As always, I’m amazed at the depth of knowledge here. I know Superman has a large following.
Last night I was watching the first Superman movie on AMC and am really intrigued by the beginning of the movie. I noticed that Superman’s father had the “S” on his chest on the planet Krypton. I also noticed that other people on Krypton had other designs on their chests (they looked like those images that your supposed to stare at to get the “real” picture). Does anyone know what those are or mean and isn’t it too much of a coincidence that Superman’s father had the “S” to match his son’s “S”? Also, what was Superman? His father made mention that he wasn’t a “human being”.
I took a brief look for some Superman sites but couldnt’ find these answers. I don’t have all day to look things up, I’m at work here…
*I don’t have all day to look things up, I’m at work here… *
Well, so am I! :D:D
In the comics, the “S” design was designed by Clark Kent’s mother. (There were two different designs: one the “Golden Age” Superman’s {1938-1950’s} and the current one.)
The movie took several liberties, one being the “S” insignia coming from Supe’s Kryptonian family. Other things:
[ul]
[li]Lex Luthor. One comic book story was that Lex and Clark both grew up in Smallville, and that a mistake by Superboy caused Lex’s hair to fall out.[/li][li]The Phantom Zone. The comics describe it as a sort of parallel universe, not the 2-D “window” that trapped the 3 villians until Superman II.[/li][li]Jor El (Superman’s biological father) was a scientist. He discovered the Phantom Zone, but he wasn’t a part of the council that sentenced criminals.[/li][/ul]
But as a comic book fan of the time, I thought the movie was great.
I believe the designs on the chests of the people were the designation of what house they belonged to. Jor-El (Superman’s father) belonged to the house of El. His son’s (Superman) Kryptonian name is Kal-El. It is conveniently coincidental that this symbol turned out to be the Superman S symbol we are so familiar with.
As others have pointed out, the movie “origin” of the “S” symbol (a family symbol from Krypton) is different from the comic-book origin (designed by Mrs. Kent).
However, a recently-published comic offers an interesting twist on that. DC published a 12-issue Western drama called “The Kents” telling the history of the Kent family in Kansas from the 1850’s through the 1880’s. In one of those stories, one of Jonathan Kent’s male ancestors is given an Indian blanket by his half-Indian girlfriend (later his wife, and thus, one of Jonathan Kent’s female ancestors) with a proto-“S” symbol…a pentagon (representing the five tribes in the alliance her Indian side comes from) and a snake, in S-form, as a totem. Of course, we know what the symbol really is…