Superman's "S" and its true meaning
pressureguy
It couldn't be "Superman," as Clark's Kryptonian father wore it on his
home planet. Jor-El or Kal-El do not have the letter S in their names,
unless the S we see is a Kryptonian symbol for some other letter and
resembles our S.
pg
Magnus, Robot Fighter.
wrote:
Present day I believe it symbolizes the House of El...
Pre-Crisis i dunno
badth...@yahoo.com
all that. Jor-L (as he was originally known) didn't have an "S" on his
chest. That was a creation of the movie and didn't exist in the DCU
until the horrid Birthright retcon. Originally it stood for exactly
what you think: Superman.
Magnus, Robot Fighter.
Actually if your going to split hairs with Occams Razor it stood for
Superbaby.
Magnus, Robot Fighter.
Hence my statement 'present day'
'hurt yourself'?
badth...@yahoo.com
Thinking way too hard about a question with a painfully obvious answer.
He has an "S" on his chest because his name is "Superman." That other
guy? The bat on his chest is because he's "Batman." The guy to his
left, the spider on his chest is because he's "Spider-man." The guy
with the green lantern... These are not things to wonder about for too
long.
And he did ask for an "original" explanation. Yes, later writers
observed that his character would not allow for him to be so
egotistical as to call himself "Superman" therefore, he would never put
an "S" on his chest, so they had to come up with another reason why it
was there. But Simon & Schuster actually created a character so
confident that he would actually name himself Superman and put an "S"
on his own chest.
And Superman devotee I may be, but I still hate the John Byrne retcon
that Lois Lane gives him the name "Superman." A little too convenient
for me. Something else he got from the movie.
Jeremy Henderson
>But Simon & Schuster actually created a character so
>confident that he would actually name himself Superman and put an "S"
>on his own chest.
Siegel and Shuster.
Jay and Diane Rudin
> >Don't hurt yourself, dude. It stood for "Superman." Occam's Razor and
> >all that. Jor-L (as he was originally known) didn't have an "S" on his
> >chest. That was a creation of the movie and didn't exist in the DCU
> >until the horrid Birthright retcon. Originally it stood for exactly
> >what you think: Superman.
>
> Actually if your going to split hairs with Occams Razor it stood for
> Superbaby.
Well, if we're going to split them, we should split them correctly. In
Action #1, it stood for "Superman". Later, in the 40s, they retconned an
earlier career as "Superboy", and then in the 1950s they explained that Ma
Kent made the costume by unravelling Kryptonian baby blankets for knitting
yarn, and then it "originally" stood for "Superboy".
But it never stood for Superbaby, because while they told Superbaby stories,
and gave him play clothes made of the same blankets, Superbaby's play
clothes never had the "S" emblem on them.
Eventually it was retconned into a Kryptonian symbol, and then it
"originally" stood for the House of El. Or maybe it's a distorted version
of the Kryptonian letter "S".
But originally, it actually stood for Superman.
Jay Rudin
Magnus, Robot Fighter.
I think it stood for Siegal, or Schuster, or Schmeel, Schmiel.
badth...@yahoo.com
we can give them is respect and I couldn't even do that. Sigh. Bad
Superman fan am I.
Chris Applegate
> What did the "S" originally stand for?
At one point, it was an ancient symbol imprinted on a sword that had
existed since the dawn of time. Many cultures tried to retrieve the
sword, but all failed, so the s within the pentagon became a
recognizable symbol on many worlds, and associated with the Sword of
Superman (as the object was named by millions of cultures). Pa Kent had
a dream about it and Ma stitched it for Superboy's costume.
http://superman.ws/tales2/sword/
CDA
Magnus, Robot Fighter
How do you sew with indestructible material?
Did Ma Kent have a handy Red Sun Radiation emitter?
badth...@yahoo.com
ship as her needle and Superbaby used his heat vision to unravel the
thread from his blankets. The belt was the belt used to strap baby
Kal-El into the ship. Elliot S! Maggin was obsessed with explaining
things like that.
Len-L
1938: Superman named himself, used the S.
late 1940s: Ma and Pa Kent named Clark "Superboy," came up with
S-shield.
1977 (movie): The S was actually a non-alphabetic design used by the
House of El on Krypton. Lois named him "Superman."
1987 (new origin story in comics): Named "Superman" by Lois first, then
S-shield developed by Pa Kent and Clark together. Different stories have
evolution of the S-shield from a Kryptonian letter and a similar symbol
used by the Kent family in the lat 1800s.
early 1990s (animated series): Kryptonian symbol, misinterpreted by Lois
to be an "S" ("Nice ess") and named Clark "Superman" from that.
2000: In Smallville TV show, no S-shield yet, but has obvious roots in a
Kryptonian symbol and the "S" for Smallville on the letter jackets.
Len-L
Michael
Haven't all the live-action televised versions of Superman/Superboy
(IIRC, that's just the syndicated Superboy, Lois & Clark, and
Smallville, unless I'm forgetting something) since the first movie used
the "S", or a slight variations, as a Kryptonian symbol of some sort?
Michael
Len-L
The boots were from the "seat" and the glasses were from the windshield.
Len-L
badth...@yahoo.com
symbol seen as an "S."
Lynley James
IIRC, the pilot for Smallville used the S in the shield as the symbol
for the high school jackets, those ones given to American school
athletes similar to our Honours Blazers. In fact when they hang Clark
up on the pole in the corn field, they paint the symbol on his chest.
After that it seems it was dropped for a more generic
Lynley
Len-L
>You da man. But you forgot Lois & Clark where it was also a Kryptonian
>symbol seen as an "S."
Was that it? I spent a little while trying to remember the origin of the
S in the pilot and couldn't. I remember Clark trying on all sorts of
different costumes and finally settling on the traditional blue tights
with red underwear and cape, but it was shieldless at first.
Len-L
Gerard
Ma Kent then pulled the S out, saying it had been in his ship.
badth...@yahoo.com
Exactly. Man, why do we remember all this?
Michael S. Schiffer
news:2rca611hh9mfb2u1r...@4ax.com:
Which until the 70's had been blown into convenient shapes by the
explosion of the ship's super-fuel. That was then retconned to the
ship being intact (to tie-in with a never-to-be Superman theme
park), and I think they then came up with a reason for there to be
some Kryptonian glass discs in the ship.
Mike
--
Michael S. Schiffer, LHN, FCS
msch...@condor.depaul.edu
badth...@yahoo.com
with his heat vision. It was rare, because his hair didn't grow under
the yellow sun. Maggin was crazy, yo.
FigNewton
Martha makes the final costume, decides it's "missing something," and
pulls the S-shield out of the box under the bed, telling Clark it was
in his spaceship. She sews it into place.
After Clark drops her off at the DP and flies away, Cat approaches
Lois and asks if she found out "what the S stands for." Lois says,
very dreamily, "Super... Superman!"
Can't wait for the DVD this summer :)
FigNewton
Joe Bergeron
Magnus, Robot Fighter <pav...@cox.net> wrote:
> Did Ma Kent have a handy Red Sun Radiation emitter?
Yeah, actually. A light bulb has an output similar to that of a "red"
sun.
--
Joe Bergeron
Magnus, Robot Fighter.
<jaber...@earthlink.nettled> wrote:
>In article <1113919616.4...@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,
>Magnus, Robot Fighter <pav...@cox.net> wrote:
>
>> Did Ma Kent have a handy Red Sun Radiation emitter?
>
>Yeah, actually. A light bulb has an output similar to that of a "red"
>sun.
Psst...dont tell lex luthor.
Michael
Good time to mention that the late-90's-21st Century animated Superman
(this includes the JL/JLU Superman) has it as some sort of symbol of the
El family?
Michael
arnold kim
"Michael" <jan...@charter.net> wrote in message
news:7T89e.10355$c42....@fe07.lga...
How did the Timm/Dini animated Superman come up with the S? Was it ever
mentioned?
Arnold Kim
Anthony Dean
Actually, the idea of Superman shaving with his heat vision is a Byrne
reboot conceit IIRC---pre-Crisis, Superman's hair didn't grow under a
yellow sun, as you note.
Anthony
Magnus, Robot Fighter.
He had to shave it pre-boot in the Swamp Thing-Superman team-up when
he lost his powers for awhile. It looks like he used a normal mirror
to do so.
Michael
Well, if he lost his powers, wouldn't he be able to use a normal razor?
Michael
Michael
Yep. IIRC, in the Pilot movie, Jor-El uses some PDA-like device to shut
down Brainiac and the device finishes by showing the "S" on it's screen.
Michael
John L Fjellstad
> Psst...dont tell lex luthor.
It's not like Lex Luthor didn't know. There were several instances were
Luthor trapped Superman in a trap with a red "sun" light bulb.
--
John L. Fjellstad
web: http://www.fjellstad.org/ Quis custodiet ipsos custodes
Replace YEAR with current four digit year
Magnus, Robot Fighter.
wrote:
Couldn't when his powers came back.
badth...@yahoo.com
facial hair and had to shave when he got back. But he could just use
any mirror around. He didn't need a piece of th ship. That part was
Byrne.
tphile
He would also have to be a nailbiter. Just part of being mild mannered
I guess.
Maybe we are better off not knowing how he trimmed his toenails
;)
tphile
arnold kim
<badth...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1113961605....@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
I thought I read, though, that Pre-Crisis, his own heat vision couldn't cut
through his own hair. I definitely recall a Silver Age story where he had
to rely on the combined heat vision of Supergirl and Krypto once.
Arnold Kim
Kevrob
A quick flight to The Fortress, followed by a trip to
Klip-Ur's barber shop in beautiful downtown Kandor,
and Kal would be his clean-shaven self again. :)
Klip probably doesn't cut hair himself. He's probably
got robot minions, or computerized "refresher booths"
to handle the actual work. If Supe's cousin Van-Zee
has a home `fresher, Clark can just visit him. He
wouldn't even have to monkey with the settings.
Kevin
Kevin
Johanna Draper Carlson
> I thought I read, though, that Pre-Crisis, his own heat vision couldn't cut
> through his own hair. I definitely recall a Silver Age story where he had
> to rely on the combined heat vision of Supergirl and Krypto once.
Wasn't that the time that red Kryptonite made his hair and nails grow
excessively, so that he looked like a hermit? I thought the two beams
were needed because of the red K.
--
Johanna Draper Carlson
Reviews of Comics Worth Reading -- http://www.comicsworthreading.com
Blogging at http://www.comicsworthreading.com/blog/cwr.html
Daibhid Ceannaideach
news:l86b61t48ke3eco6p...@4ax.com:
I also recall a story where Red K turned him into "The Wild Superman Of
Borneo". In that story it took the combined heat vision of Supergirl and
Krypto to shave him.
--
Dave
Official Absentee of EU Skiffeysoc
http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/sesoc/
"Hamish, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"No."
-Hamish and Dougal
Daibhid Ceannaideach
news:johannaNOSPAM-A3E...@news.uswest.net:
> "arnold kim" <arno...@optonline.net> wrote:
>
>> I thought I read, though, that Pre-Crisis, his own heat vision
>> couldn't cut through his own hair. I definitely recall a Silver Age
>> story where he had to rely on the combined heat vision of Supergirl
>> and Krypto once.
>
> Wasn't that the time that red Kryptonite made his hair and nails grow
> excessively, so that he looked like a hermit? I thought the two beams
> were needed because of the red K.
<kicks self>
Always read the whole thread before responding...
Hank Gillette
Daibhid Ceannaideach <daibhidc...@aol.com> wrote:
> I also recall a story where Red K turned him into "The Wild Superman Of
> Borneo". In that story it took the combined heat vision of Supergirl and
> Krypto to shave him.
Amazing that it could do that and not hurt his skin.
Why didn't he ever just fashion a straight razor and some scissors from
the space ship metal and solve the problem for all time?
--
Hank Gillette
Michael
No, but while his powers were gone he could.
Michael
Anthony Dean
"Klip-Ur"...heh...there's a vote for "cheesiest Kryptonian name ever". :-)
Anthony
Cardinal 1
anyone thinks of Byrne(and I for one hate what he did with Doom Patrol), his
explanation is actually the most reasonable, intelligent, and "non-geeky"
one in the list.
--
Did you know that the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Len-L" <l...@davlin.net> wrote in message
news:dg4a61ltkv0m9tjdv...@4ax.com...
> On 18 Apr 2005 17:23:14 -0700, "pressureguy" <press...@tough.com>
> opined:
>
>>What did the "S" originally stand for?
>>It couldn't be "Superman," as Clark's Kryptonian father wore it on his
>>home planet. Jor-El or Kal-El do not have the letter S in their names,
>>unless the S we see is a Kryptonian symbol for some other letter and
>>resembles our S.
>
> 1938: Superman named himself, used the S.
>
> late 1940s: Ma and Pa Kent named Clark "Superboy," came up with
> S-shield.
>
> 1977 (movie): The S was actually a non-alphabetic design used by the
> House of El on Krypton. Lois named him "Superman."
>
> 1987 (new origin story in comics): Named "Superman" by Lois first, then
> S-shield developed by Pa Kent and Clark together. Different stories have
> evolution of the S-shield from a Kryptonian letter and a similar symbol
> used by the Kent family in the lat 1800s.
>
> early 1990s (animated series): Kryptonian symbol, misinterpreted by Lois
> to be an "S" ("Nice ess") and named Clark "Superman" from that.
>
> 2000: In Smallville TV show, no S-shield yet, but has obvious roots in a
> Kryptonian symbol and the "S" for Smallville on the letter jackets.
>
> Len-L
badth...@yahoo.com
Josh Dull
> I also recall a story where Red K turned him into "The Wild Superman Of
> Borneo". In that story it took the combined heat vision of Supergirl and
> Krypto to shave him.
>
> --
> Dave
Actually, it was the combined heat of their X-Ray vision they used. For some
strange vision X-Ray vision and Heat Vision were the same power for a number
of
years before becoming seperate powers.
Josh
Len-L
>I'm sticking with Superman begins with the letter "S."
C is for cookie, that's good enough for me.....
sorry, don't know why that just popped into my head.
Kevrob
Maybe you are half-remembering the short Filmation did for
Sesame Street starring Superman, where he taught the l'il
perishers about the letter "S".
Kevin
badth...@yahoo.com
Oh. My. God. Dude, you have just dragged up one of my fondest
childhood memories ever!