Chest Insignia: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

The universal formula for depicting a character to be instantly recognizable as "a superhero" of some sort: put them in reasonably form-fitting clothes, and then add a prominent symbol on the chest.

Almost universally in the earlier eras, and in many cases today, the logo is centered and covers at least half the space available; a variant, that appears more and more frequently nowadays, has it shrunk down and over the heart like a police badge, or on a belt buckle. Copyright-holders soon realized that these insignia were marketing gold, in that fans of the characters were more consistently attracted to the insignia than the faces of the characters themselves; a valuable realization when different performers were chosen to portray the characters for various reasons. In addition, it's often easier to slap a stylized letter or icon onto merchandise, since the [[Uncanny Valley]] comes into play when trying to incorporate character faces onto merchandise.

 

 

Said symbol will often be [[Brought to You by The Letter "S"]]. If it glows, there's overlap with [[Heart Light]].

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Science Ninja Team Gatchaman]]''. All the team members have a stylized bird chest symbol on their costumes.

* The hiragana character "bu" (ぶ) in ''[[Ai to Yuuki no Pig Girl Tonde Buurin]]''.

* Every Navi in ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]]'' has a circular personal symbol of some sort, and several mount it in the center of their chests, notably Rockman himself. (Hino "[[Meaningful Name|Hinoken]]" Kenichi actually used recolors of the same symbol for all three of the Navis he operated during the series: Fireman, Heatman, and Flameman.)

** There's a subversion with [[Blood Knight]] Bass/Forte: in place of a symbol he has a massive scar where his symbol would normally be.

 

* [[Superman]]'s "S" shield, shared by various sidekicks, and parodied repeatedly throughout pop culture.

*** In ''Superman/Fantastic 4'', Johnny Storm attempts to recruit Superman by offering, "It doesn't take much to make that 'S' into a '5'."

** The symbol has varied in different incarnations. Currently the [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] Superman is shown with a bloated looking "S". [[Kingdom Come]] Superman had a more angular stylized "S".

* [[Batman]]'s bat silhouette. This was lampshaded in ''[[The Dark Knight Returns]]'', where Batman admits that the famous bright yellow background is, obviously, a great big target. He then goes on to explain that he did it because he "can't armor my head".

** Some of the [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Age]] stories have the bat-emblem used as a diamond-edged cutting tool.

*** The similarity of the original version to the registered trademark symbol ® has been a frequent parody gag.

** The Batgirls also have batsymbols on their chests, although Cassandra Cain's is more of an outline.

** As does the current [[Batwoman]]. The original Bat-Woman and Bat-Girl didn't, though.

** With the formation of more Lantern Corps, each of them have their own insignia.

** This is done for maximum horrific effect in ''[[Blackest Night]]'' among the Black Lanterns. When a corpse rises as a Black Lantern, the Black Hand symbol (a downward-pointing triangle with five lines coming from the top) is always incorporated into their new costume; sometimes in extremely imaginative ways (for instance, Black Lantern Superman has his S-shield as the triangle).

* The [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] Crimson Avenger, after he abandoned his [[Civvie Spandex]], wore a costume with a sunburst on the chest. The modern Crimson Avenger claims this was a stylized bullet hole; her own [[Civvie Spandex]] has a realistic blood-splatter.

* Both Liberty Belles wear an image of, surprise surprise, the Liberty Bell. Johnny Quick (husband of the first and father of the second), had a pair of wings on his costume.

** By the post-''[[Zero Hour]]'' continuity, if not before, it became standard for all Legionnaires to wear a belt buckle with the Legion's insignia, an L and star inside a circle.

* [[Wonder Woman]], for most of her history, has had a soaring eagle on the top of her one-piece. In 1982 it was replaced it with concentric W's (explained in-story as the logo of the "Wonder Woman Foundation" and, [[Post-Crisis]], as Diana Trevor's WAFS insignia). The eagle has recently returned.

 

** USAgent, who was Captain America for a while in the 80s, has red and white stripes with a black star in the upper-left.

* The [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'s 4-in-circle.

** Arachne, another spider-themed female hero, uses the Venom-style design.

*** In fact her costume, back when she was the current Spider Woman, was the inspiration for Peter's original black costume.

* Guardian, leader of the Canadian superteam [[Alpha Flight]], has a large red maple leaf that wraps around the left side of his chest. At one point, the whole team got similar uniforms.

** In some issues, the teeth are spare ammo magazines.

* The [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] have an X in circle logo. It usually isn't in the middle of their chest, but it still counts.

* Shen Kuei, aka The Cat, has a large black cat tattooed onto his chest.

* [[Deadpool]]'s, erm, "Deadpool Symbol" (a simplified version of his mask), makes an appearance on his belt buckle, his weapons, his boxers and on the center of many of his shirts.

* [[Thor]] and [[Iron Man]] have costume details which serve this purpose. The former has the six circles on his chest plate, while the latter has the uni-beam, which is usually circular or pentagonal.

* Norman Osborn's Iron Patriot armor also has a Uni-Beam, shaped like a star. This feature ironically causes the Uni-Beam to overheat after multiple uses, used to the advantage of Spider-Man in their most recent fight.

* In his full garb as Sorcerer Supreme, [[Doctor Strange]]'s typical tunic has a blue 'demon' with upstretched arms. His new wardrobe in the 2011 revival of ''[[The Defenders]]'' has a red trident-like symbol which resembles it.

 

* [[The Astounding Wolf Man]] has his wolf insignia on his bulletproof armor.

* ''[[All Fall Down]]'' gives us Portia, Paradigm and Siphon.

 

== Films -- Animation ==

* There's the "i" in an oval sported by ''[[The Incredibles]]''. Even the villain Syndrome sported an "S" that covered his entire torso.

 

== Literature ==

* The Redcross Knight in ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'' has a, you guessed it, blood red cross on the front of his armor.

 

** Notably, [[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers|the original Ranger team]] only had the belt buckle versions (except for the White Ranger), though the trope was apparently powerful enough that they got moved to the chest for the merchandising and in [[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (film)|the movie]].

* ''[[LazyTown]]'s'' resident "slightly above average hero", the unfeasibly athletic, blue-bespandexed Sportacus, [[Incredibly Lame Pun|sports]] a chest badge that reads "10". The number indicates his heritage (he's tenth in a line of similar protectors) and carries connotations of his being a "team player".

* ''[[El Chapulin Colorado]]'' had its red "CH" inside a yellow heart.

* Not quite heroes, but there's the minor fact that ''[[Star Trek]]'' featured the small-bit-on-the-side version. To the point where some of the fluff says the ''Enterprise'''s then-unique pointy thing became Starfleet's actual official insignia so everyone could wear it.

* The [[Ultra Series|many versions]] of the Japanese [[Superhero]] ''[[Ultraman]]'' always have a light on his chest, which flashes to indicate how much energy he has remaining.

 

* The distinctive "nASh" across the chest of Kevin Nash.

* In a direct reference to the Superman "S" shield, indy wrestler Chris Hero sports a Superman-style shield with the letters "CH" in it.

* Shark Boy, at least before becoming Stone Cold Shark Boy, had the clear shark motif on his outfit.

* [[TNA]] wrestler Suicide has his full name in block lettering written over a vaguely M-shaped logo on his chest.

 

== Video Games ==

** The letter and number options were pretty rarely used, as some players though they looked somewhat silly.

* Most Navis in ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]]'' have their characteristic insignia in a circle on their chest. MegaMan.EXE himself has a stylized H, which stands for "Hikari," the family name of of his operator Lan {{spoiler|as well as himself. Long story.}}

** The Coach fancies himself a rapper; that might actually be [[Flavor Flav]]-style bling.

* In the third season of ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'', the engine used to film the series was changed when ''[[Halo 2]]'' was released. In the game the player can customise their character with different insignias (although they wear them on their shoulders rather than the chest). The main cast feature their own personal symbols at first, but they were short lived.

** Yang wears her insignia, partly hidden, on one breast.

 

== Web Comics ==

* Skull Girl from ''[[Super Temps]]'' has a pair of...erm Chest Insignias conveniently positioned.

* Arachni-Guy from ''[[My Roommate Is An Elf]]'' has the number 8 with eight stick limbs protruding from it (two for his arms, two his legs, and four for his metal limbs that extend from his back.

 

== Web Original ==

* ''The [[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]:'' Given that the game is about superheroes, these are common.

* Captain Hammer in ''[[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog]]'' has a common-or-garden claw hammer on his T-shirt.

 

== Western Animation ==

*** The Plumbers in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien have badges (identical to Ben's Omnitrix symbol, which was likely based off the Plumbers') that they wear on the chests of their armor.

* Although he didn't have it at the beginning, Danny eventually (although in an incredibly convoluted manner) gets his own at the beginning of the second season in ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' as a stylish "DP".

* [[Western Aniatmion/Freakazoid|Freakazoid]] has a "F!" on his chest.

* [[Danger Mouse]] has "DM". It's off-centre in a similar manner to Robin's.

* Also turned up in ''[[Thundercats]]'': the Thundercats themselves had the roaring-jaguar insignia that the Eye of Thundera projects, and Mumm-Ra sported an insignia ''on his bare chest'' depicting intertwined serpents.

* Most [[Transformers]] sport the robot-face Autobot or Decepticon logo prominently on their chests (Others may have them on their shoulders, or wings if they have an aerial alt-mode). Skyfire switched out his own logo to indicate he'd [[Heel Face Turn|defected]], demonstrating that these logos are removable, not painted or embossed. (Magnetic patches, perhaps?)

** Some of the Decepticon ones, at least, are brands: see ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', when {{spoiler|[[Those Two Guys|Mixmaster and Scrapper]]}} join the Decepticons.

* ''[[Care Bears]]'' and their Cousins also have symbols unique to each character. As an added bonus, these symbols double as a [[Care Bear Stare|weapon]].

* The mooks working for MAD in ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'' often went out in public in outfits with the MAD emblem on it. Despite this, the title character ''never once'' realized that said individuals worked for MAD.

 

== Real Life ==

[[Category:Standard Superhero Suits]]

[[Category:Costume Tropes]]

[[Category:Shapes and Symbols Tropes]]