Good News: East and West Coasts Now Both Protected by Real-Life Superheroes

While a growing number of articles suggest that New York is slowly reverting to its bad old seventies days under Mayor Bloomberg, there’s good news for beleaguered Manhattanites. “Prowler” is now on the case:

Superheroes usually like to keep their real identities hidden, but one Brooklyn woman is taking off her mask and telling the entire world who she is.

Nicole Abramovici is “Prowler,” a 31-year-old businesswoman by day who dons a costume at night to do her part to save the world, one homeless person and abandoned animal at a time.

And, as she revealed to the New York Post, she’s not alone — she’s part of a group of real-life heroes who slip on masks and capes to do charity work.

“I dress up because I’m part of this group called Superheroes Anonymous,” Abramovici said. “The costume draws awareness to the cause, and it’s exciting and people dig it.”

Prowler’s debut in Manhattan follows up “Phoenix Jones” becoming a video phenomenon even beyond his home turf in Seattle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfR1EK0Q4AI

Surprisingly, Wikipedia has blown the cover for Phoenix’s once-secret identity:

Phoenix Jones(born Benjamin John Francis Fodor, 1988) is the leader of a ten-member citizen crime-prevention patrol group who call themselves the Rain City Superhero Movement, operating out of Seattle and Lynnwood, Washington. In a CBS news broadcast, Jones is shown entering a back room of an unnamed comic book store in which he changes into costume which consists of a Dragon Skin bulletproof vest and stab plating, as well as equipment including a stun baton, pepper spray or tear gas, handcuffs and a first aid kit.

Jones says he wanted to take policing matters into his own hands after a few incidents changed his mind about Seattle. The first was when Jones says that his car was broken into and his son was injured after returning to the vehicle and falling on the broken glass. Jones was told that several people saw the break-in happen, but did not intervene.According to Jones the car window had been broken by a rock with a mask wrapped around it, which Jones left in the car’s glove box. Later, Jones says that he encountered a friend being seriously assaulted outside a bar, and after calling 911 he put on the mask from the earlier break-in and “made a commotion” until the police showed up.”And I thought, why didn’t someone help him? There were seventy people outside that bar and no one did anything.”

Jones went on to develop a full costume and pseudonym, when his crime-fighting behaviour made him too recognizable. He says the best way to prevent getting mistaken for a criminal by the police is to wear a “supersuit”, although local police have expressed concern that the strange costumes may lead to emergency calls from citizens who mistake the “superheroes” for criminals. Jones says that all members of the Rain City Superhero Movement have a military or mixed martial arts background. He does not condone other people dressing up and fighting crime.