You can’t expect every character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to get an origin story similar to their comic book counterparts. While the MCU’s initial films were relatively loyal to their source material, the films and shows have since paved their own path, and Wonder Man is the latest hero to get a total revamp. In the comics, he gains his powers via exposure to ionic radiation. In his Disney+ debut, however, we never learn how he gained his super strength or his ability to generate ionic pulses — but he might have been born with it.
According to co-showrunner Andrew Guest, that was by design. The Wonder Man team wanted to pay tribute to a specific kind of superhero movie in exploring Simon Williams’ (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) origins: Fox’s X-Men saga.
