SHIELD is an organization in the Marvel universe that fights for good…
most of the time.
They’re all about protecting the people of the world from things that they’re not
quite ready to understand yet and their logos support this!
They often use eagle imagery as is the case with a lot of real world American organizations
and there is heavy symbolism behind this choice.
But, what if I were to tell you that this symbolism also predicted the fall of SHIELD
at the hands of Hydra years before it happened!?
Hello and welcome to the Show With Issues, I’m Auram, and first off we are going to
dive into the comics for a minute to talk about SHIELD’s origins!
For those that don’t know, SHIELD is an acronym; it originally stood for the “'Supreme
Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-enforcement Division” and was idealized to be a branch
of the US government, which explains the eagle in the logo, but we’ll get back to that
later.
It was a plan first thought up by Tony Stark shortly after the return of Hydra, but the
President declined Stark’s proposal.
He soon noticed the error of his ways and decided to contact Stark and the United Nations
to bring SHIELD to life with a man named Rick Stoner as its acting director.
Fury was later brought on as director after Stoner’s death, but I already did a video
on that whole mess back in Season 1, check that out!
Or, don’t, it’s not very good.
Anyway, time passed with SHIELD doing what they do, until a couple of Life Model Decoys
gained sentience and infiltrated both SHIELD and Hydra, eventually causing the fall of
both organizations.
Robots are scary, guys.
The world needed its SHIELD though, so the United Nations once again formed the group,
this time with the acronym standing for the,“Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage and Logistics
Directorate.”
SHIELD went a bunch more rocky times in the comics, but those aren’t really important
to this video, so let’s move on!
Most of you might know SHIELD to stand for the, “Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement
and Logistics Division,” which comes from the MCU.
COULSON: “Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.”
STARK: “Gotta get a new name for that.”
It’s a combination of the two original names and has since been adopted into the comics
to avoid confusion between mediums.
Speaking of the MCU, I should clarify, we’re pretty much only talking about that version
of SHIELD for this video.
We just needed to dive into the comics for the origin portion, since that isn’t very
present in the movie/tv adaptations.
Anyway, now that we’ve got SHIELD’s namesake and origins covered, let’s dive into the
logos!
Exciting, right?.
These are the two main iterations., One being this older looking symbol, which has been
widely used in the comics for years... and then this new modern-looking version, which
was first brought to life in the MCU with 2008’s Iron Man.
There are countless other versions, but each and every one of them uses an eagle of some
kind.
Some are more intricate, some more simplistic, but the eagle is always there just the same...
And I can’t help but wonder, why?
Like I briefly mentioned earlier, SHIELD was originally designed to be a branch of the
US government, which essentially gives us our answer.
This is the United States’ seal, eagle and everything!
Look at the SHIELD logo next to it, very similar.
But, here’s the thing, SHIELD isn’t a branch of the US government, it’s backed
by the United Nations, which doesn’t use eagle imagery anywhere.
The UN could’ve changed Fury’s original plan for the logo if they wanted to, so why
didn’t they?
Let’s take a look at the US seal again.
It’s made up of six parts: a bald eagle, a constellation of thirteen stars representing
the original thirteen colonies, America’s original motto in Latin, meaning ‘one out
of many,’ an olive branch with thirteen olives, a bundle of thirteen arrows, and a
shield placed neatly on the eagle’s chest.
We’re gonna go ahead and remove the constellation and motto as they’re not too important to
the video.
That being said, let’s start with the basis of it all, the eagle.
The Bald Eagle is the United States’ national symbol and bird.
It was chosen as such because it lives a solitary, independent lifestyle where it can do anything
it wants and go anywhere as it pleases.
It represents freedom, and the true American way of life.
The Eagle in the seal represents America itself along with its people.
Next up is the shield-like symbol which shares a huge resemblance to the American Flag and
is placed in the middle of the eagle.
This position signifies that the United States was founded on its own virtues and nothing
else.
Moving on, in the eagle’s right, uhh, talons, is the olive branch with thirteen olives.
This represents the peace that America strives for.
While, in his other hand/talons/whatever is a bundle of thirteen arrows, representing
war and that the US is always prepared to fight if need be.
Now, let’s pull back and notice one last very important detail, the direction that
the eagle is facing.
Its head is pointed towards the olive branch and away from the arrows, denoting that America
strives for peace, instead of war.
The seal screams patriotism and a love for America, which is really what it should accomplish.
But, in the larger picture, it stands for being yourself, striving for peace and greatness,
and being ready for the challenges that await you in your life.
The UN kept the eagle around in the SHIELD logo because it’s what the organization
wants to give the world, it’s what they stand for.
All of this great symbolism behind the US seal lines up with the classic SHIELD logo
seeing as the eagles are nearly identical.
They’re loosely drawn and feel fluid, but then you have the modern SHIELD logo, which
takes the opposite approach.
The newer eagle is very rigid and tense.
It takes the smooth curves of the original eagle and straightens them out, even going
so far as to reduce the number of feathers!
Sure, this is inline with most modern, more minimalist logos and art, but that can’t
be the only reason for the logo change.
The original symbol is still around and being used today, so why do we really have this
new logo?
The reason is simple: Hydra.
If we look closely, the modern SHIELD logo has three spaces between each feather of the
eagle’s wings.
Then looking at the Hydra logo; we see three tentacles on each side.
And here’s where things get crazy.
If we overlay the modern SHIELD logo over the Hydra logo, the tentacles appear to envelop
the eagle.
This sort of “haunting” by the Hydra logo represents Hydra’s infiltration into SHIELD
and how successful they were at staying hidden.
Now, if we line up the original SHIELD logo and the Hydra logo, this imagery is not conveyed.
That’s because, originally, SHIELD was pure and uninfected by Hydra.
This means that the new logo was created specifically to demonstrate Hydra’s influence.
Although, I guess you could argue that the use of the eagle in the first place was a
decision by Hydra operatives, seeing as the Nazis, who commonly worked with Hydra, also
used heavy eagle imagery.
And If that hasn’t sold you, I’ve got this one last detail for ya; and it’s, again,
the direction the eagle is facing.
Eagles in US government logos and imagery almost always face to the left.
In the US Seal this symbolizes how America strives for peace over war, like we talked
about earlier; this stays true with the original SHIELD logo.
Flipping over to the modern logo,though, and, we see, again, a key difference.. the eagle
is looking toward the right.
Yep, Hydra even turned the eagle’s head changing the entire focus of the logo. it
is now on the offense and ready for war, leaving peace behind.
If you were keeping score, you’ll know this means that even way back in 2008 with the
first appearance of the modern SHIELD logo in the first Iron Man, six years before Hydra
showed its head in The Winter Soldier, Marvel Studios already knew that Hydra was inside
SHIELD and was plotting to take down the entire organization.
That or I’m just crazy and Marvel Studios just wanted to take a more minimalist design
with the SHIELD logo and there’s no meaning behind the change at all!
Who knows, I want your opinion on this, though!
Do you think that there is symbolism behind this change?
And what about the use of the eagle in the first place, does it mean anything or was
it just an arbitrary decision made at the time of SHIELD’s creation in the comics?
Let’s talk about it all in the comments.
And of course, before you head out, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out on anything
I upload every other Wednesday and every Saturday.
We’re now into Season 3 of this show as well as the Show With Reviews, so lots of
cool stuff is happening that you won’t wanna miss!
That all being said, thank you so much for watching.
Next time I go to the mall with a copy of Hydra’s logo and just put it up to a bunch
of other companies’ logos just to make sure.
Just to check!