Superheroes Wear Capes: Difference between revisions

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Code Geass]]'' gives us [[Anti-Hero]] [[Magnificent Bastard]] Lelouch Vi Britannia as [[My Hero Zero|Zero]], who is [[Invoked Trope|invoking]] this trope. After all, Lelouch's goal is to set himself up as a comic book hero of justice, so it would make sense for him to draw on every trope that will make people associate him with fictional heroes.

** {{spoiler|Jeremiah "Orange" Gottwald}} in his later appearances.

 

== Comic Books ==

* [[Superman]]

* [[Batman]] is possibly the straightest example of a useful one... short of people who have magic capes, anyway. He uses it to glide (yes, even before [[Batman Begins]]), he uses it to hide his arms (so nobody knows whether he's about to throw a punch or a Batarang), it makes him appear larger and scarier than he is (going along with his motif of fear), and it provides a large amount of useless space for mooks to target. Not to mention it's kinda necessary if you want to look like ''a giant bat.''

 

== Literature ==

* In ''[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]'', Dr Impossible grumbles about the impracticality of his cape a couple of times (it gets in the way of fighting and is heavy and cumbersome when he's fleeing), but continues to wear it because "I promised myself I wouldn't go down in street clothes".

 

* Ralph's alien-bestowed super suit in ''[[The Greatest American Hero]]'' comes complete with a hip-length cape.

* Sesame Street's entry into the world of superheroes, "Super Grover" also includes the requisite cape—along with a decidedly non-standard knight's helmet.

 

== Video Games ==

* This is one of the many, many costume options in ''[[City of Heroes]]''. For quite a long time, you normally have to reach level 20 and [[And Your Reward Is Clothes|do a specific mission]] to get one. (In the initial release of the game and its first few updates, there were no capes available at all due to technical issues with properly animating them. When the animation issue was solved, the [[In-Universe]] "ban" on wearing a cape before level 20 and the story arc needed to get one were implemented as a [[Retcon]] to explain why they weren't available until them.) Since the game's resurrection in 2019, though, capes are available at character creation (although, bizarrely, the mission is still there and still claims to confer the right to a cape).

** Notable cape wearers among NPCs are Statesman, whose former cape was refashioned into the flag atop Paragon City City Hall; his [[Evil Counterpart]] Reichsman; Hero 1, whose disappearance at the end of the Rikti War is the reason new heroes can't wear capes, and Rikti warrior [[Significant Anagram|Honoree]], who wears a suspiciously familiar cape.

** With the resurrection of the game in 2019, capes became available right from character creation. Amusingly, the level-20 "cape quest" still remains in the game and can be still be taken, although it grants nothing you don't already have.

 

* Preferred by Ms. Terial in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20121025111645/http://www.drunkduck.com/The_KAMics/5108842/ Fashionably Heroic] cartoons of ''[[The KAMics]]''.

* In ''[[Spinnerette]]'', the Canadian superheroes greet the American ones as "Caped Crusaders." Tiger notes that [[Subverted Trope|no one is actually wearing a cape]].

 

== Web Original ==

* Capes are worn by several members of the ''[[League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions]]''.

* Comes and goes in the [[Whateley Universe]]. Shroud of Team Kimba wears a cape, because she is animating all the parts of her uniform with her powers and can use it as a weapon. Gloriana has found another advantage: provides warmth when wearing a skimpy costume that is nothing more than a maillot.

 

== Western Animation ==

* [[The Scrappy|Corporal Capeman]] in the second season of ''[[Inspector Gadget]]''.

* [[Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels|Captain Caveman]], the superhero who wears ''only'' a cape.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Superhero Tropes]]

[[Category:Standard Superhero Suits]]

[[Category:The Caped Index]]

[[Category:Costume Tropes]]