Fighting crime, battling injustice: The world of real-life superheroes

This article explores the motivations, actions and experiences of real-life superheroes, those individuals who adopt a superhero persona inspired by both comic books and films, to engage in a range of activities that involve, amongst others, fighting crime, providing community support and battling injustice. Drawing on 13 in-depth interviews with individuals from different countries, as well as an ethnographic content analysis of online material, this innovative research explores the merging of the fictional and the real, the virtual and the terrestrial in the lives of interviewees. The article also enriches our understanding of the carnival of crime' and edgework' by arguing that risk, pleasure, excitement and transgression can also be found in a carnival of 'doing good' as well as in 'wrongdoing'.