Showrunners: Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest
I was pleasantly surprised to read about how good this series was, considering that, when it was announced, I was at best mildly interested. I was slightly worried that it would a bit like HBO's old show Entourage with superheroes, but fortunately, my fears were completely misplaced, and instead, Marvel, through showrunners Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest have brought us something really special in these eight compact episodes.
Wonder Man is the story of struggling actor Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen), who's hiding a terrible secret that could sink his career before it even starts; he has extremely destructive super powers that get triggered when he is under extreme stress. He's also somewhat obsessive in terms of how he approaches the characters he plays (mostly bit roles) which makes it challenging for him to hang on to a job for more than a few days. However, a chance meeting with Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), once known for playing the terrorist The Mandarin years earlier, may change Simon's life forever as he may get the chance to play the role of a lifetime, that of superhero Wonder Man, in a remake of a movie that Simon loved as a child. A friendship is struck as the pair of them audition for the roles of Wonder Man and his best friend Barnaby, but what Simon doesn't know is that Trevor still has a secret that he's keeping to himself.
It is a testimony to how well Marvel Studios has handled the vast majority of its characters that it is able to turn to another D-list character for some quality stories. For the uninitiated, Simon Williams aka Wonder Man is actually an ex-villain co-created by Stan Lee and Don heck who turned good and actually joined the Avengers, of whom he has been a member since the 70s. He's been around for quite some time, in short, but has never really been regarded as an A-lister. I'd argue that made him an ideal candidate for this adaptation because it meant minimal noise from the gatekeeping community. To the best of my knowledge, the depiction of Simon's powers is comic-book accurate: he basically manipulates ionic energy to perform a number of superhuman feats such as displays of superhuman strength and others.
In truth, we barely get to see any feats of superhuman derring-do, and yet it is utterly compelling. The way the super stuff is framed is actually quite fascinating; when Simon's powers show up, it's bad news for him, which kind of flips the whole super narrative on its head, and even makes for some pretty harrowing moments. In one episode Simon and Trevor chase down a kid who has captured footage of Simon using his powers to take out thugs. The show's greatest strength is the utterly magnetic performances by Abdul-Mateen as Simon and Kingsley as Trevor as well as their chemistry as student and mentor. It's a really great buddy comedy, and apart from the two leads there are some brilliant supporting turns from Zlatko Buric as the Oscar-winning director of Wonder Man Von Kovac, MCU veteran Arian Moayed who reprises his role as Damage Control's Agent Clearey which he first played in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and X Mayo as Janelle Jackson, Simon's beleaguered agent. There are also some hilarious performances from Joe Pantoliano and Josh Gad, who play some really unpleasant versions of themselves.
I love how this show introduces deep universe characters like Wonder Man and his brother Eric, who in the comics is known as the supervillain Grim Reaper, and even Doorman, an obscure 80s character created by John Byrne when he was writing the West Coast Avengers book. It's interesting seeing someone struggle with super powers as opposed to reveling in them, or using them to do the more "traditional" superhero thing. The Doorman episode, apart from being laugh-out-loud funny for its depiction of Josh Gad as a complete jackass, is particularly instructive as it explains the "Doorman clause" that makes it impossible for a super-powered individual to get work in the MCU's version of Hollywood. I still have my thoughts on the kind of projects Marvel should pursue, for both the big and small screen, and this show reaffirms my belief that they can do great things if they're willing to step outside of their Avengers/Spider-Man comfort zone.
10/10
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