Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Lois & Clark Superman's "S"

I just recently watched the Pilot again, and was wondering... later in the series, Clark has several Superman outfits, but it seemed as though Martha only had one "S" that she found with Clark's spaceship. So where did the other "S"'s for the other suits come from?

Good question!, Just like Luthor's Vatman in season 1 had an identical suit to the one Superman wore, I guess we have to suspend our belief that Martha could whip up more of the "S" shields.

Well it's a fairly simple, stylised design. It wouldn't be too difficult to copy, I wouldn't think. Especially for a seamstress of Martha's talent.

LabRat

I never thought about that!!!

Sounds like a fanfic waiting to be written.

I'd imagine by Vatman there were cheap knockoffs available for Halloween if nothing else and surely Luthor could get a high quality one.

The more... pressing? question is where the gold one on the back of the first cape the first day came from. *raised brow*

Carol

I must admit that, as a former seamstress who still guiltily has loads of cloth, I wondered both things. Sewing machines can be used to make those kinds of designs, however, it would be a time-consuming process. It could not be done on the lightweight fabric used to make the cape. She would have to compose it separately and then sew her composition on. All in all, its a lot of work to go through for an iffy prototype.

After it is designed, however, that's another thing. There are specialty machines that sell for about the same amount of cash as a leather couch which can be programmed to make one automatically. Martha would be a LARGE spool of each color thread on the top of the machine, add the CD with the preprogrammed design, put in her material and sit back to do her nails. If she owned such a machine, it would be no big deal to inexpensively and secretly make them at home. (What's so suspicious about buying primary colors?) Heck, I bet Clark could make his own. Also, I imagine the capes would wear out much faster than the s-shields. Since they are sewn onto the capes, they could be reused as long as they were in satisfactory condition.


Elisabeth

I thought about the same thing Elisabeth. I can picture Martha with her loam creating the big ole S. Can you see her walking into an embroidry shop and asking them to make 10 patches just like this one? I thought the big S on the front looks like a patch.

In the end, I can suspend my need to think about the costume just to enjoy the romance.

Don't forget that by halfway through S1, the Superman Foundation was churning out Superman merchandise. Undoubtedly, copies of the S were part of that, maybe attached to certain products.

Martha may not have had to make copies. She might have been able to buy them.

LabRat

That kind of work isn't done on a loom. It's done on something like this: http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?CATID=cat2573&PRODID=xprd243695 (which is cheaper than I thought it was. I swear prices come down as technology advances.)


Elisabeth

I think I have enough to open a small store....

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Let’s not forget that even Lois could make an ‘S’. The following is a set-up from the Tempus Anyone script:



So Martha must have been making them, too - that would be how Lois got the idea. But, like Elizabeth said, it would have to be a specialized sewing machine - not just your every day sewing machine. And they still had those types of specialized machines before CD's could 'drive' them. They were just more time consuming and required more work for the seamstress. I've seen them, but the only kind I've used have been the computerized ones so I'm not exactly sure how they worked but they still had some kind of manual pattern that the machine followed.

I also kind of wondered why Martha had so many different colors & prints of tight-fitting fabric lying around! It seemed like the costume was a kind of spur of the moment thing... that Clark asked Martha if she still had her sewing machine, then they got right to work...

Yeah. That one never flew for me, I'm afraid!

As for all those bolts of cloth - probably leftovers from one of Martha's art/crafts projects.

LabRat

Just as long as Martha hadn't used any of the spandex to make anything for Clark's father!

Maybe she made covers for the chicken coops!

I feel I must direct you to:

Spandex
Spandex II

And as I've seen Spandex III, you must nag Alisha .
Carol

Why do I feel afraid to open those two stories!

I remember reading a story on the boards where Clark asks her where she got all the materials and supplies. She tells Clark she is the seamstress for the local drama club and they let her keep all the left over supplies sort of as payment.

More likely she got them in the same way I got all of my abandoned cloth. They were on sale.


Elisabeth
who normally hates shopping, but the words arts and crafts kind of negates that

I believe Labby got the right answer. I used to sew way more than I do now and I’m seriously betting that I could open a small fabric shop. But I don’t think there’s any spandex in the whole lot. I think you’d almost have to have a specific reason to get that kind of fabric because it’s hard to sew. It’s not (at least for me) one of those fabrics you run across and say, “Gee, that’s really pretty. I know I could use it for something...” And then you buy some. (I even have Superman, Batman, and Spiderman fabric.)

~~~~~~~

Ah, yes. And then there’s that. I love those fabric sales.

I must confess that I have leftover which Clark could use. But only in one color.


Elisabeth

Well, they never ended up using that in the episode though. In the episode that aired, Lois used a pre-made ski suit and Clark gave her the S, which he had kept in an envelope.

In DTOSC, after all his suits get destroyed, Clark says he's surprised that Martha has so much material left and she says she got in on sale .

As for the costumes in the Pilot episode, they might have discussed it off-screen after the brief conversation on the phone, which would have given Martha time to get the materials.