Wonder Man: Why Big Entertainment Never Learns

Wonder Man is a Marvel superhero people don’t often know what to do with. The only person with moderate success with the character is Gerard Jones. But even that didn’t prevent his first solo series from going downhill. Between the setting of Hollywood and the comic trends of the 90s, there’s a fascinating narrative. One that unfortunately never seems to come up again. Most of the time he makes guest appearances like in Hulu’s MODOK.

Who Is Wonder Man?

Marvel’s Wonder Man is one of the many co-creations of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and the other Avengers artist Don Heck. Among the first of the Masters of Evil, Simon Williams reveal his heroic side in a play of sacrifice. Subsequently, Marvel finds time to love the character by bringing him back from the dead time and again. As a semi-regular member of the Avengers, Wonder Man captures the difficulties of being a superhero among titans.

With a title like Wonder Man, it leads to a few legal battles with DC. With Wonder Man unable to get his own title, he often has to rely on the Avengers to get by. Which is not easy as losing popularity can lead to death. Funnily enough, that leads to his decision to become an actor to avoid a pointless end. This leads to changes in the status quo with the 90s.

Hollywood Irony

Wonder Man eventually ends up with political commentator Gerard Jones. Quick disclaimer, while Jones makes decent commentary like Martian Manhunter: American Secrets, he has been convicted of owning child pornography. Anyway, in the initial quarter of this Wonder Man run, readers see Simon Williams dealing with Hollywood’s absurdities.

The initial stages of this run have a campy satire of Hollywood’s contest for fame. Simon’s agent, Neal Saroyan focuses more on his client’s status as a superhero than his acting. It’s why he assigns a young starlet, Ginger Beaches as one of Simon’s companion. The other is her brother Spider as Simon’s sidekick. Considering the growing trend of superheroes with the likes of Tim Burton’s Batman, it makes sense. Only problem is, Simon wants to do more than one role; because not all actors like typecasting.

Jones also writes Hollywood as a character onto herself. It’s full of different people with hopes, dreams, and nightmares. Aside from the glamour of Hollywood life, there are people who are just trying to live. Take for example the screenwriter Alex Flores who becomes Simon’s love interest. She’s a single mother of a twelve-year old daughter trying to make ends meet. Alex’s daughter, Jamie, meanwhile helps keep her mother grounded by convincing her not to profit off trends from people’s traumas.

Villains Close To Reality

As for the villains in the Wonder Man run, a lot of them fit the titular character in themes. Most of them like Goliath and Rampage are echoes of Simon’s past as a supervillain and arms manufacturer. They represent his past failures and how they continue to haunt him. But Hollywood has its own set of villains including the hitman Splice, a living metaphor of Hollywood’s cutthroat nature. Dan Slott even writes a segment in one of the series’ annuals about Splice’s side gig in snuff films literally killing his competition.

Finally, there comes Lotus, a golden age crime lord who uses whatever means necessary to gain power. Hollywood just so happens to be rife with opportunity with its ties to organized crime. By running things from the shadows, Lotus keeps an iron grip on whatever investor can supply her projects. One of which is a crime wave where she can make money through her Armed Response team. By billing these rent-a-cops to Hollywood’s elite, Lotus profits while the poorer ethnic communities suffer. In contrast to Simon, Lotus represents all the power and opportunity Wonder Man had for her own gains.

Wonder Man Vs The 90s

But the biggest obstacle of Wonder Man isn’t supervillains or Hollywood but something even bigger, the Dark Age of Comics. This age of debauchery and sin is infamous for making superheroes into grim-and-gritty parodies of themselves. Simon unfortunately is one of those heroes from a familiar sin, event fatigue. During Operation Galactic Storm and Infinity War, Simon begins to lose control of both his powers and his identity. With his powers only working as he gets angry and his status as pure ions, Simon becomes brutish. It gets to the point where he lashes out at his teammates in the West Coast Avengers.

Also he becomes a living Empowering Event where he unintentionally gives powers to some people. Ironically, that gives rise to the Crazy 8, most of Simon’s supporting cast empowered to expose Lotus’ scheme. Each of them have ionic powers that leads to some creative scenarios. But with only Alex having more dimensions, they don’t last too long.

It eventually got so absurd that Marvel’s resident Devil, Mephisto, and his son Blackheart got involved. At that point, interest in the series and character dwindled. The final nail in the coffin is Force Works where Simon ends up dead, and all after Simon begins to build himself back up complete with a new costume. Not even guest appearances from the Hulk and Spider-Man could do anything.

Aftermath

After Gerard Jones, Wonder Man would make sporadic appearances. In the 90s piece of Force Works, he’s put on a bus because Marvel didn’t know what to do with him. That said, Simon still has fans in the 90s with Tales of the Marvels: Wonder Years being a tribute to him. He even reappears in Kurt Busiek’s Avengers after completely restructuring himself. Simon’s friendship with Beast later leads to their own spin-off title, Avengers Two: Wonder Man and Beast. In that series Roger Sterns gives Jones run a satisfying end.

Here Simon does a rather heroic in trying to take responsibility for his destructive actions. Just because he was following a script in the real world, that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Plus it retcons the nonsense with Mephisto and focuses on the conflict with Lotus. But afterwards, not even comic industry titans like Peter David can do much with Simon. Because in the end, corporate Marvel doesn’t understand why Simon has fans.

Who Is Wonder Man?

What makes Wonder Man a good character that Gerard Jones captures is the difficulty of standing out. Marvel is full of powerful and interesting characters, Simon Williams meanwhile has difficulty fitting in. Unlike Marvel’s major heroes like Thor or Iron Man, Simon is an everyman who fumbles about. But unlike other everyman Marvels like Spider-Man or Hawkeye, Simon doesn’t have many financial or basic needs. Besides even when something does stand out, it’s probably for the wrong reasons. Most writers including Brian Michael Bendis make him look petty because he’s not that popular. Simon might doubt his abilities as a superhero, but it’s only because he believes in having a life outside of it.

Because Simon’s real appeal comes from the relationships he makes with people. Whether it’s Beast, Scarlet Witch, or a few others, Simon appreciates the time he spends with whoever he can outlive. Even the internal conflicts like his relationship with his brother Grim Reaper are special to him. Because having all that time means you can keep enjoying life. If not that, Wonder Man can at least satirize how superheroes are portrayed in media instead of criticize them.

But what do you all think? Does Wonder Man have something unique to offer? Thanks for coming to the end and as always, remember to look between the panels.