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Symbol of the Faithful


MathEpic

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In the Reckoners universe "The Faithful" is a title given to people that believe that eventually there will be good people with superpowers that will come and displace the bad.

 

In chapter 23 on page 225 David describes the symbol that the Faithful have adopted to represent their hope.

I could see the pendant he wore.  It was small and silver with a stylized S symbol on it.  I thought I recognized that symbol from somewhere.  It reminded me of my father.

 

My first thought when reading this was that he was describing the Superman crest.  It fits the description and it makes sense on a practical level since Superman's primary character trait is that he is noble and heroic.

 

What does everyone else think?

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I thought the same thing. There is no reason to think that comic books didn't exist, or that they didn't have the same comic icons that exist in our world. It's pretty funny actually. I hope they can get DC to let them use it when they make this movie. :D

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I also first thought of Superman.  Clearly comic books did exist.  David says in the prologue that his dad was wearing a t-shirt with a comic book character on it.  The question is, what does the 'S' stand for? (unless it is in fact the Superman symbol in the story and was adopted by the faithful because of Superman comic books)

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I considered the S on the cover also, but I am not sure it really fits.

 

First the S on the cover is not really very stylized.  It is a little taller than normal, and it has unusual serifs (if that is what those things are called) but otherwise it seems kind of standard. Second, the S has something that looks like a scar on it.  I have nothing against scars in iconography, but I am not sure it fits with the whole "looking forward with hope" shtick that the faithful have.  Finally, that particular S is used to spell out Stealheart on the front cover.  I have a hard time tying that S to the Faithful when it is already associated with Steelheart.

 

But then again, I could be wrong.  I guess we will have to wait and see what is revealed about the Faithful in future books.

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I'm pretty confident that it's meant to be Superman's 'S'.  Superman is physically almost identical to Steelheart.  Both are incredibly strong, can fly, and are completely invulnerable except for one small weakness.  Steelheart, in essence, is Superman gone bad.  Thus Superman makes a perfect moral foil for Steelheart.  From a more in-universe perspective, Superman would also be the shining ideal for the Faithful.  Superman is quite literally unstoppable (aside from Kryptonite, which turns up far more often than it realistically should in the comic books).  But unlike the epics, his powers don't corrupt him.  And the combination of his incredible power coupled with his selfless morality, is the shining example of "what ought to be" for the Faithful.

 

 

The video game "Injustice", which came out earlier this year, covers similar ground.  An alternate universe Superman becomes twisted due to events, and pretty much takes over the world as there's no one capable of stopping him.  The result - at least on the local level - is not all that different from Newcago.

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  • 1 year later...

I thought this when I first read this, too. I think that the "S" being Superman's symbol makes sense, since there are so many parallels between Steelheart and the Man of Steel, particularly in the way that they appear (the physical descriptions of him all sound like they are describing Superman, they both fly, etc). Of course, unless the eventual Steelheart picture gets picked up by WB, it will be really tough for them to secure the rights to use it, as we know that Brandon wrote this thinking that a film version was an eventual possibility.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

The Superman S would fit that ideology. Well, unless they use the symbol from Man of Steel, which apparently means "indiscriminate property damage." <_<

 

Faithful: "I believe that heroes will come."

 

* displays the S of the Faithful *

 

Skeptic: "...And they'll break the bad Epics' necks?"

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  • 2 years later...

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