BW Media Spotlight

I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to bother revisiting this topic. I said all I needed to about the James Gunn S reveal and how it isn’t an S. Google on my phone recommended me a ScreenRant article about how the new design is a good thing, and it’s stupid enough to talk about, but today is the anniversary of Action Comics #1 and taking on this guy in a versus article mostly boils down to “the movies aren’t the source material, stupid!”. Making the claim that Gunn’s non-S is a better example of a Kryptonian hieroglyph is weak when you realise that wasn’t what it originally was, not even being tied to Krypton in the general public until Superman: The Movie, which is one of the many things the movie got wrong even though it’s still the best live-action adaptation even as of the date of this article. Frankly there are dumber ScreenRant articles if the headlines I saw during a search for Superman to find that article on my computer are any indication, and I may even get to some of them when I need a topic. I want to have fun with this day, to celebrate Superman rather than take on one ignorant perspective.

Then I figured out a fun way to do both.

Why not take the time to celebrate Superman through the S shield and go over what it used to mean versus what it is now. For one thing, as you can see by the above image, Superman didn’t even start out with the logo as we know it today. The Logopedia image collecting the logos didn’t even go over the numerous variants over the years, just the primary ones. Therefore, it might be interesting to go over Superman’s symbol. A symbol on a character or organization in fiction is an important piece of iconography. I even knew that instinctively in middle school when I started creating heroes. See a symbol and you know what franchise it comes from and what character is attached to it. You can tell from the rough robot face who is an Autobot and who is a Decepticon, or which flavor of Maximal or Predacon you’re dealing with. There’s a reason the US Space Force logo was accused of resembling the Star Trek logo and why some people did or didn’t like it. Even that logo started out as exclusive to the USS Enterprise until someone messed up for the first Star Trek movie onward.

It’s true in the real world as well. I have a BW logo and a personal “ShadowWing” logo. YouTube channels have an image that tells you right off what channel your on. Most organizations and businesses have a symbol that identifies their club, item, or medical care. Street signs and bathrooms both use symbols for the reading impaired or anyone who doesn’t read English (or doesn’t have time at 60 mph). Symbols are important, and Superman’s has evolved over the years visually, but to understand the origin is to understand the character. So let’s learn about Superman through the history of the S.

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