Author Matthew Heneghan

The list of revered superheroes who wear thick-brimmed glasses and still manage to pull off cool-guy vibes is short. Maybe nonexistent.

For me, as a kid, seeing Superman for the first time felt like learning that gravity was optional. That it was just a theory — and I had the power to disprove it. I was weightless. Untethered from the world and all its tired, adult truths. And in that moment, I fell hard for that man from Krypton — wrapped in cardinal red, mesmeric royal blue, and the occasional compliment of canary yellow. A god painted in primary colours.

He didn’t just stand for truth and justice. He stood for escape. Not from some intergalactic evil scrolled on screen or comics, but from the life I’d been born into — a life with a father who mistook fists for conversation and a belt for punctuation. When you’re nine and bruised from the back of a leather tongue, breakfast doesn’t feel like a right. It feels like a dare.

But then there was Superman — the forever good guy. Uncorrupted. Unshakable. Smiling in the face of Lex Luthor’s madness and walking straight through Kryptonite like it was a bad joke with a failing punchline. Watching him win made me believe maybe I could too. That maybe the good guys did stand a chance.

And I did win. I made it. Somehow.

Over the years — through every reboot, every actor with a new jawline and chin dimple — I’ve always grinned like a kid at Christmas when the guy with the clumsy “S” on his chest took flight.

This latest Superman film? Same story, different cape. But this one hit different.

I wasn’t in some stuffy theatre alone, traipsing over a carpet that smelled like lint-lathered butter and tasted like overpriced gummies and looming stomach aches. I was with two of my favourite people: Sheena and Claire. They came with me to indulge my inner nerd and bear witness to another cape-clad moral compass saving the world in slow motion and hypnotic CGI.

And look, Claire’s a teenager now. Getting her to hang out with us: one responsible adult and one full-grown emotional toddler (me) — is the kind of win you file under “miraculous” in the parenting playbook.

I played it cool. As cool as I could. But the tip of my tongue bounced with the restlessness of a kid that had a secret he wasn’t allowed to share. This would be the first Superman movie that I got to see in the theatre, and call it a date. Not with one special lady — but two.

We don’t get to choose where we come from. I didn’t have a… super… childhood. But life now? Well… hell… it’s pretty god damn perfect. So was the popcorn.

I enjoyed the movie. Maybe because it was simpler, kinder, less weighted and more red and blue. Or maybe I loved it because of who I was with, and what I knew I was going home to afterward — a super life.

Is it the best Superman movie? No. Is it memorable? Not really. Did I love it? Absolutely!