History Literature / WearingTheCape

* RentAZilla: Someone decided that unleashing Kaiju upon the world was a good idea. They appear worldwide, but mostly attack Japan, who responded by forming superhero teams, as well as grabbing every Verne-type in reach and building mecha.

** Platoon and Watchman are also former military. The US military has several squads consisting entirely of superhumans.

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: In ''Villains Inc.'' an encounter grants Astra the ability to sense magic, allowing her to make several observations key to the plot. It is suggested that this added power is temporary, however.

* LivingLieDetector: A government agent with the code-name [[MeaningfulName Veritas]] is noted to be able to know if anything (spoken, written, recorded etc) is true or not. This proves invaluable when Hope has to determine if she can afford to trust a certain person.

* GoodCostumeSwitch: Averted with [[Spoiler:Riptide]]. Even after switching to the side of the angels, he still likes villain fashion.

* HeelFaceTurn [[spoiler: Riptide]], superpowered gangbanger who assists the heroes after [[spoiler: the California earthquake]] and has joined the Chicago Sentinels in the 2nd book.

** Though capes have revolutionized disaster relief, as seen during the [[spoiler:California earthquake]], delivering aid far faster than would be possible in the real world and rebuilding advances at a very rapid pace. There's also Heroes Without Borders, which is a sizable organization dedicated to defying this trope.

#''Omega Night'' is a short story set after ''Villains Inc.''
#''Young Sentinels'' is the next novel, set after Omega Night, continues Astra's progress, and introduces several new heroes in the junior version of the WtC universe JLA or Avengers.

* BetterAsFriends: Hope and Seven. Despite a "now or never" style BigDamnKiss from him in ''Omega Night'' and some ShipTease afterwards, Hope eventually decides on this for the time being.

A roleplaying game for the setting, using the Fate system and written by Harmon, [[http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product_info.php?products_id=210012&affiliate_id=35526&src=rpgnetND has been released]].

The story takes place ten years after the Event, and an entire generation has grown up in a world of "superheroes." Unlike the heroes of the comics, however, Post-Event superheroes are certified, licensed, and regulated by state and local governments; most active heroes are members of Crisis Intervention and Aid teams and act as civilian contractors to city governments. While they do aid local police in responding to superhuman threats, mostly they act as Emergency Response Personnel. They also milk their own media-value for everything it's worth, using costumes and codenames to market their images (and sometimes to cover true secret identities). The presence of breakthrough powers is the only [[Main/{{MagicAIsMagicA}} fantastic element]] in the Post-Event world, which strives to be a [[Main/{{Deconstruction}} socially realistic]] setting, in that the story explores the political, legal, social, and personal issues created by the reality of people with superpowers. In general attitudes, the setting's superheroes resemble the more nuanced heroes of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks.

There are currently 6 novels and one short story.

* AttractiveGenderBender: Kitsune can appear as a man or woman equally, both gorgeous.

* TheObiWan: Blackstone was a retired US Marine when he had his breakthrough and became one of the founders of the Sentinels. Ten years later, as the [[spoiler: last surviving and active Sentinel of the original five]], he is both the spiritual mentor to the newer Sentinels and the team leader.
** Sifu is another Obi Wan; mentoring Crash, Rush's new speedster-sidekick, it is hoped that he will balance Rush's more impulsive influence.

* RandomlyGifted: In Hope/Astra's world, the vast majority of superhumans are randomly gifted through the unpredictable survival mechanism of the Breakthrough. There are no publicly known exceptions. Children of breakthroughs are slightly more likely than the average person to also experience a breakthrough (although the odds of getting struck by lightning are still better).

* StatusQuoIsGod: Averted heavily. Hope goes through her own changes, especially in the early books, but Shelly is probably the most extreme example of averting this trope. In ''Wearing the Cape'', she [[spoiler: comes back as a "quantum-ghost" AI]]. In ''Villains Inc.'' she [[spoiler: gets herself a robot-body so she can be more than virtual]]. In ''Young Sentinels'' she [[spoiler: loses the body, and gets ''split'', becoming Shell (her "old" quantum-self) and Shelly (a flesh-and-blood copy)]]. In ''Small Town Heroes'' [[spoiler: Shell and Shelly begin displaying signs of some kind of gestalt-mind]]. In ''Ronin Games'' she is [[spoiler: temporarily transformed into a cat, and then hitches a ride with Hope to the High Plane of Heave, where she decides to hang out for a while (no knowing yet if any of that has permanently changed her in any way)]].

* ArbitrarySkepticism: The Post-Event World is filling up with strangeness. Superheroes. Vampires. Sorcerers. Aliens. Gods and Goddesses. Ozma, Empress of Oz. When encountering an "emissary from Ganymede" or a Hermetic Magician who claims to have had an encounter with the fundamental Source of Reality, the reaction of many if not most citizens of the Western nations is "meh." Because obviously, whatever they may ''think'' they are, they're all just breakthroughs and some are more delusional than others, right? Arbitrary Skepticism is what lets the Post-Event World's scientists and rationalists sleep at night, but there is no proof that the Everyone's a Breakthrough theory is, in fact, ''true''.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: The Post-Event World is filling up with strangeness. Superheroes. Vampires. Sorcerers. Aliens. Gods and Goddesses. Ozma, Empress of Oz. When encountering an "emissary from Ganymede" or a Hermetic Magician who claims to have had an encounter with the fundamental Source of Reality, the reaction of many if not most citizens of Western nations is "meh." Because whatever they may ''think'' they are, they're all just breakthroughs and some are more delusional than others. Arbitrary Skepticism is what lets the Post-Event World's scientists and rationalists sleep at night, but there is no proof that the Everyone's a Breakthrough theory is, in fact, ''true''.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Artemis.

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