“The Cape” to fight crime with “British Bartitsu”

The Cape, a new superhero drama, premieres on Sunday, January 9th. According to advance publicity, the title hero’s mentor, Max Malini, trains him to use his super-powered cape as a weapon, including the use of “British Bartitsu” amongst other martial arts.

The writers were evidently inspired by Bartitsu founder E.W. Barton-Wright’s classic overcoat trick, which was also used to good effect by Dr. John Watson in 2010′s Sherlock Holmes feature film.

Bartitsu ref. in new superhero drama, “The Cape”

Bartitsu gets an unexpected shout-out in this preview for the new NBC superhero series, “The Cape”. From the official Cape website:

“The Cape” is a one-hour drama series starring David Lyons (“ER”) as Vince Faraday, an honest cop on a corrupt police force, who finds himself framed for a series of murders and presumed dead. He is forced into hiding, leaving behind his wife, Dana (Jennifer Ferrin, “Life on Mars”) and son, Trip (Ryan Wynott, “Flash Forward”). Fueled by a desire to reunite with his family and to battle the criminal forces that have overtaken Palm City, Faraday becomes “The Cape” his son’s favorite comic book superhero — and takes the law into his own hands.

During a training montage, the Cape’s mentor, Max Malini, says:

“British Bartitsu … the warrior dancers of the T’ang Dynasty used their robes as weapons.”

The Cape is obviously an expert martial artist armed with a super-powered cloak, but it’s unlikely that we’ll see any classical Bartitsu featured in the series. On the other hand, it’s always nice when writers do their homework. One wonders what E.W. Barton-Wright would have made of all this: