On August 18th, for 3.2 seconds, every human being simultaneously experienced total sensory deprivation—no sight, hearing, or physical sensation. A small percentage of individuals did later claim to have heard something, what one person described as “the sound of God striking a cosmic tuning fork.” However, when people remember the Event, what they most remember is not the sensory blackout or the worldwide power failure that came with it, but what happened next. They remember where they were when the first superhumans appeared.
Prof. Charles Gibbons, The New Heroic Age
The Post-Event World is our own world with superheroes added. It owes a great deal to the pioneers of superhero fiction, DC Comics and Marvel Comics, while bringing superheroes into a “real-world” setting that asks how we’d really deal with superheroes, costumed protectors, among us.
In Post-Event America, capes, superhumans who have taken on superhero personas and joined Crisis Aid and Intervention teams, are regulated by state laws and hire agents or join unions. The more powerful and photogenic capes are idolized by cape-watchers, part of a growing super-celebrity culture.
How does society adapt? How do the law adapt? And how do superhumans who “wear the cape” respond to a super-celebrity culture idolizes that them? The destiny of the Post-Event World is as yet undecided; will the new superhumans among us hold civilization together, protecting humanity as we continue to advance, or will the most powerful superhumans make themselves gods among men, shaping our world to their desires?
In this new struggle the capes, with all their virtues and flaws, are on the side of humanity.
Wearing The Cape & other works by M.G.Harmon 