“I know you from TikTok!”
Matt Ramos is standing in line for the Guardians of the Galaxy drop-tower ride at the Disney California Adventure theme park when a young man strikes up a conversation from the other side of the bars. “You are one of my favorite people who love Marvel as much as I do,” he says, introducing himself as J.R. and explaining that he’s an aspiring content creator, too. J.R. is the first of five people to excitedly approach Ramos during our afternoon at the Avengers Campus in Anaheim, California, though many of them seem to only know Ramos’ face, not his name.
Dressed in a gray Mickey Mouse sweater, Ramos, who is 21, says this is not uncommon for his Disneyland fan encounters. Once, when a stranger struggled to place him, Ramos tried to convince him they had gone to high school together for a laugh.
Ramos — known by his nickname and handle Supes, a nod to his favorite character, Superman — started posting videos about the Marvel and DC empires just over four years ago. Today, he has 3 million followers on TikTok (and many more on YouTube and Twitter), where he shares reviews, reactions and takes of varying temperatures with the breathless passion of someone who saw Avengers: Endgame in theaters 18 times. “I wish I had seen it more times,” he says. “You felt the build up of 10 years leading up to this moment, and you felt the energy in the crowd. And, man, I’ll carry those theater experiences with me until the day that I die — you just had to be there!”
In a crowded field of vloggers, podcasters and other Marvel-DC authorities, Ramos’ youthful wonder and exuberance appeal to those who believe loving comic-book movies should be, above all else, fun. And at a time when fandoms wield tremendous influence (see: Zach Snyder’s Justice League), creators like Ramos play a key role in shaping the narrative and public perception around franchise tentpoles. His interviews and miniature scoops can whip up excitement and become blog fodder. But when he breaks from fan consensus — like gently calling Black Panther: Wakanda Forever a “step down” from the original after attending the premiere — he can also quickly become a source of outrage.
Ramos is part critic, part journalist and part influencer, having done paid collaborations and sponsored content with most of the major studios. He’s also an aspiring screenwriter who dreams of entering the very industry that he’s covering (and recently made a cameo in the Paramount+ rom-com At Midnight). The way he navigates the inherent tensions between those roles can makes him a polarizing figure in the Marvel and DC fandoms, where his detractors accuse him of prioritizing popularity and engagement over genuine discourse. Glance at his comments sections or quote-retweets, and you’ll find people accusing him of flip-flopping his opinions or riding bandwagons for likes and access.
“When I’m at events, I know there’s an entire community that’s waiting for my thoughts on this movie.”
Ramos swears he is “speaking from a place of truth” in his videos. “If people didn’t like what I had to say, then I wouldn’t be in this position,” he says. In conversation, he has the confident polish of a TV commentator, always ready with an answer or a neatly packaged anecdote, though at times a more carefree swagger shines through. “I don’t give a sh*t what people think about me online. ‘Yo, this kid is way too energetic’ — I’ve gotten that so many different times, but it’s authentic to me. The energy, the passion, and the ability to unapologetically be me has connected with a lot of people. It gives them a sense of ‘Wow, if he can do this, maybe I can too.’”
Ramos is in his element at Disney. He’s the only passenger to throw his arms up in the air when the Guardians ride plummets toward the ground. He quadruples my score on the Spider-Man web-slinging ride. For food, he leads me to a noodle spot recommended by a park employee who recognizes him. As we walk around the park, Ramos tells me he often asks himself the same question: “I’m just some crazy fan from Miami — how the hell did I get here?”
Born and raised in Florida, Ramos has been obsessed with pop culture for as long as he can remember. His favorite movies include everything from John Q to Mamma Mia!, The Pursuit of Happyness to the High School Musical films. But one fictional figure always flew above the rest: Superman.
The story of a uniquely gifted outsider from another planet had some personal resonance. Ramos was born with multiple rare genetic conditions which caused limb abnormalities and resulted in him being bullied as a child. “When Superman finally realized that the things that make him different are the things that make him special, that’s when he’s able to be the world’s greatest superhero,” Ramos says. “For me, I was always ashamed of the way I was born, of the things that made me different, of the things that I was into that no one else was. But when I finally accepted that that’s what made me special, I could go out there and just be me.”
“So many people watch movies to find things to hate on. I’m always trying to look at the positive.”
Back in 2018, a 16-year-old Ramos was up late playing Marvel’s Spider-Man on PlayStation 4 when he decided to upload some gameplay footage he hadn’t seen elsewhere on YouTube. In the 8-minute video, which only has 8,000 views, Ramos doesn’t speak, just plays. A few weeks later, he posted a review of Tom Hardy’s Venom. In that video, his demeanor is almost unrecognizable — he’s soft-spoken and struggles to put his words together, and he’s noticeably more critical than he is today. (To be fair, it was Venom.) But it was the start of Supes.
After ditching his original moniker, Marvelous Matthew, Ramos slowly developed his on-camera skills and expanded the formats of his videos. Then came the pandemic, which brought two opportunities. First, an early wrap on his senior year of high school. Then, TikTok, where he says he could get 10 times the views with half the work it would take to make a YouTube video.
Ramos supported himself by working in construction and as an after-school counselor. But by 2021, his videos were getting enough views that he was making money through brand deals and platforms’ monetization programs, so he made the leap to full-time content creation. His first order of business? Landing a sit-down with a movie star. He says he emailed countless representatives and only heard back from one camp: Scarlett Johansson’s. And while an interview pegged to Black Widow never materialized, her publicist put Ramos in touch with Disney. When he later scored an invite to an early screening of 2021’s Cruella, he flew himself out to attend. “That trip was where I realized my future is here,” he says.
His move to Los Angeles was not without hiccups. He relocated with the encouragement of Brad Lambert, his former manager; the two lived in the same apartment complex for a time, and Lambert made frequent appearances alongside Ramos in videos. But in November of that year, Ramos cut ties and later, along with other former clients, accused Lambert of “leeching” off him in a 2022 article published by The Wrap. Lambert has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
When I ask Ramos about it, it’s the only time in our conversation he bristles. “Look, I think there’s always going to come a point in our lives where we have an experience where after it, we’re jaded and it’s difficult to trust people,” he says. “But we just have to learn how to open up and break those walls down over time, because you’re closing yourself off from experiencing more love and connection with other people.”
Here is a sampling of Ramos’ thoughts on the current state of the MCU: The Phase 4 films took more creative risks but lacked the cohesiveness of previous slates; Jonathan Majors, who plays Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and will have a big role in Phase 5, is “a f*cking force”; and since Disney+’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier finished in 2021, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson has been “extremely underutilizied.”
Ramos is still figuring out how critical he should be in his work. He stresses that he doesn’t want to drag the things he watches, he just wants to talk about what he loves. “There are so many people that watch movies to find the littlest of things to hate on. I want to have a good time when I go to the theater, so I’m always trying to look at the positive and focus on that,” he says. But he also insists he’s “not afraid” to share if something doesn’t resonate with him, no matter whom it might alienate.
Ultimately, he says, it’s about credibility. “I don’t want to say ‘This is a perfect movie,’ and then people go in, and they’re like, ‘Yo, Supes, this is not a perfect movie, there are flaws,’” he says. “I feel like it’s important to have different opinions because, even though we might disagree, that conversation is something that’s a part of being a fan.”
Last year, Ramos briefly found himself at the center of that conversation. In October, Ramos posted a video of himself reacting to Henry Cavill’s Superman making an end-credits appearance in Black Adam. The viral clip, in which Ramos repeatedly jumps out of his seat and screams “Let’s go!” spawned a mini backlash among viewers who thought he was overly hyping the movie — Black Adam was widely panned — and also generally being obnoxious.
Ramos clarifies that it was a theater in Miami full of his followers — he had tweeted out a time and theater location for anyone who wanted to join and estimates 60 people showed up — but he gets it. “There’s been many times in the past where people have had an issue with something I’ve done or said, and I’m not a perfect person,” he says. “I’m open to listening to my audience, so I take that to heart and try to be a better creator moving forward.”
Then he adds: “For me, it’s like, the people who get it get it, and the people who don’t — well, I don't know what to tell you.”
Ramos says he doesn’t have much of a life outside of Supes. He compares his relationship with the persona to the double life of Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Still, he feels a greater responsibility. At the time of our hang, Ramos was deep into planning coverage of Ant-Man and its premiere, where he filmed footage from the red carpet. “It never gets old,” he says of these invites. It reminds him, of all things, of a Maya Angelou quote: “She says, ‘I come as one, but I stand as 10,000,’ and I kind of feel that when I’m at events, because I come as one, but I know that there’s an entire audience and community that’s waiting for my thoughts on this movie.”
Our Disney day doesn’t quite end the way he hoped. For one last ride, Ramos wants to hit the Incredicoaster, but after we walk over to Pixar Pier, we find out that the Incredibles-themed ride is closed. He then takes me on an adventure to get beignets from his favorite spot in Downtown Disney which is… also closed. But Ramos is still flashing the same big smile that he’s had for 90 percent of our time together. Meeting someone like J.R., Ramos told me after that encounter, already made his whole day.
“There are a lot of people that are very disconnected from reality and just live online, and when you’re chronically online, that’s when things can get toxic, dangerous, out of hand, because that becomes a bubble,” Ramos told me earlier. “But when you touch grass, when you go out and experience the rest of the real world and disconnect from social media, then it’s like, ‘Really, guys? It’s not that serious.’”
