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Wonder Man Review
Image Credit: Marvel Television
Loading...Author’s Note: The following non-spoiler review for Marvel’s Wonder Man is based on review screeners for all eight episodes provided by Disney+.
Marvel Television delivers what is quite possibly the most experimental entry yet in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: the offbeat dramedy, Wonder Man. Marvel Comics’ Simon Williams, aka the prolific Avengers superhero Wonder Man, gets a top-down reinvention here, staging Simon as a struggling, blue-collar working actor who is seeking his big break, a remake of his favorite old superhero Wonder Man. Although Wonder Man is not without its narratively compelling elements, this is ultimately an uneventful and overall empty exercise, where Marvel cannot even commit to satirizing and making fun of itself in a meta-superhero movie context.
The story begins with the hard-luck aspiring Hollywood journeyman, Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who gets so obsessive about his acting process that he literally talks himself out of a bit part on American Horror Story once he makes it to the set. Simon’s live-in girlfriend (Olivia Thirlby) is done with his emotional distance and dumps him just as he arrives home after getting kicked off the studio lot. Oh, and one more thing: Simon has genuine superpowers. However, no one can ever know that because in the MCU, Hollywood refuses to cast enhanced humans, but more on that later.
Enter Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley). Remember him? He was the guy hired by Aldrich Killian to pose as The Mandarin, back in Iron Man 3 almost 13 years ago. He was later kidnapped from prison by the “real” Mandarin, Wen Wu, in 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. His past Mandarin and addiction demons behind him, Trevor is back in Hollywood, eager to put his acting skills to good use and prove he’s not just a megalomaniacal terrorist.
In a seeming twist of fate, the two wayward talents meet at a screening of a shared favorite movie, Midnight Cowboy. In Trevor, Simon finds a kindred spirit of the acting craft. In Simon, Trevor finds a potential protege. Through Trevor, Simon learns about the Wonder Man remake and hustles his way into the audition. With some apt tips from Trevor, Simon crushes it, and these two talents, through each other, might finally find redemption and success.
Except there’s a catch. Trevor’s actually been set up to inform on Simon to the Department of Damage Control’s Agent Cleary (Arian Moayed), who suspects Simon’s powers constitute a threat to the public. However, the potential Trevor sees in Simon is genuine, and they unwittingly bond. Nevertheless, the odds are stacked against them to make their Hollywood dreams come true.
Throw out any preconceived notions of Wonder Man being a superhero origin story. It’s not a superhero story, or even a decent superhero origin story. It’s an underdog story about two struggling actors seeking their big breaks and helping and uplifting each other in the process.
Wonder Man instead opts for an underdog story about a struggling actor who has volatile superpowers that is also set in the MCU, who befriends an aging thespian seeking redemption. But is it successful in that regard? Truthfully, no. However, an MCU storyline that opts for a slow-burn, contemplative, off-beat, meta-texual, and dry dramedy approach might be preferable for viewers seeking an alternative in the overcrowded marketplace of comic book and superhero-inspired media.
Most of the conflict derives from the suspense of whether or not Simon and Trevor can pull off their gargantuan gambit to earn the roles of Wonder Man and Barnaby for a prestigious auteur filmmaker and Oscar-winning director Von Kovak (Zlatko Burić) [AN: Remember him? He portrayed Boravian president Vasil Ghurkos in DC’s Superman] is the longest of longshots. However, Simon believes this role is his destiny, as he once had a seminal viewing of the original movie with his late father back in his youth.
Trevor, meanwhile, deeply imparts to Simon lessons about the preciousness of the craft of performing. He’s a somber individual stuck between a rock and a hard place, desperate to honor the memory of his late mother or face the wrath of Agent Cleary.
First off, what the show does get right, even with the series being a massive exercise in patience, is the genuinely touching bond Simon and Trevor form over the course of eight episodes. It’s easy to see why it’s drawing in other viewers.
Secondly, there is precedence for stories like this in the Marvel Universe. Marvel Comics frequently tells a diverse range of stories, and some of them are more mundane chapters, exploring individuals on the edges of larger conflicts who are trying to live ordinary lives despite extraordinary circumstances. Wonder Man certainly features touches of the more mundane, somber chapters of the Marvel Universe.
However, even as an introspective character study, Wonder Man wears out its welcome midway through the movie. The story peaks when depicting the history of why Hollywood refuses to cast enhanced humans in productions with the rise and fall of Doorman (Byron Bowers). By that point, the show’s meta-joke overstays its welcome, and the story progressively begins to spin its wheels with the underwhelming Hollywood high jinks.
After that, the series continues to meander, spending entire episodes depicting various high jinks and misadventures of Simon and Trevor. On one hand, the Wonder Man premise could have served as a unique and compelling reinvention of the character, showcasing his hero’s journey. Instead, the show opts for low-key, uneventful antics, where Simon and Trevor must track down a punk youth who took some GoPro footage of Simon using his powers to beat up some thugs.
It’s not particularly funny or exciting, but opinions may vary, as the show’s off-beat style becomes a matter of taste. By the end, Wonder Man comes off like tepid, watered-down soda. One might drink it to quench their thirst, but it’s not particularly enjoyable or fulfilling. Also, the Damage Control subplot is thinly written and developed.
Wonder Man commits to more of a deconstructionist take on life in the MCU through the lens of an aspiring Hollywood talent, which is fine, but the reconstruction elements never crescendo. Ultimately, Wonder Man plays out like one big, long, giant meandering meta joke about the MCU without a punchline, rendering the series a waste.
Where To Watch Marvel’s Wonder Man
All eight episodes of Wonder Man are streaming now on Disney+.
