Heroes in the Night

On a frigid March night, journalist Tea Krulos shivered in a Milwaukee park, waiting for a masked crimefighter. Finally the Watchman arrived, not in a Batmobile or swinging from a web, but driving a tan four-door Pontiac. He was in costume, of course—a trench coat, motorcycle gloves, army boots, a domino mask, and a red hooded sweatshirt emblazoned with a W logo. The two had spoken before on the phone, but never face-to-mask. By the end of the interview, Krulos wasn’t sure if the Watchman was delightfully eccentric or completely crazy. But he was going to find out.

Heroes in the Night traces Krulos’s journey into the strange subculture of Real Life Superheroes, random citizens who have adopted comic book–style personas and hit the streets to fight injustice—helping the homeless, gathering donations for food banks, or patrolling their neighborhoods looking for crime to fight. By day, these modern Clark Kents work as dishwashers, pencil pushers, and executives in Fortune 500 companies. But by night, only the Shadow knows.

Well, the Shadow and Tea Krulos. Through historic research, extensive interviews, and many long hours walking on patrol in Brooklyn and Seattle, San Diego, Minneapolis, and Vancouver, British Columbia, Krulos discovered what being a RLSH is all about. Heroes in the Night profiles dozens of RLSHs and shares not only their shining, triumphant moments but some of their ill-advised, terrifying disasters as well.