I’ve been pretty open on here about my waning interest in Marvel as of late. I don’t know if it’s me and my changing interests or a decline in quality of Marvel content (maybe a combination of both), but it’s been harder for me to get excited about and stay invested in MCU stories these days. However, Wonder Man seemed different from the beginning. Maybe because it was something new both in story and style, but I just felt like this one had potential from the first trailer. And surprise, surprise. Turns out going in a completely different direction led to one of the most engaging, entertaining Marvel properties in a while. The only caveat is, it’s not really a superhero show. 

Wonder Man is the second title released under the “Marvel Spotlight” banner, following 2024’s Echo. The classification is meant to connote lower-stakes, more character-driven stories that can ostensibly stand alone (meaning they take place in the MCU but don’t have an impact on other stories happening in the world). Wonder Man’s only real connection to the wider MCU is the character of Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), the actor hired to portray the terrorist The Mandarin in 2013’s Iron Man 3 and who also makes an appearance in 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. But if you’ve never seen any other Marvel property before, you could still follow Wonder Man without feeling lost. The show is led by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams, an aspiring actor in Hollywood struggling to make it big. Simon has a chance to land his dream job when he gets an audition for a remake of the classic superhero film “Wonder Man”, a movie that he has a deep personal connection to from childhood. However, in addition to his nerves about his chops as an actor, Simon is also burdened with trying to keep a major secret under wraps: he has super powers. His abilities are never clearly defined (something involving destructive blasts of energy) nor is his origin story with them, but what is clear is that, should this information get out, Simon’s acting career would be over. This is thanks to insurance reasons that forbid super-powered individuals to work in entertainment (a rule with a backstory explored in an unusual but compelling flashback episode). So Simon has to hide his powers to continue to pursue his dream.

After completing the show I wondered, is this the first Marvel superhero that actually doesn’t fight crime? Is Simon even considered a superhero? He has super powers, sure, but he never uses them to save anyone. He barely ever even uses them on purpose. Like many famous superheroes, Simon’s powers are a burden. But unlike most other heroes, he doesn’t feel the call to make the most of them and to use them for good. He’s not interested in being a hero or saving the world. All he cares about is being an actor. The stakes of Wonder Man are low in the scheme of things. There is no supervillain or world-ending threat. It’s just the ever-present risk of Simon’s life coming crashing down should his secret get out. But that’s precisely what makes this show so special. I just went on and on about this in my Stranger Things s5 review: “The show fell victim to the “bigger and better” ethos sequels tend to adhere to. But bigger isn’t always better… It’s counterintuitive, but saving the world is actually a less exciting story than saving a select few people or a specific place. When the gang needs to find Will or protect Eleven or even save Hawkins, we care more because we know those people and that place. We can connect emotionally. The whole world is harder to visualize and understand. When the scale is smaller, the stakes feel larger. So bigger actually isn’t better. And I hope we can start to move away from these stories about the fate of the world and back to ones that feel more intimate and human.” And that’s exactly what Wonder Man does. It focuses more on the human than the superhuman. It’s in terms we can understand, not just intellectually but emotionally as well. Some have read the series as a queer allegory, with superpowers standing in for sexual identity as a pariah-making quality in Hollywood, placing the story even more firmly in the real world. However you view it, the show’s low stakes are what make it resonate, proving that a story doesn’t need to be super-sized to feel important.

I’m sure a big part of the reason I really liked this show is because I’m always a sucker for a Hollywood story. Anything showcasing the ins and outs of the industry, in seriousness or in satire, I will usually be all in on. And famous people playing themselves is always entertaining (Josh Gad has an incredible entry into that canon here). We saw this most recently in The Studio, a show I really loved and that I was reminded of often when watching Wonder Man. Wonder Man shares in The Studio’s sincere affection for the industry, but doesn’t have quite the same edge in its satire of it. Parts of the show also brought to mind The Boys as that series also deals with super-powered people in the spotlight and the entertainment sphere in particular. And a select few shots in Wonder Man surprisingly echoed that show. But Wonder Man doesn’t even try to touch the biting cynicism that defines The Boys. It is still a Disney+ show afterall, so heart is the prevailing tone. And Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley really deliver on that front. They have sweet odd couple energy in their growing friendship and are all at once ridiculous, fun, funny, tender, and a touch heavy-hearted. Investment in their relationship makes or breaks the show and these two make it easy to fall in love with their strange bromance.

Is it bad that the best show Marvel’s created in ages isn’t really a superhero show? I don’t know if I have a good answer for that. But what I do know is that I’m really glad this show exists, I enjoyed watching it, and it does make me more hopeful about the future of Marvel knowing they are willing to go outside the box like this. I’m also even more excited for the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day film as it was directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, co-creator of Wonder Man. I think Marvel fan or not, it would be hard to have a bad time with this show. It’s charming, low-key, funny, with streaks of emotionality and really incredible music. Very happy to be this happy with MCU content!

2026 Count: 6 movies, 3 seasons of television, 0 specials