Superman for All Seasons is a renowned comic piece around the world. The story surrounds the life and personal experiences of Clark Kent: an abnormal fellow who enters planet Earth from a foreign one, Krypton. The young boy lands in a meteor-like spaceship that falls close to Smallville, Kansas, on a wheat plantation belonging to local agriculturalists named Jonathan and Martha Kent. The farmers pick up and adopt the boy, treating him as a gift from God, where they give him the name Clark Kent. As such, Mr. and Mrs. Kent sooner realize that Clark is not a normal human being through the various actions that the adopted son performs.
The first of such moves is when the young child rescues his foster father, Jonathan, from a tractor accident, by lifting the tractor using a single hand after the jack slips. Clark grows into a superman as his parents speculate during his young age. The boy becomes a family savior and a rescuer of the human generation throughout the different plotline issues.
Color usage across the various plotline issues of the narrative portrays essential symbolism and thematic facets that indicate Clark’s development from childhood into an adult superman. The present work purposes of depicting the authors’ use of color to portray aspects like emotion and to develop the main character’s growth aspect. This involves how he evolves from childhood, through school life, and later into the fierce community defender with the ability to stop missiles, change river courses, and bring back life by reversing time. There exist different classifications of color as utilized in designing. Using hue to classify color, for example, leads to the realization of three broad classes of color, including warn, cool, and neutrals (Malloy 59). Moreover, color is also classified into primary and secondary groups based on pigmentation and originality.
All these categories have different meanings as utilized in art and design. For example, warm colors, mainly red and orange, depict aspects like energy, power, and danger. Similarly, artists and authors use warm colors to lead the observers’ eyes, especially when the warm colors combine with cool and neutral shades, primarily for backgrounds.
Analyzing color utilization and its meaning in Superman for All Seasons can take several developments. Studying the use of different shades in the various issues of the narrative, for instance, provides a wealth of information that readers can use to comprehend the protagonist’s development and change with time. Better still, looking at the color usage in specific pages of the work further provides crucial information that contributes to understanding the narrative’s theme.
The first issue of the story, for example, exhibits a suitable combination of warm and cool colors. The case mainly describes Clark’s growth from childhood to high school and then as a news writer. Color utilization on pages 2 and 5 of issue #1, for instance, depicts the character’s youngness and the general feeling of a challenging future for the community, which explains the reason for Clark’s existence. In the two pages, the author provides a cream-yellow background that fights the color grey. Yellow and cream are the shades of early morning sunlight (Malloy 64); thus, they imply hope, energy, and happiness. Yellow is also a bright color, the most brilliant among the warm colors category.
The use of yellow color on pages 2 and 5 of plotline issue #1 seeks to imply the overpowering of the dark, grey near future that the community will face under the likes of Luthor. Yellow is also the dominant color on page 2 of the first issue. The shade overcomes the other primary color, blue, to imply a brighter future and the energy possessed by superman, who is at the introductory stage of the narrative. Red shade further dominates superman’s image on the first page of the first issue. The superman on this page utilizes most of the space, while blue and red colors show him being more significant than the village beneath him.
The use of such primary colors in the introductory phase of the story purposes to help the reader understand the central theme of the narrative, abnormal power that exceeds that of a standard human (Mehl 154). During the remaining bit of issue #1 of the storyline, the color of Clark’s clothing remains cool, primarily light blue, implying responsibility and calmness.
The use of more warm colors in issue #2 of the narrative’s plotline implies the immediate need for Clerk to utilize his superhuman abilities. The story now approaches its climax, and the protagonist must start showing his superhuman abilities. The excessive use of warm color, relative to issue #1, indicates Clark’s readiness to undertake his primary mission of saving humanity (Osborne 39). For example, on pages 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 16, and 19 of issue #2 of the story’s plot, Clark appears above the seemingly tiny village with his fists folded, ready to act. The character is flying through space with the enormous red cloth on his back serving as the energetic wings that carry him along.
Clark’s clothing has a significant amount of red color; this implies power, energy, warfare, passion, and love. He is ready to act out of his love for humanity, justice, and fairness, as shown by the large red cloth that serves as wings for him. The superman symbol on his chest is also in red, which implies the same things as the red wings. Almost all the remaining bit of the hero’s body is blue, which symbolizes responsibility, peace, and spiritual connection (Malloy 179). According to Brebbia, white is the subject of purity, virtue, and cleanness (156). This aspect is elaborated in the dire need for superman’s intervention in the city’s region is further shown by a white background.
Page 1 of issue #3 of the plotline uses color to imply the climax in superman’s warship to maintain peace on Earth. The image combines red and black colors to create the overdeveloped Clark with overgrown body muscles. The whole body is black, while the superman symbol on the chest uses red and yellow colors that match the red cloth that the hero uses as wings. The change from a blue body into a black body depicts Clark’s readiness to spend energy to save humanity (Agoston 89). The red and yellow colors further imply energy and power. White sparks of energy also appear to fall from the luminous orange sky towards the dark distant city. They are corrupted by the evils of immoral people like Luthor, the black figure on page 31 of issue #3 of the plotline.
Conquering the dark forces in issue #3 allows Clark to regain his normal body color, blue top, with red and yellow shades present to imply peace, energy, and power, respectively, in issue #4. Pages 28 and 33 of the fourth issue further present Clark’s overgrown power through the extensive red cloth that acts as his wings, allowing him to restore peace in the city by defeating Luthor and other ill players. The cloth’s size and location in the pages are large enough to mast the other elements present. The issue thus uses color to symbolize the realization of the superhuman theme in the narrative. Arguably, the narrative lacks meaning without the wise application of color used for symbolism and thematic development.
Works Cited
Agoston, George. Color Theory and Its Application in Art and Design. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2018.
Brebbia, Carlos A. Color in Art, Design & Nature. WIT Press, 2018.
Malloy, Kaoime. The Art of Theatrical Design: Elements of Visual Composition, Methods, and Practice. Routledge, 2019.
Mehl, Richard. Playing with Color – 50 Graphic Experiments for Exploring Color Design Prin. Rockport Publishers Inc., 2017.
Osborne, Roy. Renaissance Colour Symbolism. Lulu Com, 2019.