I got this for free on a giveaway shelf at work; it's a short, design-heavy humor book with the subtitle "Pop Psychology for Superheroes." Everything it wants to be, How To Be a Superhero (by Mark Leigh and Mike Lapine, illustrated by Steve Dillon) did infinitely better fourteen years ago. If you like the idea, go find Superhero. (No, really -- Superhero is a great book, and amazingly funny. If you ever read superhero comics with any regularity, you should own it. It's the Tough Guide to Fantasyland of long-underwear comics.)Cape isn't quite as bad as that comparison makes it sound -- it is mildly amusing -- but the authors seem to know the contemporary world of superheroes less well than I do (and I haven't been able to stand underwear perverts for nearly ten years now). The art in Cape, though, is rotten -- it's credited to Lia Miternique, but it looks like bad clip art. (The same few characters, poorly drawn, in the same poses over and over again.)
This is a book to pick up and peruse when your Significant Other is poking through the next section over in the bookstore (maybe Flower Arranging, or Regional Cookbooks), laugh at twice, and then carefully put down and walk away from. The only reason I could see to purchase it would be as a gag gift for a friend who actually does own a cape.
The Fabulous Book-A-Day Index!
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