Wonder Man TV show: A refreshing change of pace and focus for Marvel

After almost two decades in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you probably have a pretty good idea of what to expect from its movies and TV shows.

Which is what makes Wonder Man such a refreshing arrival. It’s not an anti-MCU project, but it’s also not, not one. OK, let us explain.

Marvel was very adept at creating a cohesive brand and feel to its screen output so that you would instantly recognise them for its quips-led dialogue, a certain smoothness in its visuals, and generally earnest characters who are driven by the greater good.

There have been some exceptions and evolutions, mostly when it comes to tone, such as the more hijinks-forward Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: Ragnarok, but on the whole, the heroes of the MCU have been united in their purpose.

Not so Simon Williams aka Wonder Man.

Simon’s (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) life ambition is to be an actor. Maybe not the world’s biggest star, but at least a working actor who doesn’t have to schlepp to the set on foot (the golf carts are not for day players) and who won’t get sacked for having too many opinions about his one-line character.

Simon also happens to have superpowers. Since he was a kid, he has had superhuman strength, which manifests when he’s extremely stressed out. It’s not something he can control – yet.

It’s also not something he’s interested in harnessing. Simon doesn’t contend with questions of what it means to be a hero or what he should be doing with these gifts. He doesn’t want to acknowledge his powers at all

He just wants to audition, land a role and be an artist, and his powers actually get in the way after Hollywood banned superhumans from being part of any production after an earlier mishap involving a teleporting character named Doorman (Byron Bowers) and Josh Gad (the Frozen actor playing a version of himself).

So, while he is keeping a huge secret, it’s not a stealthy identity, it’s that he even has something to hide.

It’s far more interesting to see a Marvel character struggle with this, rather than another story about someone trying to figure out how to use their powers and fit into a new world. Simon just wants to live in this one – and that’s a far more relatable story arc than, for example, Tony Stark’s. Not everyone has a hero complex.

But someone does know about him, and that’s the Department of Damage Control, a morally grey government organisation that seeks to contain what it perceives as superhuman threats.

Succession’s Arian Moyed reprises his role from Spider-Man: No Way Home and Ms Marvel as the slippery Agent Cleary, trying to gather evidence against Simon.

In that, he recruits – and by recruits, he blackmails – Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), the failed English actor who had been hired in Iron Man 3 to impersonate a made-up terrorist called The Mandarin, and who was held captive by the actual Ten Rings organisation in Shang-Chi.

The somewhat hapless Trevor is trying to make it again as an actor and returns to Hollywood, only to be caught in Cleary’s scheme. Under duress, Trevor befriends Simon as a fellow aspiring thespian, both up for roles in the meta movie-within-the-show, Wonder Man, an in-universe remake of an old-timey TV show that Simon loved as a kid.

There’s another layer there, that Simon once worshipped a fictional TV superhero, is now auditioning to play the character in a film, but is trying to suppress his own powers.

There are some in-jokes about Hollywood and the film industry, references to real-life people such as TV producer Ryan Murphy, which makes for a fun backdrop for this story about a character trying to realise a dream that has nothing to do with the stuff Marvel is usually so consumed by.

There are no real antagonists here, no Big Bad with a world-domination or world-destruction ambition.

Wonder Man is a character-driven series with a story engine that boils down to whether Simon and Trevor will land jobs in a big movie.

What a different story for Marvel to traverse, because the studio is generally pretty good with characters, but then the plot machinations get in the way.

Here, Abdul-Mateen II and Kingsley are allowed the grace and the time to let their characters and the odd couple relationship between them to really be the stars of the show.

It’s almost like a hang-out series, and for that, Wonder Man is a show you want to spend time with.

Wonder Man is on Disney+ from Wednesday, January 28