"I grew up in Westchester, and have never traveled anywhere else without this stupid domino mask on my face! Am I the only one who's scared that people are looking to me for answers because I can lift a car over my head? This is crazy!"
— Alison Green, Strong Female Protagonist

With great power comes great destruction...
"Capepunk" refers to the subgenre of superhero fiction which deals with superheroism in a "realistic" manner. This sort of storytelling often comes with the greater freedom to allow creators to deconstruct traditional superhero tropes. To be Capepunk, your story can't just be about superheroes. It has to be about why they put on the cape and whether or not putting it on is worthwhile.
Capepunk stories tend to be either Deconstructive or Reconstructive (or both) in nature, analyzing what makes these characters tick as well as how they relate to the setting as a whole. Much effort will be put into justifying why people have a variety of powers, are allowed by law enforcement to run willy-nilly, or don't change the world overnight. By and large, these kinds of works tend to be very satirical in nature, showing why superheroic tropes either won't work in a real life setting or require many Acceptable Breaks from Reality in order to be justified as existing. While many Capepunk stories are cynical, there are just as many stories which cast heroes as standing against the mundanity of the world and leading humanity into the light (or at least trying to). Rarely, they fall to the positive extreme, showcasing why the law is useless or why a superhero is absolutely necessary in the setting. No mundane forces are going to stop a Planet Eater, for example.
One common feature in these stories is that superpowers are terrifying to normal people. People with the powers of Mind Control, being able to fly, or heat vision are dangers to normal Muggles with even those who protect them being so far removed from normal life they often are enemies. Other times, regular Humans Are the Real Monsters with the people trying to use their abilities to help others being deliberately targeted by those who hate and envy them.
Stories in this genre are just as likely (if not more) to star original characters as opposed to being part of established superhero franchises. This is for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the writers of popular "mainstream" superhero characters don't want to let them be used in such a way, especially if it means they will be portrayed in a negative light. Another reason is that Capepunk stories are often written by independent comic writers without access to the most popular characters in the genre, leaving them no choice but to use Expies. They also may not even be comic books at all, but completely original novels and films. Alternately the Long Runner "mainstream" franchises may rely on Status Quo Is God or Joker Immunity, and need to use these characters for more stories in the future.
A subtrope of Genre Deconstruction; Magical Girl Genre Deconstruction is a very similar concept, applied to the Japanese Magical Girl genre. See also Superhero Horror, which are superhero stories with elements of the horror genre and often overlap with Capepunk.
Common tropes to be found in Capepunk stories are:[]
- Anti-Hero: A hero who lacks the proper traits of The Hero.
- Being Good Sucks: Being good doesn't always feel good.
- Beware the Superman: The existence of superpowers has an almost, if not entirely, negative effect on the world.
- Blessed with Suck: Desired quality proves problematic.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Evil villain, flawed hero.
- Broken Ace: The Ace has issues.
- Bystander Action-Horror Dissonance: An action sequence shifts to a much darker tone when we see how it's affecting those who aren't part of the fight.
- Cape Busters: Normal humans purposed with fighting superhumans.
- Crapsack World: A horrible setting where the jaded notion of how anything that can go wrong will go horribly, horribly wrong almost always applies.
- Crapsaccharine World: A Crapsack World disguised as a Sugar Bowl.
- Fantastic Racism: Racism involving fictional or non-human races or species.
- Heroic Fatigue: A hero suffering the breaking point of being a hero.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: A heroic character is hated by the public.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Humans in Capepunk stories are often not very nice to nonhumans or supers. The villains often tend to be humans too.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: When a hero feels responsible for a loved one's death, which tends to happen a lot in these stories.
- The Lopsided Arm of the Law: For whatever In-Universe justification, law enforcement prefers to go all out to stop people with superpowers (and much more often, lawful or even completely innocent people with superpowers) than dealing with actual crime.
- Masquerade: The existence of super-powered beings can be a closely guarded secret within the story's universe.
- Muggle Power: Random, ordinary people taking a stance on superpowered individuals.
- Mutant Draft Board: A bureaucratic government institution created to control a large population of super-powered individuals.
- Nominal Hero: A character who advances a heroic cause but doesn't have any heroic motivations.
- Not Wearing Tights: Superheroes without theatrics.
- Smug Super: They know they're powerful, and they have the ego to show it.
- Superdickery: A cover or promo depicts the hero acting like a grade-A Jerkass in a scene taken out of context.
- Superhuman Trafficking: Enslaving and/or exploiting powered people.
- Superpower Disability: The drawbacks of being superhuman are for all intents and purposes a disability all unto themselves.
- Super Registration Act: The government singling out people with superpowers through legislation.
- Super-Soldier: Special elite military units, usually augmented beyond normal human potential.
- Superhero Paradox: Do superheroes cause as many disasters as they prevent?
- Super Supremacist: A supervillain who believes that superpowers make them superior to everyone else.
- Tall Poppy Syndrome: Society is hostile and envious towards individuals who are special.
- Transhuman Treachery: A human transformed into a monster chooses to be a monster.
- True Art Is Angsty: Real art needs to be cynical.
- Twilight of the Supers: A quick way to shake the status quo and force society to question superheroics? Exterminate the status quo and have people fight over the ashes.
- Ungrateful Bastard: A character who doesn't show appropriate gratitude.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: A character who commits horrid acts for good causes.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Power makes you crazy.
- Villain Protagonist: A main character who is unambiguously evil.
- Villain with Good Publicity: A villain who's popular with the general public.
Examples[]
- Anime and Manga
- Fan Fiction
- Film — Animation
- Film — Live Action
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Roleplay
- Tabletop Games
- Video Games
- Web Comics
- Web Original
- Web Video
- Western Animation