Social media’s superpowers helped ensure 5-year-old Jeffrey Baldwin would be remembered as Toronto’s little Superman.
DC Entertainment says the little boy’s memorial statue is now permitted to display the Superman logo.
The decision came Wednesday morning just days after the company faced heavy criticism on social media for initially denying the request.
Although he had already come up with a new design, Todd Boyce, the Ottawa man fundraising to create the statue, expressed his excitement for DC’s change of heart.
Boyce announced the news in a Tweet Wednesday morning.
“After further review - Jeffrey will don the S shield!” Boyce wrote.
Boyce told CP24.com Wednesday that he started fundraising to create a memorial for the boy, who died after he was starved to death by his grandparents in 2001, during the public inquest into the child’s death.
“The more I learned about the story, I found myself just thinking about what he went through,” Boyce said. “He was really anonymous to the world.”
Soon after, Boyce said others were joining him to help make the memorial a reality.
While visiting Newfoundland, Boyce said he saw a Peter Pan statue in a park, which became the inspiration for the project.
He decided to design the statue based on a photo he saw of Jeffrey dressed up in a Superman outfit.
“I just had this vision of this smiling little boy, trying to capture that moment when he was happy pretending to be Superman,” Boyce said.
When DC denied his request to use the logo, Boyce said he was disappointed and angry.
“For DC to come back and say, ‘No, we are not comfortable granting you permission,’ my first reaction was ‘Oh, this is kind of devastating.’”
Boyce said that once fans learned that the company would not permit the use of the logo, DC faced a fair amount of “heat” and on Wednesday morning , Boyce was notified that the company had changed its mind.
“We are honored by the relationship that our fans have with our characters, and fully understand the magnitude of their passion. We take each request seriously and our heartfelt thoughts go out to the victims, the family and those affected,” a DC Entertainment spokesperson said in a statement released by the company Wednesday.
“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.”
Boyce said he felt like removing the logo from the statue would have been be an unnecessary compromise.
“Just thinking of Jeffrey, he was a vulernable little boy,” Boyce said. “The idea of him dressing up pretending to be Superman, which is the most invulnerable character that I know, it just seemed really appropriate.”
