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2025 is nearly gone, and it brought a shift in the type of media we consume. Not a monumental shift, mind you. Hollywood is still determined to give us more superhero films, shows, and games going forward, but this year was the first time in a while that those felt like they had any amount of hope underneath them. Thunderbolts*, Superman, and Dispatch all brought much-needed optimism to 2025’s superhero offerings.

The biggest superhero film of the year was, undoubtedly, Superman, and it felt like a colossal shift for DC Studios over what had come before. The DCEU was built upon a gritty foundation and coated with darkness. Superman (both the movie and the character) was hopeful, earnest, and honest. Here was a Man of Steel who was kind, corny, and optimistic. He saves squirrels and wants to protect the giant monster that is attacking the city as much as anything else. He wears his heart on his sleeve. He believes in people even when they don’t believe in him. He inspires jerks like Guy Gardner to be better, even for a moment.

That similar style of optimism, hope that people can be the best versions of themselves, is at the heart of Thunderbolts* (or New Avengers or whatever Marvel Studios wants to call it). It is about a bunch of screw ups. Failures. People wandering aimlessly through life or, worse, actively hiding from their own potential. But even this group of misfits can be better. They rise to the occasion to save the world, and they do it not with a punch from a robot arm but a hug. Thunderbolts* is the most optimistic movie Marvel has made in years, and it remains the best MCU film of the year in my mind, even if it couldn’t find an audience at the box office.

That thread of hope and optimism runs directly into Dispatch, the narrative adventure game/visual novel that doubles as a workplace comedy about superheroes. More than a million of you have played it, but the developers noticed something unexpected about how you did. Turns out, people didn’t trust Blonde Blazer, the supportive (if occasionally corporate manager) at SDN. They kept expecting her to turn heel at the last second, ending up as a villain. That just isn’t the kind of game Dispatch is.

Dispatch is more honest than that. For better or for worse, people in Dispatch are who they say they are. That means that heroes (even the flawed ones) are going to do good. Villains are going to have their monologue at the end. But, more importantly, redemption is always possible if they want it enough. The Z-Team changes their ways, becoming heroes while not abandoning who they are, while Shroud remains a villain right up to the end.

I don’t know if this trend of hopeful superhero media will continue into 2026. Supergirl is set to come out in June 2026 and is likely to be a very different movie from Superman. The Boys season five is out in April 2026, kicking off the Summer of Karl Urban, but it probably isn’t going to end on a good note. Will Avengers: Doomsday be the same kind of gut punch that Infinity War was as it sets up Secret Wars? Can Spider-Man be optimistic when he’s stuck between the Hulk and Punisher? 

Look, the world is a dark place. It is scary sometimes, which is why 2025 needed to have a little more optimism from our superheroes. Superman soared high and made everyone around him better. Thunderbolts* gave us a team of heroes who were flawed but still cared. Dispatch presented a world where we could trust each other. Hope was the flavor we all craved from our superhero media in 2025, and I hope it continues into the new year.

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