talk about something more of a fun topic and that is the topic of superheroes Mainly the question I had growing up as a kid and early teens was like how can we don't see any superheroes in real life? You know we grew up with comic books and Superman and Batman and of course the Marvel Universe is extremely hot right now But it's like why don't we see superheroes like that? So today we're gonna explore this topic and analyze Just what would it take to become a real-life superhero? So before we get started on this I want to first define the context of what we're talking about here now when I say superhero I am talking about the capes the spandex you see in the comic books you see in the movies Obviously, you know soldiers cops doctors nurses firefighters. They are the real heroes They put their lives on the line every day for people So I kind of want to draw that line right now as those are your everyday typical heroes Those people are true heroes in the context of what we're talking about here is the term superhero that we read about and it's glamorized Especially in the martial arts since martial arts usually goes hand-to-hand with crime fighting So that's what we're gonna talk about and cover today. So that being said is Where are all the crime fighters? Well first let's eliminate the obvious ones People don't have superpowers. You know, none of us are bulletproof. We don't fly We can't run the speed of sound so we're gonna stick to more of the humans with skill side of things You know that you got your punishers. You've got your Batman. Where are they people like that? First of all, let's answer the question right away. Why don't we see the superheroes mainly because the concept itself really doesn't work It takes it's easy to draw someone in the cape fighting crime on the pages of a book Doing it in real life is a much different approach and it's a lot harder We've talked about this in other videos, too First of all costumes costumes are so hard to get right and honestly, they're hard to take seriously You see somebody out running around the streets in a costume. What's your first assumption that guy's either in it for the kicks Or he's nuts So aside from being taken seriously and it's really hard to be taken seriously if you're trying to be a Superhero a crime fighter in a costume But you also need skills because there's more to fighting crime than just beating people up for one Legality, you know, there's a lot of lines that are blurred in TV's movies and comic books when it comes to the law and crime fighting One one you got curfew some areas have curfew. So if you're even out past that you're breaking the law Then there's trespassing Harassment assault if you go beat somebody up because you think they're coming to crime you can get charged with assault Maybe also even obstruction if you get in the way of another of a police officer trying to do their work If you want to be a vigilante, that's technically illegal taking the law into your own hands and enacting what you feel is justice Is against the law to it's incredibly dangerous So it's one thing to one inspire people maybe clean up a neighborhood and lead some foundations or charity work It's another thing to walk up to a drug dealer on the street corner in the bad neighborhood and say hey get out of here evil Dior and unfortunately, I bring this up because it sounds silly like why would anybody do that? I've unfortunately seen a lot of documentation of people doing that There are people out there who do try to be superheroes So you know we're talking about how the concept doesn't work doesn't mean people don't try you can look online All you have to do is Google real-life superhero and you're gonna find a plethora of people who are trying this and Like and you're gonna find out what I mean by how hard it is to be taken seriously in some of these costumes Now people might also ask why don't want them to be a crime fighter, but I want to save people from accidents and help people That's great. That's admirable But my advice to you is if your goal is to run into a burning building and pull someone out That's hurt join the fire department get the proper training into the proper equipment The only costume you should be wearing in situations like that is flame retardant in the helmet with the hose and most importantly Let's let's look at the whole concept of superheroes theatrics theatrics theater is made for entertainment Comic books superheroes are entertaining to us because they kind of play and they glamorize values that we have We want to see justice serve. We want to see good prevail But let's separate this into drama and in trauma Batman beating up the Joker is drama. It's exciting It's fun a cop beating up or shooting a suspect. It's trauma. That's not fun to watch Would you let your kid watch that? You know, you know most parents love Batman a lot should kid watch Batman beat up the Joker But would you let your kid watch a horrible video of somebody getting shot in real life? No, because it's not made for entertainment It's not fun and also if you find out entertaining then please go find another channel to watch because that's not what we That's not what we promote here. There is a big difference between what works in theatrics and what works in real life And that's just the hard truth about that Okay, so now that I've poo-pooed all over the topic so far about that. Let's talk about where the concept can work Can you be a superhero in real life? Well, that depends on your objective Let's look at someone like Batman since we talked about Batman a bit. What is Batman? He what was his goal was to become a symbol there's a lot of ways to become a symbol and if you want to go the superhero route There's a lot of people who go to children's hospitals in superhero costumes. Yeah, you're not out there fighting crime But you're being a hero in that moment to that child so if you really have the urge to patrol the streets at night do it safely with people neighborhood watch group and Call the authorities when something happens Don't just go right in there guns ablaze and or our fists fly and just you know you want to be the next Batman So be smart about that So as I mentioned earlier if you Google the term real life superheroes You're gonna find some really interesting websites out there But that being said is there have been some notable attempts The first one I ever encountered which is kind of funny because when I asked myself this question years back Why aren't any real life superheroes and I actually googled the name real life superhero? And I found a guy named angle grinder man, and I'm like what the heck is this angle grinder man Looks ridiculous. He wears the blue tides the gold shorts the gold booths the mask and all that But basically he calls himself a social activist and he's over in the UK or was I don't believe he practices anymore But they had a problem out there was a corruption with like parking enforcement and then you know a company a private company putting boots on cars So he offered the services of if your boot a boot was put in your car And you felt was unlawful call him and he came out there with an angle grinder and he cut it off But again, we've crossed the line of legality, you know, he's taking that risk if he gets caught He goes to jail, but I just thought that huh and that actually kind of started me down the rabbit hole of researching the real life superheroes So I'm like if he's doing something like this, who else is out there another notable attempt worth mentioning is captain Jackson out of Jackson, Michigan Now on first appearance he looked at him and he kind of looks like the poor man's version of the Adam West Batman But the truth is he actually took the approach of more of a community service. He did neighborhood watches he went to fundraising events he tried to be the symbol of good and Yeah, he wasn't scaling buildings and beating people up But he was least trying to make a difference in his neighborhood and in his city So and he got some notable Attention for that that we also have super barrio and this is the example of him talk about being more of a symbol than being a crime fighter He supports protests to try to bring better conditions working conditions to poor Mexican workers So his mission is that he goes out there's a symbol to bring attention to the cause He's not fighting crime, but he's still trying to do something good with being a symbol Then we have terrific a much smaller scale Her mission was to cruise the bar scenes of New York City and she looked out for women who might have had too much to drink And we're in danger of being taken advantage of by men, you know Watch it out making sure drinks were spiked against smaller scale still admirable her You know the costume may not really do much for her cause But at least she was trying to use some good with it not gonna make it to the cover of a comic book But hey, she put the effort out there Then we have polar man and his main objective is he goes around and he shovels The snow off of elderly sidewalks and driveways, so he actually Anyone who lives up north in the snow will actually deem him a superhero He also tries to inspire children to charity causes and he also does neighborhood patrol just to be a security lookout So as you can see, there's a lot of people out there trying to do good But there are far cry from ending up in the MCU anytime soon and now we come to the fun one This is In all my research the closest I have found to an individual becoming a realized superhero Or I believe as close as one can become to becoming a real-life superhero And that is a guy by the name of Phoenix Jones. The reason he's such An interest to me is his story how he developed what he does his approach to stuff the mistakes that he learned from So just to kind of recap Phoenix Jones His real name is Ben Fodor and he was an amateur MMA fighter with an actually impressive record 15 to 2 So he's a great fighter He lives in Seattle, Washington and basically his story is he got tired of seeing people do bad things He had a lot of experience fighting growing up. He was a taekwondo champion, you know MMA fighter He also claimed that he's a bowling champion And he says you'd be surprised how many fights you get into in the parking lot and he found that he had good fighting skills And his area, you know, he's got a lot of prime in this area And he told the story how one time he was walking to his car with his young boy His car broken into his boy slip fell cut himself in the glass and he's like, you know what? I've had enough of this I need to make a change so Ben Fodor had the fighting skills to back up his idea of being a superhero He was in great physical fitness. He was young. He was in his early 20s So he made the choice to go out there and become a symbol of hope for a city And he thought that if he could stop people behaving badly that people learn not to behave badly It will get back to that in a little bit What I find interesting though is for one at this point in time Phoenix Jones has been doing this about 10 years now Let's let that sink in 10 years and he's still alive which accounts for some skill on his part But what I find interesting was the limit steady hit everything we talked about up to this point he encountered He thought oh, I'm gonna scale the rooftops. I'm gonna sue a business off of crime I'm gonna be able to go and find a crime any around any corner. I'm gonna wear my super costume He tried all that and he actually I'm gonna recommend a podcast and also I'm gonna show some quick clips There's a few google his name. You're gonna find a ton of stuff online I'll show you some quick clips and pictures, but I'm gonna put a bunch of links in the description to watch more videos There's there's a lot to look at here And I recently heard and listened to a really interesting podcast by the nw nerd links in the description below It's an hour long interview with him and it's fascinating. It really it's really worth a listen He talks about his whole life mission. He's kind of jaded at this point Which we're gonna get back to but he talks about his motivation at the beginning to where he became now And it's it's really fascinating. So he describes that he actually wore this really cheap tuxedo That was that he could tear away and he had a horrible costume underneath it He describes it as a count chocolate type costume He would climb the rooftops and he would sit there on the fire escape and wait And watch and nothing happened and nothing happened He says it took a couple weeks before finally there actually was a mug in taking place He goes, all right, this is my chance. I'm gonna swoop in By the time he took his costume off. He got tangled up in the suit. He tried to take the tuxedo off He goes took him five minutes to climb down the fire escape by the time he got there The woman was like, well the guy already left. What the hell are you wearing? So he realized, oh that doesn't work. The guy got away He even tried to chase him down. The guy got away. It didn't work. So he's like, all right Rooftop thing is out Then he did this patrol for a while with this costume and people made fun of him because again You can't take someone serious that's running around in a costume that looks like that You know millions of dollars go into the movies to make these costumes look good Most people don't have that resources unless you're a professional cosplayer and even then the costumes aren't practical He said he even tried making a net gun and it didn't work. He got tangled up on it he did the secret identity thing for a while and All like everything we just talked about why superhero doesn't work He tried that and it didn't work But what I give him credit though was he tried to find a solution around that So he started to identify the practicality of what he could do And and what he wanted to do And he describes his first actual criminal encounter This successful one that he calls was he encountered a woman who was being mugged and there he is in this cheesy suit He walked up to the guy and he actually says he goes I said stop evil doer The guy turned around stabbed him in the stomach Hard hit of reality right there and again talk about how dangerous this is you're going to go encounter people Who are dangerous criminals you're going to get hurt He was able to fight that guy off the police came they arrested him and despite being stabbed He said he felt motivated, but he realized what am I doing? I am not protected so he kind of ditched the cheesy costume And he went for something a little bit more protective and he spent a lot of money and he traveled He actually developed the suit that you know his his trademark suit now Which actually kind of looks like something out of a comic book, but it has armor built into it for you know Stab proofing. I don't know if it's bullet proofing or not or resistant But he started every time he made a mistake He learned from it and he added that layer of protection or he added that tactic And he just kind of built from there and again over the past 10 years. He's been adding to this Experience now how do I find out about him? This is what's kind of funny I was actually sitting on the phone one day just kind of waiting in line I'm scrolling through the phone and I see a headline that says real life superhero identity revealed I'm like what What happened was he was patrolling and the one smart thing that he does is he wears a camera And he's always recording everything he encounters So apparently he found a fight Happening outside of a club and there were a bunch of people in the big brawl He went out there trying to break it up. He claims he was attacked to pull out pepper spray sprayed one guy The mist got around other people sprayed a woman started attacking him It became this big issue the cops came people arrested He was arrested because they they tried to accuse him of assault He went to court and basically what happened was in the courtroom the judge said you're going to have to reveal your identity You know, you're gonna have to take your mask off here and charges were dropped because the video proved that he was not guilty of assault But that day he walked out of the courthouse with his lawyer and something you'd see out of a comic book movie He walked right up to a podium Surrounded by press said okay, I am Phoenix Jones But in real life, I am Ben Fodor and in the dramatic Batman move He took his mask and he pulled it off and he revealed his identity because it was going to come out anyway But he wanted he made the theatrics out of it and from that point in time You know, he became a media sensation You know, I'm in South Florida. This guy's in Seattle Washington You know, you can't get any further part in this country and here I am getting all these articles about him So I started to research him and over this time he got big big he became larger in life He became that symbol at least to some degree. He's got photo shoots with him on the rooftops They did documentaries about him. They made comic books about him He's got a theme song even which is really bizarre And he started to use that status for what he felt was his own goods So he started what was called the rain city superhero movement And what that was is he gathered other people like-minded to do community patrols And when they found a situation they engaged He did more research and effort and his group was trying to be a little more proactive and less vigilante Like he's actually against the whole idea of being a vigilante. He's very much about working within the law At the time he had a wife named prepo rain She was a victim of spousal abuse So she had her own movement going for women and abusive relationships So he put together this team effort And when he was asked well, did you guys just go run around the streets looking for crime? He goes no, he goes we had to be smart about it. He was he learned before You don't just sit in the rooftop and wait for a crime to happen He goes first they eliminated the crimes that can do nothing about the bigger stuff You know, you know bank robbers on like he's not gonna go run into a bank robbery and even trying to find that He goes we had to eliminate what was practical Then he goes things like breaking into a house if someone's house is getting robbed He goes well, I'm not gonna go break into the house as well And then you know possibly get caught by police or you know get shot by the homeowner He goes we should try to be more practical. So what they did though was they worked with community people They set up surveillance They would know any they would listen to police scanners They would know any suspicious activities So they would narrow down likelihood scenarios and if something happened then they would engage and by engaging They called the police first and foremost They'd call the cops and they would try to keep the situation stable So if it was a fight they tried to keep people separated They try to keep things calm until the cops could get there And then when the cops got there, he would give them whatever footage he had The cops didn't like him very much at first and there's still probably some that don't because in their minds Here's some guy injecting himself in situations He had no business being in and for the longest time You saw the cops that the police chief was outspoken against them. They're discouraging it But over time you saw that they were starting to work with them a little bit They kind of they had some team efforts in place So again an interesting evolution to his story. So going back to the podcasts They asked him Why didn't he just become a cop if he wanted to fight crime? He felt he felt that sometimes cops do get special privileges and he disagreed with that But that being said he goes I have no authority goes here I am showing up to a situation that I have no business being in I have no authority to be there So I have to find a reason to have the authority to be there So he does everything by the law and here's what I think he was really smart He studied the law he I mean with a fine-tooth comb He went through his state's laws know what he can and can't do for example He said with whether if you see a man abusing his wife, you can't go open attack the man That's assault what you can do is you can step in between him and her and if he swings at you Well, that was self-defense There's little things like that that he had to know to make sure he stayed within the letter of the law In his state they have a law called mutual combat And that law states that with a cop present two people two consenting adults can actually have a fist fight As long as the cop agrees to it and a few people agree to it And the cop and the fight stops the second one person is either gives up or goes to the ground So and there's actually a famous one that he was involved in there were a bunch of there were two guys who were Harassing cars. They were throwing stuff in the street He showed up tried to tell him to stop they got really really aggressive the cops showed up But the guy started, you know making threats challenged them actually accused said I'm Threatened him because I'm gonna go follow you to your home Phoenix Jones didn't like that the guy challenged them to a fight the cop approved to it So the two of them they actually had a fight right there There's footage of it on YouTube you search Phoenix Jones mutual combat and you'll find it The second the fight starts and Phoenix Jones throws those those leg checks You can see his MMA skills. You knew the guy made a mistake fight didn't last long guy went down But in the end he still followed the letter to law and he gives the cops the footage and he claimed that He's claimed that he's been sued 27 times. He says 27 times I've had to you know cops show up and I have to prove why I'm innocent Then he goes to the court and has to tell the judge why he's innocent And when these lawsuits happen he has to prove why he's innocent He has actually not been charged or he's not been actually convicted of a crime He's been he won all 27 of those lawsuits and he credits that with Understanding what he is allowed to do and not overstepping that boundary His his idea was he was if I'm going to become a symbol I have to show what a citizen can do within the law itself use the law not skirt the law But as he became more popular and bigger he actually had sponsors I know one company came in and they actually gave him a shield a ballistic shield that he carries around He's also changed his costume. He doesn't he used to have like this like batman type cowl like without the ears Now he wears more of a ballistic helmet. So his costume has gotten more practical over time It's really more security and safety based and allow better vision than what it was more theatrical before During this time he went back to his MMA fighting and went pro and professionally He's 11 and 3 and then the draw so that's still a pretty good record And if you look up flat top his and he went by the name flat top He could find the footage of him fighting there There's no doubt this guy is a good martial artist and he has the fighting skills to back it up But all that being said does he actually fit the bill? Would you consider him a superhero? I mean, he's got the costume. He's a skillful martial artist He fights crime. There's a bunch of community service, you know, there's comic books or steam songs So what exactly is he missing? Why is he not the superhero that we know the superheroes to be super villains Super villains like in the comic books don't exist. It's about theatrics the super villains today Honestly a real-life super villain, you know our political their mafia their big-end business Nothing you're gonna punch you cannot stop a mob by strapping one of their dealers to a to a spotlight shining shadow in the sky That's not real life. But we all explain that we don't have the jokers out there Well One guy tried he actually had a super villain Try to he released a whole bunch of propaganda a guy by the name of rex velvet He released ads and he released posters of the city about how phoenix jones is no good He must be soft in the city needed a proper villain in the end. It was nothing but smoke. It was theatrics But you have to ask, you know, like I said, it's hard to be taken seriously when you go this route So he had people like this come out trying to be the counter symbol It was lame and it got silly But this is what happens when you enact in theatrics The biggest thing that's missing is fulfillment When you listen to this podcast And you compare it to like when you read or you watch early interviews with him at the beginning when he started He was super motivated. He was super energetic. He had a mission You hear him now and he sounds defeated He's been doing this for 10 years And he says he's not seen the change that he wanted to see in people. He goes I was supposed to show them a better way. He goes people were supposed to get better He goes they're not getting better. He thought that if you beat up bad guys, you know in his youth If you beat up bad guys the people stop doing bad things But the real world doesn't work that way Violence begets violence if you go out there punching people for justice You just can create more violence. You don't inspire people by running around at night beating other people up You know, you're not going to stop a bully because you beat them up They're just gonna go the worst you're gonna is they're going to go to a different corner pick on somebody else than not you You have to get to the root of problems and that's what he's starting to realize So basically systemic problems require systemic changes if you really want to make a difference You got to go to the root of the problem. It's like if someone has a cut you keep giving them band-aids That's good. You're helping literally putting the band in on the wound But you got to find out what's cutting them to begin with and maybe removing that hazard It's it's not me. It's easy. You're said and done and it's easy to say. Oh, we just got to make a systemic change It takes a lot of work. It takes Effort it takes a lot of people not a person in the suit to do that kind of a change So in the end it's cool It's I think phoenix jones is he's starting to hit these real life limits of what we were talking about for And why we don't see real life superheroes And since we use batman as an example, this is actually interesting, uh, whitebell zack And I got into this little discussion I just said that well, the bruce wanes don't change the world But the tony stark's do and he said actually it's not the tony stark's. It's the thomas wanes because tony stark, you know He did a lot of philanthropy. He did his he put his money into good work But then again, he also went around in a suit and fought monsters and crimes So but thomas wane just used his influence and his money and he built society up He did homeless programs. He did food programs. He did support. He started to clean up gotham city You got your bill gates or that kind of you have a billionaire out there that wants to do good In real life, they're not going to build a robot suit to go fight crime But they might build a robot to go into debris and rubble and find survivors But I do disagree with phoenix jones about one thing He says people can't change and you can't make a difference and you can't be a symbol I do disagree with that you can inspire you can become a symbol Maybe he didn't pull the city out of despair But maybe he made a difference to somebody individuals And even if it meant one person got to go home to the family that night He made a difference on some level and you can inspire You can be out to help people because people do it all the time I'm sorry. It doesn't mean you wear a cape and it doesn't mean you go drive around in a cool car in a motorcycle Beat up bad guys, but that's not real life. You can still connect with people You can still help people even in the martial arts and if he feels like he didn't make a difference Well, what are we doing right now? You know 10 years later. We're here talking about it He did something he if anything he brought some issues to the surface to talk about So yes, I would argue that he did make a difference might not be the difference that he wanted But he made some sort of impact So now you ask yourself, how can you help if you want to help if you want to be a symbol You want to help your community? What can you do? What's in your power? For example, are you really good at sales or your salesman? Well, maybe you can raise charity You know reach charity money and donate the causes you go sites like gofundme.com There's people out there who have medical expenses or have family issues people with handicapped children Raise funds you can make a big difference in someone's life by just even covering that that's that could be life changing Do you are you part of a big network? Maybe you can hold community events Also, there's a website. I found there were not affiliated in any way. I just I just like the constant behind it It's called do something dot org if you want to do something in your community Just go to this website and there's a whole bunch of ideas there that say, okay Maybe you can help this event or maybe you know There's causes for for poverty for education for mental health Even like something is like symbols run in a book drive to donate to a school There's a whole list of things that if you really want to do something to help There's a lot of ideas there So I recommend checking that out and I'll have a link for that below in the description as well So honestly to sum it all up no matter how old you are your age race health your skills You could be your hero to somebody out there. It just might not be in a costume Thank you guys so much for watching. Please like and subscribe and join us on patreon You know our personal goal here on the channel our objective when we started this channel was to make a positive difference By not showing negative side of martial arts and and trying to be positive and educating and sharing ideas And that's and something we still strive to do And I'd also like to hear your ideas what you guys suggest that could go out there make a difference any causes or Our foundations that people should know about please feel free to share below. I would love to hear from you all Thank you so much