By Dan Skip Allen 

“Wonder Man” is based on the Marvel Comic book character of the same name. The character was created back in the by Stan Lee and Don Heck in October 1964. The character first appeared in Avengers #9 as part of the early Avengers lineup. Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man, was part of a failed experiment and gained ionic energy. The character has been around in many iterations ever since and has been a member of the Avengers off and on ever since. After a few appearances in animated shows and so forth, this character will be making its first live action appearance in the new Disney+ series from Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest. It’s a different incarnation of the character that fits nicely into the MCU.

Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul Mateen II) is a struggling actor in Hollywood. He got a big chance with a small role on the latest season of American Horror Story, but after he was too hard to work with, his character was written off the show, and he was finished. This caused him a bit of a problem. He ends up going to a bar to drink his sorrows away, and wouldn’t you know it he ends up meeting Trevor Skattery (Ben Kingsley) at the bar. He tells him he’s got an audition for a remake of an old movie from many years before called “Wonder Man” Simon is furious and goes to meet his agent, who isn’t happy with him either. After they argue, she storms out of the room, and Simon steals the audition information off of her computer. He proceeds to go down to the audition for the role and meet Trevor once again. They start to become friends, but Trevor is hiding a secret that Simon doesn’t know about, and what Trevor doesn’t know is that Simon has a secret of his own.

This series is a fun one. It lends itself to the first phase of the MCU quite well. There are some funny moments and banter between the two main actors, but there are also some dramatic scenes involving Mateen II’s family, an ex-girlfriend, his agent, and other characters in the show. Cretton, Guest, and the other directors of the series found a nice balance. With this character in particular, you can’t take him too seriously.  And once you throw in another character like Kingley’s, you know the show as a whole is not trying to take itself too seriously.  The tone is perfect for what these actors, writers, and directors were going for.

One trick that the writers and directors implemented that helped flesh out the story was flashbacks, but not within the episodes; instead they were put at the beginning of episodes so as to get a feel for what each of the eight episodes were going for individually. For instance, there was a flashback and episode in Black and White, which told the story of Damar “Doorman” Davis, which was pivotal for Mateen II’s character as his acting career progressed. Each of the flashbacks made an impact on the story as a whole. The fact that they were at the front of the episodes made them more important as they kept going.

Mateen II is no stranger to comic book related material. He has portrayed Black Manta in two Aquaman films, for Zach Snyder’s DCEU, and played Kal Abar/ aka Doctor Manhattan in Watchman for HBO in 2019. This is the first MCU project he’s worked on. This one is a little different than his other work because even though his character is technically a superhero in the comics, he’s more of a  grounded character in this show. Most of the Marvel Comics characters have a human side to them that is flawed in some way. While they are trying to hide their superhero side. That’s the case here as well. That’s what makes Marvel characters so interesting. Mateen II and Cretton company help to bring those sides to the forefront nicely. It’s good to see this actor with so much ability doing something relatively different with the superhero genre.

With any Marvel show or television series, you have to look closely for cameos or Easter eggs. This show is loaded with Disney and Marvel cameos and Easter eggs. The first is an old “Wonder Man” movie  that Simon’s  father takes him to see instead of taking him to school one day. It’s a campy version of “Wonder Man,” which sets the stage for the newer version later in the series. Also, Josh Gad pops up in the aforementioned Damar “Doorman” Davis episode, and he does his Olaf character in a nightclub singing karaoke. Typical Hollywood stuff. There are a lot of Avengers photos and posters on walls as well as a Captain America the Musical banner on a wall. All referencing what we’ve seen in other films in the franchise. Connecting everything helps fans have issues with the series.

The supporting characters in the show besides Mateen II are all fine. None of them are outstanding, but none of them are bad either. Kingley, Zlatko Burric, X Mayo, and Byran Bowers, Arian Moayed are all doing good work. They know the material they’re working with and accept the challenge. With any MCU film or series, a good supporting cast is necessary to help move the plot forward and have good characters for the lead actor to work opposite of. This show has that which is good to me because I don’t want to be distracted by bad acting or characters that have no reason to be in the series or film.

There is a cliffhanger in this series, which I won’t spoil here, but I will say I thought it was well worth watching the show all the way until the end. The series as a whole tries to establish the acting career of Mateen II’s character so it makes sense that he uses a method acting tool to help him get into the character he’s playing at the end of the show. I thought this whole sequence was done perfectly.  At first, I didn’t know where this was going, but I eventually figured it out. If you’re a fan of the comics, you’ll put two and two together like I did. It definitely makes sense in the context of who this character was sometimes in the comics. Leave it to Cretton and company to do the right things in the streaming show.

“Wonder Man” was a fun show. It had a great mix of humor and serious moments. Fans of the comic books will surely love the inspiration that is used in creating this series. The race swapping didn’t matter at all here. I hope nobody has a problem with that. The supporting cast is good. Nobody stood out, but nobody was bad either. They complimented the Mateen II character nicely. The use of cameos and Easter eggs as well as a fantastic cliffhanger ending were all done tremendously well. I didn’t have any issues with any of that. Hopefully, fans of the comics will become fans of this show like I was. In addition, I also hope this character appears in future series or films. He deserves a second showing in the upcoming Vision Show or a film in the future. This was a well-done series showing this character for the first time in live action.

Wonder Man begins streaming on Disney+ January 27th 8/8 Episodes Review’d

4 stars