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The Cape (trope): Difference between revisions
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''For savin' the world from Solomon Grundy
''And sometimes I despair the world will ever see
''Another man like him''
|'''[[Crash Test Dummies]]''', "Superman's Song"}}
The superhero as an ideally good person. Generally associated with [[Good Old Ways|older protagonists]], before whenever the latest round of [[Deconstruction]] happened, and often invokes elements of [[The Messiah]]. Has now become nigh-synonymous with the "classic" [[Superhero]].
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** [[Batman]] holds himself to enough standards that he is often closer to this than an [[Anti-Hero]], just more on the pragmatic side. But regardless, there's a reason his comics are the [[Trope Namer]] for [[Joker Immunity]].
** When Superman [[The Death of Superman|was dead]], [[Steel]] took up the role of The Cape (trope) and fought "to keep the spirit of Superman alive." Many readers thought he was an even better Cape than the Man himself.
* [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]] is probably Marvel's best capeless Cape. As a youth, he tried out for World War II, but was rejected on physical grounds, so he ''volunteered to be a guinea pig in a military experiment''. He did not know there had already been successful trials, and the risk was much less than is commonly advertised; the experiment turned him into a soldier with physical and mental capabilities very slightly above peak human. In the modern era (how [[Human Popsicle|he survived]] is another story), he is such a tactical and moral exemplar that while powerless and wielding nothing more than an [[Unbreakable Weapons|indestructible shield that doesn't obey the laws of physics]], he leads a team of consisting of powerhouses like [[Thor]], [[Iron Man]], Wonder Man, Ms. Marvel, and the rest of "Earth's Mightiest Heroes". And, despite the name, he figured out he could go against the government and still stand up for America's ideals... {{spoiler|and he was killed as an [[Anvilicious]] way to "punctuate" the civil war's [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]]}}.
** And on a different note, as a young artist he liked to sketch a muscular costumed man called "American Eagle". Later, once it turned out that he would be the only Super Soldier, his remaining experimenters stole the sketches and made a costume based on them. It did not include a cape, unlike the sketch, despite Steve writing "Has to be a cape. So ''boss!''". Much later in the Seventies, when Steve despairs at the corruption of his country, he takes a new identity and sews a new costume, this one caped. Promptly he tripped on that cape, tore it off, and it was never seen again.
* Todd McFarlane's ''[[Spawn]]'' subverts the cape image with minor characters repeatedly pointing out how "faggy" Spawn's superhero outfit looks. Also, he's ''very'' much a [[Nineties Anti-Hero]].
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== Professional Wrestling ==
* [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] wrestler The Hurricane is, essentially, [[Superman]] meets the [[Green Lantern]] by way of [[Batman (TV series)|Adam West]].
* More recently, [[John Cena]] doesn't actually have a [[Superhero]] gimmick, but nonetheless has earned the [[Fan Nickname]] "Super Cena" both from his resemblance to this trope and his tendency to never lose cleanly.
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*** Then again, he is the current incarnation/holder of the power of Zeus, who was not the warmest or most forgiving of deities.
*** He is also canonically over 100 years old and has been in the superhero business since the 1920s. So being a little [[Jade-Colored Glasses|jaded]] and tired of it all is somewhat understandable.
*** He tends to come off when well written as something of a [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]. Though he is basically an [[Expy]] fusion of [[Superman]] and [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]] (backstory by the way of Captain Marvel) after all.
* Ky Kiske from the ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' series exemplifies this, minus the actual cape. Always standing up for peace and justice, his flaw is his primarily black-and-white view that leads him to be at odds with the [[Anti-Hero|lawless-yet-positive]] Sol Badguy.
* In many RPGs the player can become The Cape, examples include the ''[[Fallout]]'' series, ''[[Mass Effect]]'' and ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]''.
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* [[Final Fantasy I|The Warrior of Light]] was made out to be a MASSIVE cape in ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]''. He's unwaveringly loyal to [[Big Good|Cosmos]], [[Shut UP, Hannibal|flatly shoots down]] [[Final Fantasy VIII|Ultimecia's]] [[Hannibal Lecture]], and even vows to save his [[Evil Counterpart]] Garland from his fate. {{spoiler|No wonder Cosmos' [[Batman Gambit]] worked so well.}}
* [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario]]. He may be something of a [[Flat Character]], but his defining quality is his unrelenting altruism. He is an incorruptible do-gooder.
== Web Comics ==
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** For reference, the guy he killed was a supervillain and a [[Complete Monster]], who had killed dozens of people and was responsible for multiple atrocities, and the killing itself was a complete accident. No-one would blame him or deny it was justified, but Utopian still views it as [[My Greatest Failure]],and, for a while, his [[Moral Event Horizon]].
** Plus he wears a [[Light Is Good|white and gold costume]], and defeats a [[Face Heel Turn]]-ed friend of his by forgiving him and flying away, since he believed the guy would do the right thing, he is not only one hundred percent sincere, he's also completely right!
== Web Original ==
* From the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', there's Ultra-Man, The Golden Marvel, Centennial, Empyrion, Thunder, Champion, Dharma, Kismet, Shaktimaan, Scanner, Protonik, Paladin, and El Grifo Rojo, just to name a few. Somewhat subverted by The Aryan (a white supremacist NPC ''crimefighter'' who most of the players hated to deal with).
* [[Subverted]] in ''[[
* The titular villainess of ''[[Interviewing Leather]]'' has nothing but respect for the "old school" superheroes.
* [[Less Than Three Comics|The <3-Verse]] has Mr Perfect of the Brat Pack as a Cape-in-Training, as well as Thunderbolt and Uncle Sam as full-fledged Capes.
* In the [[Whateley Universe]], there are plenty. The Headmistress of Whateley Academy is a retired Superhero and very much fits the The Cape (trope) trope, even if her current superheroine garb is a body suit without cape. Since she's been fighting villains since 1943, she has a 1940's sensibility about superheroing... along with over sixty years of experience. She still looks [[Older Than They Look|early- to mid-thirties]].
** And don't forget the 'Future Superheroes of America', better known around the school as... The Cape Squad.
* Unlike his [[Marvel Universe]] counterpart, the Sentry of [[Marvels RPG]] is The Cape
== Western Animation ==
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