News and Features
Vancouver's Own Superhero - continued
By Neal Giannone published Oct 1, 2011
Meet Thanatos: A real-life superhero who patrols the streets of the Downtown Eastside
Thanatos: The Avenger was perhaps inevitable. “I always thought of being a superhero over the years,” he says. “I looked up superheroes online and found out that there are other people that dress up in costumes and go out and help.” The Real Life Superheroes movement began in the ’70s when James “The Fox” Phillips began advocating against the increasing industrial pollution in Chicago. (The Fox’s cv includes capping off smokestacks and dumping industrial waste in the lunchrooms of the companies that created it.) Recently, it has grown into a registry with over 60 heroes around the world. As their motives vary, so do their costumes. New York’s Dark Guardian fights crime with a Kevlar balaclava and pepper spray. Super Gay in Mexico City is a social activist who wears a mask (and pink leotard and rainbow cape) against public persecution of homosexuality. Most rlsh personas and costumes parallel those from the dc or Marvel comic universe—only shaped and pulled by homemade efforts: blue spandex jumpsuits, leather masks, face paint, ski goggles, shin pads, fishnet stockings. For a price, you can order a custom rubber suit from XtremeDesignFX.com, which includes everything from capes to cowls.
Since the superhero registry went online in 2005, 26 have retired, suggesting, for some, a movement in decline. No matter how one approaches charity and right-doing, it involves exhausting levels of commitment and sacrifice. The food Thanatos hands out is from his own pocket; the blankets and pillows come by donation through his Youtube blog. Larger corporate donations are near impossible without a tax number. (Currently, though, he is in talks with Eco-Tech, a linen supplier, for an ongoing blanket donation.)
He understands that his handouts, the product of frustration with the near impenetrable jungle of governmental support for the homeless and ill, are only a temporary fix. But he’s still proud of his accomplishments. “This girl I helped ended up turning around from a $400 a day heroin addict in a space of six months, and she now works down there in a paid position at one of the social agencies. And when she tells the story why she changed she says, ‘Death came and told me I had to change the way I was living. Death saved me.’”
