All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
To the general public, superheroes equal people in garish costumes fighting other people in garish costumes. Capes have become so synonymous with superheroes that, playing on the general perception, "No capes, darling!" is one of the most oft-quoted lines in Pixar history.
I first noticed this when I started getting feedback on my superhero stories. The reviews were kind but it was clear some of the reviewers had different expectations of what the story should be. It turns out the public's general idea of superheroes isn't the same as mine. But the reality is that capes are just one kind of superhero story.
There are three distinct styles, though sometimes the edges are a bit blurry. In a nice symmetry, three successful blockbuster movies offer examples of each type:
Superhero Noir see: The Dark Knight Rises.
Mutants see: X-Men: First Class.
Capes see: The Avengers.
Superhero Noir
Characteristics:
A loner hero with little or no powers, usually fighting a corrupt political system, and with enemies who are garish or vile but generally not superhuman. They may or may not have costumes. If they do, they stealthy costumes. The big fights are usually hand to hand.
Roots:
The pulp heroes of yesterday, such as Zorro, The Phantom and The Shadow. (A Zorro movie is even key to Batman's origin.)
Examples:
Nearly all modern Batman stories fall into this category. It's telling that Batman's main villain is The Joker, a non-powered character.
In comics, the trend to "street level" stories started with Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams' revitalization of Batman in the 1970s, moving away from the campy and very capes-like 1960 television show and bringing back the Dark Knight.
Frank Miller is best known for the noir The Dark Knight Returns in 1986, but he also wrote Marvel's Daredevil in Daredevil: Born Again the same year. The noir style has stuck for Daredevil too, especially with the recent stories by the creative teams of Brian M. Bendis and Alex Maleev and Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark.
Since I cut my teeth as a kid on this kind of Batman story, it remains my favorite style for the character. This is why Grant Morrison's acclaimed work on Batman over the last few years hasn't been to my taste. He brings Batman out of his pulpy roots and firmly into the realm of capes. I want to send him back to street level.
Scott Snyder of DC Comics's Batman and Brubaker of Marvel, the writer of Captain America and The Winter Soldier, are currently two of the best in this genre. As a writer, I couldn't resist writing a superhero urban noir tale, with the novella Luminous. I swapped out Batman for a young heroine known as Noir. As I suspected, it was great fun to write, especially as my research was basically reading other superhero noir tales.
It's interesting that the most critically acclaimed stories of superheroes tend to be superhero noir. Check out the reviews of Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers–both excellent movies–and the difference in how they're viewed is evident. The dark Batman tale is seen as possibly Oscar-worthy, as was the previous Batman movie. Not so The Avengers.
Recommended books:
Batman: Year One, Batman in the 70s, Daredevil by Brian M. Bendis and Alex Maleev, Ultimate Edition. Black Widow Volume 1: Homecoming. Sleeper Season One.
Recommended Films/Television:
Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, the first Batman movie by Tim Burton and Batman: The Animated Series (are you sensing a trend here?). Marvel's Daredevil starring Ben Affleck is in this category but it's only a so-so movie so I wouldn't recommend it. If we ever get a Black Widow movie (PLEASE!), I'd bet it would fall into this category.
Mutants
Characteristics:
Mutant stories are about the use and abuse of power, not about the origin of those powers. Many feature younger heroes or villains coming of age. These heroes may or may not have costumes at all. If they do, they tend to look more like uniforms, especially in movies. The big fights may be either hand to hand or power to power but often the powers are immaterial to the final struggle.
Roots:
Old-style monsters, like Frankenstein or the Werewolf. They were born they way they are, cannot change it, and are hated for it. But the modern take on mutants traces back to one main source: Marvel's All-New, All-Different X-Men by Chris Claremont and John Byrne.
Examples:
The X-Men were originally created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby but they were not one of the team's biggest hits and had faded into reprints in the early 1970s. The concept of mutants who gathered together to learn how to control their powers and oppose mutants who wanted to kill or enslave humanity didn't get rolling until Len Wein and Dave Cockrum debuted a new team in 1975. These X-Men were ethnically diverse and featured fully powered women alongside the men. This is the series that I loved most as a teenager.
Since that time, the X-Men have moved to take over half the Marvel universe with a gazillion different titles. (Well, it seems that way.) DC is a little behind the curve with mutants, as most of their heroes have a defining moment that leads to their taking up the heroic mantle. Mutant heroes first have to control their sometimes uncontrollable powers before they decide to be hero or villain.
If you're reading a superhero story where the lead is torn up and angsty, chances are you're reading a mutant story.
Mutants may or may not have costumes. Their powers may or may not be flashy. But if you're reading a superhero story where a person feels cursed because they were born different, it's likely a mutant story. When I wrote my first superhero story, Phoenix Rising, I went right to a mutant-style story because, in prose, they're very close to urban fantasy.
I would place Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series into this category. The leads are teenagers who suddenly discover they have strange powers and are thrown together with others like them to learn the use of those powers. Their angle is that they're the children of mythic gods but the characteristics are very similar to mutant superhero stories.
Recommended Books:
X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga, Essential X-Men, Volume 1, The New Mutants, and Marvel's X-Factor by Peter David and The Runaways,
Recommended Film/Television:
X-Men (1992 series), Alphas, X2: X-Men United, Chronicle, X-Men First Class.
Capes
Characteristics:
Did I mention the part about people in colorful costumes fighting other people in colorful costumes?
This is the bang/smash/pow kind of story. Elements of others might be mixed in but at the end of the day, it's about tossing off those ordinary world clothing and becoming something more, something absolutely amazing. This is the most transformative and hopeful kind of superhero story.
Examples:
Superman, the very first superhero, has always been and should always be written in this genre. There have been attempts to "ground" him in reality but that defeats the purpose of believing a man can fly. Superman should be bigger and more awesome than life. So should all capes.
Spider-Man definitely has elements of street level noir and angst that are closer to a mutant story but, at the end of the day, he's changing from Peter Parker into the Spectacular Spider-Man–his more ideal self–and fighting some powered and crazy villain.
While to outsiders, this seems the most prominent genre, it's incredibly hard to write because it requires a light touch and a suspension of disbelief that demi-gods can walk the earth with us mere mortals. Bad cape stories tend to be those who forget the "hero" part of "superhero." Steve Rogers was always a hero. Given him a costume, and he becomes the most inspiring hero of an entire fictional universe. And to some in this world, too.
Superman:The Movie first brought the capes to the big screen. Watchmen tried to deconstruct them, and tended to be rejected by movie audiences probably because they were expecting a cape story and got a deconstructed myth story.
I never thought a great live action movie could be made with a cape story. The powers are too big, the personalities too large to capture. Then I saw The Avengers and I was proved completely, utterly wrong. Everything a cape story stands for is in this movie.
Show of hands of people who were shocked and delighted when Cap stood up to Loki in Germany or when Hulk grabbed Loki and proved who the god really is? Yes, I thought so!
Problems arise in this genre when capes are used for stories that don't suit them. See Superman Returns, which gave us an angsty, alienated Superman and a very distant Clark Kent. Those who seek to use the character for noir or angst are doomed to failure. The characters around Superman can be angsty or depressed. Superman is there to serve as an example to them.
Capes are about possibilities.
Watchmen is an anomaly in that it deconstructed the capes and put them in a sort of real world. It's brilliant at myth deconstruction. But too often it's taken as a template for other stories in this subgenre. Which defeats the point of both this style and Watchmen.
It was meant to serve as a counterpoint, not a template.
Recommended Books:
All-Star Superman, The New Teen Titans Volume One, Spider-Man's Ten Best Comic Book Stories, Wonder Woman: The Circle, The Avengers: Nights of Wondagore, and, well, Amazon has a good list, thought it has some Batman (superhero noir) and some X-Men (mutants) mixed in there.
Recommended Movies/Television:
The Avengers sets the gold standard. The Incredibles, Ultimate Spider-Man, Batman (1960s), and, I admit, I still have a fondness for the George Reeves Adventures of Superman. That one is probably best for kids.
And, obviously, my list of recommendations is very incomplete. Add your own in the comments!
