What will the S stand for this time?

[BrollySupersj]

What do you guys think the S will mean? Will it be just a sign for Superman, The House of El? Which do you prefer?

 

[Rodrigo90]

It'll stand for \S/cientist, cause Jor-El was one

 

[Godzilla2014]

Alternatively, could stand for ****head.

 

[Thundercrack85]

The S somehow being related to his house name always seemed unnecessary and contrived to me. Just let it stand for Superman.

 

[X Knight]

The S stands for Super, of course......

 

[Zorex]

Sometimes it's better when it's not explicitly state what the symbol's origins are. In STAS, for example, it appears once on the device that Jor-El and Lara put in the rocket ship with the baby, and later upon Superman's chest, leading Lois to say "Nice S," and link the man who can fly to Nietzschean ideals and, finally, the name Superman. I thought this was a clever way of almost side-stepping what the symbol means and why he wears it.

 

[BrollySupersj]

The S somehow being related to his house name always seemed unnecessary and contrived to me. Just let it stand for Superman.

Yeah, I always liked the emblem being a sign for Superman better.

 

[sepharih]

I much prefer the idea of the \S/ having an alternate meaning primarily because I much prefer Supes being named as Superman by those who see him, rather than taking that name himself.
Him putting an S on his chest and going around calling himself Superman almost seems too vein for the nature of the character. Having the symbol be something more personal or meaningful to him explains why he would wear it proudly on his chest.

 

[Mace Bloodstone]

I thought they were changing it to this...

Spoiler

 

[FilmNerdJamie]

\S/ = Hope.

 

[Puckenstein]

I hope it stands for $$$$$ and Sequels.

 

[Kal-El.9859]

I always thought it was for the science council...I never really bought in to it standing for the house of -El

 

[Ipodman]

It's an 8

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

The S somehow being related to his house name always seemed unnecessary and contrived to me. Just let it stand for Superman.

I feel the total opposite. I think the S on the chest standing for Superman is contrived and silly.

The S should represent a family crest. Actually Donner did it perfectly. It should be like an egyptian hieroglyph that looks like an S but its actually part of an alien language we don't understand so we just call him Superman.

I hope thats what it stands for and I pray to God in heaven that Martha Kent doesn't sew and make his suit. That is so stupid and lame. I pray Synder keeps things as real as possible in this film like in Batman.

No way could his mother sew his suit and he fly around at thousands of miles per hour and it not tear off his body or when he gets burned falls into acid ect ect.......

The S & suit material can easily be BELIEVABLE & explained with alien tech.

Its too 50ish for his mom to sew his suit and for the S to stand for Superman alone.

 

[Thundercrack85]

Except that the word "super" has been associated with Superman since he was a child (Superboy). How is that contrived? It's a natural evolution. The name should come first, then the suit.

 

[BrlntDsgse]

I much prefer the idea of the \S/ having an alternate meaning primarily because I much prefer Supes being named as Superman by those who see him, rather than taking that name himself.
Him putting an S on his chest and going around calling himself Superman almost seems too vein for the nature of the character.

Yes, he's not the type who would christen himself Superman, but there's an easy way around that.........the press starts calling him Superman BEFORE he ever puts on a costume and a symbol. Either Clark could be secretly using his powers to help people, leading to rumors of some kind of "Superman" that the press reports on OR he could be forced to use his powers openly to stop some major disaster(like in John Byrne's Man Of Steel). Either of those scenarios could lead to the press dubbing him Superman, AFTER WHICH he could design the symbol in order to use the name the world has already given him.

Having the symbol be something more personal or meaningful to him explains why he would wear it proudly on his chest.

I understand where you're coming from, but if the symbol is Kryptonian and means so much to him, then why would he want people to misinterpret it as an "S" for Superman. Why wouldn't he correct them and say "No, this is the symbol of the House of El, not an S, just call me Kal-El." This is why it's just simpler and makes more sense for the S to just mean Superman.


Yet ANOTHER problem with the S as a kryptonian symbol is that it makes Lois a completely incompetent reporter. Think about it this way : Imagine you are Perry White and Lois runs into your office one day.....



LOIS: "Perry!! You know that strange costumed super-powered guy who just stopped that (insert random disaster or crime here) yesterday? Well, I managed to get the first exclusive interview with him!!"

PERRY: "Great Caesar's ghost!! This is gonna be the biggest scoop ever!! You could win a pulitzer, Lois!! So who is this guy?"

LOIS: "He's Superman!"

PERRY: "So that's his name? Superman?"

LOIS: "Well, that's what I decided to call him."

PERRY: "That's what you DECIDED to call him? You didn't, y'know, ASK him what his name is?!?!"

LOIS: "Well, I mean, ummm , I mean he checked out the color of my panties with his x-ray vision, and he took me for a flight above the city, and I recited this lovely poem in my head, and he was just so dreamy that I musta forgot. But it's all good cause he has super-powers and he wears this "S" on his chest...."

PERRY: "And so you just took it upon yourself to decide that it stands for Superman. Even though the fact that he's wearing it must mean that it ALREADY stands for something. You, a reporter, whose ENTIRE JOB is to ask questions, didn't bother to ask the single most important interviewee EVER what his !@*%$!# NAME is?!?"

LOIS: "Oopsie."

PERRY: "You're fired."

 

[Kal-El.9859]

but Lois did ask him what his name is...and he replied "like Ralph or something?" if my memory serves me correct....

Lois Lane: 'Problem seeing through lead.' Hmmm. Uh, d-do you have a first name?
Superman: What do you mean, like, uh, Ralph or something?

 

[BrlntDsgse]

but Lois did ask him what his name is...and he replied "like Ralph or something?" if my memory serves me correct....

Lois Lane: 'Problem seeing through lead.' Hmmm. Uh, d-do you have a first name?
Superman: What do you mean, like, uh, Ralph or something?

You're missing my point, she didn't follow up on that and actually FIND OUT, did she? No, she just decides on her own that the S will stand for Superman. That's an incompetent reporter, making up the news, rather than finding it out and reporting it.

 

[Kal-El.9859]

He should have answered therefore negating the need for a follow up question about his name...

 

[BrlntDsgse]

He should have answered therefore negating the need for a follow up question about his name...

OK, but he didn't so there WAS a need for her to follow up on it. And you've inadvertantly pointed out yet another problem with the S as a kryptonian symbol idea.......why WOULDN'T Superman answer her? If we're going with the assumption that the S is the symbol of the House of El (which in the version we're talking about it WAS), and that he's wearing it proudly to honor his Kryptonian heritage, then shouldn't he WANT to be known to the press and public as Kal-El? It wouldn't give away his Clark Kent identity in any way, and since he's proud of his family symbol, he shouldn't want it to be misinterpreted as an earth-letter S. The whole contrived/coincidental idea is full of problems like this. I'm sure when Richard Donner and crew came up with the idea that they thought it was really clever, but it's only clever "at first glance", it doesn't hold up to ANY scrutiny whatsoever when you think about it.

 

[Kal-El.9859]

You can't blame Lois for that...you blame the writers. I thought that it was the symbol of the science counsel which over time was changed into a family crest and also the symbol of the entire planet of Super-men in the George Reeves Superman show. I kinda like the idea of him leaving it to the imagination and letting Lois dub him Superman or in Earth One it was Jonathan who dubbed him Superman. So it doesn't really bother me...

 

[BrlntDsgse]

You can't blame Lois for that...you blame the writers.

Well, I AM blaming the writers for writing Lois in such a way as to make her incompetent at her job, which the "S as a kryptonian symbol" led directly to. Why would I be blaming a fictional character for anything?

I thought that it was the symbol of the science counsel which over time was changed into a family crest

It doesn't matter if it's portrayed as a broader Kryptonian symbol, or just the crest of the House Of El, or both, it still leads to the same issues.

and also the symbol of the entire planet of Super-men in the George Reeves Superman show

It actually wasn't portrayed as any kind of Kryptonian symbol on "The Adventures Of Superman", it wasn't even shown or mentioned until he appeared in costume. The first time it was ever shown to be a Kryptonian symbol was Superman: The Movie. Now, while I'm not a fan of the S being ANY KIND of Kryptonian symbol, it certainly won't ruin my enjoyment of the new movie if they keep that element. Although there is a good compromise they could use(from a post I made months ago)......

I still think that Byrne's version of his first public appearance was great, where he saves the space shuttle in just regular civilian clothes, leading to Lois naming him a "Mysterious Superman" not because of seeing an S on his chest, but because that's what he IS... a superman. If they MUST have some Kryptonian connection to the symbol, I'd prefer the Kryptonian symbol to be this...........

and then have Clark reinterpret it into the S symbol in order to "make it his own" AND to go with the name Superman that the press and public have taken to calling him. My own idea on how he'd do that is that this..........

would be either the logo for Smallville High's lettermen's jacket's or it would be the lettering used on the "Welcome to Smallville" sign on the edge of town, hence Clark combines both of his heritages into his own, new insignia....the S we all know and love. But alas, since it has become the new standard since STM, the reboot will probably just default back to the S itself as the El family crest idea.

 

[Adenjo]

When first seeing the title of this thread the first word that came into my mind was "sausages"

True story.

 

[Kal-El.9859]

Well, I AM blaming the writers for writing Lois in such a way as to make her incompetent at her job, which the "S as a kryptonian symbol" led directly to. Why would I be blaming a fictional character for anything?



It doesn't matter if it's portrayed as a broader Kryptonian symbol, or just the crest of the House Of El, or both, it still leads to the same issues.




It actually wasn't portrayed as any kind of Kryptonian symbol on "The Adventures Of Superman", it wasn't even shown or mentioned until he appeared in costume. The first time it was ever shown to be a Kryptonian symbol was Superman: The Movie. Now, while I'm not a fan of the S being ANY KIND of Kryptonian symbol, it certainly won't ruin my enjoyment of the new movie if they keep that element. Although there is a good compromise they could use(from a post I made months ago)......

I mean more so that on Krypton in Adventures of Superman they were all superpowered so the S wouldn't have stood for Superman. I think I'll go watch my DVDs

 

[PSYLENTGuardian]

True stroy.

That's what the "S" will stand for.