Superman is coming off another big weekend at the box office. James Gunn’s DC revival is making waves this summer, especially with audience members returning to capture every little detail on display in the epic superhero movie. One detail that audiences are still scratching their head over is what the ‘S’ on Superman’s chest stands for. The film doesn’t outright say, but we did some digging to try and find the answer.
Upon seeing the movie again, my early analysis brought me to the conclusion that the S stands for ‘Sex Machine’. It make’s sense if you think about it. His parents sent him from Krypton to have sex with a bunch of Earth women. It’s just a shame that Clark didn’t land in a house that contained a copy of Neil Strauss’ The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists. He would for sure have a brood of Kryptonian hybrids in no time, but no he instead landed in the sexless home of Jonathan and Martha Kent and developed feelings.
Back to the drawing board for my third watch I noticed that Superman was saving every one. I dug through all the S words I knew. Save? No. Squirrel? No. Sissy…yes, that must be it, I thought at the moment. The S stands for ‘Sissy’. Who actually believes that they can save everyone? And why are you so nice to everyone? You are Superman. You can freeze everyone to death by blowing on them. You can melt through our skulls with your laser beams. Stop being so damn nice, you sissy. I was sure I had finally found what the S stood for, then Superman threw Ultraman into a dark abyss and it was back to the drawing board.
Does it stand for ‘Supergirl’? That’d be some smart early marketing for the next movie. Oh wait, that’s right, she’s in this.
What about ‘soft-reboot’? No. That’s just dumb.
My multiple Superman viewings and my deep dive into a dictionary left me broke and no closer to finding out what the S stood for. Gunn was also being annoyingly tightlipped about the symbol. I was stumped. I’ve turned out articles like this for every superhero movie since the original X-men run. I pulled easter egg after easter egg and milked theme after theme from these movies, for the sake of SEO, yet here I am, all bent out of shape about what this S stands for. I am no man of steel. Wait. Steel. Man of Steel. Oh my god.
Gunn, you magnificent genius. The S on Superman’s chest stands for ‘Snyder’, as in Zack Snyder. This is amazing. How could I have not seen this before. Gunn was paying his respect to those who came before him. If not for Snyder providing the blueprint with his heroic run of Superman movies, we may never have seen James Gunn work his magic in the DCEU. Thank you Mr. Gunn for respecting the history and thank you Mr. Snyder for making all this possible.
