Comic Review: Joe Hill’s The Cape: Fallen #2

Joe Hill’s The Cape: Fallen #2

IDW Publishing

Writer: Jason Ciaramella

Artist: Zach Howard

Comics can also work like the movie world does where you put someone’s name on a title in order to increase the sales. A lot of us comic book fans are very familiar with Joe Hill. “Oh my God! Isn’t that Stephen King’s son?” Yes, but that’s not his claim to fame. He was the man behind the great comic Locke & Key. He was also (kind of) behind the lesser successful, The Cape. Joe Hill wrote the short story of the same name that appeared in his anthology book 20th Century Ghosts. This is basically where Hill’s writing on The Cape ends.

If I had to guess, I would say The Cape was overlooked due to its main character being an evil slob that had no redeeming qualities. The book is extremely dark and not for everyone. If you missed 2010’s The Cape (one-shot), 2011’s limited series and the prequel from 2012 titled The Cape: 1969. Then, Dear Reader, you know you came to the right place. That’s right. Back by popular demand, it’s the spoiler zone known only as Chris’ Ultimate Recap! (insert echo effects here)

While fighting for the country in ‘Nam, Eric and Nathan’s father, Captain Chase, is captured by the Viet Cong and taken prisoner with a local witch. Eventually, the witch passes a special ability down to Captain Chase: the gift of flight. Using this newly acquired gift, Chase is able to free himself from the prison camp and bring a new meaning to the term “death from above”. Our military hero does eventually die while battling a helicopter. Eventually, his possessions make it back stateside to his wife. In these sparse belongings is her husband’s U.S. Marine Corps patch. This patch gets sewn onto a blanket that their youngest son Eric is using as a cape. After a near brush with death (where it is shown that Eric might have been hovering before he fell), his mother tells him she has thrown the cape away because it was causing Eric to be too dangerous. Fast forward to Eric as an adult. He is a failure of a human being who spends all of his time playing video games and living like a pig. Amazingly his high school sweetheart has stuck by him for this long until Eric threatens her with a knife and she leaves him. This forces Eric to move back into his mother’s basement where he finds his long-lost cape. The cape gives Eric the power of flight like his father had, except this time a hero is not blessed with these powers. Instead, a man at the end of his rope has been given this ability and he uses it for pure evil.

During The Cape, it is mentioned that Eric was gone for three days. Joe Hill’s The Cape: Fallen is about what happened during those three days. In issue number one Eric goes back to a cabin that his father had brought him and his brother to before shipping out to Vietnam. Strangely, the cabin is being inhabited by a group of Live Action Role-Player’s (LARPer’s) just looking to have a good time. Eric is quickly accepted by the group. Could this be the friends he needs to turn his life around? Can he become a good person? Well, seeing as after these three days are over he murders everyone who loved him then we can assume there are no warm and fuzzy feelings here. Except, there are. The group is accepting of Eric and even bring him into their LARPing. Even Eric is starting wonder if this could be a good thing. In this issue, we finally get to see the conflict. Now, I never spoil the issues I am reviewing, but the ending of this issue is so gruesomely awesome!

Joe Hill’s name is all over these comics, but in every comic, he is listed as Creative Consultant. The real writing is being done by Jason Ciaramella, and he does a good job of adapting Joe Hill’s source material into comic book format. Ciaramella excelled when he stepped out of the Hill’s shadow and wrote The Cape: 1969 which was a well-deserved prequel and ended up giving us the connection to how Eric got his power of flight. It is up to Ciaramella to create the scenarios where Eric can be his most brutal and this issue did not disappoint.

Said brutality is only as good as its artist and Zach Howard seems to be all too excited to sketch epic death scenes. This is also one of the comics where I need to mention colorist Nelson Daniel. These guys set their tone back in the original issues and are still carrying over this unique art style in Fallen. I really enjoy what they have put together even if at times the art seems…dirty.

Like most of the readers of this series, it was Joe Hill’s name on the cover that got my attention. I can say that I have hung around through all The Cape series’ has to offer because I am interested in seeing what comes next. This creative team proved themselves in The Cape: 1969 of being able to expand on Joe Hill’s story and even make it better. It is too early to tell if Fallen will be another worthy expansion, but the ending of this issue is promising.