Almost 12 years after his death, Jeffrey Baldwin’s wish to be Superman will at last come true.

DC Entertainment on Wednesday reversed its initial refusal to allow the iconic ‘S’ shield to be used on a statue currently being designed of the 5-year-old Toronto murder victim dressed as the superhero. The comic book publisher’s change of heart came after media reports and public backlash.

“DC Entertainment uses a flexible set of criteria when we receive worthy requests such as this, and at times have reconsidered our initial stance,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“After verifying the support of appropriate family members, DC Entertainment will be allowing the Jeffrey Baldwin Memorial Statue to feature the Superman ‘S’ shield.”

Jeffrey died of starvation at the hands of his grandparents, Norman Kidman and Elva Bottineau, on Nov. 30, 2002.

He and three siblings were taken from their problematic parents and placed in their maternal grandparents’ care by the Catholic Children’s Aid Society, which failed to check its own records on Kidman and Bottineau, who had separate convictions for assault on their own children.

Jeffrey spent his years locked inside a cold bedroom with an older sister in Toronto’s east end. They had little access to food, were forced to live in their own feces, and were beaten repeatedly.

He weighed 21 pounds when he died — less than he did on his first birthday. His grandparents were sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder.

A coroner’s inquest into his death last year heard how he wanted to be just like Superman.

“He wanted to fly,” his father, Richard Baldwin, told the inquest. “He tried jumping off the chair. We had to make him stop. He dressed up (as Superman) for Halloween one year … He was so excited. I have that picture at home hanging on my wall. He was our little man of steel.”

The request for the “S” to be placed on the statue had been made by Todd Boyce. The Ottawa man was so moved by the testimony at the inquest that he started an online fundraising campaign to build a statue of Jeffrey and a bench that will likely be unveiled in Toronto’s Greenwood Park, near where Jeffrey lived, this fall.

Boyce was first told by DC’s senior vice-president of business and legal affairs, Amy Genkins, that the comic book publisher could not grant permission to use the shield because of a “variety of legal reasons,” which she never specified.

That decision led to uproar on social media, with dozens of people tweeting at DC, urging it to change its mind and threatening to boycott the company.

On Wednesday morning, Genkins called Boyce to inform him that DC would reverse its decision, and referred to the negative feedback the publisher was getting from fans.

Boyce said he never had any hard feelings for DC, mentioning he still bought Superman and Batman toys for his children even after being turned down by the publisher.

“I think all along DC has been very sensitive . . . that this is something they really did struggle with as an organization,” he said. “In hindsight, maybe they might have been better off just quietly giving us permission in the first place.”

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The Jeffrey Baldwin statue, by noted Ontario sculptor Ruth Abernethy, is currently at a foundry, where it will be cast in bronze and added to a bench. Boyce said work should be completed by the end of the summer, and is planning for a fall unveiling.

He said the foundry had already removed the ‘S’ shield and was planning to replace it with a ‘J,’ but Abernethy has said it will be an easy fix to redo the Superman shield.