Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) may have superpowers, but he doesn’t want to be defined by them. The L.A. native believes he has a higher calling than using his abilities — a hazily defined skill set that seems to involve destructive blasts of energy — for the greater good. Simon may share a universe with Captain America and Black Panther, but he has no interest in emulating them. Simon, you see, was born to act.
“Wonder Man” is the second Marvel Studios series after 2023’s “Echo” to air on Disney+ under the sub-banner Marvel Spotlight. The shingle is meant to connote lower-stakes, more character-driven stories; “Wonder Man” arrives on the heels of HBO’s “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” which takes a similar approach to the “Game of Thrones” franchise. Amid increasing signs of Marvel fatigue at the box office, the pivot is an overdue correction. With “Wonder Man,” the strategy also pays dividends.
The title “Wonder Man” doesn’t refer to a moniker Simon assumes while fighting crime in a mask and cape. Instead, it’s the name of a 1980s-era superhero movie that inspired Simon’s love of the pictures as a child, a passion inherited from his late father. How superhero media fits into a world where Iron Man and the Hulk are well known to the public is clearly not of much interest to co-creators Destin Daniel Cretton (the director of 2021’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”) and Andrew Guest (who also serves as showrunner), and goes largely unremarked upon over the season’s eight episodes. This isn’t “The Boys,” where the meta-commentary on blockbuster fare bolsters a biting, cynical satire.
Simon’s dreams of making it big are, by contrast, utterly sincere. In that sense, “Wonder Man” is closer to “The Studio” — another showbiz spoof that comes from a place of palpable affection. (In addition to walking the walk by shooting in Los Angeles, an increasingly rare practice, and casting famous guest stars as themselves, both series stylize their title cards to resemble that of a New Hollywood film.) The show’s primary connection to mainstream Marvel lore is Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), the actor hired to play faux terrorist the Mandarin as the red herring villain of “Iron Man 3.” When Trevor and Simon happen to meet at a repertory screening of “Midnight Cowboy,” the two forge a friendship based on shared aspiration. Trevor may help Simon get out of his head, countering a self-destructive tendency to overthink that gets him fired from a potential big break, but he’d never tell him to give up the daily grind of rejection and self-tapes.
For insurance reasons, super-powered individuals aren’t allowed to work in entertainment, a rule with a tragicomic backstory explored in a mid-season flashback. That means Simon has to hide his powers, a secrecy that takes a toll on his closest relationships — but Trevor has a secret, too. His Mandarin performance landed him in prison, so Trevor cut a deal with the government’s Department of Damage Control, a bureau tasked with holding “enhanced” individuals accountable. Trevor’s handler, Agent Cleary (Arian Moayed of “Succession”), has set his sights on Simon for reasons that are never really explained. What matters is that Trevor and Simon are both always acting, even when no camera is in view.
A reboot of “Wonder Man” helmed by visionary director Von Kovak (Zlatko Buric) gives the plot its momentum, with Simon and Trevor going out for the parts of the hero and his best friend, respectively. But as with Bill Hader’s “Barry” — another tale of intergenerational thespian friendship doomed by deception — the platonic chemistry is the real draw. Abdul-Mateen and Kingsley make their characters equally ridiculous and romantic, urged on by a motivation more intimate and individual than saving the world. When Trevor declares his vocation “the single most consequential thing anyone could ever do with their life,” the line is meant as a joke. It’s also easier to understand than the latest CGI MacGuffin trotted out to give Marvel stories a vague semblance of structure. Superheroes don’t have to vanquish a big bad. Sometimes, it’s enough to make them more recognizably like us.
All eight episodes of “Wonder Man” are now available to stream on Disney+.
