It\u2019s December, and while light snow dusts New York itself, Central Park is another story. Here shoppers ply the Columbus Circle Holiday Market for gifts, and skaters enjoy a spin around Wollman Rink, but only in Central Park do the small specks of ice turn to fat snowflakes, the crystals so large you\u2019d think they were pulled off a postcard and left to float to the ground. Meanwhile, along Broadway from the Columbus Circle all the way up into Harlem, the median trees glow and flicker with ghostly candlelight. And in Morgan Stanley Children\u2019s Hospital, the children will soon watch in awe as a bow-tied army of stuffed animals parade down the corridors and climb into their arms. This is but one of a dozen events happening in the Big Apple, during the season of miracles.<\/p>\n
For the past five years, the work of the Herald Society has been as much a tradition of the New York Holidays as the lighting of the tree at Rockefeller Center or the Radio City Music Hall Christmas show or the Chanukah Gala or the American Museum of Natural History\u2019s annual Kwanzaa Celebration. They are a loose society of metahumans who volunteer their time and their powers during the holidays to improve the lives of people, and they aren\u2019t just restricted to New York. Los Angeles has a branch, and there\u2019s talk of more chapters in Tokyo, London, and Sidney.<\/p>\n
The Herald Society\u2019s ranks are comprised of metahumans who have shied away from the limelight completely and never taken to the streets as superheroes (or those who put a tour behind them before retiring). Of course, you will find your occasional star like Grimsta or Mizz Verse putting in the occasional time as a volunteer, but the Heralds shy away attention, except as a group once a year.<\/p>\n
The Heralds were started by Laticia Broyle, a super-genius inventor and the brain behind the tech firm Spanner House. She\u2019s since used her company as a sponsor for the society, and donated toys for New York\u2019s underprivileged children. Her stuffed animals do not walk, but that\u2019s where her partner, Jess Malloy, comes in. Another Charlie-class meta, the pair met at one of the rare social gatherings held for non-costumed superhumans, and they\u2019ve been together since. Laticia\u2019s company lends its money to the purchase of toys and food for the poor, and Jess animates the figures with her powers.<\/p>\n
The exact number of Heralds varies year to year, but perennials include Anita James of James\u2019s Construction, Dr. Terrance Chu, Allan Crane, Randy Elks, and Veni Nayar. Without Anita James\u2019s telekinetic abilities, Santa and his reindeers wouldn\u2019t be seen flying across the city. Without Dr. Terrance Chu\u2019s light-based illusions, there wouldn\u2019t be candlelight sprucing up the trees along Broadway or the special lighting of the world\u2019s largest Menorah at Grand Army Plaza. Without Allan Crane\u2019s super speed, there wouldn\u2019t be the guardian angel who races around, saving people from smaller catastrophes on New York\u2019s slippery streets. And without Randy Elks, there wouldn\u2019t be the weather anomalies that allow large snowflakes to fall over Central Park or pollution-clear nights to celebrate the many festivals and parades. It\u2019s these metas who sit before me in the Spanner House boardroom, drinking coffee and nibbling on finger sandwiches.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not superheroes,\u201d Laticia says. \u201cWe live normal lives and use our tax money to fight crime, but that doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t want to be good neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sentiment echoed by the other Heralds. \u201cI repair public and private sites after metas have torn through an area,\u201d Anita James says. \u201cI use my powers for good. This, though. This is all about uplifting people and repaying the city we love. I’d volunteer whether I had powers or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Terrance Chu is more practical in his approach to the Holidays and his ability to manufacture light shows. \u201cI like to think I\u2019m a one man war against seasonal depression. The Holidays can be a tough time for many people, so I use my lights to generate positive feelings. Blues and greens to calm in frantic places, red and yellow to warm you in places you might feel isolated; I use warm and cold colors to uplift you, to make you think, to make you calm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allan Crane, however, may be the odd one of the bunch. \u201cTotal atheist,\u201d he says, laughing. He\u2019s an admitted adrenaline junkie who runs a one-man courier company who claims his only competition is the internet, \u201cand when the internet can deliver parcels and packages faster than me, then I\u2019ll be worried.\u201d In his spare time, he\u2019s helping people, but rarely getting into fights or engaging other metas. \u201cI don\u2019t feel it, you know?\u201d Allan says. \u201cI just like running, and there\u2019s a dozen ways I can be a good Samaritan every night when I\u2019m out for a stroll.\u201d Come December, Laticia hires Allan on an exclusive contract for the Heralds, and all his outings go toward the city. \u201cI get paid to run,\u201d he says. \u201cHow fricken awesome is that?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Heralds have been gaining popularity and volunteers steadily, both meta and baseline alike, and this year Laticia is starting new initiatives that include helping stock soup kitchens and helping homeless find a place to sleep. \u201cSure, some metas see this as a way to raise their visibility, but we sniff limelighters out pretty quickly,\u201d Jess Malloy says as she and Laticia hold hands. \u201cIt\u2019s really the powered types who prefer the 9-to-5 over the rooftop patrols that come to us. There\u2019s a lot of pressure to wear a cape when you trigger, and there\u2019s a lot of guilt too\u2026 are we doing the right thing?\u201d Everyone in the room nods, familiar with the sentiment. Randy Elks picks up the train of thought, adding, \u201cor are we being selfish going into business for ourselves? Being a Herald is one way us non-spandex metas feel like we\u2019re really contributing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Veni Nayar has spent the interview listening. He\u2019s a quiet-spoken man originally from New Delhi, and as a Hindu celebrates none of the December festivals. If his emotion-projection powers frighten some people, imagine how he feels. He\u2019s terrified of imprinting other people with his social anxieties, and has fought to control that part of himself through therapy and medication. It\u2019s been a long fight, but he\u2019s managed to find work with Emergency Services to help during hostage negotiations and to bring jumpers off the ledge. It\u2019s he who speaks up for the first time and he who closes out our interview. \u201cI am told the only way to do good is to fight. Fight crime, fight corruption, fight evil\u2026 fight, fight, fight. Fighting scares me, and I hope through this I can show other metas that there are other ways to use their powers, that there are peaceful ways that matter as much. And when better to prove that then during the Holidays when the different faiths intersect and yet none of us really come together?\u201d<\/p>\n
When indeed? So whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Milad an-Nabi, or you just want to spend time with friends and family… Happy Holidays to one and all….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s December, and while light snow dusts New York itself, Central Park is another story. 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Until that time, however, here's a new Hero Beat article talking about The Narcissist, who we showcased in a mini arc\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":208,"url":"http:\/\/mozaikcomics.com\/HeroesWithoutBorders\/blog\/2015\/12\/10\/hero-beat-talking-with-riot-act\/","url_meta":{"origin":231,"position":2},"title":"HERO BEAT: TALKING WITH RIOT ACT","author":"Lucien","date":"December 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s Friday night at the end of a long shift, and Harry\u2019s is packed. Obviously, Harrys\u2019 isn\u2019t the bar\u2019s real name, the officers of the Armored Mobile Police (A.M.P.) and the investigative arm better known as Amplitude Squad like to keep their favorite watering hole a secret. 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Four of the tornadoes that spawned that day were F5s, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hero Beat"","block_context":{"text":"Hero Beat","link":"http:\/\/mozaikcomics.com\/HeroesWithoutBorders\/blog\/category\/hero-beat\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mozaikcomics.com\/HeroesWithoutBorders\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Grimsta-copy-218x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":288,"url":"http:\/\/mozaikcomics.com\/HeroesWithoutBorders\/blog\/2016\/02\/04\/hero-beat-roadkill-inc\/","url_meta":{"origin":231,"position":4},"title":"HERO BEAT: ROADKILL INC.","author":"Lucien","date":"February 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"You\u2019ve probably seen their white and yellow vans driving around Manhattan following a metahuman \u2018incident.\u2019 That\u2019s the industry\u2019s polite term for when metahumans get involved in something messy. 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