UNITY IS OUR SUPERPOWER

In comic books, superheroes can do extraordinary things. There is no one defining feature that makes any given character a “superhero” besides the writer stating so. Take Black Widow and James Bond. One is an Avenger, the other is just a spy. James Bond could absolutely fit on the team if Hawkeye can.

Superpowers, costumes, morals, etc all go into what makes a superhero, but no one attribute can describe a “supehero.” Some don’t have the superpowers like Batman or Nightwing, some don’t have much of a costume like Luke Cage, some have questionable morals.

The reason I bring this up is because people will criticize the idea of superheroes in real life due to the fantasy aspects missing. Wrong, the fantasy aspects only exist to keep you paying attention, the real life purpose is to deliver you an impactful moral message through these role model characters. Functionally speaking, the RLSH movement does the same things in the real world that fictional superheroes do.

You’re already helping by being on this website! Absolutely anything you buy here goes back to helping, 20% of all purchases go right back into donations, 40% goes to the artists who helped me, and 40% goes to expanding the superhero movement to new heights, the sky’s the limit!

But. You’re probably not here to read me shamelessly plug merch, huh?

Yeah. I know. Sorry.

You want to be a superhero! I want you to be a superhero too. You don’t need to go out there fighting crime and finding trouble.

Truth be told, though, how you can help is truly up to you! That’s the wonderful thing about the RLSH community. You can take anything you’re passionate about, good at, or just want to do for altruistic goals. If you’re a mechanic, you could go wander the streets for people broken down on the side of the road. If you’re an EMT, street medics are super cool. Maybe you just want to inspire positive change somewhere important to you, THAT can also be anything you’d like. It could be wanting to inspire fitness, or inspiring financial literacy, or even normal literacy. There is no end to the many ways you could help someone out, and RLSH is a fun and impactful vehicle to delivering that help to people. It’s up to you to come up with creative ways to use what you excel at to help others, AKA your “superpower.”

TW: Schizophrenia, Violence, Abuse

YOUNG CHILDHOOD

Skylines childhood was dysfunctional to say the least. His mother lost custody of him as a toddler to his grandparents in L.A. They would take in more of the troubled family members, including his schizophrenic uncle.

Growing up, Skyline and his uncle got along well, he was like an older brother. However, frequent violent episodes were always something to worry about coming home to. When Skyline was 10 he came home to horror. His uncle was in the process of switching medication, which is a volatile time for people suffering from schizophrenia. His uncle attacked his grandparents with a kitchen knife, killing his grandmother and gravely wounding his grandfather. His other uncle, however, was there to take the knife and get him out of the house. Skyline was deeply shaped by this attack, and was influenced into protector roles ever since.

TEENAGE HOMELESSNESS

After the attack, the young Skyline was given back to his birth mom. He would soon learn why she lost custody to begin with when moving in with her and his step-dad. Skyline never met his father, and he passed before he could, but his step-dad was a trust fund baby. So, while he was an asshole, he could at least afford to get Skyline into martial arts like he wanted. The step-dad moved them all out to New Mexico, only for them both to leave again at the age of 15. They said they would be back in 2 weeks, but Skyline was on his own since then.

Or so he thought.

He was able to find ways off of the streets many nights thanks to the generosity of others, like his own Sifu who let him keep taking classes for free and spend more time in class to avoid the curb. Eventually after 8 months, this generosity would become stability. Skyline tried to become a police service aid when he turned 18, but while he passed every other test, he failed the background check for his credit score. So, he got into a security job to pursue a private investigation career…

OFF TO THE MILITARY

But then a few years into that he lost his job when his car broke down in the middle of Arizona near his 21st birthday. He was trying to travel home to California to see family, but instead spent all his money on trying to get his car fixed out there. Eventually he ran out of money and just took a train back home with what little he had left. Back at square 1 he was convinced to join the military by an old friend of his, so Skyline chose…

SKY-line chose….? The Navy. You thought it was gonna be Airforce huh?

Well, you’d still kinda be right because in the Navy he was an Air Traffic Controller, telling pilots where to go, and when to land. However, while in the Navy, Skylines grandpa had joined his grandma due to Covid. Also due to Covid, the Navy wouldn’t allow him to go to the funeral. Skyline instead went to chaps. In the military, you avoid mental health to not be kicked out, and instead talk to a chaplain. Chaplain sent Skyline to mental health when hearing more about what happened with his grandparents and uncle. Mentioning schizophrenia in the family to that degree is an instant red flag to the military. He conveniently never brought it up when joining. They sent Skyline to a mental health hospital to test for schizophrenia, but, ultimately discerned there actually wasn’t any schizoaffective disorder, but instead ADHD paired with depression and anxiety. They still kicked him out, of course.

MYSTERY FIGURE

When Skyline returned home he had learned a lot of new perspectives about the world, especially politics. The brainwashing at bootcamp didn’t work as intended, he saw it as reason to be disappointed in the abusive manipulation. Instead of patriotism, Skyline had learned that we, America, are the global bullies. He became deeply radicalized against American imperialism and chose to dedicate his artistic endeavors to promoting a world liberated for the people. At first, he chose to speak through music.

At this time (and everything up to this point too) Skyline didn’t exist yet. He went by “MF Sevin” which a lot of people debated what “MF” meant for his stage name. That can’t be shared here exactly. However, loads of fun guesses were the obvious “Motha F***in” Sevin, or “Metal Face” Sevin like MF Doom. However, MF Sevin (Skyline) liked to play around with what the MF in his name meant. Publically he would come up with different things. Including his favorite stage persona. Mystery Figure.

There’s just something funny about a superhero with “MF” on their chest.

When MF Sevin saw posts of a superhero named “Rock Hard” pop up on his page, it gave him the idea to start posting some of his own videos as Mystery Figure to get in on the joke. After a few posts, however, Mystery Figure was messaged by another superhero named “The Brooklyn Devil.”

DAWN OF SKYLINE

Brooklyn Devil keeps good tabs on the superhero community, there’s been enough problem people come through as is. He was curious about Mystery Figure, and wanted to ask whether or not he was serious. Mystery Figure was confused, because, well, he didn’t think that superheroes WERE serious. Rock-Hard definitely wasn’t serious. Devil and Mystery Figure spoke for while, MF was pretty curious about it all. After a while of chatting about Mystery Figures history in martial arts, the military, security, and on the street unhoused, Devil suggested MF should just be a serious superhero too.

Mystery Figure was put away, while Skyline was being pieced together. It took months of work making a functioning supersuit. He didn’t start with an idea, he started by looking for the items he needed first as cheap as possible by going to pawn shops, facebook marketplace, and military surplus stores. Only AFTER he got the armor and gear he thought he would need did he get started on customizing. This is where a miscellaneous tacticool armor ninja became Skyline.

At first, he was going to go for white, blue, and purple to rethink the Mystery vibes. However, he thought about the purpose of a superhero in the real world more and what he wanted to do with the idea, it led him to cut purple out. Blue and white only, to resemble the sky. He wanted to inspire people towards a more compassionate future, so how better to be an inspiring image to people than to evoke the sky? Also, paint buckets were $40 per bucket so cutting a color was better on the wallet.

This is officially when NOVA SKYBEAM was born!!!

Yeah, the name was a work in progress while putting the suit together… Before actually hitting the streets as a superhero, he conceded and just asked a friend of his for help. Veronica S. Ford is an author that he had been friends with since Highschool, so he asked them and on the very first suggestion they gave him the name “Skyline”

THIS is when Skyline was official. You know the rest from here, as you can watch it all first hand on this very website in the video section!