The book tells the story of Tzadik Friedman as he tries to make a living in the superhero business, first as the sidekick Liberty Bill, then as the hero Captain Freedom, all the while undermining himself because of his crippling narcissism and neurosis.
This book contains examples of:
- Ambiguously Jewish: Despite being named Tzadik Friedman and growing up on a kibbutz, Captain Freedom doesn't realize that he's Jewish until sometime in his thirties. It's not entirely clear what religion he followed up until that point.
- Attention Whore: Captain Freedom is constantly on the search for new ways to get his name in the paper.
- The Beard: Captain Freedom's efforts to marry Kaeko are sidetracked when it turns out he's already married. He explains to Kaeko that it was a beard marriage to a lesbian friend so that she could get benefits.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Captain Freedom claims that a number of celebrities are actually superpowered individuals, including Mark Wahlberg.
- Camp Straight: Captain Freedom lives with other guys, can't seem to hold down a relationship with a woman, and is obsessed with fashion, leading to many people speculating about his sexuality. He finally comes out as metrosexual.
- Dating Catwoman: Captain Freedom has a on-again, off-again thing with supervillainess Kaeko Katana. Things go south after they try to get married; Kaeko resents his trying to get her to leave the assassination business.
- Death by Origin Story: Captain Freedom's mentor, Chief Justice, was killed off back when Tzadik was still called Liberty Bill. His death led to Tzadik being promoted to hero.
- Digital Piracy Is Evil: One section of the book involves Captain Freedom and DJ hunting down digital pirates to stop them from pirating his movie. The digital pirates operate much like normal pirates, although as Freedom learns, they don't talk like stereotypical pirates.
- Face–Heel Turn: DJ joins Bike Nazi's gang after getting tired of Captain Freedom neglecting him.
- Harmful to Minors: Tzadik's idea of bonding with his young ward DJ is to do lines of coke with him.
- Ironic Name: Captain Freedom's real name is "Tzadik", which means "righteous" in Hebrew. There is nothing particularly righteous about him.
- It's All About Me: Captain Freedom is absurdly self-absorbed.
- Jewish Mother: Mrs. Friedman is very much this trope. She is inadvertently responsible for Tzadik being promoted to a full-blown superhero after she showed up during one of his battles as Liberty Bill to nag him, causing him to be distracted long enough that Chief Justice got killed off.
- Klingon Promotion: In the superhero business, if your mentor gets killed off, you get promoted to full-blown hero, as long as you're not the one who killed them.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: Very much in play. Though Captain Freedom is nominally a hero, his profound need for attention and desire for money and power cause him to engage in outright criminal behavior.
- Weaksauce Weakness: If Captain Freedom is exposed to soy, he loses his powers for up to 72 hours.
