Spider-Man adjusts his web shooters and walks into the public library to grab a Monster energy drink from the vending machine. He’s been coming to this library since he was a kid, long before he became known as B-Town Spidey.
The spider emblem is peeling off the center of his suit. He was hoping to have a new suit finished by today, but sewing it himself is a process. It’s made of screen printed fabric, more durable and textured than regular fabric, which makes his suit more realistic. He wears Crocs underneath his boots because the boots are basically glorified socks with no soles.
He pops the tab, steps into the harsh afternoon sun and takes off his mask. People stare. He doesn’t mind.
Five days a week, he works in the kitchen at DeAngelo’s making pizza. He is known there as Josef Armstrong. The other two days, Armstrong, 22, is perched on a ledge somewhere on Kirkwood or Indiana Avenue in his blue-and-red Spidey suit.
Armstrong has gained a local cult following as @Btownspidey on social media, including an Instagram account with over 400 followers and several Reddit posts that received more than 100 upvotes. Here, he posts reveals of the suits he’s made and gives his fans progress updates on his sewing.
The first time he stepped out in the suit in 2021, he was scared. He still gets scared three years later, describing himself as an anxious person. But, after the first few minutes, he gets used to the feeling. It just becomes fun.
“That’s the coolest mustache I’ve ever seen,” Spidey says to a man passing by with upturned silver whiskers. The man turns around and chuckles before continuing down Kirkwood Avenue toward downtown.
Josef Armstrong shows off a new Spider-Man suit on his Instagram Sept. 27, 2024. He has sewed all of his own costumes, a skill he picked up from his grandmother at a young age.
Armstrong, or Spider-Man two days a week, wants to make people smile.
***
Armstrong’s grandpa, George Vlahakis, says he has always been Spider-Man. In the preschool talent show, Armstrong put on his first suit and sang the Spider-Man theme song.
“He was something else, just beautiful, always wearing those costumes,” his grandmother Donna, who he calls Nana, says.
Nana says he has been artistic since he was in preschool, always drawing and watching her sew. She has been sewing her whole life, and at one point made a living sewing costumes for an opera company and a porcelain doll store in Pennsylvania. She says the one good thing that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic was the time spent with Armstrong.
When COVID began in 2020, he was living in Bloomington with his grandparents. It was then that his Nana helped him sew his first Spider-Man suit, although she had previously taught him how to use a sewing machine when he was a kid.
He has made over 10 Spider-Man and Batman suits with his Goodwill sewing machine in the last four years. Although, he much prefers to be Spider-Man.
His newest suit was finished within a week. It’s much shinier than the last, with a brick-like texture and brighter blue colored legs. He hand-painted webs on the blue sections on his legs and back. The spider emblem is firmly secured on his chest atop the webbed red center.
He doesn’t like to brag, but he has become pretty good at sewing.
The gloves are his least favorite part to sew, although he has become better with practice.
“I can sew an entire suit, shirt, pants, hell, even boots,” Armstrong says. “But, I don’t like to do the fingers. They’re so easy to screw up if they’re not stretchy enough.”
The mask is completely new. He made it all himself, except for the moving, light-up eyes controlled by a Bluetooth remote the size of his thumb. The eyes can close, wink and glow at the touch of a button, which he wears under his glove to keep it safe.
***
There has only been one instance in the three years since he stepped outside in the suit that he had to save someone. He was alone, walking around on the one night a year where costumes on the street were expected. It was Halloween 2022, and a man was unconscious on the concrete in front of the library.
He was lying near the front entrance by a window. A stranger pointed him out to Armstrong because he happened to be the closest person to him on the dimly lit street.
Together, they checked on him, but Spidey was nervous the man would wake in a dazed panic to see he was being saved by the well-known hero. He took his mask off and checked for breath. It was there.
He and the bystander called an ambulance. As far as he knows, the man made it to the hospital alive.
Like the real Spider-Man, Armstrong cares for his city. He was born and raised here, and loves everything about it except the bad drivers. He wants to make Bloomington a happier place and has found joy in surprising unsuspecting students walking to class.
Saving people isn’t his mission, but B-Town Spidey will always help where he is needed. Eventually, if he can figure out a budget, he wants to donate to the unhoused.
The kids especially make it worth it. In September, he went roller skating in the suit and found a kid wearing a Spider-Man T-shirt.
“He loves to make the kids smile and see them find joy in what he does,” Nana said. “He has a tendency to be shy, and this way, he doesn’t have to be.”
As he is squatting on a ledge outside Urban Outfitters, a family of four points from a nearby store and says, “Look, Spider-Man.” He doesn’t notice. They stare and walk the opposite direction.
Two girls round the corner from Indiana Avenue onto Kirkwood and giggle. They get into a single file and walk the long way around a tree, away from Spider-Man. He poses for a picture.
He doesn’t know if it is because of his new hobby, or just because his life circumstances have improved, but he is much happier now than he was in high school four years ago.
Josef Armstrong poses for a photo posted on his Instagram page, "btownspidey," on Sept. 11, 2024. He has gained more than 400 followers on the platform, and uses it to debut suits and interact with the Bloomington community.
***
For his new suit reveal, he proudly walks among crowds on a Thursday night. The crowds don’t bother him, and besides, he is wearing a mask.
Once, a group of students on scooters whizzed by him and called him a slur. He doesn’t think much of it, though. He thinks it was both sad and funny.
His patience is apparent. He can trace it back to an incident in first grade when he made a stupid joke to a friend and got punched in the face. He didn’t retaliate. He saw no point.
Patience comes in handy for Spider-Man, when people whisper as they pass by and give him odd looks. That is the most common reaction he gets. He hopes, though, that he secretly made their day.
Spider-Man doesn’t feel the pressures of a double life, because to him, it’s just one. Armstrong is open with his friends and family about his passion, and they know him with and without the mask. A few of his friendships, mostly in Indianapolis and surrounding areas, are with other Spider-Men from a cosplay group, but they usually only meet up when it’s time for Comic-Con.
Armstrong is adamant he will enroll in college one day. It’s just a matter of when. Before he makes the leap, he wants to have an understanding of where his life is going. He’s not sure yet, but he knows it has something to do with art.
On this Thursday night, he isn’t saving anyone or fighting bad guys. There is no need to be a hero tonight. Instead, he rests his phone on a ledge to take pictures for his Instagram account where he will reveal his new suits to his fans.
B-Town Spidey has just finished sewing.
