Wonder Man - Matinee
Continuing to search for more periphery Marvel Comics characters to add to the MCU, Disney+ offers up longtime hero, and sometimes West Coast Avenger, Wonder Man. Opening with an old movie featuring an actor playing the larger than life movie character with an extra dash of Flash Gordon thrown-in, in a pretty comic-accurate costume, we soon jump to the young boy in the audience who grows up to be a struggling actor with a burning desire to play his childhood hero on the big screen.
The setup of the series feels fresh (at least for an MCU property) even if the character of Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) feels pretty familiar. A less prickly version of Dustin Hoffman's character from Tootsie (not that he dresses up as a woman but that he's so difficult to work with he can't hold down a job despite his talent), Simon is mostly getting in his own way. Interestingly, Hoffman makes a cameo of sorts as well when Simon heads to the theater for a screening of Midnight Cowboy only to run into Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley, reprising his role from Iron Man 3 and The Eternals).
It's Trevor who puts Simon on to the Wonder Man audition, and helps with his nerves. However, as is often the case when he pops up in the MCU, there's more going on with this chance meeting between the two actors than meets the eye. It appears Trevor is working for some quasi-governmental agency who arranged all of this because of their interest in Simon who they believe has super-powers and could be dangerous. That late twist, especially weighed against how genuine the easy friendship between Simon and Trevor feels, is a nice touch that sets up something a bit different than your usual Marvel baddie, with the exception of The Incredible Hulk, (at least for now).
- Title: Wonder Man - Matinee
- IMDb: link
