In a 2025 world ruled by so many morally repugnant men, especially in America, it seems exactly the right time to release a new Superman movie.

And yes, the morally repugnant part is just my opinion. 

Though if you’re following the real-time Game of Thrones battle over the release of The Epstein Files, one that will hopefully NOT spill into multiple seasons and give us a similarly unsatisfying finale, you’d be hard-pressed to disagree with me.

I mean, as much as I’m no athlete, I have heard more than my share of pathetic “locker room” talk in my life and, trust me, you’re getting some of the sniggering, lying best I’ve ever heard, albeit mostly cleansed of curse words for a mainstream audience.

As the MAGAverse explodes with outrage and/or gentle support for the White House to release, never release, or partially release, the sealed grand jury evidence and testimony related to one of the most heinous child molesters the world has ever known, the country remains caught in the grip of all of this abusive behavior.

In turn we are left asking ourselves variations of the same requisite questions:

Is there a way out of this, are we trapped forever in this cycle, will the laws protect us and is there anyone who will believe the real truth?

But while we bathe in the metaphors of it all and what it means for U.S. politics, what’s seldom talked about are the dozens of underage female victims who passed through Jeffrey Epstein’s private island of illegal degradation.

Sadly, it seems logical that the more we battle it out in the public media square, the more each of these women get jabs and cuts of the traumas that I can only hope they’re trying to not let forever define them.

Again, my mere opinion, but certainly not an unusual leap.

The iconic Trump dance movies next to Epstein in sweaty 1980s party videos, the supposed Trump birthday card with clandestine “secrets” he and his friend shared about that “good life,” descriptions of an enclosed black marker drawing eerily similar in style to numerous such doodles our current POTUS has made for decades, the grand denials and grand lawsuit and grand anger of a man seemingly being hoisted on his own petard.

And yes, I’ve waited a LIFETIME to use the term hoisted on his own petard (Note: Mostly because I didn’t know till just now what a petard actually is) only to find this is the one time there is no other way to describe the, ahem, president’s current situation.

Still, he’s surprised us before with, as MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace often refers to, his reptilian survival instincts, so I can’t claim to know what the endgame of all of this will be. 

But I am sure that a $10 billion dollar lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch for publishing his Epstein birthday greeting is just the appetizer course of a very full meal we are all about to be served.

Though just how much of it we will all ultimately decide to collectively swallow is anyone’s guess.

Which brings us back to my basic question of this week:

What in the hell does make a truly SUPER MAN these days? 

Well, in Superman (2025) writer-director James Gunn offers us one very simple yet profound definition that I humbly agree with – doing good in the world.

Generally speaking, and avoiding specific spoilers, this latest entry into the superhero sweepstakes of moviemaking is a welcome throwback to an imagined kind of a simpler America when the real measure of masculinity was actually trying to HELP people rather than HURT them. 

When power was used NOT to better oneself with RICHES but to live a life of service to one’s family, friends and neighbors.  (Note: Dare I say country?  Yikes, I did!).

Where screwing up or failing wasn’t the true measure of your public worth but your ability to get back up, make amends, and try again to make a difference in some other way was the real definition of success.

If this sounds more like the corny, metaphorical idea of something that never really existed in reality, well, perhaps it is.  But it is also,  more than anything, the myth that truly Made America Great, in the minds of so many across the world, and occasionally even here.

It’s also why I’d personally recommend the new Superman to everyone.

Sure, it’s vaguely formulaic and a bit bloated in the middle (Note: Which of us isn’t, these days?).

But it’s also:

1. Funny
2. Has three really good actors playing Superman (David Corenswet), Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), as well as a host of others in supporting roles

And….

• Features a really, really, REALLY cute and adorable HANDFUL of a dog.

I don’t know about you, but it truly says something to me when a man likes a dog, especially when that dog is far from perfect.  Not to mention, who can resist a pooch who is forever devoted to a man who is far from perfect but, nevertheless, TRIES to do his best.

As far as I know there is only one real person I’ve named in this post who very famously doesn’t like dogs.

And he’s not in Superman (2025).

Just sayin’….

ABBA – “Super Trouper” – ABBA