MyCrimeSpace

Mr. Silent

by Trench on July 7th, 2006

This crime fighter may be silent, but he’s far from being deadly:
This is for the person who said I don’t do any good stories about MySpace. You can’t rank any higher on the scale of good than a superhero…

A young man stands on the south side of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. The ominous stone memorial looms above him as he waits on the top steps dressed in black pinstriped pants and vest, a pressed black button-down shirt, a black felt hat and silver gloves.

This man, who refuses to reveal his real name when in costume, carries a silver-topped cane. A silver mask hides any expression, revealing little more than soft brown eyes.

While his costume does plenty to conceal his identity, it belies a fit physique. His stealth movements, inspiration for his superhero name Mr. Silent, evidence years of martial arts.

Above him, “To Indiana’s Silent Victors” is etched in the limestone and sculptures representing men who’ve fought for justice adorn the 284-foot tall shrine.

It’s an interesting parallel.

“Hey, what are you?” a passerby asks. “A mime?”

“No,” he responds, handing him a card that reads simply: “Mr. Silent,” along with the Japanese characters for “quiet repose” and an e-mail address.

“Hey, you’re supposed to be Mr. Silent; you just talked,” the man says, looking up from the card. “So what do you do?”

“I fight crime.”

The man in black

Mr. Silent gets this a lot.

“People are always asking: ‘Are you a mime?’ or ‘What are you guys doing?’ ” the 27-year-old tells me. Usually he has his partner Doktor DiscorD along. Not surprisingly, two men in costumes walking around Downtown incite odd reactions.

Mr. Silent just brushes it off. People aren’t accustomed to seeing superheroes patrolling the city . . . yet. But since the duo began this “experiment,” as Mr. Silent calls it, the superhero trend has started to catch on. Others have e-mailed the duo asking how they can join and superheroes have popped up in other cities worldwide, he said.

“A lot of people have told us that they’ve been waiting for something like this to happen,” he said. “Like there was a hole in them; they always wished that something like this was real.”

Certainly people are familiar with the likes of Superman and Batman. Comic book characters are practically ingrained in American culture, as evidenced by the slew of movies released each year. X-Men, Superman and “My Super Ex-Girlfriend” are all on the summer movie circuit. But in real life?

“People have tried to invent time machines because of H.G. Wells or teleporters because of Star Trek,” Mr. Silent said. “It almost makes you wonder why no one has done this before.”

After discussing the idea for quite some time, he and Doktor DiscorD decided to hit Indianapolis streets about a year ago.

“It was just a big experiment to see how people would react,” he said. “We’ve gotten some good responses.”

Unlike Bruce Wayne, Mr. Silent’s alter ego isn’t a billionaire. He has a full-time job to tend to, so he only makes it out about once per week, cruising the alleys of Downtown after dark, looking to help where needed.

Although he isn’t afraid to throw a punch, Mr. Silent is quick to point out that he prefers to avoid confrontations.

“We’re really more towards the hero aspect than the vigilante thing,” he said.

Helping people is the focus, even if it means handing out heat packs to the homeless in the winter when hard-pressed to find something to do.

“You don’t have to have superpowers to be a superhero,” Mr. Silent said. “We see heroes every day. We’re just the ones with the costumes on.”

And of course Mr. Silent has a MySpace.

Everybody should add him as their friend. Only if we could all be a little more like Mr. Silent.

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