Remember the man who scared the bejeezus out of shoppers by — and was arrested for — walking around Home Depot dressed like Batman (and not the cuddly ’60s TV Batman), asking if anyone needed help? Well, he says his motives were misunderstood… and that there are others out there like him.

“I’ve been doing this for months,” the man, who was charged with disorderly conduct and unlawful possession of handcuffs, tells Lehigh Valley’s Express-Times. “I’ve been going out at night and doing this, and meanwhile the one time I decide to go out in the day…”

He says he is one of around 100 so-called real-life superheroes, which is apparently different that vigilantism because they were capes and cowls. And they also speak in comic-book tropes.

“We are out there to try and inspire hope because that’s what the people need right now: hope,” explains the man, while we imagine a pounding Hans Zimmer score swelling in the background. “I’m not going out there looking for a fight.”

And yet, in spite of the fact that this last statement sounds like superhero scribe hackery, the man takes issue with witness accounts that he was asking Home Depot customers, “”Anyone need some help? I’m here to save the day.”

Anybody that knows me knows that I would never say anything like that,” he tells the Express-Times. “That is some comic-book [expletive].”

The man says he “abhors violence” and does “not like hurting people” — though he’s quick to point out “that doesn’t mean that I’m not trained to” — and agrees with police that, less than two weeks after a man killed 12 people at a Dark Knight Rises screening in Colorado, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to play superhero at the hardware store.

“I understand it was [expletive] timing and everything,” he admits. “I get that.”

Batman look-alike wanted to ‘inspire hope’ before arrest outside Home Depot [Express-Times]

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