Real-Life Superheroes

Master Legend is a new breed of crime fighter. He isn’t affiliated with the police or the military, he isn’t a bounty hunter, he has his own band, and he’s just one of a legion of other similarly-employed individuals. Master Legend is a modern-day real-life superhero.

Before you dismiss Master Legend and his cronies as bizarre cosplay junkies run amok, consider this: Master Legend and his legion are dead serious.

"What is Osama bin Laden if not a supervillain, off in his cave, scheming to destroy us?" asks Green Scorpion, a masked avenger in Arizona, in an interview with Rolling Stone.

Throughout the world, wannabe comic book heroes are disconnecting from reality and enrolling in the World Superhero Registry, an online database of real-life superheroes. The Rolling Stone piece notes that there are legions, like Salt Lake City’s Black Monday Society, San Diego’s Artemis National Consortium and Indianapolis’ Justice Society of Justice. Master Legend’s syndicate is called Justice Force.

Master Legend and his cronies patrol the streets looking for evil, but they also make time for doing good. Their last Christmas mission took the superheroes to Skid Row, where, as Rolling Stone reports, they dispensed items to the homeless like toothbrushes, razors, soap, blankets, canned goods, cigarettes, and candy.