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. 

Wonder Man S01E07 Review: Secrets Revealed

Wonder Man S01E07 Review: Kathy Friedman

Yeah, again, while this isn't really a typical superhero show, I do find myself quite invested in the acting storyline for Simon Williams and Trevor Slattery. I do still think that the two episodes in the middle could've been cut with little fanfare and would've done the show wonders in terms of pacing and focus. But that's besides the point. 

After the trials and tribulations of the callbacks on the previous episode, Von Kovak has offered Simon and Trevor the roles that they want. And we do spend a chunk of this episode showing the two of them enjoying stardom and the Hollywood life, and Von Kovak's team is even receptive to Simon's extremely in-depth reading of scripts and character. It's probably an underappreciated part of this episode that I truly love, where instead of yelling at Simon for being so hyperfocused and autistic about the character that he is supposed to embody, Von Kovak instead entertains him fully and goes into a discussion about maybe rethinking the main theme of the movie. 

Trevor is also basically become Simon's sidekick, even being allowed to sit in on important business deals and making decisions for him -- with one decision in this episode turning down a Netflix role for Simon. 

The titular 'Kathy Friedman' shows up, however, and she is a harsh, biting Hollywood journalist. Friedman is a journalist that has been so scathing and biting on her pieces on other Hollywood stars that they have essentially become character assassination. For whatever reason, they decide to go through with it, and Simon bends over backwards to change his behaviour on set and learn about the crew and whatnot. That isn't super interesting, to be fair. More interesting, however, is the revelation that Kathy Friedman has interviewed Simon's family -- people who we've seen earlier in the show. Simon panics, but as we find out one by one, neither Simon's mother, his ex-girlfriend, or even the asshole brother Eric sold Simon out. Eric in fact gives nothing but glowing accounts of Simon, which actually tracks -- Eric's problem with Simon in this show has been that Simon's wasting his life, and now that he's actually doing something with his unconventional career choice, Eric's fully on his side. 

Unfortunately for Trevor, however, it is him that Kathy digs up dirt on. While Trevor has been nothing but transparent about his whole gig as the Mandarin back in the events of Iron Man 3, he has been keeping on a lid the fact that he got arrested in the airport by Damage Control. Now I feel that there is a world where Trevor could've kept his cool and tried to at least charm his way out of that, but Trevor ends up blowing up on Kathy, walks out of the interview... and this finally gets gears in Simon's brain clicking. Particularly the stuff about Kathy talking about a 'plea deal'. 

Simon confronts Trevor, and Trevor is torn between his actual initial meeting as someone sent to betray Simon and his newfound friendship with Simon. He ends up confessing and blabbering all about his deal with Damage Control, and this causes Simon to simply... walk out of the trailer. As we've seen before, Simon loses control over his ill-defined powers (in the show, at least, I know Wonder Man's deal in the comics) and blows up the thankfully empty movie set of Wonder Man. End episode. 

This is a great break-up that the show has been building up to. And I do like how it was presented to us, how everything seems to be going well. There was even a sense that Trevor has gained enough pull with his situation next to Simon that he could do what he wanted -- finish filming this movie with his new best friend -- before having to deal with Damage Control. But conflict inevitably arises, and I do like that it's Trevor that ends up being the crack between the two characters. I also love that Simon actually gets closure with so many things in his life here. His method as an actor is validated, his brother and ex-girlfriend actually sees good in him, and everything seems to be on the up-and-up until the one person he keeps closest to him ends up betraying him. Great conflict setup, and it builds things up nicely for the finale. 

Wonder Man S01E06 Review: Auditions

Wonder Man S01E06 Review: Call Back

I liked this a lot more than the previous two episodes. Granted, I like it because it actually explores the roles of being an actor rather than the superhero stuff, which I really do feel is the strength of Wonder Man as a show... and it's something that's going to be a take-it-or-leave-it in terms of this particular Marvel project. When the superhero plotline came back as Agent Cleary came to try and get Trevor to continue his spying job, I was actively groaning. 

Which I suppose does speak to the strength of this show in being such an atypical piece of superhero fiction. It's a really fun little exploration about acting and writing and embodying a character, and I enjoyed it because of that. But anyone who's expecting a lot more 'Marvel' and a lot more 'superhero' probably won't enjoy these episodes. 

I did really like it. The episode just has Simon, Trevor and a bunch of other actors who don't really matter show up in the house of director Von Kovak, who is a wacky director who wants to get into the heart of what the actors are. None of Simon's super-meticulous practice mattered, because Von Kovak tosses out the audition callback script and just gets them to improvise scenes. Simon, trying to hold things back about who he really is, ends up subconsciously gimping himself in his performances; something that isn't helped by his fatigue from the filler episode. 

Again, Trevor is brilliant in these scenes, and so does Simon. There is a 'dream' sequence where Simon punches an actor through the head with his superpowers after being pushed too hard in a scene. I felt it was a bit overindulgent and could've worked better if it was adapted into part of the real audition showing Simon's true emotions or something? 

Regardless, the episode ends with Von Kovak praising Simon's rapid improvement during the impromptu acting coaching-cum-audition, and hires Simon and Trevor as the lead roles for the Wonder Man movie. This is great for the acting sub-plot... but not so much for the aforementioned superhero subplot. Trevor gets a bit cocky and drags things out a bit longer with Damage Control, saying that he's got confirmation, but he needs time to get the proof.

With two more episodes left, I am absolutely far more invested in the acting storyline than anything involving superheroics or the little spy stuff. Replace Simon's 'superpowers' with something else that could get you fired in the Hollywood industry -- drug addiction, sexual orientation, political leanings, etc etc, and Wonder Man would still stand up quite well as a story about acting. Episodes 4-5 were very strange diversions that I felt didn't add much to the show, but I am quite interested to see how this strange little Marvel project is going to end. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Trevor's audition, of course, is for his lines as the fake Mandarin from Iron Man 3. 

Wonder Man S01E05 Review: Five Seconds of Fame

Wonder Man S01E05 Review: Found Footage

'Found Footage' brings us back to Simon and Trevor, and it's always a delight to see the two of them act. Unfortunately, this episode... isn't quite as substantial, nor does it have much to do with acting, making it a bit more of a filler-y episode. 

It was still fun to watch, of course, just... just a bit odd after the more experimental and meandering previous episode with Doorman. This episode starts off with Trevor being attacked by some gangsters that he had owed money to, forcing Simon to break out his powers to save Trevor. 

This display of superpowers, however, is recorded by a little hustler called Jaden who recorded the whole thing on his go-pro, and threatens to reveal it all to the world if they don't get his motorbike back from his ex-friend called Esteban. Simon and Trevor go to Esteban's place, and Esteban tells a whole story about how Jaden lies to everyone. The gangsters from act 1 also show up, and then the cops show up. 

There's some nice comedic moments as Trevor insists that Esteban's group is the ones they have to side with because they make good candies (that may or may not contain drugs, the episode is ambiguous about that) but our heroes end up buggering off when the cops start arresting people in all the chaos. Oh, and in this whole thing, Cleary is still trying to get ahold of Trevor; while Simon's agent Janelle has called him to tell him that the callback for the Wonder Man movie is moved up to that day. 

Ultimately it's just 20 minutes so it isn't the biggest dragged-on filler, but after 'Doorman' last episode, it really feels odd and not the best to have an episode barely progress the plot while we run around following unfunny characters that aren't the most responsible. Neither Trevor nor Simon's characters are really developed here, and unlike 'Doorman' we don't even get any proper worldbuilding about the filmmaking industry in the MCU-verse, making this episode perhaps the most confusing in this otherwise tightly-paced show so far. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Esteban mimics the 'America, time for another lesson' line from Iron Man 3 that Trevor does while under his guise as the false Mandarin.

Wonder Man S01E04 Review: Five Seconds of Fame

Wonder Man S01E04 Review: Five Seconds of Fame

And... I'm not sure this needed to be a whole episode? The 'Doorman Clause' was brought up in previous episodes, and this episode shows it in full detail. It's a simple episode about DeMarr Davis, a bar doorman working in Hollywood who ends up getting superpowers that allow him to create portals. 

We see his rise from a humble dude that ended up rescuing a club on fire, to a brief movie star, and then to a catchphrase-filled one-note pony struggling to make a living both financially and creatively. He then ends up doing a second movie, and during the filming of the movie his powers end up causing a mishap as his co-star Josh Gad jumps into him and never comes out of the other side. This leads to the Doorman Clause, which prohibits individuals from superpowers from working in movies. 

It's a nice standalone episode and story, and a bit tragic, but... Davis is a bit of a flat character, and the 'ding-dong' joke was a bit stale and they repeated it a fair bit. With us already knowing that some tragedy was going to happen, it also kind of happened a bit abruptly and makes the whole episode feel a bit empty in a way -- and I felt like the episode doesn't quite have enough pathos to really contrast the comedic elements the way the rest of Wonder Man did.

Again, though, without the rest of the fantastic cast of Wonder Man, this episode has the rather unenviable task of keeping my attention while featuring a character whose fate we could basically guess thanks to context clues of previous episodes, and it just feels like an overly-long and oddly placed flashback episode that isn't really necessary in this series. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Doorman, a.k.a. DeMarr Davis, is a minor superhero first appearing in West Coast Avengers. He's a mutant that signed up to join the Great Lakes Avengers, who was a bit of a 'parody' team that rivalled and later worked alongside the two real Avengers teams. Doorman had the power to teleport others through the Darkforce Dimension. 
• Doorman wears a mask similar to his comic-book counterpart, although the rest of his character's superhero getup is a more urban trenchcoat.
• Roxxon, the corrupt oil company featured in the MCU in the Iron Man movies and the Cloak and Dagger show, is mentioned as being the corrupt company behind the faulty products Doorman was promoting. 

Wonder Man S01E03 Review: Family Matters

Wonder Man, Season 1, Episode 3: Pacoima

This is another nice, slower-paced episode, although it does move things along. The episode starts off with Simon as a child surviving a burning kitchen without injuries, which is an early showcase of his superpowers. We also get a scene of the Damage Control department head yelling at Agent Cleary about how their department really needs to be capturing metahumans to justify an anti-metahuman prison, which is supposed to drive home how desperate (and assholish) they are. 

The episode then starts proper with Trevor being given an ultimatum and a mission from Cleary, to wiretap and infiltrate the birthday party of Simon's mother and get information about the childhood kitchen incident. Cleary has had enough of Trevor's methods, and wants results or else. 

The entire episode then just revolves around that -- seeing Trevor and Simon in the Williams family household, where Simon is a bit of a pariah in his extended family and friends. Only his mother really likes him, while his brother Eric alternates between being condescending or trying to get Simon to work for him. All of the other relatives and friends insult Simon either in Creole (assuming wrongly that Simon doesn't understand) or when asked by Trevor. 

Trevor himself is torn between trying to do his mission, as well as realizing how much Simon having a friend means to him and his mother. It's really nice seeing Trevor instinctively snap and defend Simon from some of his more horrible relatives, or when he clearly has second thoughts about the spy mission. A particularly strong scene is Trevor's moment with Simons' mother, who highlights Simon's loneliness despite his hobbies. 

That takes up most of the episode... until the end of the party, where Eric and Simon get into an argument. Simon gives a gift to his mother, but Eric isn't particularly impressed or happy that Simon is using money from his own mother to buy her a gift -- also noting his being fired from American Horror Story. While Eric's arguments do make sense, his demeaning methods aren't and it gets under Simon's skin enough that he ends up shattering the kitchen table in a massive eruption, before leaving. 

Trevor gets way more evidence than he probably would've needed, but of course ends up bonding with Simon even more. Simon apologizes to Trevor about his superpowers, and notes that he's been keeping it hidden due to an incident with 'Doorman' and superheroes in acting -- something covered in the next episode. But the combination of seeing how lonely Simon is, and how important the friendship is, causes Trevor to walk out of the car and destroy the wiretap. Which is not unexpected, but a nice one to see happen. The episode then ends with Simon announcing that the two of them had callbacks for the 'Wonder Man' movie. 

A slower but wholesome episode. I'm always up for any episode that explores the emotional trauma of extended family expectations and loneliness, but the Trevor spotlight was done quite well, building up neatly from the previous episode and delivered quite well here. I don't have a whole ton to add beyond the fact that this episode is executed quite well, I think. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner: 

• Simon's brother Eric Williams, in the comics, is the alter-ego of the Hydra-aligned supervillain the Grim Reaper. While the adversarial nature of the siblings were adapted into the MCU, the nature of it has been drastically changed.

Wonder Man S01E02 Review: Loyalty

Wonder Man, Season 1, Episode 2: Self-Tape

Another short, simple episode. After the reveal that Trevor Slattery is befriending Simon Williams not because of some fateful coincidence but was planted there by an organization, we learn the nature of Trevor. He was arrested after returning to the United States by the FBI, due to his role of being the false Mandarin in Iron Man 3 (and his subsequent unwilling breakout via Wenwu). The villain here is Agent Cleary of Damage Control fame, last seen in Ms. Marvel. Not anywhere as memorable as Trevor, but at least a known quantity and one that was shown to us in a simple enough manner. 

Agent Cleary, while a bit overzealous, tells Trevor that he could avoid jail by doing some governmental job... which is to get close to Simon Williams, a suspected dangerous metahuman, and spy on him. Hence, the recruitment for the Wonder Man movie. 

The episode then moves to the present day, where things seem to be going up for Simon -- his angry agent Janelle isn't quite happy that Simon impersonated her to get the audition in the first episode, but he did get an opportunity of doing the titular 'self-tape', which is the conflict and plot for this episode. And for the most part, the episode involves Simon trying to get into the zone of playing this character. 

His initial attempts of self-taping in his own apartment is foiled when he accidentally sees an old video of his ex Vivian helping him tape... leading to glowing eyes and the items in his apartment vibrating before causing a shockwave. So Simon does have powers at this point, and he seems to at least be somewhat aware about it. One of the audition crew in episode 1 did mention something about actors signing waivers that they don't have superpowers, so that is an interesting reason as to why Simon might be keeping things secret. 

We cut away nicely to Agent Cleary and Trevor discussing their next plans, with Cleary giving Trevor his own mission -- put a ring-hacker device on Simon's laptop. Trevor continues on with his role, going through the motions with far more grace than Agent Cleary. Love that sequence where Trevor clearly understands the importance of maintaining a cover story and takes time to believably reply to Simon, while Cleary just wants everything to be cut-and-dry, economical, soulless. Even when doing this, Trevor is still acting, in a way.

Simon wants to do the self-taping outside of his apartment, though, waylaying Trevor's spy plans, and we see them go from one point to another. A local self-tape studio had disruptive staff that can't bounce off Simon at all; while Trevor's apartment has an obnoxious noisy neighbour; and Joe Pantoliano* (as himself) ends up being condescending towards Trevor and disrespects the art of acting. While Trevor just swallows the insults -- which, honestly, knowing what we do about Trevor, Joe might even be right -- Simon is having none of it and gets angry at Joe Pantoliano. 

*While I know who Joe Pantoliano is, I only know him via his movies. I tend to not give a shit about Hollywood drama stuff, so if there's any subtleties or in-jokes about these, these would fly over my head. Unlike the as-themselves cameos in She-Hulk, though, Joe could be replaced by a-fictional-actor-played-by-Joe and the episode would have worked fine.

It's actually some nice stuff, particularly the brief speeches by Joe about how acting should be treated as a job, while Trevor is very much still seeing it as a calling. It's done particularly well with Trevor's advices to Simon, and even how he acts while interacting with Agent Cleary. And it is done excellently well by the body language and acting how much Trevor is really uncomfortable around Joe, and how he appreciates Simon standing up for him. 

They eventually do an excellent take in Simon's apartment. Which is done well, of course; a nice scene that also shows the work that goes behind the preparation of the scene.

But as Simon goes off to order pizza, Trevor does his mission. Putting his ring to hack Simon's laptop, a visibly guilty Trevor wanders around... and sees a massive destroyed wall that is a clear sign of Simon Williams's superpowers. Realizing that Agent Cleary might be right and that Simon Williams might be a metahuman, Trevor ends up with a conflicted look on his face, before handwaving it for pizza as Simon returns to the room. 

Again, the stand-alone-ness of this is a great fresh breath of air considering how every Marvel project seems to need so many tie-ins and cameos. And sure, Trevor and Agent Cleary both are characters with some history in the MCU, but the show gives us what is needed and doesn't burden us with any more that is necessary to understand the Simon and Trevor dynamic. There's a lot of nice spirit and showcase of the duality of work and passion; of the work needed even before getting onto the set of a TV/movie, and of course, just a little hint about Simon Williams's true superpowers... and amidst that, Trevor gets nicely conflicted between his loyalty to his mission (or rather, to his freedom) versus his newfound friend. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Trevor's history in the MCU is explored in this episode, going through archival footage from Iron Man 3, and throughout his interview, Trevor brings up how he was broken out of prison by forces out of his control (Wenwu, the real 'real' Mandarin) in the Marvel One-Shots: Hail to the King and later made into a plot point in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
• Agent Cleary of Damage Control first appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and later served as a secondary antagonist in Ms. Marvel. 

Wonder Man S01E01 Review: Filmmaking

Wonder Man, Season 1, Episode 1: Matinee

This is an interesting concept for a Marvel TV show, and one that I didn't really pay much attention to when it was announced. Marvel fatigue hit me as it did everyone, and with the lowering quality of the MCU content in the past half-decade or so, I just never really took to this one. Not knowing much about Wonder Man beyond his role in the excellent Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon didn't really help matters. 

And... this is a different concept, if nothing else, meant to be a show that takes place in the Marvel Universe more than anything; similar to how Agents of SHIELD or Runaways were originally pitched as. Or at least that's how it begins -- I'm writing these reviews more or less as I watch the episodes.

We start off showing a bad-tokusatsu-show of 'Wonder Man', a superhero in the cinema. One of the fans watching the show would grow up into aspiring actor, our protagonist Simon Williams. And we instantly get thrust into a rather excellent -- if sad -- showcase of a 'cringey' scene as Williams gets overly enthusiastic about his role and the implications of his characters and props and whatnot... all for the role of a victim in a monster TV show with maybe two minutes of screentime. This leads to a discussion as he goes so deep into this side-character about how the professor would act or behave or maybe some kind of deep backstory or perhaps this textbook doesn't suit the character...

...and you know what? I get him. I'm embarrassed for him, but I also get him.

What, you think someone who writes so much about the minutiae about video game monsters and superhero TV shows in a blog wouldn't get this portrayal of an actor that hyperfixates on becoming this character? Of course I get him. 

Simon, unfortunately, disrupts the schedule of the filming so much that even though some members of the cast and crew are willing to entertain him, the director ends up being so ticked off that she fires Simon. Admittedly, she really could have put her foot down and forced filming to happen, but we wouldn't have conflict otherwise. Almost as if to kick Simon in the nuts, his girlfriend leaves him. Which was a bit over-the-top, but okay.

Simon then goes into a cinema hall, and runs into Trevor "Fake Mandarin" Slattery. Always loved the idea of Trevor returning for something more, with Ben Kingsley being a fantastic actor and a very welcome addition to the cast of this show. Simon recognizes Trevor and strikes up a quick friendship with him, and Trevor ends up telling Simon about an opportunity of them doing a remake of 'Wonder Man'. 

Excited and passionate about this, we go through a couple of scenes as Simon hunts down his agent, then fakes an audition call, before showing up in the audition. Simon goes through his 'methods' of diving super-duper in-depth into the character of Wonder Man, ending in a bit of a paralysis as he's trying to dive too deep into the minutiae of the script he was handed. Trevor, having finished his own audition, pulls Simon into the bathroom and gives him some pointers -- essentially telling him to stop overthinking, do some breathing pre-game exercises, and let instinct takes over. 

And Simon does so. I think he doesn't even read the script, but gives his own rendition of the 'classic' Wonder Man movie he watched with his dad. 

The episode ends with a calm, quiet sequence as Simon and Trevor catch up at a restaurant, with a lot of discussion about acting and passion. And as Simon heads off, Trevor gets a call from a mysterious person. Even while Trevor is flippant about it, it's clear that he's being sent to make contact with Trevor for some mysterious reason... and that Simon has superpowers. Dun dun dunnnn! 

And honestly... the superpowers stuff does take a backseat, and that was unironically what drew me in. There's probably some talk about how Wonder Man is a meta-commentary and addresses the 'superhero genre fatigue'... I don't think I would go so far as saying that, at least not with the couple of episodes I've watched before writing this first episode review. It certainly is about making a superhero movie, but it's more about exploring Simon's role as an actor more than anything. Perhaps there's some movie-making commentary about how much the actors (and maybe even the directors?) want to improvise or explore about the characters before Big Disney wags the finger at them? I honestly, genuinely do not care about any of those, just noting that these themes exist more than anything.

No, what's far more interesting is the charming setup behind the passionate-but-flawed character of Simon Williams, played by the excellent Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Great performance that steals the show; and as I mentioned above, Ben Kingsley is always a delight to have... anywhere. It's a really easy, if slower, show to get into.

(I'll get to reviewing Daredevil: Born Again once I've watched the show; currently very behind on a lot of stuff. I did watch Wonder Man as the show premiered, but didn't get to do timely reviews.)

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• In the comics, Wonder Man / Simon Williams was a crooked business rival of Tony Stark that was tricked by Baron Zemo into being transformed into a metahuman to infiltrate the Avengers. Getting a crisis of conscience, Williams would betray Zemo's Master of Evil, and the resulting conflict put him into a coma. (This comatose state would later lead to his brainwaves being used to create Vision). He would later be revived, and become an actor with his superpowers, which allowed him to perform his own stunts.
  
• Wonder Man was almost in the MCU as a cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, with Nathan Fillon playing him -- although not in a major role, but rather as an in-universe show. 
• The Wonder Man movie/show seen in the beginning has the title character wear a costume based on the comic-book Wonder Man suit. 
• Trevor Slattery, a.k.a. the false Mandarin, was last seen in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and has returned to the United States at some point. He mentions his most notable role of the Mandarin to Simon. 
• Simon mentions having seen Slattery act in Omnibus as Edgar Allan Poe. This is actually a real show, where Slattery's actor Ben Kingsley really did act in as Poe. 
• Simon walks past Mann's Chinese Theater, which was blown up by Aldrich Killian's agents in Iron Man 3.
• One of the posters in Hollywood was for 'Rogers: The Musical', seen and mentioned several times in Hawkeye.