Real Life Superheroes Announce Plans to Patrol West Village

From the pages of comic books to blockbuster silver screen epics, the character of the vigilante superhero has long occupied a prominent place in American popular culture. In a case of life imitating art, a group of real life superheroes announced their crusade to rid Greenwich Village of anti-gay villains who have plagued the community with a string of hate crimes in recent weeks. Filling the capes of Gotham's Batman and Metropolis' Superman will be New York's own Spyder, Spectre, Dark Guardian and Zero.

DNAinfo New York reports - "Their names are Spyder, Spectre, Dark Guardian and Zero.
After the May 18 killing of gay Harlem resident Mark Carson, 33, and several beatings of gay men across the city, the group of self-styled heroes plans to hit the streets of Greenwich Village and the West Village dressed in tactical clothing and bulletproof vests, explained Staten Island-based crime-fighter Dark Guardian."

"Violence on its own is wrong, and it's even worse when a specific group is being targeted," said the martial-arts instructor, whose real name is Chris Pollak, 28. "We care about everyone, from every walk of life, and we want to keep everybody safe. Our focus now is the Village."

Pollack and his crime fighting colleagues are members of the New York branch of a national organization called the Initiative Collective, who according to their Facebook page are "a group working to actively fight and deter crime, help the needy, and make the local NY/NJ area a safer and better place." Their mission statement reads "We are individuals organized towards achieving peacekeeping objectives and humanitarian missions. This will translate into a variety of non-monetary services as unfolding events demand. Our primary goal will always be to help those in the most need to the highest ethical standard and to the maximum effect."

In addition to patrolling the West Village this summer, the group will be filming a documentary that according to their indiegogo fundraising page will be "exploring one unusual group's need to do good for their world & their trip from CA to NY in search of others who are compelled to do the same."

In a statement made to DNAinfo New York, Pollack aka Dark Guardian who made headlines when the group responded to a 2011 mugging spree in the West Village said "We calm down situations... If there are a bunch of people banded together, [aggressive people] are less likely to become violent."