Some people love reading about true crime. Others love fighting it.
All across the United States, in cities both sprawling and compact, men and women have answered to a higher calling — one that makes them feel as though they have regained some semblance of control in a world gone mad.
They’re called real-life superheroes and they’re vigilantes in costume who take to the streets each night to help maintain order and disrupt criminals.
Kind of like Batman, but without the butler and the trust fund.
Now, the city of Minneapolis has its own Dark Knight: a crime-fighting superhero known simply as NoMark.
The Minnesota Star Tribune recently joined NoMark as he patrolled Minneapolis in his black uniform. He conceals his identity with a black mask emblazoned with a menacing skeleton’s grin.
As a reporter was shadowing NoMark, the superhero — with more than 500,000 followers — was recognized by Anton Tran, who screamed, “It’s NoMark!” “before dropping to his knees in the middle of the street and pumping his fists as if he’d just won the lottery,” reads the article.
Before he knew it, NoMark found himself surrounded, and posing for selfies.
NoMark has been sharing videos of his exploits, including the recovery of a stolen bike and the quelling of a physical fight.
He even helps inebriated Minnesotans get back to their homes safely and has chased away graffiti artists.
NoMark first surfaced in the fall of 2025 when he took it upon himself to take down the “Minnesota Pisser,” an individual who was caught on video urinating on a number of University of Minnesota landmarks.
Some of his videos have several million views.
While law enforcement generally frowns upon freelance crime fighting, that has not stopped vigilantes from going rogue.
In New York, the Brooklyn Devil is the last member of a once great collective of anonymous crime disruptors.
The electric skateboard-riding Brooklyn Devil also dresses entirely in black when he goes on patrol and conceals his face behind a red-and-black tactical half-mask, the kind that are popular with paintball players. He also dons a backwards baseball cap on his head featuring a pair of 2-inch polycarbonate devil’s horns.
“I just wanted to go out and do something good in the world,” the heavily tattooed, Muay Thai-trained man told the New York Post in 2024. “I’m not a crime fighter or a superhero — I’m a violence interrupter and I’m a people protector.”
