Marvel’s Wonder Man drops tonight at 9 Eastern/8 Central (why do these Disney shows always premiere at this time? They should drop around 5 or 6 so I can watch them over dinner).
This Wonder Man is definitely different than the comic version. I remember as a kid getting the West Coast Avengers miniseries and taking a liking to Wonder Man there. He was a bit of a Superman expy who was afraid of dying (he had died a couple times already, and his brother was a villain called The Grim Reaper, who had the ability to animate the dead) which seemed interesting. As the comic became a series, he explored fame as an actor and stuntman, got sexually assaulted by Scarlet Witch that one time she became evil, was blackmailed into working with SHIELD during the Civil War storyline, and became a being of pure energy. I didn’t read the stories featuring those last two, so I can’t comment on them.
This series has Yahya Abdul-Mateen II playing an actor looking to portray Wonder Man, Ben Kingsley in it as well as Trevor Slattery - and I have to say, it looks like Kingsley has a lot of fun in that role. It looks fun but I hope there isn’t too much self-aware winking in the story. I thought She-Hulk, while enjoyable up until the climax, got bogged down by that.
I read a couple reviews and they were generally positive. I’m looking forward to watching this.
The trailer makes it look like a lot of fun, and I love Ben Kingsley, but I don’t have Disney or Hulu right now, so it will sadly have to wait. I hope it’s good!
Okay I watched the first episode and I am loving this. I love inside baseball Hollywood stuff (I suffered through season after season of Entourage for this reason) and I love superheroes so it’s like this was made for me.
I’m on the 3rd episode. It will probably shift tones later in the season, but so far it is action free slow moving dry humor that borders on cringe comedy. Unless it changes extensively I predict the typical MCU fan will hate it.
We watched the first 6 episodes of Wonder Man and they went along in a fast clip, I thought. I do like that these MCU shows can show something a little different than just heroes punching villains, so it was interesting to watch the show progress in that regard. The inside Hollywood stuff wasn’t too much for me though I admit that for whatever reason, Hollywood loves to write about Hollywood.
Still working my way through the episodes. The Callback episode is really speaking to me. I recently missed out on a really good professional opportunity because I wasn’t at the top of my game during the interview and this episode was making my stomach twist into knots. I definitely could sympathize with what was going on.
Wonder Man (in Marvel Comics) was definitely similar to Superman in some ways; he was massively strong, fast, and tough (to the point of being able to shrug off just about any damage). Basically, Superman without the flying, heat vision, ice breath, x-ray vision, or other silly stuff. He was recruited by supervillains to be given superpowers and to infiltrate the Avengers and lead them into a death trap, but had a change of heart and sacrificed himself to save them. Though later (in true comic book fashion) it was revealed he didn’t really die, but was just in a coma, and after recovery he joined the group as a member.
In the comics, after his turn to hero, he gets interested in acting and becomes (AFAIK) the first Marvel superhero to turn his fame as a crimefighter into fame as an actor.
It’s funny, though, that both DC and Marvel had a Wonder Man character (one with a hyphen, the other without) that bore a great resemblance to Superman. Oh, and I think that early on he had some device that allowed him to fly, and then later developed the ability to fly on his own. And I think he even developed the ability to shoot beams from his eyes. So Marvel made him more explicitly like Superman as the character evolved.
(The reason why I never liked him as a young comic book fan was because he always came across as “fake hammy Superman wannabe”. Just my opinion as a reader. Other Avengers were a lot more interesting.)
I finished it last night and I enjoyed it. Though when I was watching it with my son, he commented that it was an example of Surf Dracula. I do not disagree.
back in the day if u did a tv show called surf dracula you’d see that fool surfing every week in new adventures but in the streaming era the entire 1st season gotta be a long ass flashback to how he got the surfboard until you finally get to see him surf for 5 min in the final
Also, as a parenthetical: in the comic books, while Wonder Man was “dead,” the villainous android Ultron used Williams’ brain patterns when it created the android The Vision. So, in a way, Wonder Man and The Vision are sort of “brothers.”
(In the MCU, on the other hand, the Vision’s mind and personality are that of the AI Jarvis, which had been created by Tony Stark.)
The only thing I’ve ever seen Wonder Man on is that short running animated MODOK show, which was hilarious but more of a parody than anything. This show is amazing, hope it does well.
