DC COMICS: Superboy Statue of Jeffery Baldwin

Superman Family in the Media

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TORONTO - The feedback from Superman fans proved to be more powerful than a locomotive. DC Entertainment had a change of heart and will now allow the superhero’s “S” to appear on a memorial statue of Jeffrey Baldwin. After initially refusing to permit the use of the Superman logo on a life-size statue of the five-year-old, who was starved to death at the hands of his maternal grandparents in 2002, DC Entertainment sent out a statement Wednesday announcing it will allow the use of the Kryptonian symbol for hope after all. “After verifying the support of appropriate family members, DC Entertainment will be allowing the Jeffrey Baldwin Memorial Statue to feature the Superman S Shield,” DC spokesman Courtney Simmons said. The change of heart is not entirely unusual, she added. “DC Entertainment uses a flexible set of criteria when we receive worthy requests such as this, and at times have reconsidered our initial stance,” Simmons said. The statue was the brainchild of Ottawa father-of-three Todd Boyce, who raised more than $25,000 for a bronze figure of Jeffrey dressed in his Superman costume, attached to a bench. Jeffrey’s plight was first brought to Boyce’s attention last year during an inquest into the boy’s tragic death in which a photo of Jeffrey in his Superman costume was widely circulated. The inquest heard that Jeffrey wanted to fly — he wanted to be Superman. “It feels great,” Boyce said Wednesday of DC’s change of heart. After the initial refusal, he had been preparing to swap out the ‘S’ on Jeffrey’s chest with a ‘J.’ “Basically they’re saying that they received a lot of feedback from fans and none of it very positive for them,” he said. “So they revisited their original decision to now allow us to use the Superman logo as part of the statue.” Boyce does not know which family members DC has spoken with to verify support for the statue. “They haven’t really given me too much background on what caused them to change their minds other than the feedback they received from fans,” he said. The memorial — created by Canadian sculptor Ruth Abernethy — is meant as a gift to the City of Toronto and is expected to be complete by fall and then placed in Greenwood Park near Dundas Ave. E. and Greenwood Ave. in the east end.

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