The Wednesday Waffle Issue #34: Don't try this at home. Or at all really...

Before we get into the Waffle, I have to take a second to do the usual

LOOK AT ALL OF THIS WEEK'S NEW COMICS HERE!

thing, because it's kinda my job. But also before we get into the subject of this week's Waffle, we want to show you this:

Because that, believe it or not, is Stan "The Man" Lee introducing the Captain America cartoon in the sixties. Totally unrecognisable until he starts to talk...

Anyway. You've probably seen this by now, but just in case, I thought you might be interested in a new superhero character - ShadowVision, a down and dirty street level hero trained in martial arts and kitted out with various hand held weapons. He is the protector of the city of Little Rock Arkansas and has sworn to bring down the terrifying villain known only as the Little Rock Slasher, thought to be responsible for a series of unprovoked stabbings.

As a premise for a comic it's a little derivative, but if the characterisation was good I can see that a decent creative team could do something cool with it.

Here's the thing though. ShadowVision isn't fictional.

He's real.

"ShadowVision" Image taken form the Arkansas Times

You can read the full story over on the Arkansas Times, but this is him. In true costumed vigilante style his real name is unknown but for the last eight years this man has stood as the self styled protector of his adopted city.

So. A cynic might look at this picture and observe that he looks like a delusional wannabe who has bought a lot of tactical gear from wish.com (I recognise that helmet from ads that turn up on my twitter and instagram feeds...) and now craves attention.

I dunno though. I think there are some questions we should be asking.

Now. I'm completely aware that this is likely to be some kind of hoax, an elaborate practical joke perhaps, or just some friends having fun with creative cosplay. But for now I'm going to take him at face value. Let's assume that this guy really does patrol the streets with the intention of protecting the innocent from wrongdoers.

It's a bit of a worry, isn't it?

I can't help thinking that if he really is doing what he says he's doing, he's going to get himself killed. It's not just him either. If you check out his Facebook page (because of course he has one) you can see him hanging out with some like-minded fellow vigilante types calling themselves Master Legend and Anti-Hero, although he is clear that he prefers to work alone.

His claims regarding his exploits seem a little outlandish. He claims to have stopped "a couple of armed robberies" and "eliminated" a couple of serial killers. Why haven't we heard about this? Because it was a "long time ago". Colour me unconvinced. However, pictures on his Facebook page seem to suggest that he has some fans who really like him and feel that he's doing some good. So who am I to snark?

Still. Arkansas is clearly very different from the UK. Were a black clad man in a skull-like airsoft helmet to stride down Harrogate High Street with a brace of swords strapped to his back and a Sai on each thigh I suspect he'd very quickly find himself having a serious conversation with some very unimpressed Police officers. His social media features picture of him hanging out with member s of law enforcement - I suppose it's possible they just thought he was a guy in a suit, in that particular image he doesn't have the swords on his back, but he does still have the Sais on his hips. I guess the laws regarding offensive weapons are less stringent.

So why am I uneasy?

Perhaps it's because the existence of real, armed vigilantes who go out actively seeking trouble with the intention of beating up people they consider to be criminals raises all kinds of legal and ethical questions. Sadly, we know from history that trained officers operating under the authority of the law can go too far and commit acts of criminal violence against innocent people. At least when that happens there is a system by which such officers can be held accountable.*

But if a guy takes it upon himself to arm himself and launch ad-hoc patrols around town, sees something he perceives to be a crime and administers an unwarranted beating, to whom is he accountable? His identity is concealed. He doesn't have a chain of command. He answers to nobody. That's a problem.

But maybe it's not that. I mean, the legal and ethical questions are real enough but in this instance they're not really of concern to me except in the most abstract way. I don't live in Arkansas. It's not for me to tell the good people of Little Rock what is and is not acceptable. Ultimately it's for them to decide whether they want to allow, or even encourage this kind of thing.

No, maybe this story makes me uneasy because it highlights the utter ridiculousness of costumed superheroes. Every single one of the absolutely sensible objections a person might have to ShadowVision also applies to Batman or Daredevil, or any of the various costumed folk running around in the pages of our comics.

In the past when people have ridiculed superhero comics on the grounds that they're essentially just thugs acting as judge and jury whose actions are basically fascistic I've countered with the fact that they're fiction. The New York of Spider-Man isn't the real New York. Gotham, Metropolis, Central City, they don't exist at all.

The existence of ShadowVision and his friends blurs that line because they do exist in the real world. Even if they really are just attention seeking cosplayers who talk big but don't do very much, they normalise something that should be laughably absurd.

So, I guess what I'm saying is "I like Superheroes". But I'm also saying "Only in fiction". Let's not blur that line...

*At least in theory...