Superhero Ethics

What happens to a friendship and a podcast over ten years and four hundred episodes? On this milestone episode, Matthew sits down with longtime guest Paul Christopher Hoppe, poker professional and author of ZenMadman’s Friday Night Is My Monday Morning Volume 1 , to talk about what has changed since Superhero Ethics started in 2016 as a media project that doubled as a mental health lifeline. They...

Did Supergirl earn her killing of the already defeated villain, or did the movie just tell us not to worry about it? Matthew Fox is joined by returning guest Jessica Plummer, comics journalist and Book Riot contributing editor, to dig into Supergirl 2026, from the internet’s reaction to star Millie Alcock to whether the film’s ethics hold together at all. Jessica has been a Supergirl fan since lon...

In 1984, a group of London lesbians and gay men decided to raise money for striking Welsh miners, because Thatcher was going after both communities. Author Becky Allen joins Matthew Fox to dig into "Pride," the 2014 film about that real coalition, asking what made it work, what the film gets right about discomfort and solidarity, and why the fact that the strike ultimately failed doesn’t diminish...

"Ben's PTSD manifested as his alcoholism and his self-destruction as the Spider. ‘I'm just going to go out there and get punched in the face voluntarily, and maybe I'll do some good at the same time.’ "— Will FreelandBen Riley didn’t become the Spider to save anyone. He did it for the rush, and Spider-Noir on Prime Video is honest enough to build a whole show on that confession. Marvel comics expe...

He-Man was always camp. The loincloth, the harness, the flexing, the pink tunic, Masters of the Universe was masculinity as WWE spectacle.. The 2026 film knew this, it just couldn’t decide what to do about it. Host Matthew Fox welcomes Pete Wright of The Next Reel Film Podcast on TruStory FM to dig into why this movie feels like five films playing simultaneously, why the Barbie comparison is more...

The Boys is over — but did it actually answer the questions it spent five seasons raising? Matthew is joined by returning guest Ocean Murff, podcast host and movie theory enthusiast, to dig into the finale and wrestle with what the show chose to resolve and what it quietly left on the table. They work through the biggest choices of the final season: Homelander’s death, Butcher’s suicide-by-Huey, R...

“Empire Records” bombed in 1995, got panned by critics, and spent the next thirty years becoming a cult classic — which tells you something about what reviews are actually measuring. Comics writer and Book Riot contributor Jessica Plummer joins Matthew Fox to revisit the film with real affection and ask what makes it hold up, and what happens when you look at it a little more closely. They get int...

What does it mean to hold real authority in a card room? Matthew Fox has spent years as a judge for TCGs like Magic: The Gathering and Star Wars: Unlimited, and returning guest Paul Hoppe managed the graveyard shift at a casino poker room. Together they compare notes on what it actually looks like to make a call when there's money on the table and the rules don't quite cover the situation. They di...

What made you the kind of person who questions things? Returning guest Rob McKenzie joins Matthew to trace the science fiction and fantasy that quietly shaped his ethics, and the conversation turns out to be about a lot more than books. They start with Isaac Asimov: the pacifism baked into “Foundation,” the Three Laws of Robotics as a moral framework, and the surprisingly dark places minimizing-ha...

This conversation first aired on Star Wars Generations and we're sharing it here because it raises exactly the kind of question this show was built for. Maul is the only one in the room telling the truth and nobody will believe him. At the halfway point of Maul: Shadow Lord, Matthew Fox is joined by returning guests Pete Wright and AK Ahab to dig into what kind of show this actually is and what to...

Is Cyclops from X-Men actually a cop, or is he just annoying? That question turns out to be the perfect entry point for a much bigger one: what does ACAB (All Cops Are Bastards) really mean when the people using violence to enforce order have optic blasts and power rings instead of badges? Matthew is joined by comics writer and Book Riot contributor Jessica Plummer as they trace how the Green Lant...

When the survival of every person on Earth depends on one unwilling scientist, one who explicitly said no to sacrificing his own life for humanity, does anyone have the right to override that refusal? That’s the question at the heart of Project Hail Mary, and it’s what Matthew and returning guest Becky Allen dig into in this episode of Superhero Ethics. They start with the film’s biggest reveal: t...

Baseball’s antitrust exemption gives team owners something no other American sport enjoys: a government-enforced monopoly — and Matthew and returning guest Paul Hoppe use the start of a new season to ask what that power actually costs the rest of us. The conversation moves from stadium blackmail to the Oakland A’s’ deliberate self-destruction, to the Green Bay Packers as a model of what public tea...

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is doing something rare for a franchise show: it’s willing to put its own hero institution genuinely on trial — and Matthew sits down with Matt Carroll, co-host of the Star Trek Universe Podcast and founder of the Stranded Panda Podcast Network, to dig into all ten episodes with full spoilers in hand. At the center of the season is a storyline connecting Captain Ake, A...

The Rebel Alliance symbol crossed with a Minnesota loon, is showing up at protests across Minnesota, and Matthew can’t stop thinking about what that means. Who made us rebels in the first place? Was it Star Wars, or were we always heading here and Star Wars just gave us the language? That question launches a new series, and Matthew’s original Superhero Ethics co-host Paul Hoppe is the perfect firs...

Superheroes can bench-press buildings, but they almost never have a healthy relationship with their parents. For this episode of Superhero Ethics Matthew is joined by Pete Wright and Mandy Kaplan to dig into why legacy pressure, attachment injury, and the need for a parent’s approval are the real origin stories behind so many of our favorite heroes and villains. Pete breaks down the three narrativ...

Helen McCarthy has spent over forty years as one of the West's leading voices on manga and anime — and her new book The Manga Bible is her most ambitious attempt yet to bring that tradition to readers who've never cracked a volume. She joins Matthew to talk about what manga actually is, where it came from, and why it keeps mattering to generation after generation of readers. Matthew and Helen trac...

What does "best" actually mean when the Oscars put it on a ballot — and who gets to decide? Matthew sits down with Andy Nelson, co-founder of the TruStory FM family of podcasts, to pull apart the machinery of awards season: how guild voting shapes nominations, why campaigns matter as much as performances, and whether the whole system is rewarding craft or just rewarding whoever threw the better pa...

Dracula has been rewritten as a brooding romantic lead so many times that it's easy to forget he's a rapist. Matthew sits down with AK and Marlena Chesner to ask the hard question: does giving a monster a tragic backstory change what he is, or does it just make us more comfortable rooting for him? Working through three versions of the Dracula story — Bram Stoker's novel, Francis Ford Coppola's Bra...

The man who helped design the surveillance state is perfectly fine with it—until his daughter calls covered in blood with a dead boyfriend on the floor. The Price of Safety, Michael C. Bland’s award-winning sci-fi novel, is set in 2047, where cameras are everywhere, your optics can be hacked, and the system was built by someone who genuinely thought he was keeping people safe. Matthew sits down wi...

Black Comic Books with JPenumbra This Black History Month, we sit down with JPenumbra—TikTok creator, podcast host, and comic journalist—to talk about the state of Black representation in comics and superhero adaptations. From the realities of comic book pre-orders to why Captain America: Brave New World’s struggles had nothing to do with Sam Wilson being Black, JP breaks down the systemic issues...

With ICE operations underway in Minneapolis and across the U.S., this episode asks a timely question: what would our favorite superheroes do? Matthew and Jessica Plummer explore how characters like Superman, Captain America, the Punisher, and the X-Men might respond to immigration enforcement, state violence, and mass deportations. From Superman’s roots as an undocumented immigrant to Captain Amer...

Marvel's Wonder Man series takes a risk by telling a small, personal story in a universe obsessed with saving the world. We dive into this character study about a struggling actor, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, with superpowers he has to keep secret—and why it might be one of Marvel's best recent projects. Questions We Discussed Why does Wonder Man feel refreshing compared to other MCU content?...

Marvel’s latest Disney+ series Wonder Man features one of their most obscure characters—a struggling actor named Simon Williams who becomes Wonder Man. Matthew hosts Will and Steve from the Hype Is My Superpower podcast to explore episode one and dive into the comic book history of this B-list Avenger who’s spent more time on movie sets than saving the world. The conversation examines why the MCU...

What do you do when following orders means sacrificing innocent lives? In this episode, we examine the new Peacock series The Copenhagen Test starring Simu Liu, exploring the ethical dilemmas facing modern intelligence operatives. Through a spy thriller that uses biometric surveillance technology as its MacGuffin, we unpack questions about collateral damage, revenge versus ideology, and whether sp...