What forums and social media websites would exist in a superhero world?

Basically, there's an aspect of world building that I think is under-utilized in today's age (though not unused completely). In a World… where all sorts of fantastic things exist, wouldn't there be places where people talk about it online? I feel like this is completely glossed over despite the modern world being more connected than ever.

I was thinking of an idea about this in regards to my superhero story. I'll see what you guys think.

Heroes & Villains Online

This is a fictional website that serves as a forum where people get together and discuss things related to the heroes and villains of the world, as the title would suggest. It's meant for finding information on heroes/villains, learning about their activities, speculating their secrets (such as their identity, if their identity is secret that is), and even having AMAs with heroes and sometimes even villains, just like on Reddit!

It's also a Wiki site, where there are numerous pages with all known facts about the various heroes/villains, their history, their powers/abilities, their weapons/gear, their affiliation with various organizations (themselves having pages), battles/events that have occurred between various characters... you get the idea. It's like a real world Wiki site, but In-Universe.

I was also thinking of giving more details of some of my characters once I write my book by doing fictional In-Universe AMAs through blog posts. Seems like a neat idea to me.

Is this a good way to world build? What are your thoughts on it? Does anyone else have a similar idea?

I'd say that's actually a pretty refreshing take on superheroics in a modern world, and an aspect I've yet to see explored in full. I reckon some of the elements most likely to crop up would feature:

Online trade of battle memorabilia - anything from parts of cars the Hulk threw at some alien invader or other, to actual pieces of Superman's cape (revered as fragments of the True Cross). And heroes like Iron Man and the Fantastic Four would most certainly have their own official merchandising.

Various hero-spotter apps and related search algorithms to maximize coverage... which would probably result in secret identities becoming impossible to maintain altogether. Ridiculed as it often is, Rob Liefeld's Youngblood presents a surprisingly realistic image of superheroes as celebrity mercenaries and government agents.

For that matter, most supervillains would also get just as much coverage, complete with book-deals and crazy fangirls wanting to marry them. And that's not going into the visionary villains like Ra's al Ghul or independent heads of state like Doctor Doom - Trump's Deplorables would feel like peaceful hippies compared to the cult followers an actual immortal warlord would legitimately acquire. Particularly in Doom's case, it would be interesting to see the perspective of his own countrymen, to whom the ostensible heroes would seem like aggressive invaders.

All in all, considering the online controversies superheroes tend to spark as fictional characters, one can only imagine what kind of flame wars there would be in a world where they were real.

I mean with Doom before Secret Wars his followers would've been right to follow him.

And after the Civil Wars, I've pretty much ran out of reasons to follow anyone else. Besides, the guy's a benevolent dictator living in the Balkans - do you how hard it is to find a benevolent anything out here? I'll take what I can get, thank you very much.

Anyway yeah, I'd like to see a more multilateral approach to the standard superhero setting, whether online or on the streets. One man's hero is another man's villain, one man's ruthless dictator is another man's reasonable patriot, etc. Even if the setting doesn't go for full-blown realistic deconstructions and political entanglements, I find it would be more believable to have a slew of viewpoints regarding differently powered individuals. That is, viewpoints that don't invariably get strawmanned whenever writers want to feel good about their preferred characters punching someone out.

Adding to the above list, I reckon there would be a ton of "hero support" groups - that is, wannabe sidekicks imitating their favorite violent celebrities and mostly getting into trouble, mall-ninja style. There would also be all sorts of superpower-giving training practices offered in gyms, as well as totally legit super-serums and magical elixirs that make homeopathy look dignified. The market for homemade gadgets and other paraphernalia would also explode (frequently), and that's not going into the legitimate firearms industry. If you thought zombie preppers were bad, just watch what happens when "demons from outer space attacking my truck" is a statistically viable excuse to pack more heat than a SEAL on a desert raid. All in all, a world full of superheroes would quickly get quite full of superheroes.

For me Doom would be Marvel version of putin: Playing other word power while having a fanbase for shitting "the west" every now and them, is quite a shame he didnt apear in MCU consider he would totally steal the show blaming Hydra and Avenger for what happen in sokovia(and stealing Ultron of course but that is another thing)

Something I would like to see is online page discussing the tech of certain superhero, seen tech based hero like their tech for themselves, people online will be guessing what weapon is what.

And of course, you will have things like Hydra or some expy pulling money to ISIL expy or something like that.

The Avengers were to blame for what happened in Sokovia. It is an interesting point, though, that in a world frequently assaulted by all sorts of alien or extra-dimensional threats, the kind of despotic war-hawks that comics frequently bash would actually qualify as reasonable authority figures - including those from rival nation states. Same goes for civilians upgrading their firearm permits, but I already mentioned that.

Still, there is a functional alternative, one indeed rather close to real life counter-terrorism operations... and, strangely enough, classic Saturday Morning cartoons. In short, you can have villains in hidden compounds in the middle of nowhere, working through proxies and sending minions in populated areas. That way, superheroes could do their thing in emergencies, while a large-scale military response would still be unsuitable for the situation.

Consequently, there would probably be a bunch of forums discussing who is "really" to blame for the latest narrowly-averted brush with citywide destruction, arguments whether or not to just nuke the villain's most likely hiding place... y'know, civil and reasonable debates.

I know, I just imagine that if Doom was there in MCU, it would be the perfect oportunity for him: he will rile up the anti avenger speech, try to get some sweet Hydra Tech and probably the rest of Ultron and get as nice guy for the rest o nation....the perfect plan

And now that you think about it....yeah, I imagine Harley would be annoying that there is other fangirls of the joker in the net who want to meet is Mistah J.

Something I think Iron man 3 did right was having comentaries of Iron patriot, including Joan river, it feel....so natural in that way, if anything Iron man 3 is very underated.

My own superhero setting deals with something like that. It doesn't just cover superheroes but all manner of weirdness and oddities. Such as the development of androids, countless forums broke out into amazement over the discussion of what this meant for humanity now that there were fully humanoid machines that could think just like them.

There are countless WMG pages and scientific analysis pages for heroes and villains and how their powers and gadgets work. Magic is also hotly debated because it's not like what anyone expected.

I think there would be a lot of people who try to use social media to contact superheroes and report crimes. This would get abused, with people using false accusations as a way to settle scores.