Riverdale 'Superman' flying high after arrest

Superman, AKA Maksim KatSnelson of Riverdale, and his friends, Batman and Captain America, both from Brooklyn, wander up West 235th Street. Photo by Karsten Moran

’Not exactly the credentials the Justice League is looking for,’ one man mused as he watched Mr. Katsnelson stroll down Johnson Avenue.

By Kevin Deutsch

Maksim Katsnelson — aka the Riverdale Superman — never landed in a corn field in Kansas, battled Lex Luthor over the world’s fate, or fired red-hot lasers from his eyes.

In fact, the 23-yearold still lives with his parents on West 246th Street, invites his comic-book-loving friends over to goof off, and posts videos of himself re-enacting the Risky Business floor-slide scene on YouTube.

He also has the unsuper distinction of having been thrown in jail for tussling with police after performing as the Man of Steel in Times Square on July 9, then having to call on his father to deliver a change of clothes for his court appearance.

“Not exactly the credentials the Justice League is looking for,” one Riverdalian mused as he watched Mr. Katsnelson stroll down Johnson Avenue in full Superman regalia.

Yet in the wake of that ugly incident, which saw the shaggy-haired, softspoken performance artist’s picture splashed across the pages of city tabloids, complete with stories mocking him as a “nut job” and “superzero,” the Riverdale Superman seems to be growing a small but adoring fan base. Kids scrambled to snap pictures with him outside the Starbucks on Johnson Avenue Monday; joggers asked him if he could save New York from the forces of evil (Donald Trump’s name came up a few times); and a woman requested he use his x-ray vision to find her lost car keys. “People need a Superman,” said Mr. Katsnelson, who bought the costume for $40 at a Riverdale Avenue comic book shop two weeks ago. “It might seem weird to some people, but when I put it on, I felt like I was alive for the first time. I felt like a real hero. I wanted to do something positive.”

After successfully working a children’s birthday party in Battery Park, he set his sights on a bigger stage: Times Square. Along with a friend who donned a Batman costume, Mr. Katsnelson headed toward 42nd Street Thursday night with an American flag, a boom box and a CD of the Superman theme. The duo engaged in a strange but captivating act featuring ballet moves and simulated fighting, choreographed to the classic John Williams score from the original Superman film. Tourists ate up the show, laying dollar bills down as they shouted encouraging words and posed for pictures with the performers.

The gig was going well, they thought, until the cops arrived and started asking about permits for their amplified music. When officers tried to bring Mr. Katsnelson to the police station to issue him a summons, they say he struck Officer Vanessa Campisi in the mouth, giving her a bloody, swollen lip.

Mr. Katsnelson, an occasional model whose face is now lined with cuts and bruises from the tussle, denies striking the officer. He blames the incident on overaggressive cops. His parents, too, complained about his treatment.

“Instead of telling him how to get a permit, they threw him in jail,” said Leonora Katsnelson, 52, who left the former Soviet Union for New York in 1991, when her son was a toddler. “In Stalin’s regime, I can see that. But not here. This is supposed to be the cultural center of the world.”

Ilya Katsnelson, a businessman who was rescued from the 89th floor of one of the World Trade Center towers by an NYPD officer on 9/11, appreciates the police but can’t understand how his son landed in jail for portraying an all-American hero.

“Why would they throw him down like this? They had guns. He had nothing. Why treat him so roughly?” he asked.

Maksim Katsnelson was also arrested on a charge of resisting arrest in May while performing acrobatic feats in a Tarzan outfit outside of Planet Hollywood on Broadway. He allegedly swung off the roof of a limo and tried to grab onto a taxi cab in an attempt to evade police.

“My son’s a nice boy,” Ms. Katsnelson said. “He just likes to entertain. What’s wrong with that?”

Mr. Katsnelson, who attended PS 24 and the David A. Stein, Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy, MS/HS 141 before heading to college, said his latest run-in with police won’t discourage him. He plans to spend more time entertaining people as Superman in Riverdale and Manhattan, alongside two costumed and caped friends, who dress as Batman and Captain America.

He says he’d like to use his newfound notoriety to help raise money for environmental causes and perform for larger audiences. He’s got nothing against the cops, he said, and intends to tip them off if he sees anything fishy during his travels through the city.

But he admittedly got off to a rough start at his latest gig when his superhero triumvirate tried to perform at the Waldorf Astoria on Monday. He says hotel workers threatened and shooed them away.

“Being a superhero isn’t easy,” he said.

This is part of the July 16, 2009 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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