Wonder Man S01E08 Review: Lights Camera Action

Wonder Man S01E08 Review: Yucca Valley

And so, Wonder Man ends with a conclusion that, for once, doesn't force itself to have a big bad CGI battle with random bits of property damage and a 'final villain'. These sorts of 'final villain' fights have been the bane of many Disney+/MCU shows and movies, and I am very happy that the atypical, unconventional Wonder Man is allowed to end in its own terms -- with drama related to moviemaking. 

The ending is still an interesting one. With Simon Williams unleashing a huge ionic explosion at the end of the previous episode, the Department of Damage Control finally arrives on scene with damnable evidence to arrest Simon Williams as a metahuman. A depressed Simon just returns to his apartment, getting ready to be arrested. He calls up his mother and has a great heartwarming moment as his mother tells him how proud she is of him. However, the next call is from Trevor, who has a plan to make everything right. 

And showing how genuinely he is sorry for Simon and how much he values his brand-new best friend, Trevor dresses up again as the Fake Mandarin, releasing (with rapid editing speed, I must say) a video of him claiming credit for the explosion on the Wonder Man set, spinning a yarn about infiltrating Hollywood, America's seat of propaganda and whatnot. Agent Cleary, desperate for a win, ends up zipping in to arrest Trevor -- who plays up his capture for the camera by hamming it up. "Trevor Slattery was the mask all along!" 

Mind you, Cleary is a mighty idiot, and I think other than the vague handwave of the court of public opinion, there's no reason for him not to investigate the potential metahuman that is Simon Williams. I guess they took Trevor's bomb story at face value? 

Whatever the case, though, Simon is shocked and touched, but Von Kovak calls Simon back in immediately for shooting because Von Kovak never misses a day of shooting -- and tells Simon to channel all his grief into whatever he is feeling. And of course, the Wonder Man TV show goes on well. The role for Barnaby is recast to Joe Pantoliano (which we met earlier in the season) and we get to see Simon dress up as Wonder Man, inspired by the modern comic-book costume with goggles and whatnot. The movie is the Best Thing Ever(tm), and Simon and Von Kovak are made stars. 

I particularly love the shot of Simon and the people close to him watching the movie. Simon's mother reacting in shock over the third-act betrayal by Barnaby, and Eric and Simon sharing a quiet moment as brothers celebrating his success. Turns out Trevor's career advice from the previous episode worked well for him too, as Simon's agent congratulates him for having his pick of the roles in Hollywood. 

That's where the first half of the episode essentially ends. Simon gets his victory, and we get to see him climb his way up and get that role he always wanted. 

But then we slow down, and we get to see Simon arrive incognito in the Yucca Flats. He meets up with a doctor, under pretense that he's doing homework in shadowing and getting into character for another role. This actually goes on for quite a bit even in screentime that it felt a bit odd -- even if it's something that does also feel like a scene from a 'how actors work' show. I actually get the feeling that this is building up to a 'Simon Williams is moonlighting as a superhero' reveal, which wouldn't be bad but wouldn't match anything in the rest of the movie. 

Thankfully, it is a much more involved sequence than that. The dude that Simon shadows turns out to moonlight for Damage Control, and Simon manages to charm his way (Trevor's methods, charming people!) in as an intern to enter a Damage Control holding site. Having found out that this is where Trevor is being held, Simon walks up, uses his much-more-in-control ionic powers to short out the cameras, walk up to Trevor, and do the same 'taking the fall' thing that Trevor did to him -- and break his buddy out of jail by flying out surrounded in an ionic field. 

(Oh, he also gives the guard he shadowed -- who likely will be losing his job -- enough money to retire several times over, so that's nice)

End scene. 

That is a much more satisfying buddy-cop movie ending than what I thought the second half of the episode was building up to, and I am quite glad for it. Again, both Ben Kingsley and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II were both fantastic in their roles, really embodying Trevor and Simon perfectly. The writing is spot-on in conveying the difficulties of showbiz and character writing in general, and I can't believe just how much I enjoyed this very unconventional show. It's easily one of the most delightful Marvel experience I've had in a long, long while, as much as it doesn't actually feel like a superhero show. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Wonder Man's 'modernized movie' costume is based on his more well-known modern look, based on his most well-known appearance debuting in the 60's Avengers run. 
• At the end of the episode, Agent Cleary describes Wonder Man's powers in the same terms that the comic does -- he can transform his body into sentient ionic energy and manipulate it. 
• The logo that appears in Trevor's fake Mandarin video is the one from Iron Man 3, identified as a fake one by Wenwu in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. 
• Trevor quotes himself from Iron Man 3, namely the 'you never see me coming' line at Agent Cleary.