Cape or No Cape QOTD
    Question Of The Day

    Major Spoilers Question of the Day: Cape Or No Cape Edition

    Matthew PetersonBy 6 Comments1 Min Read

    As is my habit now, I spent my morning scouring the internet for whatever entertaining images would make for the next installment of Ten Things.  The most fruitful was a search for “superheroes with capes” which led me to wonder whose shoulder-rug reigns supreme.  (The answer will surprise you!)  It also made me think about the time Otter Disaster pointed out that, at Marvel Comics at least, the capes are usually the purview of the bad guys (think Doctor Doom, Mysterio, The Mandarin, and Magneto).  One of the only things that the extremely genre-savvy Edna Mode ever said that I don’t agree with was her stance on this particular superhero activity, regardless of Syndrome’s karmic justice, leading us to today’s query that flaps in the night

    The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) has always thought that it’s one of the most iconic parts of superhero-dom, and every team can use a cape-guy, asking: Cape or No Cape?

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    Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.

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    6 Comments

    1. Vrynn on

      Capes. Always capes.

      There’s a reason that the patch that added capes to the old MMO City of Heroes was such a big deal.

    2. Nerdling365 on

      I have to agree with Edna Mode on this one, NO CAPES. While they do add a degree of flair to a costume, the safety hazard capes present trumps the need for style in my mind.

      Really, any super who doesn’t wish to be snagged on something or grabbed should ditch any and all dangly costume bits in favor of a sleeker, more utilitarian design.

    3. Daniel Langsdale on

      Cape. If we argue practicality, pretty much no super-hero costume will bear up under scrutiny, so it really comes down to what looks cool. Capes can be wonderfully dynamic when drawn well, so yes to occasional capes in this medium of sequential static images.

      Besides, if we didn’t have capes, we wouldn’t have had the “puny god” moment in the Avengers movie.

      • Darth Bashir on

        Pretty sure the cape in Dr Strange won an Oscar for best supporting actor as well.

    4. Malone_hasco on

      Cape is essential to mystic characters, good on traditional powerful superpowered characters but “nope” on martial artists.