Initially, the S-shield had one meaning:
S for Superman. One of the first alternative meanings was presented in
Superman: The Movie, in which it was not an
S, but rather the
S-shaped
Coat of arms of the
House of El.
Marlon Brando, who portrayed
Jor-El, conceived the idea of the "S" being a family crest, from which folklore spun off. In the Superman reboot story
The Man of Steel, the logo was designed by
Jonathan Kent and derived from an ancient Native American symbol. It was featured on a medicine blanket given to an ancestor of the Kent family by a Native American tribe after he helped to cure them of a plague. The symbol was supposed to represent a snake, an animal held to possess healing powers by the tribe, and thus would imply that, by wearing this symbol, Superman was a metaphorical healer. This origin was also included in the 1997 Superman encyclopedia. In 2004,
Mark Waid's
Superman: Birthright series stated that the S-Shield is the
Kryptonian symbol for "hope" and Superman believes it may have begun as a coat of arms for the House of El. Later, writer
Geoff Johns confirmed it was indeed a coat of arms, as well as a symbol for hope. In the 2013 film
Man of Steel, Jor-El mentions that the symbol represents the House of El and means "hope", and Superman later also specifies that it is not an "S" when
Lois Lane asks what the "S" was short for. Superman further explains that the design is based on a river in the 2017 film
Justice League. In
Supergirl,
Kara Danvers states that the Kryptonian symbol stands for her family's motto, "Stronger together."
House of El Marv Wolfman's
novelization of the film
Superman Returns depicts the symbol as belonging to one of the three primary houses of Krypton that brought peace to the planet after a civil uprising, a serpent coiled inside a shield, a warning not to return to the ways of violence and deception. The shield has since been taken as a coat of arms, resulting in Jor-El's continued presence in the council despite his "mad" findings. The other two are merely described, including Pol-Us' eye of vigilance and Kol-Ar's open hand of truth and justice.
Cape For decades, almost all versions of Superman's red cape had an all-yellow version of the logo, with a thin black line separating the areas. Since
Superman: The Animated Series, where the logo was absent from Superman's cape due to the difficulty in animating the S, subsequent comics and adaptations have varied from using the yellow logo to using a plain red cape.
Variants In the 1960s the tiny bottle city of
Kandor, the miniaturized capital city of the planet Krypton, resided in Superman's
Fortress of Solitude. Originally, certain inhabitants resembling Kal-El formed the
Superman Emergency Squad and would, on occasion, leave the bottle, enter the Earth's atmosphere and gain super powers to aid Superman. As designed by artist
Curt Swan, their uniforms were similar to that of Superman save for the 'S' on their chests which resembled the early version, the 'S' and border in red on a yellow field, but in an elongated triangle. During the
Reign of the Supermen story arc, Each of the four different Supermen was represented by a variant of the symbol, which each wore on their person. •
Eradicator wore a normal shield when he attempted to continue Superman's career. Later on, he wore a slightly altered, more curved version with an opening in the border and which was red and black instead of yellow and red. •
Cyborg Superman's shield was half-normal on the left side, but the red darkened to an almost black color on the right half. •
Superboy (
Conner Kent) wore an all-yellow symbol stitched into the back of his leather jacket, in addition to a normal one on his chest. •
Steel wore an all-metallic symbol. The classic 'S' was redesigned into metallic burnt
red color with a grey undertone in the background. Other variations include: • Black and red • Conner Kent sports a black and red variant of the symbol on his third costume.
Lex Luthor hypothesized it is because that version of the symbol was everywhere following the death of Superman and his consequent first appearance. • In
Kingdom Come, Superman wears a black and red, simplified version following his return. • After the
Imperiex War, Superman wore the black and red variant to signify his mourning of the losses during the war. • The Eradicator, for a time, wore a red and blacked, curvier version of the S-Shield. •
Bizarro's symbol is a reversed purple and yellow version. • The inverted symbol, first seen in
52, means "resurrection" in Kryptonian. •
Jor-El sports a white symbol on his black clothing, as well as a black symbol on his white clothing in the 1978
Superman movie. • In his modern appearances,
Superman of Earth-2 wears a slightly different version of the symbol. Its most notable difference is an exaggerated
serif on the 'S'. • A variation of the symbol, designed as a stubbed red lightning bolt against a black shield has been used in several media, including an Elseworlds where Darkseid raised Kal-El, and was the basis of one of the final season of
Superman: The Animated Series, and an episode named "Brave New Metropolis" from an alternate reality where Superman and Luthor took over Metropolis. • A further variation, this time a white symbol against a red background, was used in episodes of
Justice League and
Justice League Unlimited, used by the Superman of the
Justice Lords. • Black and white • Superman briefly wore an all-black costume with a white shield following his resurrection at the conclusion of
The Death of Superman. • In
Batman Beyond, an aged Superman wears a heavily stylised symbol, consisting of a white slash within an inverted black triangle, and a rhombus in the upper left corner. A similar symbol is worn by an adult
Jon Kent in the alternate future depicted in
Futures End. • After being transported to the New 52 universe, the pre-Flashpoint Superman wore a black costume with an emblem resembling a white version of the
Kingdom Come shield. • The symbol has been adapted to various flags in alternate realities, including the
Nazi swastika (in JL-Axis) and
Soviet Union hammer and sickle (
Superman: Red Son). • In
Justice League: The New Frontier and
JSA: The Liberty Files, the shield has black background pieces and a yellow outline, resembling the Fleischer Studios version. • In
Superman: Earth One, the shield has an additional yellow outline. Additionally, on the cape, the "S" and the pentagonal outline are yellow, while the inner pentagon is red. • In
Supergirl, the emblem worn by Supergirl has a blue background, with yellow outlines around the red S and border.
Wearers of the shield Kryptonian family members of Superman wear the symbol, but sometimes it is worn to honor Superman. After
The Death of Superman, many
DC Comics superheroes wore a black armband with the Superman logo. • Superman •
Kal-El •
Kal-L (variant) •
Kal Kent (variant) •
Supergirl •
Kara Zor-El •
Linda Danvers •
Matrix •
Superboy •
Kal-El (Superman as a teenager; pre-1986) •
Conner Kent (red and black variant) •
Superboy-Prime (carves an S-symbol in blood on his chest). •
Jonathan Samuel Kent (the new Superboy in
DC Rebirth, son of Superman and
Lois Lane) •
Superwoman •
Lucy Lane (white and red variant) •
House of El •
Jor-El (
Superman: Birthright,
Superman,
Action Comics #850,
Man of Steel) • Lar Gand (
Mon-El) •
Zor-El • Others •
Krypto (shown as tag on his collar) •
Bizarro (reversed 'S', sometimes purple and yellow) • The
Superman Emergency Squad from
Kandor, a red 'S' in an elongated triangle •
Hank Henshaw (red and black variant, like Kon-El. It is sometimes shown as a white and black variant) •
Steel (John Henry Irons) •
Natasha Irons •
Eradicator (variant) •
Strange Visitor (variant) •
Preus •
Alura (red and white variant) ==Diamond and eight shield==