A superhero spouse comes out of the phone booth
April Apple steps out from her husband's day-glow shadow



April Apple flashes a smile for the cameras at Sydney St. Sylvain's fall fashion show. Photo courtesy of Mnemosyne Media.

By Bernice Teschmacher, for Who Watches the Watchmen? magazine

SEATTLE — Celebrities come out of the closet all the time, but April Apple was looking to break out of some other boxes.

"Plenty of people feel like there are limits on how much they can just be themselves," said Apple, the wife of Lair Legion field leader CrazySugarFreakBoy! "That's especially true of women in our line of work."

Before she married Dreamcatcher Foxglove, Apple created the critically (though not commercially) successful Groovy Gecko-Gal comic, but that's not the profession to which she's referring.

Shortly after her husband made his impassioned public plea on behalf of non-human personhood (in what's already been dubbed his "I feel, and that makes me real" speech), Apple announced that she'd started two new nonprofits — Out of the Phone Booth and Out of the Fridge — to create support systems for not only superheroes coping with secret identity issues, but also their "civilian" loved ones, respectively.

During her sparsely populated press conference, Apple touted her dual qualifications with such experiences in a way that made many absent media wish they'd bothered to attend, when she disclosed that she'd not only been targeted by Mars Meltsher, the "Women in Refrigerators" killer, as the fiancée of a famous superhero, but that she was also a former superhero herself.

"I still can't believe that almost nobody caught on before now," said Apple, who fought crime in New York City as the costumed Groovy Gecko-Gal during her teens and early 20s. "Especially after I suited up to go up against Mars Meltsher during my wedding."

Given that nearly everyone in attendance was wearing Halloween costumes for the occasion, Apple admitted that it's perhaps understandable that her own outfit seemed not to raise any suspicions, although she's much less sanguine regarding the media focus on the relationship between her, her husband and their close mutual friend, Elisabeth Barrie.

"It's complicated, and that's as much as I feel free to say about it before Bettie figures out how much of her private life she feels comfortable with sharing with the rest of the world," Apple said after her press conference, during an exclusive interview with Who Watches the Watchmen? magazine. "Dream's different. He lives out loud, and if it only affected him, he wouldn't care who knew what. Hell, even I'm more of a public person, in spite of having maintained a secret identity for most of my life, considering that I turned my life story into a superhero comic book."

The daughter of media critic Ambrose Augustus Apple and child psychiatrist Dr. Avril Addams-Apple, April Alice Apple hasn't spoken to either of her parents since she successfully lobbied the courts to have herself legally emancipated from them during her adolescence.

"I love Dream, but he just doesn't get it sometimes," Apple said. "Not everyone can come out of the phone booth with the sort of safety net that he took for granted, when he first became a superhero. No matter how bad things got for him when he was growing up, he always had family and friends who loved and supported him. Me? I was lucky to have Nana Peg show me the ropes as much as she did, considering that she didn't want me dressing up to go fight crime in the first place."

"Nana Peg" is Apple's great-aunt Peggy Allen, the former Woman in Red, who's since been recognized as the first female costumed crime-fighter of the "Golden Age" of superheroes.

Apple credits Allen's training, coupled with her own service and studies as a Police Explorer in high school, with preparing her for many of the challenges of her chosen vocation, but soon after she started, Apple found herself fighting feelings of isolation in addition to her foes, since Allen was the only one with whom she chose to share her secret identity during the years that she was still active as the Groovy Gecko-Gal.

"If you're one of the good guys, and you feel like you're all alone, Out of the Phone Booth is here for you," Apple said. "Our volunteers are available around the clock to provide everything from stress management counseling to qualified legal advice with the utmost discretion. Protecting your privacy is paramount to us. And if you choose to come out of the phone booth, we'll be there to support you through all the steps of that process, too."

The services offered by Out of the Fridge are likewise free and anonymous, and range from relationship counseling for superheroes and their "civilian" loved ones to self-defense courses for the friends, family members, spouses and significant others of costumed crime-fighters.

"Which is especially important for us gals, given how we're chosen as targets way more often than guys," Apple said. "I'll be damned if I live my life hiding behind my husband, and no other woman should have to, either. When I was younger, I didn't feel like I could come out to anyone about who I was or what I was doing, and as much as it sucks to say, I was probably right back then. But now? Two of the best gifts Dream has given me are his huge extended family, who have welcomed me with ... well, mostly open arms, and his unconditional belief in me. I spent so much of my life pushing myself to become 'better,' to please other people, that it's a trip to have someone cheer me on just for being me."

Some very fun and clever ideas here, wrapped up in a nice storytelling style. It's really quite a good way to introduce some new concepts, as the exposition flows nicely in an newspaper article format.

I hope we get to hear more from A.A.A. (and not the roadside service people...)