Wonder Man review: "A low-key gem that's up there with the MCU's best"

Bear with me a moment while I workshop a personal theory: the less consequential to the wider MCU a Marvel Studios show is, the better they usually turn out to be.

The evidence? WandaVision's unique premise and its initial embrace of the sitcom format made for a fascinating and distinctive series. Loki's first season was terrific as a sort of psychedelic, trans-dimensional buddy cop narrative – and kind of lost the plot in season 2 when it got bogged down in the Kang of it all. Ms. Marvel was more conventional than either of those shows, but told a charming and relatively self-contained coming-of-age story. By contrast, the likes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Secret Invasion – both nominally key pieces of the ongoing saga – were stodgier and somehow much easier to ignore.

And so we come to Wonder Man, a show that nobody was particularly asking for, arriving as the first salvo in what looks like an otherwise very big year for Marvel. A relatively obscure comics character created by Stan Lee, Don Heck, and Jack Kirby, Simon Williams/Wonder Man started life as a low-level '60s Avengers villain before being retooled as a hero a few years later. He's continued to show up in comics from time to time over the last few decades, but it was unclear how Williams would fit into the ever-growing MCU or why anyone would single out this particular character to lead a show in the first place.

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Happily, the answer is simple: he doesn't fit in – and that's the point.

No more heroes

Sure, Simon (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) has some vaguely sketched-in powers, but he must hide these if he wants to make it big as an actor. In a world where superheroes are both revered and closely monitored, the toughest role of Simon's life is the one he has to play 24/7: just a normal guy. A jobbing actor struggling to make it in Hollywood.

Enter Ben Kingsley's Trevor Slattery, the brain-fried thespian who was convinced to take on the role of fake terrorist The Mandarin in Iron Man 3. After meeting at a screening of Midnight Cowboy, just hours after Simon has been both dumped by his girlfriend and fired from a day player role on American Horror Story, the two become firm friends. When the opportunity to audition for a role in a high-profile revival of superhero movie Wonder Man arises, the pair set their sights on bagging the lead roles. Simon, in particular, has a childhood attachment to the title character – getting this job means everything to him. Unfortunately, Trevor is hiding a secret that could jeopardize them both.

Yes, this is effectively Marvel doing a Hollywood meta-comedy, somewhat in the vein of Apple TV's The Studio. And while it's not quite as sharp as that show, in Simon and Trevor it has an endlessly charming double act.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II brings real pathos to Williams (never referred to as Wonder Man – that's simply the character he is playing on screen), a man trying to follow his dreams while always aware that his secret will likely end his career before it's really begun. At 6' 3" (thank you, IMDb), he's a big, handsome guy and perfect leading man material, but Abdul-Mateen's performance emphasizes Simon's vulnerability, broken heart, and general air of bruised decency. Yeah, he's a "pain in the ass," as his agent accurately puts it, but he's a committed pain in the ass, one who truly loves the art and craft of acting.

Ben Kingsley's washed-up thesp, meanwhile, is written with more depth than in previous appearances. Trevor, it turns out, really is a pretty decent actor, and his 13 years of post-Mandarin sobriety has given him a fresh perspective on life – not that the world at large will let him forget his mistakes. There's an air of quiet tragedy to the character, but don't worry, he remains as singularly hilarious as before.

Small but perfectly formed

Other Marvel shows have played with their formats before, of course – most notably the aforementioned WandaVision – but they have always reflexively snapped back into the shape of "just another superhero series" by the end of their runs. Wonder Man, though, is genuinely different, and while we do get occasional glimpses of Simon's powers throughout, the emphasis remains squarely on the jokes and on Simon and Trevor's odd couple friendship as they bumble from one LA misadventure to the next.

The exception to this comes in the hysterical and heartbreaking fourth episode – a perfect standalone instalment, presented in black and white, that hits pause on the main narrative to tell the story of another powered-up actor, DeMarr "Doorman" Davis (Byron Bowers). It's a fine piece of television in its own right, but also works to underline the peril that Simon is facing. The notion that these characters have to mask aspects of their identities in order to survive becomes a poignant theme, and one that makes this a story about something more than just the fickle nature of Hollywood.

Wonder Man doesn't really address superhero fatigue, as the trailers suggested it might, but it does offer something of a solution to it. This is the sort of show you could present to somebody with no interest in comic book characters whatsoever and they'd still instantly get what it's doing, where the superpowers add an additional element, but are not the point of the piece.

In a year when Marvel Studios is wheeling out its big guns in the form of new Spider-Man and Avengers movies, Wonder Man's brisk, 30-minute episodes show the benefits of going in the opposite direction. It's small, perfectly formed, and utterly delightful. A low-key gem that's up there with the MCU's best work.

Wonder Man is streaming on Disney Plus from January 27. For more, check out our guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order and our guide to the best new TV shows to watch in 2026.