Superhero Ethics

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Spider-Man: Brand New Day Aug 04, 2026

Show notes

What if the hero afraid of his own power is exactly what makes it easy to fear an entire population? Matthew Fox is joined by returning guests Will Freeland and Steve Stormoen of the “Hype Is My Superpower” podcast to dig into “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” Peter’s uneasy partnership with the Punisher, and how Bruce Banner’s fear of himself ends up doing quiet work in the movie’s X-Men subplot.The three trace comic references straight out of “Civil War,” “Ultimate Comics,” and the original “Brand New Day” storyline, argue about whether Jean Grey finally gets to be a character instead of a plot device, and dig into a scene where MJ takes back the agency Peter tried to take from her. Lastly, they get into whether we should evaluate this movie on its own or as the last MCU release before “Avengers: Doomsday.”

Full show notes and resources
Connect with Will Freeland: Twitch · Instagram

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This episode is a production of Superhero Ethics, an Ethical Panda podcast and part of the TruStory FM Entertainment Podcast Network. Check out our website to find out more about this show and our sister podcast Star Wars Generations.We want to hear from you! Keep up with our latest news and send us feedback, questions, or comments via social media or email.TikTok · Twitter/X · Instagram · Facebook · EmailJoin the conversation in the Star Wars Generations and Superhero Ethics channels on the TruStory FM Discord.Want even more content while supporting the podcast? Become a member! For $5 a month or $55 a year you get access to bonus episodes and bonus content at the end of most episodes — and you can even give membership as a gift. Sign up here.You can also support us through our sponsors:

Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.
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Evaluating Risk: Poker, Life, and Nick Fury's Nuke Jul 28, 2026

Show notes

What actually separates a poker player from a gambler? Professional poker player, coach, and writer Paul Hoppe steps in as Matthew Fox’s full co-host and the two spend this episode arguing over wagers, variance, and self-control at the table before turning it into a lens for superhero risk-taking.They dig into Nick Fury’s bet on New York, Kingpin’s long-shot gamble in the Spider-Verse, and a decades-long discussion between Matthew and Paul about variance that stretches all the way to how people misread election polling. So: is poker just gambling with better math, or something else entirely?

Full show notes and resources
Grab Paul’s book: Friday Night Is My Monday Morning, Volume One. Use that link to get a significant discount and help support the podcast at the same time.

Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.
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Lattice and Writing Jul 21, 2026

Show notes

What happens once a society finds a way to turn a human body into an energy source, and decides that’s a good deal? Podcaster and TruStory FM co-founder Pete Wright joins Matthew and Paul to talk about “Lattice,” his debut science fiction novella, and the death penalty, corporate power, and family loyalty questions Wright built into its plot from the very first chapter.Wright talks about writing the book’s bones as a teenager and only now finishing it, while Matthew and Paul push on why the story never lets its villains twirl a mustache, they just sign off in a procurement meeting. They get into the Kobayashi Maru, the Batman choice, and a death penalty scene with no last-second rescue. What does it cost a person to have power and refuse to use it?

Full show notes and resources
Connect with Pete Wright: Website

Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.
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The Crystal Shard: D&D, as Game and as Story Jul 14, 2026

Show notes

What do you owe to a culture that built you — especially when that culture is evil? Writer and poker thinker Paul Hoppe (ZenMadman) returns to Matthew Fox on Superhero Ethics to dig into R.A. Salvatore’s “The Crystal Shard,” the first Icewind Dale novel and the book that launched the 40-book Legend of Drizzt saga. Paul recommended it; Matthew finally read it. The question of who Drizzt Do’Urden is — a Drow elf who rejected his culture and built his own ethics from scratch — turns out to be exactly the kind of question this show was made for.They also get into the D&D debate that’s all over TikTok right now: is fudging dice rolls for narrative purposes cheating, or good storytelling? What’s the Session Zero conversation that prevents a campaign from falling apart? Is villain Akar Kessel a “power corrupts” story or a “power reveals” one? And when the halfling rogue Regis uses a magic pendant to brainwash bickering towns into uniting against an existential threat — is that manipulation, or just very effective leadership?

Full show notes and resources
Connect with Paul Hoppe: ZenMadman.com

Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.
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Purchase any media discussed this week through our sponsored links.

EPISODE 400! Jul 07, 2026

Show notes

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 get into how internet discourse has curdled, why "nuance" became a weapon instead of a virtue, and how right wing outrage around movies like The Last Jedi and Supergirl made honest criticism so difficult. Matthew and Paul also test whether arguing about values is ever worth it, versus arguing about methods with people who already share them, and float a brand new project built around poker, variance, and statistics. Is superhero media still the right lens for any of this?

Full show notes and resources
Connect with Paul Hoppe: Website

Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.
Use Audible for audiobooks. Sign up for a one-year membership or gift one through this link.
Purchase any media discussed this week through our sponsored links.

Supergirl Jul 01, 2026

Show notes

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 long before the character’s 2000s comeback, and brings that history to bear on a film both hosts found entertaining but morally scattered.The conversation covers a sex trafficking subplot that gets dropped almost as fast as it’s introduced, a Lobo cameo with no real purpose, and a needle drop so literal it borders on parody. Matthew and Jessica land on the same verdict from different directions: a perfectly watchable movie that never figures out what it’s trying to say. So which is worse, a movie that doesn’t ask hard questions, or one that asks them and shrugs?

Full show notes and resources
Connect with Jessica Plummer: Website · Flights and Tights podcast

Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.
Use Audible for audiobooks. Sign up for a one-year membership or gift one through this link.
Purchase any media discussed this week through our sponsored links.

Pride (2014): When Thatcher Made Allies of Queers and Miners Jun 23, 2026

Show notes

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 what was built.They get into the film’s careful handling of the AIDS crisis, including a nightclub scene that never names what it’s about and doesn’t need to. They talk about Sian James, who went from making sandwiches at union meetings to becoming a Member of Parliament. And they push on the question the film keeps raising: how much of yourself do you soften to build a coalition, and what does it cost when you do?

Full show notes and resources Here
Connect with Becky Allen: Newsletter · Bluesky · Instagram

Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.
Use Audible for audiobooks. Sign up for a one-year membership or gift one through this link.
Purchase any media discussed this week through our sponsored links.

Spider-Noir: A Hero for the Wrong Reasons Jun 16, 2026

Show notes

"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 expert Will Freeland joins Matthew Fox to dig into the series: why it works better than either of them expected, how a World War I origin story reframes the cynicism of 1930s noir as something closer to undiagnosed shell shock, and what Nicolas Cage gets right once he settles into the role.They dig into the show’s remarkable villain architecture, where almost no one is simply bad, the stealth Black Cat origin hiding inside Li Jun Li’s Kat Hardy, and the choice to watch in black and white. What does it mean that Ben’s final heroic act is sacrificing the cure he wanted for himself to save the man who has the woman he loves? And can someone who chose heroism for selfish reasons ever really choose it for the right ones?

Full show notes and resources: Visit Our Site
Connect with Will Freeland: Twitch · Instagram

Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.
Use Audible for audiobooks. Sign up for a one-year membership or gift one through this link.
Purchase any media discussed this week through our sponsored links.

Masters of the Universe: He-Man and Nostagia Bait Jun 09, 2026

Show notes

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 complicated than it looks, and what a genuinely great He-Man movie would have required of its filmmakers.There’s real craft on display; Idris Elba anchoring chaos, Jared Leto’s Skeletor going full Shakespearean villain, moments of nostalgia that land exactly right. But the movie sets up a father-son arc about masculinity and emotional bravery, then resolves it with a half-hearted deathbed forgiveness scene that changes nothing. It gestures at He-Man’s campy legacy and then gets embarrassed by it. It makes Adam an HR rep with empathy skills, then turns those skills into a punchline. The movie knew what it wanted to say. It just didn’t have the nerve to say it.We also get into the full Mattel pipeline — Polly Pocket, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Magic 8-Ball as a horror comedy — and the nostalgia properties we’d actually pay to see: Gummi Bears, Darkwing Duck, and what Scooby-Doo keeps getting right that everyone else gets wrong.Full Show Notes and Resources
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This episode is a production of Superhero Ethics, an Ethical Panda podcast and part of the TruStory FM Entertainment Podcast Network. Check out our website to find out more about this show and our sister podcast Star Wars Generations.We want to hear from you! Keep up with our latest news and send us feedback, questions, or comments via social media or email.TikTok · Twitter/X · Instagram · Facebook · EmailJoin the conversation in the Star Wars Generations and Superhero Ethics channels on the TruStory FM Discord.Want even more content while supporting the podcast? Become a member! For $5 a month or $55 a year you get access to bonus episodes and bonus content at the end of most episodes — and you can even give membership as a gift. Sign up here.You can also support us through our sponsors:

Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.
Use Audible for audiobooks. Sign up for a one-year membership or gift one through this link.
Purchase any media discussed this week through our sponsored links.

The Boys • Final Wrap Up Jun 02, 2026

Show notes

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, Ryan’s rejection of both potential father figures, and Stan Edgar walking back into power as though nothing really changed. The conversation keeps returning to the show’s deepest tension; was Homelander ever really the villain, or was he always just Vought’s monster, with Vought as the true Dr. Frankenstein? Matthew and Ocean explore whether the show knew it was delivering a dystopian ending even as it dressed the finale up as a victory.They also mourn what was lost when Gen V was canceled, arguing that the spinoff was quietly becoming the space where the harder ethical questions about coexistence, identity, the ethics of power removal, and whether “good supes” can even exist in a world built by Vought, were finally getting room to breathe.
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This episode is a production of Superhero Ethics, an Ethical Panda podcast and part of the TruStory FM Entertainment Podcast Network. Check out our website to find out more about this show and our sister podcast Star Wars Generations.We want to hear from you! Keep up with our latest news and send us feedback, questions, or comments via social media or email.TikTok · Twitter/X · Instagram · Facebook · EmailJoin the conversation in the Star Wars Generations and Superhero Ethics channels on the TruStory FM Discord.Want even more content while supporting the podcast? Become a member! For $5 a month or $55 a year you get access to bonus episodes and bonus content at the end of most episodes — and you can even give membership as a gift. Sign up here.You can also support us through our sponsors:

Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.
Use Audible for audiobooks. Sign up for a one-year membership or gift one through this link.
Purchase any media discussed this week through our sponsored links.

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