Seattle's real-life superhero gets beaten up by real-life criminals

Remember Phoenix Jones, the guy who was dressing up in a superhero outfit and patrolling the streets of Seattle trying to fight crime? The one who stopped a carjacking in action a week or so before? The one who I said was going to end up in the hospital so very soon? Yeah, I was right: over the weekend, Jones was involved in an altercation with two men and ended up with a broken nose. (It could have been a lot worse: one of the guys had a gun.) Here's how it went down:

"They were all swearing at each other and like about to fight," Phoenix said. So he stepped in to break up the brawl and one of the guys turned on him.

"He starts swinging on me and starts an altercation with me."

Phoenix said he called 911, put one of the men in a headlock and waited for police. But seconds later, Phoenix said, another man pulled out a gun.

When he let go of the man he was holding, the man kicked Phoenix in the face, breaking his nose. Both men got away.

You know what they say: never bring a misplaced sense of do-goodism and a modified S&M costume to a gun fight. Police are not pleased, saying that this incident is exactly the kind of reason people shouldn't become vigilante superheroes. (Unless you have, like, the power of flight and invulnerability. Then you absolutely must.)

Not surprisingly, Jones has said the broken nose is no big deal, and it doesn't sound like he's going to give up anytime soon. Hopefully this will be the worst of his injuries.