"Early morning breaks over the city of celluloid dreams. Superman fumbles for a cigarette. Flick. A long pull. Exhale. Smoke swirls around a one-bedroom apartment exploding with Man of Steel memorabilia. Walls, ceilings and floors have sprouted action figures, lunchboxes and movie posters, a genuine fortress of servitude.

The phone trills. "Yeah, I'll be out there soon," Christopher Dennis croaks. He eyes a box of Apple Jacks and a Twinkie. Nah, time to work.

Through the doorway, down the stairs and into the sunshine strides Dennis, 39, a vision from another planet, from his red leather boots to his dyed black hair.

With his loping gait, he can cover the two blocks to Hollywood's Walk of Fame in a flash. But the cries start the instant the billowing cape comes into view: "Hey, it's ... Superman!"USA Today about a real superhero

"The world is filled with stresses, we've all never felt more powerless, and that's why these characters appeal," says Gerard Jones, author of Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book. "These days, I don't think there's that big a gap between the simple fan and someone out there living their life as a superhero." Pictures (c) by Robert Hanashiro (USA Today)