DC Entertainment Will Allow Child's Memorial to Feature Superman Logo

After a solid day of bad press, DC Entertainment have consented to allow a statue being erected in memory of a five-year-old who died in 2002 to feature the Superman logo.

The iconic, pentagonal "S" shield was at issue after lawyers for Warner Bros., DC's parent company, reportedly nixed a request to include it in the sculpture. While the rejection made international headlines yesterday, sources indicated to ComicBook.com that DC were continuing to mull the decision and that a reversal was likely imminent.

"We are honored by the relationship that our fans have with our characters, and fully understand the magnitude of their passion," a company spokesperson said in a statement released this morning. "We take each request seriously and our heartfelt thoughts go out to the victims, the family and those affected. DC Entertainment uses a flexible set of criteria when we receive worthy requests such as this, and at times have reconsidered our initial stance. After verifying the support of appropriate family members, DC Entertainment will be allowing the Jeffrey Baldwin Memorial Statue to feature the Superman S Shield."

Misappropiration of the Superman shield is common, and so DC and Warner Bros. tend to be very protective of its use, but many fans argued that with no commercial use, allowing the statue to young Jeffrey Baldwin to done the iconic costume of the Man of Steel was a no-brainer.

Baldwin died more than ten years ago after his teenage parents were stripped of custody. He became a ward of his maternal grandparents, who were convicted of negligence and abuse.

He was one of four children who were in the care of Elva Bottineau and Norman Kidman. Jeffrey and one of his sisters were locked in a dark room for 14 hours a day, deprived of food, verbally and mentally abused and left to live in their own waste. Jeffrey died November 30, 2002, of septic shock and starvation. Bottineau and Kidman were convicted in 2006 of second degree murder.

"He wanted to fly," Jeffrey's father Richard Baldwin said during a 2013 inquest. "He tried jumping off the chair. We had to make him stop. He dressed up [as Superman] for Halloween one year. He was so excited. I have that picture at home hanging on my wall. He was our little man of steel."

The statue is being constructed with over $30,000 in donations raised on IndieGoGo by Todd Boyce, who will pay sculptor Ruth Abernethy to create it. It was Boyce who pushed for the Superman costume specifically after reading the quote above, and he who was most disappointed when the rejection came. Had DC not reconsidered, the alternative was reportedly going to be to depict Baldwin with a "J" instead of an "S" inside of the shield on his chest. Such images are common in merchandising and rarely or never challenged by DC or Warner Bros.