Capes: Punching the Clock - with Case Aiken
Everybody knows Invincible. Far fewer people talk about Capes. Case Aiken is here to fix that. This week on Trade School, he looks at Robert Kirkman and Mark Englert’s superhero workplace comedy about what happens when saving the world is a salaried position; complete with lunch breaks, performance reviews, giant battles, terrible puns, and exactly the kind of sudden brutality you’d expect from the Invincible universe. It’s weird, funny, rough around the edges, and absolutely worth rediscovering.
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Edited by Case Aiken
Scored by Bret Eagleston
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⏱️ Chapters
00:00 Welcome and Introduction
00:43 Introducing Capes
01:28 Superheroes Punching the Clock
02:10 Robert Kirkman and Mark Englert
02:52 The Supplemental Material
03:35 The Cast and Image Comics Connections
04:23 How Capes Fits Into Invincible
05:05 The Action and Second Arc
05:51 Why One Volume Is Enough
06:39 Kirkman’s Style and Englert’s Growth
07:23 Why Capes Is Worth Reading
08:10 Trade School and Call for Submissions
08:47 Case’s Plugs
09:33 Final Recommendation
10:18 The Word From Tomorrow Promo
Transcription
00:00
Case Aiken
Welcome to Certain Point of View's Trade School, where each episode a different host talks about a comic book trade paperback that they loved and why they love it. Hey, everyone, I'm Case Aiken, and for today's Trade School, I am back to talk about yet another trade paperback. This time I am tackling one that is adjacent to the Invincible universe, or really a part of the Invincible universe, but doesn't feature the character of Invincible in it. Today I want to talk about Capes, which is a really fun series that was first a miniseries of three issues and then it was continued on as a series of backups invincible.
00:43
Case Aiken
And so the trade paperback is doing really good work, collecting a lot of disparate material into one spot and making it feel like a cohesive story, even though it was published kind of scattershot as a result of the. The second arc of the book being, like I said, backup stories. So Capes is, like I said, it's part of the Invincible universe. And it is about a group of superheroes who are in an organization called Capes. It is a superhero heroes for hired kind of service situation. And, and so the running gags throughout the whole piece are about heroes who are punching the clock, who are taking lunch breaks, who are doing things that are specifically related to like, job kind of mentality. It's.
01:28
Case Aiken
It's looking at superher a job and then using that as the backdrop for things like filling out, like, HR reports and other kinds of things. There's water cooler talk there's carpooling to work there. There's all kinds of things going on in here. And it's a really fun book. And so I wanted to. To talk about it. Just because it's an underappreciated part of the Invincible pantheon. Many characters would go on to be more regular appearing characters in the Invincible universe. Kid Thor, for example, Knockout, for example. But it's a pretty dope book. So like I said, it's broke two arcs. There's the initial miniseries, which ran for three issues, which details sort of a shift in management for Capes Incorporated.
02:10
Case Aiken
And I don't want to go into, like, spoilers for any of the specifics on it, because I think it's a fun story that is obscure enough that probably most people haven't actually read it. But I should emphasize that not only is this set in the Invincible universe, it is written by Robert Kirkman with art by Mark Englert, who does a really good job having this. This very kind of like Erik Larson esque kind of art style to him. A real find of a pencil. And Kirkman goes into descriptions of how he started working with Mark and how he kind of discovered him in the supplemental section, which is one of the highlights of this book. As with most Robert Kirkman trade paperbacks, this has a lot of supplemental material in it. It has tons of sketches.
02:52
Case Aiken
It has tons of information about the background for the book, how it was initially going to be a book about wrestlers and then it turned into the superheroes with jobs kind of perspective thing. There's just tons of really fun information to gleam from this that tells you about the thought process that goes into making a comic book like that. And I really appreciate that. I think it's kind of like watching a commentary track for an indie movie and being able to hear all the information about the ebb and flow of production and so forth. This supplemental material is really good for sort of giving you a sense of what it takes to make a comic book and like how much things change and are revised over time and all the information that goes into that.
03:35
Case Aiken
So that's a really high watermark for it or a high point of praise for it. The story features a robust array of characters, many of whom are Superman analogs that I've discussed on my Superman analog video series. There are all kinds of cool powers and some of them are goofy like Kirkman loves a good name pun like Clairvoyant, that's Claire Space Voyant as one of the characters. So you know, strap in if you're familiar with like the. The teen team from. From Invincible with duplicate and whatnot. Like this is the team for you. There there's of characters like that. It also, I should note, plays very nicely with. I referenced him before Eric Larsson's world, specifically the Savage Dragon universe. There. There is Kid Thor who actually is deeply connected to the Thor of the Savage Dragon comic books.
04:23
Case Aiken
Thor being public domain by virtue of being an actual God as opposed to, you know, the Marvel superhero. So there's cool elements that tie in the broader Image universe into this whole world that has been constructed. And you know, I. I will be honest, there aren't a lot of consequen this book that really are felt in the larger Invincible universe. Aside from stuff about specific characters kind of showing up and wondering who they are and so forth. The. The stakes are all contained within the two arcs that go into this book. The. The first arc is like I said, a bit about a management shift. And then the second arc is a Ancient Evil Returns and we have to deal with it because. And it's a big all the superheroes get together to fight it kind of scene.
05:05
Case Aiken
It's really cool action, by the way. I, I haven't mentioned that part, but the fight sequences are really fun. And especially in the second arc of the book where we get some really big dynamic combat sequences, there's a really cool twist that happens with two of the characters and how things go when. When their linked powers sort of go awry that results in a very cool fight sequence at the very end of the book. And again, I don't want to go into bigger details about it because again, this is a fairly obscure book. Like, when you see people talk about the broader Invincible universe, they'll talk about things like Guarding the Globe or the Astounding Wolfman, but rarely do you see people bring up Capes, which is a shame. And part of that, I guess is that there's really just the one volume.
05:51
Case Aiken
There's Capes Volume 1, punching the clock. And it is a self contained book. It's. It's only six issues roughly of material. It's, you know, again, the three issues of the miniseries and then the 72 pages of the backup features that were featured invincible. But those two arcs tell a really complete story and we don't need a lot more from the Capes comic specifically. Like, it'd be fun if we got more time with them. But many of the characters show up again invincible and become recurring characters as the series progresses. And you see the shifting landscape of superheroes in the Invincible universe as time goes on. So it's really nice just to have this as material for fleshing out the universe. And that's the thing that's really cool about it. And like I said, it has really nice details in the supplemental section.
06:39
Case Aiken
It is characteristic Kirkman. So if you are a fan of his writing, then you are in for a treat here. It's a little goofy sometimes. And the art, especially in the first arc, you can feel Engler getting his bearings and then by the time he gets to the second arc, he's become a truly capable penciler. So like, I have to praise the fact that you can see the progression in an artist over the course of this book and that's really fun. Yeah, like I said, I kind of compare it to like an indie movie where you can kind of see how it's put together. But that's part of the charm of the whole piece that you are looking at a work that has the rough edges to it.
07:23
Case Aiken
But in doing so, you can see how comic books are made and you can learn about the process and like, about things like good pacing and so forth. Because this is an excellent book. Like, it's really fun. Like I'm going to keep saying that phrase. It's really fun. So yeah, I just wanted to praise this one for a few minutes and say that it, you should take a look if you enjoyed Invincible. And I should also note that it's got this, the invincible level of brutality in it. There's a lot of death when fights happen. So just be aware of that going into it. Like it's got a cartoony style like a cartoonier style than Invincible, the comic. But when hits the fan, it hits the fan very hard and there's splatter. So yeah, you know, just wanted to praise that one.
08:10
Case Aiken
So that's Capes punching the clock. And with that I want to thank you all for listening to me gush about a comic book for a couple of minutes here. That is the premise of this show. And I want to remind everyone, if you enjoy this show and you have your own stories that you want to share, I'm actively collecting them. So I am the producer of Trade School and I would love to hear your stories. This is a weekly series so it's been great collecting so many stories about why comic books matter to people and I want to hear more. So if you're listen to this episode now and you're like I could do a better job talking about a comic book than Case please I. I want to hear it. Let me know.
08:47
Case Aiken
You can email me@case.akingmail.com or you can find me on most social media platforms. Case Aiken with the exception of Instagram where I'm holding on 4 dear life to my aim screen name from high school which is quetzalcoatl5q u e t Z A L C o a T L5 so you could DM me on most social media platforms. Instagram is probably the best these days for me frankly. Otherwise you should check out the Discord for Certain pov. It's fun place. You can find a link in our show notes or on our website certainpov.com that's a really good place just to check us out and come and interact. You can also support the show directly if you want to go to my Patreon which is certain POV media. So patreon.com certainpov media you if you support even at the free tier you get.
09:33
Case Aiken
I do multiple essays a week which is a just a fun exercise for me. But I also would really love if you supported at a paid tier and then you know that that cool because that keeps the lights on for these kinds of projects. But yeah, that's all I really wanted to say about Capes Punching the Clock. It's a really fun book and this has been a really fun series to produce and I hope that we can keep going. And again, I would really love to hear more stories from people, so if you have those please let me know. But otherwise check out Capes. It's really cool. And until next time, happy reading. The world is getting stranger every day, and somehow Trans Metropolitan saw nearly all of it coming.
10:18
Case Aiken
From weaponized misinformation to political theater to tech that reshapes our lives faster than we can process, the series future feels uncomfortably familiar. The Word From Tomorrow is a new read along podcast digging into that uncanny prescience. Hosted by Case Aiken and Keith Lettinen, each episode welcomes a guest to explore how Warren Ellis and Derek Robertson's dystopian satire mirrors the world we're living in now. Across 10 episodes, we walk through the entire series, its politics, its media chaos, its dark humor, and the way it continues to hit with starling clarity. Listen@ certainpov.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Seen. Pov certainpov.com.