Marvel’s latest offering barely feels like a Marvel project at all — which, for the record, is a really good thing — but it still introduces a few major changes to the franchise’s status quo. Wonder Man is as grounded as it gets for the MCU, cut more from the cloth of something like The Studio than Iron Man. Its hero, Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), just wants to be an actor, a dream that proves all the more challenging thanks to his mysterious powers. It simply costs too much to insure a Hollywood production with an enhanced individual, so Simon has to hide his abilities even as he auditions for the lead role in a superhero movie. How ironic.
As Wonder Man unspools, however, Simon steadily loses control. Our hero gains an ally in Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) — the venerated actor whose reputation was tarnished by posing as the Mandarin — but it’s almost all for naught. The final episodes of Wonder Man push Simon and Trevor to the brink. Miraculously, though, things turn out okay for the unlikely duo; Marvel might even have found its next Avenger in Simon.
