Rainn Wilson and Phoenix Jones attend the "Super" Los Angeles Premiere
Is a Seattle man’s imagination just a bit too active, or is he really called to the duty of protecting the city’s citizens as “superhero” Phoenix Jones?
A judge will be deciding that, as Jones faces charges stemming from an altercation early Sunday with club-goers in which he jumped into a fight taking place and started pepper spraying people. Apparently, his heat vision and super-speed weren’t available, but a can of Sabre was.
To give a little background on this crime fighter who seems to be garnering international headlines, Phoenix Jones is apparently the alter ego of mixed martial arts fighter Benjamin Fodor. He is the leader of a group of super-friends called the Rain City Superhero Movement, according to his Facebook page, who pledge to get in the way every time something happens in the street intervene when the weak need defending.
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Reports of the movement sprang up earlier this year when Seattle police noted that one of the members of the group was nearly shot when he ran out of a dark park and two others, who had donned masks, were nearly arrested when a witness thought they were going to rob a gas station.
Fodor’s altercation unfolded as he ran into a group of clubbers scuffling in the street. Followed by a camera crew and a guy in Insane Clown Posse makeup, he jumped into the fracas. Naturally, it’s all caught on video. Police say there wasn’t a fight and he was the offender, while a spokesman says Phoenix Jones was defending a man being “viciously beaten.”
After Fodor doused random people with pepper spray and was hit with women’s purses, police come to break up the skirmish. The masked “vigilante,” dressed in a rubber costume that looks like a combination of used Spawn and Batman outfits, was arrested and sat in King County Jail before he posted $3,800 bail, according to the Seattle Times. Fodor’s next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday.
At least Luke Cage got paid for his superheroism. This guy is losing money.
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Madison Gray is Homepage Producer at TIME.com. Find him on Twitter at @madisonjgray. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.