Ever wonder what happens to people who get a little too "into" games, movies, and comic books? They become costumed superheroes. Consider the baffling case of Indianapolis's own protector Mr. Silent, for example. Here we have a man who dresses in silver and black in order to patrol the downtown city streets in search of trouble. Think it's an isolated incident? Maybe... or maybe not.
People aren't accustomed to seeing superheroes patrolling the city . . . yet. But since the duo began this "experiment," as Mr. Silent calls it, the superhero trend has started to catch on. Others have e-mailed the duo asking how they can join and superheroes have popped up in other cities worldwide, he said. "A lot of people have told us that they've been waiting for something like this to happen," he said. "Like there was a hole in them; they always wished that something like this was real."
Certainly people are familiar with the likes of Superman and Batman. Comic book characters are practically ingrained in American culture, as evidenced by the slew of movies released each year. But in real life? "People have tried to invent time machines because of H.G. Wells or teleporters because of Star Trek," Mr. Silent said. "It almost makes you wonder why no one has done this before."
If Mr. Silent is any kind of indicator then we may be in for a phase where people with too much free time take to the streets in costume. Personally I think this fellow comes off not so much as Batman, but more like the attention-craving character Darkwing Duck. Not everybody is as original as Mr. Silent though, especially when there's tons of established characters out there to emulate and adopt. How long until a "real" Super Mario appears to stomp on crime? Can game companies sue those who appear in public as a popular game character? And more importantly, when the time inevitably comes that a man really does suit up in red overalls and a familiar plumber's cap to fight crime, are we supposed to mock him mercilessly or merely shake our heads in quiet disappointment?
