Sibersk Esto
Banned
The Superman shield is one of the most recognizable symbols in pop culture. It's iconic, and a legitimate piece of Americana. It's arguably what makes superman's costume a costume instead of a leotard, and set the standard for every superhero thereafter to have a chest symbol.
Although in recent years two popular interpretations have popped up: Does the shield just stand for Superman or is it a representation of some vague kryptonian message.
For reference, here is the symbol as it has appeared over the years:
At first we can see the logistics of the symbol's design, as it's obviously supposed to resemble a police badge. At this point in his history the S stood for Superman, or as Superboy succinctly put it:
reaching a bit with that last one but fair enough.
And so the story stood for a good long while that the S-Shield was an S for Superman, and that was it.
That is until 1978, and the landmark release of Superman the movie, where we see Jor-el also wearing the symbol as a coat of arms for the house of el.
This is credited as Brando's idea, and it would be the first time the symbol was used this way, as Lois would later use it to name Clark "Superman." This is what would start the slow transformation into making the shield stand for something more. The comics around this time, still in the silver age, would take a...different approach:
For a little background, an all powerful sword forged by god at the creation of the universe drifts through space for eons destined to be found by Superman. The sword implanted the shield design into Jonathan Kent in a dream.
This would not last long, as DC would reboot their entire line in the first Crisis of Infinite Earths, starting from scratch. Rebooting Superman fell into the hands of writer, artist, and giant raging cunt John Byrne, who in an almost stubborn refusal of the emerging trend from the movie made it clear that the symbol was just an S, for Superman.
And this is the way it stayed for years, even while media such as the animated series and Smallville used the symbol as a coat of arms for the house of el, in the comics it was just an S, for Superman.
Except for a 1999 limited series where it turned this around, saying that it was actually a symbol from the Kent family instead, dating back to their Native American roots. Each of the five sides of the diamond shield represented the five Iroquois Indian tribes that remained, and the "S" was a snake, considered to be a symbol of healing.
This all changed in 2002, when Mark Waid would reboot Superman's origin in "Superman: Birthright," where instead of just the house of el the symbol was univeral for krypton, meaning hope. This is a major theme in the story.
And so the symbol would henceforth be of kryptonian origin, after almost 65 years of just being an S in the comics. The latest reboot, Man of Steel, co-opted Waid's "hope" explanation for their shield, in and of itself a tweaking of the 1940s version of the symbol.
In my opinion, while I understand the need to give a rather straightforward character like superman a sort of lore in the form an alien coat of arms I've never been a fan of it. It seems a bit silly and almost pretentious that the S is not just an S for Superman, but coincidentally an alien coat of arms that also happens to look like the letter S in the English alphabet. In Tom De Haven 2005 prose novel "It's Superman," Superman gets his costume from his then seamstress girlfriend, as he is working as a movie stuntman in the '30s.
When I see the symbol, I don't think of krypton, or hope, or whatever mumbo-jumbo that's been cooked up, I think of Superman, because the character of Superman is what made it important.
What do you prefer?
Although in recent years two popular interpretations have popped up: Does the shield just stand for Superman or is it a representation of some vague kryptonian message.
For reference, here is the symbol as it has appeared over the years:
At first we can see the logistics of the symbol's design, as it's obviously supposed to resemble a police badge. At this point in his history the S stood for Superman, or as Superboy succinctly put it:
reaching a bit with that last one but fair enough.
And so the story stood for a good long while that the S-Shield was an S for Superman, and that was it.
That is until 1978, and the landmark release of Superman the movie, where we see Jor-el also wearing the symbol as a coat of arms for the house of el.
I always liked that he has the S-curl.
This is credited as Brando's idea, and it would be the first time the symbol was used this way, as Lois would later use it to name Clark "Superman." This is what would start the slow transformation into making the shield stand for something more. The comics around this time, still in the silver age, would take a...different approach:
For a little background, an all powerful sword forged by god at the creation of the universe drifts through space for eons destined to be found by Superman. The sword implanted the shield design into Jonathan Kent in a dream.
This would not last long, as DC would reboot their entire line in the first Crisis of Infinite Earths, starting from scratch. Rebooting Superman fell into the hands of writer, artist, and giant raging cunt John Byrne, who in an almost stubborn refusal of the emerging trend from the movie made it clear that the symbol was just an S, for Superman.
And this is the way it stayed for years, even while media such as the animated series and Smallville used the symbol as a coat of arms for the house of el, in the comics it was just an S, for Superman.
Except for a 1999 limited series where it turned this around, saying that it was actually a symbol from the Kent family instead, dating back to their Native American roots. Each of the five sides of the diamond shield represented the five Iroquois Indian tribes that remained, and the "S" was a snake, considered to be a symbol of healing.
This all changed in 2002, when Mark Waid would reboot Superman's origin in "Superman: Birthright," where instead of just the house of el the symbol was univeral for krypton, meaning hope. This is a major theme in the story.
And so the symbol would henceforth be of kryptonian origin, after almost 65 years of just being an S in the comics. The latest reboot, Man of Steel, co-opted Waid's "hope" explanation for their shield, in and of itself a tweaking of the 1940s version of the symbol.
In my opinion, while I understand the need to give a rather straightforward character like superman a sort of lore in the form an alien coat of arms I've never been a fan of it. It seems a bit silly and almost pretentious that the S is not just an S for Superman, but coincidentally an alien coat of arms that also happens to look like the letter S in the English alphabet. In Tom De Haven 2005 prose novel "It's Superman," Superman gets his costume from his then seamstress girlfriend, as he is working as a movie stuntman in the '30s.
When I see the symbol, I don't think of krypton, or hope, or whatever mumbo-jumbo that's been cooked up, I think of Superman, because the character of Superman is what made it important.
What do you prefer?
