Warning: This review contains spoilers for Marvel’s Wonder Man. The first half focuses on the basics, but we get into full spoilers for the finale in the second half. You can also check out our spoiler-free review of the first episode.
Few would argue that the Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn’t been in a bit of a rut these last few years. But to their credit, Marvel has placed a renewed emphasis on quality over quantity of late. If you look at the MCU slate over the past year, it’s mostly been pretty solid – Thunderbolts*, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Daredevil: Born Again, even Marvel Zombies. Wonder Man slides right in there as another strong addition to the Marvel mix. It may not add much of note to the larger Multiverse Saga, but it sure is entertaining.
In that sense, Wonder Man is a real proof-of-concept for the “Marvel Spotlight” branding. Like Echo before it, Wonder Man is specifically designed to be a smaller-scale, more character-focused, and more creator-driven outing for the MCU, and that’s exactly what it delivers. The stakes are pretty small as these things go, but you get a good, well-rounded portrait of the MCU’s newest superhero. The fact that he barely even qualifies for that title is one of the show’s charms. Wonder Man proves to be less another superhero origin story than it is a drama about a working-class stiff who just happens to have powers.
It’s a premise that really lives and dies on the strength of its lead actors. That’s where Wonder Man truly shines. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley make for a winning pair as fellow struggling actors Simon Williams and Trevor Slattery, both of whom find themselves up for roles in Hollywood’s much-anticipated remake of the Wonder Man movie. Both Abdul-Mateen and Kingsley are strong performers individually, but it’s their chemistry together that carries the show forward from episode to episode. Simon and Trevor’s unlikely bromance is just that charming. One of the best scenes in the series comes early on, as the two frazzled thespians sit in Simon’s apartment and simply blow off steam by trading monologues. It’s a reminder that both men – the actors and their characters – have genuine talent.
Kingsley is a known quantity in the MCU at this point, as the series is continuing his arc from 2013’s Iron Man 3, 2014’s Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King, and 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. It might seem a bit random to suddenly thrust Trevor into the spotlight again after all these years, but he makes for a natural companion and occasional foil to Simon. And for a character who was mostly played for laughs before now, it’s nice to see a softer, more genuine side of Trevor Slattery.
As for Simon, Abdul-Mateen brings all the charisma, humor, and pathos to the role that the scripts demand. The series establishes a strong arc for Simon, painting him as a driven, passionate actor who’s constantly held back by his pathological fear of showing his true self. The fact that his true self is a superhuman with destructive ionic powers just further complicates matters. Abdul-Mateen deftly captures all sides of the character and makes us care about Simon’s rise from rags to riches and the difficult crossroads that comes next.
The only problem with having two such compelling main characters is that the rest of the cast struggles to emerge from their collective shadow. Most of the supporting characters are thinly defined and two-dimensional at best, whether it’s Simon’s mother (Shola Adewusi) and brother (Demetrius Grosse) or Wonder Man movie director Von Kovak (Zlatko Burić). Grosse’s Eric Williams is especially bizarre because this is a major Avengers villain in the comics, but here he’s little more than a sternly disapproving older brother figure. All the episodes clock in around the half-hour mark, and it’s hard not to wonder if the series might have benefited from a few extra minutes devoted to fleshing out these supporting characters a bit more.
Frankly, the two leads are strong enough that the series could probably work simply as a drama about two struggling actors, no MCU elements needed. But though Wonder Man definitely downplays the superheroics, it does benefit from them in the end. The early reveal that Trevor is working with Arian Moayed’s Agent Cleary and the Department of Damage Control to spy on Simon is a fun wrinkle that adds some extra tension to their shared journey. And it all pays off nicely in the end when Simon does finally reach the point where he has to choose between being a hero or simply playing one on the big screen.
Note: The remainder of this review gets into full spoilers for the final episode of Wonder Man!
Again, Wonder Man is a fairly low-stakes show as far as MCU series go. The two burning questions fueling the plot are “Will Simon and Trevor get their big break?” and “Will Trevor betray Simon for his own personal gain?” That all comes to a head nicely in the penultimate episode, “Kathy Friedman,” where the two newly minted stars have their friendship torpedoed by the titular, meddling reporter.
It’s interesting how writer/co-creator Andrew Guest opts to resolve that conflict in Episode 8, “Yucca Valley.” There, we get the pivotal sequence where Trevor opts to revive his Mandarin persona to take the blame for the explosion Simon caused at the studio. It’s a funny little development, but also a very fitting way of bringing the character full circle. He’s finally learned to take responsibility for his mistakes and use his most famous role for good. Trevor is hauled off to a DODC prison, and Simon gets to maintain his secret and enjoy being a movie star.
Upon first viewing, it’s a little strange seeing things resolve themselves so quickly into Episode 8, making what follows feel at first like an extended epilogue. It’s only very late in the game, when it becomes clear what Simon is up to with his sudden foray into method acting, that everything falls into place. Simon uses the power of acting to con his way into the DODC prison and break Trevor out. The bromance endures.
As odd as the structure of this episode is, this feels like a very necessary twist for Simon’s story. Up till that point, he had never truly succeeded in opening up and embracing that side of himself he worked so hard to suppress. Even when earning the Wonder Man role, he completely bungled the soul-baring improv challenge and only succeeded by virtue of reading his lines really, really well. The character needed to do something to show he’s finally at peace with himself and his powers, and that’s what we get in the final scene.
The nice thing is that the ending leaves the door completely open for more Wonder Man and his faithful sidekick, Trevor Slattery. What becomes of this dynamic duo? Does Simon make an honest go at being a superhero? Does he go back to the acting grind? Do he and Trevor become fugitives on the run? Do we get a more comics-accurate take on the character in Season 2? Who knows?
There’s no guarantee we’ll ever see these characters again in the MCU. But, then again, plenty of people thought the same thing about the post-Iron Man 3 Trevor Slattery or Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns. You really never know with this shared universe.
I do wonder if Wonder Man will wind up setting the tone for the MCU going forward in one regard. The idea that the Department of Damage Control is aggressively rounding up rogue superhumans could be an important plot point. They may be having trouble filling their prisons now, but what happens when more mutants start appearing on the scene post-Secret Wars? Is this a taste of things to come? Food for thought.
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