Marvel's Wonder Man: Series Review (Full Spoilers)

Warning: This reappraisal contains spoilers for Marvel’s Wonder Man. The archetypal fractional focuses connected the basics, but we get into afloat spoilers for the finale successful the 2nd half. You tin besides cheque retired our spoiler-free reappraisal of the archetypal episode.

Few would reason that the Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn’t been successful a spot of a rut these past fewer years. But to their credit, Marvel has placed a renewed accent connected prime implicit quantity of late. If you look astatine the MCU slate implicit the past year, it’s mostly been beauteous coagulated - Thunderbolts*, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Daredevil: Born Again, adjacent Marvel Zombies. Wonder Man slides close successful determination arsenic different beardown summation to the Marvel mix. It whitethorn not adhd overmuch of enactment to the larger Multiverse Saga, but it definite is entertaining.

In that sense, Wonder Man is simply a existent proof-of-concept for the “Marvel Spotlight” branding. Like Echo earlier it, Wonder Man is specifically designed to beryllium a smaller-scale, much character-focused, and much creator-driven outing for the MCU, and that’s precisely what it delivers. The stakes are beauteous tiny arsenic these things go, but you get a good, well-rounded representation of the MCU’s newest superhero. The information that helium hardly adjacent qualifies for that rubric is 1 of the show’s charms. Wonder Man proves to beryllium little different superhero root communicative than it is simply a play astir a working-class stiff who conscionable happens to person powers.

It’s a premise that truly lives and dies connected the spot of its pb actors. That’s wherever Wonder Man genuinely shines. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley marque for a winning brace arsenic chap struggling actors Simon Williams and Trevor Slattery, some of whom find themselves up for roles successful Hollywood’s much-anticipated remake of the Wonder Man movie. Both Abdul-Mateen and Kingsley are beardown performers individually, but it’s their chemistry unneurotic that carries the amusement guardant from occurrence to episode. Simon and Trevor’s improbable bromance is conscionable that charming. One of the champion scenes successful the bid comes aboriginal on, arsenic the 2 frazzled thespians beryllium successful Simon’s flat and simply stroke disconnected steam by trading monologues. It’s a reminder that some men - the actors and their characters - person genuine talent.

Kingsley is simply a known quantity successful the MCU astatine this point, arsenic the bid 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 mightiness look a spot random to abruptly thrust Trevor into the spotlight again aft each these years, but helium makes for a earthy companion and occasional foil to Simon. And for a quality who was mostly played for laughs earlier now, it’s bully to spot a softer, much genuine broadside of Trevor Slattery.

As for Simon, Abdul-Mateen brings each the charisma, humor, and pathos to the relation that the scripts demand. The bid establishes a beardown arc for Simon, coating him arsenic a driven, passionate histrion who’s perpetually held backmost by his pathological fearfulness of showing his existent self. The information that his existent aforesaid is simply a superhuman with destructive ionic powers conscionable further complicates matters. Abdul-Mateen deftly captures each sides of the quality and makes america attraction astir Simon’s emergence from rags to riches and the hard crossroads that comes next.

The lone occupation with having 2 specified compelling main characters is that the remainder of the formed struggles to look from their corporate shadow. Most of the supporting characters are thinly defined and two-dimensional astatine best, whether it’s Simon’s parent (Shola Adewusi) and member (Demetrius Grosse) oregon Wonder Man movie manager Von Kovak (Zlatko Burić). Grosse’s Eric Williams is particularly bizarre due to the fact that this is simply a large Avengers villain successful the comics, but present he’s small much than a sternly disapproving older member figure. All the episodes timepiece successful astir the half-hour mark, and it’s hard not to wonderment if the bid mightiness person benefited from a fewer other minutes devoted to fleshing retired these supporting characters a spot more.

Frankly, the 2 leads are beardown capable that the bid could astir apt enactment simply arsenic a play astir 2 struggling actors, nary MCU elements needed. But though Wonder Man decidedly downplays the superheroics, it does payment from them successful the end. The aboriginal uncover that Trevor is moving with Arian Moayed’s Agent Cleary and the Department of Damage Control to spy connected Simon is simply a amusive wrinkle that adds immoderate other hostility to their shared journey. And it each pays disconnected nicely successful the extremity erstwhile Simon does yet scope the constituent wherever helium has to take betwixt being a leader oregon simply playing 1 connected the large screen.

Note: The remainder of this reappraisal gets into full spoilers for the last occurrence of Wonder Man!

Again, Wonder Man is simply a reasonably low-stakes amusement arsenic acold arsenic MCU bid go. The 2 burning questions fueling the crippled are “Will Simon and Trevor get their large break?” and “Will Trevor betray Simon for his ain idiosyncratic gain?” That each comes to a caput nicely successful the penultimate episode, “Kathy Friedman,” wherever the 2 recently minted stars person their relationship torpedoed by the titular, meddling reporter.

It’s absorbing however writer/co-creator Andrew Guest opts to resoluteness that struggle successful Episode 8, “Yucca Valley.” There, we get the pivotal series wherever Trevor opts to revive his Mandarin persona to instrumentality the blasted for the detonation Simon caused astatine the studio. It’s a comic small development, but besides a precise fitting mode of bringing the quality afloat circle. He’s yet learned to instrumentality work for his mistakes and usage his astir celebrated relation for good. Trevor is hauled disconnected to a DODC prison, and Simon gets to support his concealed and bask being a movie star.

Upon archetypal viewing, it’s a small unusual seeing things resoluteness themselves truthful rapidly into Episode 8, making what follows consciousness astatine archetypal similar an extended epilogue. It’s lone precise precocious successful the game, erstwhile it becomes wide what Simon is up to with his abrupt foray into method acting, that everything falls into place. Simon uses the powerfulness of acting to con his mode into the DODC situation and interruption Trevor out. The bromance endures.

As unusual arsenic the operation of this occurrence is, this feels similar a precise indispensable twist for Simon’s story. Up till that point, helium had ne'er genuinely succeeded successful opening up and embracing that broadside of himself helium worked truthful hard to suppress. Even erstwhile earning the Wonder Man role, helium wholly bungled the soul-baring improv situation and lone succeeded by virtuousness of speechmaking his lines really, truly well. The quality needed to bash thing to amusement he’s yet astatine bid with himself and his powers, and that’s what we get successful the last scene.

The bully happening is that the ending leaves the doorway wholly unfastened for much Wonder Man and his faithful sidekick, Trevor Slattery. What becomes of this dynamic duo? Does Simon marque an honorable spell astatine being a superhero? Does helium spell backmost to the acting grind? Do helium and Trevor go fugitives connected the run? Do we get a much comics-accurate instrumentality connected the quality successful Season 2? Who knows?

There’s nary warrant we’ll ever spot these characters again successful the MCU. But, past again, plentifulness of radical thought the aforesaid happening astir the post-Iron Man 3 Trevor Slattery oregon Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns. You truly ne'er cognize with this shared universe.

I bash wonderment if Wonder Man volition upwind up mounting the code for the MCU going guardant successful 1 regard. The thought that the Department of Damage Control is aggressively rounding up rogue superhumans could beryllium an important crippled point. They whitethorn beryllium having occupation filling their prisons now, but what happens erstwhile much mutants commencement appearing connected the country post-Secret Wars? Is this a sensation of things to come? Food for thought.