Wonder Man Completes One Of The Most Surprising Heroic Arcs In The MCU – SlashFilm

This text accommodates spoilers for “Wonder Man” season 1, episode 8 — “Yucca Valley.”

The factor about Marvel’s “Wonder Man” sequence is that it is about Ben Kingsley’s returning Trevor Slattery as a lot as it’s about Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s tremendous-powered Simon Williams. Trevor was infamously launched to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a disgraced actor employed to play the Mandarin by “Iron Man 3” villain Aldrich Killian (Man Pearce), and he is paid the value for the function ever since.

Trevor enters the present by stealthily establishing a “likelihood” assembly with Simon and worming his means into the youthful thespian’s good graces. He is appearing beneath orders from the Division of Harm Management agent Cleary (Arian Moyaed), who’s threatening to throw him again in jail if he refuses to conform. Nonetheless, Trevor quickly grows genuinely keen on Simon. After Simon finds out about Trevor’s duplicity, the younger actor’s anger causes him to lose management of his powers and wreck the “Wonder Man” movie set in a large explosion. This prompts the ashamed Trevor to carry out the noblest act out there to him; donning the Mandarin costume as soon as extra, Trevor takes the blame for the explosion and goes to a excessive-safety supervillain jail in Simon’s stead.

We would already seen hints of Trevor’s redemption arc in earlier MCU initiatives — particularly, “Wonder Man” helmsman Destin Daniel Cretton’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” the place the character performed a pivotal supporting function and helped to defend the legendary village of Ta Lo. Nonetheless, “Wonder Man” takes issues a step additional and completes Trevor’s surprising however welcome transformation right into a bona fide hero.

“Wonder Man” pulls again the curtain on the Marvel Cinematic Universe in some ways. Notably, it is also the uncommon MCU mission that does not have an actual villain. As a substitute, each main character who’s antagonistic towards another person is solely doing issues that make sense to them. Simon is solely making an attempt to turn out to be a profitable actor whereas avoiding using his powers, whereas his brother, Eric (Demetrius Grosse), appears hostile, however he really cares for his youthful sibling; he simply does not at all times perceive him. Even the present’s foremost antagonistic pressure, Cleary, legitimately — and, in some methods, justifiably — considers Simon’s explosive powers an enormous potential risk.

The entire setup is a refreshing spin on the MCU’s traditional heroes-and-villains antics. It is also the proper set dressing for the newest chapter in one of the vital stunning heroic arcs the franchise has ever given us. Trevor taking accountability for the studio explosion Simon brought on by resuming his Mandarin guise confirms that the character is now really on the facet of the angels, as a lot as he may complain about it … and the truth that Simon spends a lot of the season finale on a excessive-threat mission to rescue his buddy from the Yucca Valley jail means that the MCU won’t be fairly performed with Mr. Slattery but.

“Wonder Man” is streaming on Disney+.