from other parts of town and gang violence a com- mon occurrence. “I myself have been
attacked while out. I used to ride the trolley and bus a lot downtown as a teen- ager. I’ve been attacked, jumped, robbed at gun- point. Little bit of every- thing. I also grew up in an abusive household. My father would kick my ass pretty much every week. I think I was the oddball going to school. I didn’t fit in. I was bul- lied, beat up, ridiculed. I considered joining a gang. I considered join- ing an anarchist group, or going out and being a vigilante. Those ideas were in my mind. I was looking for acceptance.”
The patrol stops to help Bob, who has no idea where he is Stark eventually found
his place of belonging in the Guardian Angels, the renowned crime preven- tion patrol founded in
response to gang violence in New York City in 1979. The organization currently has more than 130 chap- ters worldwide.
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“Ever since I was young,
I had that desire to make a difference. I was fed up with the violent crime, violent victimization, gang violence, a lot of the apathy and indifference that sur- rounded it. I just wanted to get out there and make a difference. I was kind of heartbroken about how the world turns, why it has to be the way it is. So when I encountered Guardian Angels I felt empowered. This is for me. Ordinary citizens training for self- defense, plus I was very into martial arts back then, and I still am. I said, I could be a police officer or join the military or I could just do something here in
the community. Guardian Angels provided the alter- native I was looking for. A lot of them are black and Hispanic and come from rough backgrounds, kind of a gang atmosphere, but they’re going out there and doing good. I think that was what I was looking for. So I joined in 1998 and ended up starting my own Guardian Angel chapter in 2001. That was pretty tough, but I worked up to regional direc- tor and traveled around the world to Cape Cod, London, throughout the States, linking up with regional chapters.” After 14 years with the
Guardian Angels, training and establishing patrol for- mation protocols, Stark began to feel disillusioned. “I needed something to spice it up a little bit, plus I had a lot of experience on event security so I said, why don’t I give this a try? I was searching online thinking, what if some- one was out there trying to be a superhero? Kind of what they say about the guy in Kick-Ass, but I had those thoughts before the movie came out. When I was a kid, like everybody, I wanted to be Rambo, or G.I. Joe, or a ninja, and of course I was into Bat-
man, Superman, and all that stuff. What if some- one went out there and put on a superhero costume and went out and tried to help people? So I found the superhero registry. It showcased all these differ- ent real-life superheroes and they all had their MySpace pages. I saw Mr. Silent, Dark Guardian, Green Scorpion, all these different superheroes going out there, patrolling, things like that, and I got intrigued by the idea.” Stark took up the
moniker Mr. Xtreme and dreamed of one day gathering his own team of superheroes that he would call the Xtreme Justice League, a nod to the Justice League of America and the Xtreme Football League. “I stared doing thing
sporadically: patrols, com- munity events, meetings, vigils. I patrolled with Midnight Highwayman and his girlfriend, then I met Vigilante Spider, Shadow Hair came down from Cincinnati. In 2010, I think the XJL really started growing. I acquired more of a core membership. Urban Avenger joined and then soon after came The Grim and Divine Force and the rest is history.”
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PHOTOGRAPH BY DUSTIN GLIBERT
24 San Diego Reader July 21, 2016
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