Written by Jason Ciaramella and Joe Hill
Illustrated by Zach HowardWhat pushes someone to hurt the people they love? Eric has shown us that his capacity for evil is limitless, but is something else to blame? Find out as Eric confronts Nicky in the final chapter of the critically acclaimed miniseries, The Cape, by the Eisner-nominated creative team of Jason Ciaramella, Joe Hill, Zach Howard, and Nelson Daniel. Explore your dark side.
When the first issue of “the Cape” mini-series debuted, I was excited but also not entirely thrilled.
Three issues and one Prudential Center showdown later, the series is done.
Check out some thoughts on it after the cut.
When IDW debuted “the Cape” one-shot back at the tail end of 2010, it was perhaps one of the best single-issue stories released that year. With a dark and clever tail of the basic ideas of superheroism warped in the mind of a boy too stubborn to become a man, it was a story that perfectly represented Joe Hill’s work at its best: straight-shot and razor edged.
However, when “the Cape” mini-series began, the basic horror elements of the book were lost. Instead, what had made the one-shot so memorable with its twisted tale of one man’s descent into madness was taken to the extreme. Suddenly bears were being thrown into moving cars and chainsaws were being used as weapons against airplanes. The book wasn’t so much a horror twist on classic superhero origins anymore, and more of a riff that border-lined the ridiculous (as championed by Mark Millar’s body of Millarworld works).
Yet somewhere along the line, the path narrowed. It wasn’t immediately prevalent, but with the final issue of the series, the initial story reappeared. Where “the Cape’s” one-shot prevailed was in its ability to take a fictional story and make it shockingly human, and as “the Cape” ends atop an historic Bostonian landmark that element makes its triumphant return. Sometimes a great ending is all you need to take a story that had been “good” and elevate it to “great,” and that is exactly what the final issue of “the Cape” provides.
This isn’t to say that over-the-top story ideas are bad, but they never felt appropriate when the transition from a one-shot to a series took place. While the main character wasn’t exactly a nice guy, his fall from grave seemed fairly ludicrous at the time, moving beyond a man simply giving in to a man losing all control. Yet, as the final issue begins, we’re transported back to Eric’s childhood as well as given a brief glimpse into his mind. Combine that with a beautifully dark monologue by Ciaramella and the series finds itself in a defining character moment that makes every insane aspect suddenly seem perfectly normal.
Of course, the endings ultimate triumph is its complete willingness to embrace its initial premise. If “the Cape’s” original thesis was to provide a horror-based angle for which to tackle basic/essential tropes often present in superhero stories, the final scene of the final issue is everything the book always needed to be. The final battle of good versus evil under the guise of brother versus brother plays up such a classic trope visible anywhere from the Bible’s story of Cain and Abel, to classic manga “Akira” or even to this year’s Chronicle (the latter two featuring non-literal brothers), it’s ultimately too on the nose to be coincidence.
All things considered, the team here of Ciaramella and Howard, with colors by Nelson Daniel, is entirely fantastic. Ciaramella and Howard perfectly channel the same tones that Hill and Rodriguez embue into “Locke and Key”, which in turn only helps “the Cape” stand out. While the build-up to this final issue was generally hit or miss in its persona, this issue is a perfect show of what the team is capable of. Ciaramella’s powerful script echoes the best of Hill while Howard fills the book with vibrant and lush illustrations. It’s a dark book, but an incredibly evocative one thanks to Ciaramella, Howard and Daniel.
It certainly wasn’t obvious by the books previous sense of bravado, but “the Cape” was apparently always a circular tale. Where it originally offered a fresh take on a time-old trope, the story’s ending returns back to where it began and wraps everything up in a neat little below. It was a curious road that the book traveled to get from its humble beginning to its fantastic ending, but the road was ultimately worth traveling.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy (or at least buy the eventual trade if you somehow missed this)
