Superbarrio Gómez

Superbarrio Gómez
Superbarrio delivering a lecture in 2011
Born	Undisclosed
Nationality	Mexican
Occupation	Crimefighter, satirist, political activist
Honors	Appeared in Crisis #7 and #8

Superbarrio Gómez is a Mexican "real-life superhero," celebrity, satirist, and organizer. Inspired by the Luchador wrestler El Santo, and his social-justice superhero persona in comics and movies, Superbarrio wears red tights and a red and yellow wrestler's mask. Rather than fight crime and corruption with violence, he uses his image to organize labor rallies and protests, and file petitions. Although he has been claimed to be Marco Rascón Córdova, the authorized biography Todos Somos Superbarrio informs that although Rascón Córdova, a long-time social activist, did create the character, Marco was never Superbarrio, but it was rather a lesser-known political organizer, who was in turn substituted for a wrestler in the few times he actually fought on the ring.

The character was created in 1987 by Asamblea de Barrios, an organization fighting for affordable housing after the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, which left thousands of homeless. He first began stopping the evictions of families who paid rent. In 1988 he was informally declared candidate for the Mexican 1988 presidential election. He declined in favor of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and his Party of the Democratic Revolution which he supported in the following years.

In 1996 Superbarrio declared himself a "candidate" for the 1996 United States Presidential Election and held "mock" campaign rallies in the United States and Mexico.

Three books have been written about Superbarrio: Todos Somos Superbarrio (We are all Superbarrio) by Mauricio-José Schwarz, De Superman a Superbarrios (From Superman to Superbarrio) by Hans Röeder, and La Ciudad, La Otra by Raúl Batista González.

Superbarrio has appeared in the British comic book series (2000 AD Presents) Crisis #7 and #8. Superbarrio appeared as an activist trying to prevent multi-national corporations from taking advantage of Latin American Third World nations in the Third World War storyline by Pat Mills and Carlos Ezquerra.