‘I got you’: Spider-Man helps wheelchair user cross busy US road

The best part about superheroes? They arrive at the right moment when you actually need them. And the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man just has incredible reaction timing. Let’s just say he operates up to 40 times faster than an average human. And that’s exactly what happened on Tuesday, 21 July, at a busy intersection in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Traffic cameras captured Spider-Man jumping to the aid of a man in a wheelchair struggling to cross the road. No, this isn’t a scene from a film. This happened in broad daylight, and the whole thing played out in seconds.Man dressed as Spider-Man turns into a real-life heroThe superhero, later identified as Christopher Hellenthal, 20, was returning from a superhero-themed event at a trampoline park where he works. He was driving home, still in his Spider-Man costume, when he saw a person in a wheelchair trying to cross the intersection. His superhero instincts perhaps kicked in, and before he could realise it, he was out there helping the man. “I got you,” Hellenthal told him. The speed surprised onlookers. He grabbed the wheelchair handles, pushed it across, and jogged back to the Jeep before the opposing lanes got their green light. A textbook rescue compressed into maybe 10 seconds.Hellenthal sensed an adrenaline rush when he saw the man in need. He didn’t hesitate or calculate the risk. He sprang into action, just like that. “I had a bunch of adrenaline pumping through me,” Hellenthal told The Associated Press. He had to act quickly in bustling midday traffic. “I was just kind of thinking, ‘I’m wearing this suit; it’s going to be pretty funny.’”Jonesboro police cameras captured the real-life superhero momentThe whole incident came to light after the Jonesboro Police Department shared the video on Facebook. It took the internet by storm, racking up tens of thousands of likes on the platform. Some locals even thought they had missed an opportunity to strike a ‘Spidey pose’. Officials, too, were taken aback by what they saw. “Not in my seven years in the department have I witnessed this,” Sally Smith, a department spokesperson, said, referring to the video. Officials are yet to identify the individual in the wheelchair.Who is this Jonesboro Spider-Man?Christopher Hellenthal, who lives in Lake City, east of Jonesboro, had no idea his actions had been captured on the Jonesboro Police Department’s cameras until his mum woke him from a nap, telling him the video had gone viral. And just like that, the whole city witnessed his timely act of kindness. As expected, Hellenthal is a Spider-Man fan. In fact, he even had the chance to meet the late Stan Lee, Spider-Man’s creator, who revolutionised comic books and helped make billions for Hollywood by introducing human frailties into Marvel superheroes. “I met Stan Lee when I was really young. I always thought that whenever I get older, if I could just put on a suit and make some little kid believe that he saw the real one, then maybe he’d turn out to be a good person,” Hellenthal said. Well, he really did. The dream turned into reality.Hellenthal’s colleagues are also having a proud moment. Packy Magel, a manager at Ultimate Air Trampoline Park, was the first to recognise Hellenthal from the viral video, even though the youngster was in superhero garb. And Magel adds that it is “very much like him to do something like that and very much like him to be still in costume”.“It’s just good to see anyone in today’s day and age doing something nice for someone else,” Magel said. “On the other hand, it was comical to me because he’s one of our employees, you know? And he shot out so quickly, I thought, it’s more like the Flash than Spider-Man!”In a city like Jonesboro, on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon, a man in a red Jeep and a Spider-Man mask reminded everyone that heroism isn’t about having superpowers. It is simply about being there when someone needs you, and moving fast enough to make a difference before the light changes.Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.