World What's the symbol?

Superman is a lot like Arthurian Legend, in that there's no one definitive version of his story, and with each different take on it, there's a few variations. For example, In the Superman movies as well as in Lois & Clark, the "S" is the family crest of the house of EL. In the current continuity of comics (after the 1986 relaunch) the "S" is a variation on a symbol representing the Kent family. In the "Birthright" story, while I can't remember what it represents exactly, I do know that the "S" means something to the entire planet of Krypton. And it's too early to say right now what the "S" would stand for in the Smallville continuity, but it looks like the symbol is going to be taken from the Kryptonian symbol for "air." But that's just an early guess at this point. The creators of Superman knew they wanted that "S" to stand for Superman, so that's why it was put on him in the first place, and since then there have been many different takes as to why, in terms of the mythology, this character would wear an "S."

P.S. The only thing I'm not sure on, is what the "S" stood for before the 1986 relaunch...I may have to look into that.

 

I believe during the '86 relaunch, it was just a symbol. Nothing that really SYMBOLIZES anything, just a snazzy looking S.

 

That's correct, it was something Jonathan made in his contribution to the suit, IIRC.

"Birthright" is actually an official, in-continuity reboot to Superman's origin story that DC did to update the story for the Smallville generation. So the "S" shield is really Kryptonian, and according to Birthright was a family crest on Krypton millennia ago, which was eventually adopted by all of Krypton as a symbol of hope after years of bloody wars.

I liked Birthright a lot, but for me "Superman For All Seasons" is better. I like having Clark be a country boy in the big city, and I have always liked his personality being "salt of the earth".

 

One thing that is interesting is that the symbol burned onto Clark's chest in Smallville is the kryptonian letter "S" (in the comic's continuity), but I think the show said that it represents air.

Only those who know the kryptonian dictionary (for lack of a better term) would really know that. It makes reading kryptonian dailogue much easier and less mysterious.

 

Birthright's explanation of the emblem representing hope is the best explanation IMO, as that is what Superman represents to Earth: a beacon of hope.

 

Heres a little something I made. This is soon to replace it:



"We..are SuperVenom!"

Thanks to Imageshack.us for hosting

 

Didin't Spider-Boy from Amalgam have a symbol similar to that

 

Wow I didnt know there was a Spider-Boy Amalgam. It probably was similar, seeing that both Venom and Spider Man have a spider on their chest (although Venoms looks better IMO).

 

I didn't know about that either... but looks like I'm gonna have to get it now..

http://www.oafe.net/customs/dcm_spiderboy.php

 

Is there really a Kryptonian Dictionary? I know somebody actually went and made a Klingon Dictionary, and somebody actually went and memorized it.

 

I think the origianl meaning of the \S/ is actual a family symbol of the kent's native american background. There was a quilt with the snake (in the shape of the S) inside the diamond, which belonged and was passed down each generation in the kent family (not El's)

 

That's only in the movie adaption, and now Smallville and L&C and Birthright, it is becoming more and more the accepted origin. BUT, that is NOT the original meanign of the S.

 

But Marvel has that too. I mean, the whole ultimate series? This issue isn't just with DC. Every generation, they revamp the story, keeping what they like and changign things to make sense or make things more interesting. Having the S from his planet gives the Symbol more meaning and more depth to the character of superman. Just like how the origin fo venom changed from being alien oriented to something created by scientists (CIA?). there's a million different kinds of spiderman let alone the spin-offs like spidergirl, spider women, and spiderboy. Elektra was just an assasin in the original run, but the ultimates made murdock and elektra college sweethearts. The X-men are completely different.

I'm not trying to prove one is better than the other (even though since superman is my favorite i lean towards DC), i'm just saying that issue is with all companies.

 

From what I remember from Birthright, the S (put it this way; the whole thing baby Kal-El wears when he was in the rocket that eventually becomes his costume) is sorta like a Krypton flag.

 

1. The shape is not intended to be an S, but snake just happens to be that way, Just like the medical symbol with the two snakes around the winged staff.

2. It's not like the symbol is famous kent family symbol. It's not like some random guy will see the S and say, oh ****, that's the kent family symbol ,that must be martha's kid, clark.

http://thedarkknight.com/superman.php?action=costumes

There you go.

 

This was after the '86 relaunch...so it's not quite the original meaning.

 

everyone on krypton had different symbols, i guess the \S/ on his chest is a different font to the \S/ on Jor-el's never the less the same figure.

 

Then what about All Star. Except for Batman DC sucks. And their allstar is a rip off of Ultimate, at least Marvel puts their Ultimate stuff in seperate books and doesn't keep changing continuity in the reg. cont. books.