https://streamyard.com/nydfqfkpr5

Welcome to Interesting If True, the podcast that fights for truth, justice, and the Ame… nope… umm… Empathy, let’s just say empathy.

I'm your host this week, Aaron, and helping vanquish the forces of evil this week is, Shea!

I'm Shea, and this week I learned that an avocado is a vegan kinder egg.

You know Plastic Man was an egg for a while but what hatched out of him was… not as good as a Kinder Surprise.

Speaking of super heroes…

While DC struggles to make an alien god, or a violently narcissistic, billionaire relatable Marvel has been crushing the pop culture scene for more than a decade. And sure, in comics for going on a hundred years. So it’s no wonder that people have become fixated on the idea of becoming a superhero.

Sadly, with the tragic exception of a few kids trying to fly each year, almost no one has the balls… or ovaries… to suit up and take back the night.

I say “almost” because today we’re talking about Real Life Super Heroes. And for those of you who read the show notes, that phrase is capitalized because it’s a proper noun. As in, Real Life Superheroes is an organization, or a league if you will, of heroes fighting for what’s right… or, you know, justice.

Unfortunately, people don’t have super powers… but thanks to comics and movies like Kick-Ass, even the depowered, non-billionaire, crowd is feeling like they can get in on the action. Seriously, a large percentage of the heroes we’re about to talk about cite the story of an awkward kid dressing up in a green unitard and getting his ass beat so badly his super-origin is hospital bills and nerve damage as the inspiration for their own origin stories. Personally, I might have chosen the path that doesn’t include your mentor’s mentor getting tied to a chair and set on fire while his daughter and your uncomfortably young love interest watches—but you do you I guess.

After all, what successful superhero doesn’t have a closet full of what’s left of their friends and family?

I suppose, as with most comics, we should start at the beginning. The Silver Age if you will… because Captain Ozone widely considered to be the first real life super hero but also his costume is mostly silver… I’m clever.

Captain Ozone first burst onto the scene in 1989, interestingly, a year and a half before that Captain Planet swindler stole his gig. Captain Ozone doesn’t have any superpowers to speak of but like Booster Gold, or more accurately, John Conner, Ozone has come back from the future, 2039 to be precise, to warn us that we’re literally murdering the planet and should stop doing that lest we find ourselves in the dystopian hellscape he grew up in.

His notable accomplishments include more than a decade of teaching American and Candian children about environmentalism, how kids can make their own PSAs about the environment, many of which have run on cable TV in both countries, he established Eco Art Day, November 24th, and organized the 2010 Green Power Rally. So that’s all good stuff.

Captain Ozone’s mission was to come back and stop oil barons from destroying the future. Armed only with his trusty Toilerang, his car-top mounted, silver, time traveling crapper, he takes on the DC elite in the fight for a greener future!

According to rlsh (real life super hero) fandom wiki no one ever unmasked Captain Ozone and while he hasn’t been seen in years I like to think he’s still out there even now, protecting us from Exxon and such.

Captain Ozone makes a good introduction because he’s, by all accounts, a cool guy, the first hero, and an example of the kinds of heroes who would follow him.

Our heroes today fall roughly into four categories.