Marvel's Wonder Man is a mostly pleasant binge with some unexpectedly moving moments

Last seen in 2013’s Iron Man 3, Trevor was the actor who played the controversial red-herring villain the Mandarin. Now released from prison, Trevor tries to rebuild his life and befriends Simon to this end. Trevor is our identification character, who is unwillingly cast into his most demanding role yet: a fun spin on the “one last job” career thief. Abdul-Mateen and Kingsley have great chemistry, and their characters’ unlikely friendship, rooted in their mutual unrequited love for acting, provides the show’s emotional center. 

This Iron Man connection is also a slight nod to Wonder Man’s comic-book origin. Originally, Simon was a businessman whose company couldn’t compete with Tony Stark’s empire. He resorted to embezzlement; and when caught, he blamed Stark for the consequences of his own bad choices. That backstory is far too similar to those of past MCU villains, specifically Iron Man 3‘s Aldrich Killian and Spider-Man: Far From Home‘s Quentin Beck. So it makes sense to focus instead on Wonder Man’s Hollywood aspirations. In his 1991 solo comic, Simon tried to balance acting with superheroics against a setting that was frequently more bizarre than any Skrull invasion. (Imagine if Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was also publicly a superhero.) There is significant comedic potential in an otherwise successful superhero still struggling to make it in Hollywood, where movie executives are just as diabolical as any villain. The Wonder Man series is similarly offbeat but can occasionally veer too far from escapist fantasy into mundane dramedy, which is bound to turn off audiences who didn’t tune in to watch The Studio with superhero references. Decades ago, Buffy, Angel, and more than a few X-Files episodes demonstrated how a series can ground its epic fate-of-the-world stakes with humanizing comedy. Much like She-Hulk, Wonder Man struggles to maintain that balance.

Wonder Man can at times feel like the Netflix Marvel series from a decade ago, which seemed to exist in their own separate realities from the more bombastic MCU of the movies. This is perhaps not the show for anyone interested in traditional frenzied battles between costumed characters. Of course, fans are admittedly hard to please: Depending on who you ask, heavy continuity in Marvel shows and films can make each installment feel less accessible to new audiences, who must wade through hours of homework to understand what’s happening. Other fans complain that the series in particular feel disconnected from any larger narrative and introduce characters and plot points that never pay off. How many post-credits scenes have gone nowhere? Secret Invasion might as well have never happened, which is probably a good thing. If this ends up the only Wonder Man story ever told onscreen, it’s still worth watching. But that would also make this feel like a wasted opportunity, as both Simon Williams and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II have a lot of potential.   

Stephen Robinson is a contributor to The A.V. Club. Wonder Man premieres January 27 on Disney+.