Superhero Feed is a Twitter account that focuses on sharing news and media related to every superhero in the book. Comics, movies, TV, there’s no discrimination on the account. And that statement extends further than just characters. The account has become notable for their activism and recent support for the LGBTQ+ community after the announcement that Marvel’s Deadpool would retain his comic book pansexuality in the movie adaptation. I interviewed the Jace Reid, owner of @SuperheroFeed, to discuss the rise and popularity of the account, the controversial, problematic reputation of the superhero community, and to delve into the area where comics and activism collide.
How did Superhero Feed come to be?
Superhero Feed was a second attempt at a miserably failed project, “Superhero Report”. I was just a superhero fan who wanted to share news with other geeks. I didn’t expect a large following, but with a large following came attention. Sites demanded I source the news I’d share in my tweets, which was more than fair. Sadly, the page was eventually suspended for sharing copyrighted material. Movie stills that I would attach to news posts, specifically, and that was the end of Superhero Report. Superhero Feed took an entire new direction. We partnered with a site, completely sourcing all of our news and grew careful of what we share this time around. Superhero Feed is a professional take on an amateur concept, and that was the beginning of what many people know and love today.
Okay. Do you try to use the platform you have to shine a light on social issues, or does it just come naturally?
It’s definitely something that I have tried before it became natural. You don’t wake up socially aware, you seek that knowledge or gain it through experience, and eventually these ideas evolve your perspective on matters. I felt it was a responsibility for an opinionated page with that level of reach to shine light on social issues, especially in a community where there is constantly something going on that leads to comments of ignorance. Whether it’s John Boyega’s black Stormtrooper, Deadpool’s confirmed pansexuality or Johnny Storm’s change in ethnic origin, there’s always going to be that need for a voice to come in and speak up. I have made it a goal to educate myself on social matters so that I can use my voice progressively, so that my audience and anyone I reach out to can feel represented, included, appreciated and important whether they are black, Asian, gay, Muslim, transgender, you name it. I will be there to speak up on their issues.
Let’s talk about Deadpool for a moment. As I’m sure you know, his movie is coming up in 2016, and as you actually informed me, he’s retaining his sexuality in Ryan Reynolds’ interpretation of the character. I saw you received quite a bit of backlash when you celebrated this fact on Superhero Feed. Tell me about that.
The confirmation of Deadpool’s pansexuality on the big screen sparked a massive uproar within the community. Many were quick to reduce that aspect of the character to a marketing ploy, claiming it’s Hollywood’s “political correctness striking again”. At first it was funny, reading these outraged responses from people who consider themselves fans of the character, yet somehow failed to realize Deadpool has been pansexual in the comics. Then the threats came in, and the situation only escalated from there. Angry fans decided they’d search for my personal account and send perverted messages to my sister, who I had recently tweeted before they landed on my account. I then began to explain what pansexuality is on Superhero Feed, as well as the importance of LGBTQ+ representation in mainstream media, what it does for that community and why Deadpool’s confirmed pansexuality matters and is worth celebration. People actually began to understand, the backlash finally began to de-escalate and I started receiving tons of messages from LGBTQ+ geeks who were so very thankful and appreciative of the page speaking out against this ignorance. That right there is exactly why I speak up, to make the underrepresented feel represented.
People made personal attacks upon your family because you celebrated a victory for the LGBTQ+ community?
Yes, unfortunately. They began with threats of physical assault against me, one threatened to “bust my face open”. The attacks then escalated to my family, specifically my sister. A Twitter user sent her a message detailing very explicit actions. It angers me just thinking about it, she was made very uncomfortable. If it’s one thing I learned on the internet, it’s that people are sick.
That’s horrible, I’m sorry to hear it.
Thank you. My sister is a tough one, as a Palestinian family, we know how to fight for what we believe in.
And that shows on your page. You’ve gotten a lot of recognition for what you do on the account, with 180K followers. And one of them, as of today, happens to be voice actress Tara Strong. How did that make you feel? Are there any other celebrities, or notable people, that follow Superhero Feed?
Oh, it’s such a great feeling. Tara Strong following the page and tweeting us today felt like meeting my childhood. Plenty of talented celebrities follow the page. Amazing Spider-Man’s Jamie Foxx, Captain America’s Anthony Mackie, X-Men’s Daniel Cudmore, Marvel’s new Spider-Man Tom Holland, (who personally messaged us his love for the page) and heck even the mayor of Long Beach inboxed me his appreciation for us and how progressive the page is. It really is a blessing to have all these people I look up to follow Superhero Feed.
Wow, that’s incredible. I’m happy for you!
Thank you! It really is humbling.
Of course! Okay, so, moving forward, here’s another question. Why do you believe the superhero community is so, to sum it up in one word, problematic?
Well, I wouldn’t look at it as an issue with the superhero community, but more as an issue with society in general, and part of that problematic society happen to be superhero fans. God knows you don’t need me to tell you that society is problematic. Superhero Feed is able to connect with that part of society, and I’m progressively taking advantage of that opportunity to speak to those who are already listening.
Do you think you seek to change the reputation the community has with some people, as uninformed or bigoted? While it’s great you are seeking change, you can’t deny there are plenty of people who refused to open their minds.
That’s a cold hard truth I wouldn’t dream of denying. There are people who no matter what you say, what you show or what you do, will not change their bigoted, problematic views. They choose to stay uninformed and spread ignorance. Yes, one of my goals is in fact to change people’s perception of superhero fans. Who doesn’t want their community to have a decent reputation? But to do that I feel we have to focus on the root of the problem. Which is problematic superhero fans who create that perception to begin with. My focus is on educating people into more informed, superhero fans. How people view them will change once these superhero fans themselves change. God knows I was once problematic, but I chose to educate myself and earn people’s honest and positive perception of me. But the change itself will always be more important.
Why do you think there’s so much rampant ignorance in the community? Is there an issue with the media itself you think needs to be solved? Do you think there’s anything you could pinpoint as a real problem in the community?
The lack of representation in comic book movies definitely play a big part in superhero fans’ negative reception to diversity. Do you think fans would be as outraged by the idea of a pansexual comic book character had the LGBTQ+ community not been so deprived of representation in mainstream media? Do you think fans would be as outraged by a black character leading a Star Wars movie had black actors not been so deprived of leading roles in major franchises? Of course not, because that lack of representation is what creates this abnormal view on diversity. More diversity would normalize representation. That is absolutely something that needs to change in order for superhero fans to stop freaking out over every little difference a character has from the average white, cishet character.
I see your point, definitely. Do you think it’s an issue that many of the times we see diverse characters in comics and movies, they’re pushed to the side? The bisexual relationship of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy take a backseat to more central characters, Black Widow has been denied a movie so far, and it seems like the only times we see PoC are when they’re Steve Rogers or Tony Stark’s sidekicks. How do you think this affects both the representation in the media itself, and how seriously the community takes it?
Diverse characters getting pushed to the side is most definitely an issue. Comics provide a great amount of representation that studios so rarely take the opportunity to adapt onto the big screen. If we’re lucky they’ll get a small role in a cishet, white male character’s movie. As a man of color myself, that gives me the message that I’m not as important, it reminds me that white supremacy puts me in a sidekick position in society. It makes me feel like I’m just the decoration of something more important, only there to serve the purpose of studios checking diversity off their list. It takes away from the inspirational aspect of superhero movies for women and minorities when every leading superhero represents the same group of people, and inbox can confirm countless others feel the same. How has Black Widow only served a purpose as a sidekick and love interest in the Marvel cinematic universe when every other founding Avenger has had their own movie(s) with the exception of Hawkeye? How on Earth will the MCU be a whopping eleven years old when their first female led superhero movie hits theaters, or ten years for their first movie led by a black character? DC and Warner isn’t off the hook either with their countless Batman and Superman movies, only to finally give the world’s most popular female superhero her very first movie decades late in 2017. This makes fans take female and diverse characters less seriously. Heck it’s made fans take women and minorities less seriously in real life, as proven recently in my mentions. This is why representation from mainstream media is so crucial.
You’re certainly very outspoken on these opinions on your page. Since you mentioned it, do you think being a man of color has affected your outlook on the community, or on the movies themselves? Did being part of an oppressed group inspire you to educate yourself on social issues?
Absolutely. I have suffered discrimination my entirely life as a Palestinian Muslim in America. I take my anger attained from that discrimination and use it as motivation to educate as many people as I can in society with the voice I have. So yes, being part of an oppressed group has most definitely inspired me to educate others as well as myself on social issues.
How do you think people who wish to educate others can break through to people who haven’t suffered any oppression, that can’t sympathize?
How have humans always been able to empathize with the suffering of those who’ve experienced things they haven’t? We tell our stories to them. We make them aware of what’s going on or has went on. The privileged tend to be blind to that. That’s why we need people to speak up, when we tell our stories and point out the imperfections of society as they happen, people begin to empathize. I get tons of tweets from white/male followers under posts where I point out something ignorant that say something along the lines of: “Wow, I never realized people were like this”, thus becoming more informed on these issues that (still) exist. You can tell someone “racism is bad” or “sexism is bad”, but if you show them the racism and sexism itself, it speaks to them more. The truth hits them harder.
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