Interviewing Leather

Interviewing Leather is a Web Original short story by Eric Burns-White of Websnark (and formerly of Superguy) about a guy named Todd interviewing the supervillainess Leather for a rock and roll magazine. Deconstruction of Comic Book Tropes ensues.

The fourteen-part story is finished and can be found here.

Tropes used in Interviewing Leather include:

• Affably Evil: Leather is generally pretty friendly.
• Badass Normal: The superhero Darkhood is pretty much an amalgamation of Batman and Green Arrow.
• The Cape (trope): Leather refer to these as "old school" heroes.
• Captain Ersatz: Many people are mentioned who are very close to "real" comic book characters.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Mocked. Leather considers being a costumed criminal a lifestyle choice. If Leonardo Lucas wants to play with giant robots, so what?
• Dark Action Girl: The titular Leather.
• Dating Catwoman: Leather can't sleep with normal humans because she Does Not Know Her Own Strength and finds that supervillains make poor boyfriends. If it weren't for this trope...
• Deconstruction: Leather has a lot of things to say about Comic Book Tropes, especially those concerning Superheroes. Inverted in the last two chapters when the Superhero Darkhood refutes pretty much everything she says, making the story a Deconstruction of supervillain motivations.

Darkhood: We don't need villains to be heroes... but some villains -- like her -- They need us to need them.

• • Some of the parts that don't relate to those motivations still make for a good deconstruction of the rest of the genre.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Leather reveal that Super Strength is a Blessed with Suck superpower since you constantly have to be careful not to break stuff.
• Dude, Where's My Respect? and Dude, Where's My Reward?: Leather seems disgusted that, while villains constantly make the Front Page of every newspaper around, heroes are lucky to get onto page four of the local press and struggle to pay off the bills.
• Evil Is Sexy: Invoked by Leather in her Evil Costume Switch.
• Face Heel Turn: Leather in the Backstory. Included an Evil Costume Switch.
• Good Needs Evil: Asserted by Leather. Denied by Darkhood.
• Most Common Superpower: Mocked. Leather, a B-cup, claims that anything below a C-cup is referred to as "Sidekick physique" in Superhero circles.
• Post Climax Confrontation: See "Crowning Moment of Awesome".
• Redemption Equals Sex: Mocked. Leather regards this trope as sexist and insulting and has nasty things to say about wielders of redemptive genitalia.
• Rogues Gallery: Discussed as a concept. Leather is very much a roving professional, very much a lifestyle for the hell of it. (Neatly matching up with her name, as it happens.) But there are also villains who fixate on one hero. Worse yet, they're regarded as a good deal less sane, and a lot more dangerous. They also have a habit of being A-list publicity machines...
• Secret Identity Identity: Mild version. Leather thinks of herself as Leather and has discarded her old civilian identity.
• Soaperizing
• Start of Darkness: Leather explains hers in detail.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Completely averted. Street-level superhero Darkhood praises the fact that demigod-tier superhero Transit operates in the same city he does; it means he has less to worry about re: becoming overwhelmed during mass casualty situations.
• Super Reflexes: Leather has this ability.
• Super Registration Act: The distinction between superheroes who work with the police and vigilante freelancers is noted

"Some heroes have sanction -- they work with the police, they follow procedures, they file reports. Freelancers were vigilantes. Depending on the city, the cops might turn a blind eye to them, but technically they were breaking the law."

• Taking the Bullet: Leather in the Backstory.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Leather makes it clear that she is a thief, not a killer.
• Trick Arrow: Badass Normal Darkhood have a lot of these, including net arrows, electric arrows and gas-bomb arrows. Partially subverted, since he also uses pointy arrows. Y'know, the kind that makes people bleed. He still doesn't use them to kill people, though.
• Weird Trade Union: Leather's henchmen are unionized.
  • So are the outlaw teamsters who pack up, transport, and unpack all that cumbersome equipment you find in those constantly-being-relocated supervillain lairs. Yes. The supervillains have their own moving company. As well as their corporate affiliate, a temp agency for forensic technicians who specialize in removing evidence from crime scenes.
• What You Are in the Dark: When she stopped one robber, Leather thought for a few moments, then took the money, paid off her bills, and decided on a life of villainy rather than virtue.