Go with the Classic: WHAT IF Wonder Man were a Woman, & Power Man Were a Girl ? Dear Marvel, Our Lawyers Advise You Not To Print This Gag Sincerely Your Distinguished Competition 🖖🏾
I was at a panel where Stan said something along the lines of the “Thor’s flying is more realistic than Superman’s because he spins his hammer like a propeller, we’re scientific while DC isn’t” quote. Trust me, everyone in the audience knew his tongue was _firmly_ in cheek when he said that!
Hey, the Avengers are pickier than you’re implying. They don’t *only* exclude Spider-Man, they exclude Rick Jones, too! I love that that was essentially Rick Jones’s entire identity for years in the comics: his one desire in life to become an Avenger and/or Bucky.
Of all the old Marvel Comics characters who have not been adapted for the MCU, I'm actually most surprised that Rick Jones never got cast. He had strong connections to the Hulk, Captain America, Captain Marvel (OK, Marr-Vell, but still) and the whole Avengers team. Even a version of the Swordsman has shown up in the Hawkeye TV show. In whatever parallel universe where these characters are real, that's gotta sting a little. SWORDSMAN gets adapted before pool old Rick.
@@lucywillis4535 And the issue where Cap finally breaks down and is like “You know what, maybe I’m the weird one for angsting about getting a child killed by consistently putting him in harm’s way, go ahead Rick, go ahead and be my replacement Bucky.” And then Rick messes up and Cap gets pissed at him. Those two are so damaged.
I think people who, like me, met Wonder Man in Avengers earth's mightiest heroes were surprised to find out what the character was like in the comics, like me. While in the comics his passage through the masters of evil is just his origin, in the show it took a long time for him to sacrifice and die. Also, since the show was cancelled, we never saw him as an súperhero. R.I.P.
Marvel could have gotten out of a lawsuit by pointing out that MGM made a comedy movie starring Danny Kaye, called "Wonder Man" in 1945. Its about a guy with ghostly abilities.
There's a WonderBoy too! He was from Quality in the golden age. He's actually pretty fun, basically orphaned Superboy-type who does what he wants, and doesn't seem able to fly. I always enjoyed his design, I guess since DC bought Quality they might still own him, but they've never shown any indication of using him. It's possible he's public domain now.
The Iron Man voice is so great. Wonder Man has always been one of my favorite characters. Despite being almost as powerful as Thor, he's always had self doubts, fears about death, etc. Yet, he's almost always treated like crap by Marvel.
5:45 "We can make the word's first ionic man!" Personally I'd bring in Simon as someone that decided to take over the weapons market that Stark left behind after he became Iron Man. After hearing of Tony's sacrifice Simon decides to leave weapons manufacturing behind and concentrates on medicine once he's diagnosed with a terminal illness. He bases his cure for his condition on research the original Baron Zemo did during WWII and after the inevitable 'scientific accident' becomes Wonder Man.
Big fan of Simon Williams here, I actually hadn’t heard of DCs Wonder Man until your video. I remember talk of him having a cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 & played by Nathan Fillion, but I’m glad they’re waiting to bring him in. I hope they go straight to the purple ionic form.
Naturally, theyre gonna recast for someone younger. And it only makes sense to go straight to his ionic form instead of having to go though all that proccess. Similary, theyre probably gonna skip to the end with his chracterization as well, forgetting his short time as a villain and making him an actor from the start. Hell, it wouldnt surprisme if they actually went and make him the first pacifist superhero. Not entirely sure how would that work for the inevitably big epic fights hes gonna be in, but it could be interesting all the same.
The thing I like most about this Wonder Man story isn't even in the story, but from an issue released like a year later (in Avengers #21), when Enchantress decided to turn some random Masters of Evil mook into a knock-off Wonder Man - Eric Josten, to be exact, a later member of the Thunderbolts known as Atlas. But his first super-villain name? *Power Man* - adds a whole new dimension to the whole "Well if you're gonna introduce Power Girl..." debacle.
Marvel's Wonder Man will always have a special place in my heart because the origin story you have just reviewed was the very first superhero comic I ever read. Everything about it completely captivated me. The art, the costumes, the colours, the characters and their powers and all capped off with a noble self sacrifice at the end. Loved it!
When I hunk Wonder Man, I think of him as a mascot for Wonder Bread. Like an advertisement sponsored super hero. I knew better but couldn’t get the association out of my mind with the Hostess comic adverts. 🤣
I honestly never thought we would get Wonder Man I. The MCU, since the major stories with him in it have been already done without him. But introducing him now? Why not! They can do the adaptation that Earth's Mightiest Heroes did, by giving him his first suit, but later gets his pure ionic powers... Hell, Rogue can even absorb his power like does years ago and gets her current powers. I might be going TOO FAR, but hey I'm just happy he gets to do stuff, rather than being dead or in a coma, like for most comics and the 2000's show, United They Stand.
@@ChaosMechanica I assume it's because Carol Danvers is too popular to be put in a comma for years, and their powers are similar enough to get Rogues comic powers
The disbanding clip makes me lol every time! As much animosity as there was between DC and Marvel by 76 they did publish the Superman vs Spiderman crossover. If you haven't already done so, I would love a deep dive of that!
The whole Simon Williams embezzelment plot gets expanded a whole lot in the late 70s early 80s. Particularly in the 2nd Vision and Scarlet Witch miniseries and the 2nd volume of West Coast Avengers.
Marvel's "What If..?" issue 34 was their humor issue. One of the gags was "What if Wonder Man were a Woman... And Power Man were a girl?" Along with a note from "Your Distinguished Competition" advising they not do that gag.
I always have a soft spot for B and C listers. The guys who are never in the front of the spotlight but whose course you can chart through their appearences to see where they pop up. I suppose it was instilled into me by those old A-Z handbooks.
DC comics in the 50's have a habit of telling 'hero for a day' stories. These stories usually have a new hero coming to town, and showing up the established hero. Then they find some way to get rid of that character...
That & an absolutely gut-wrenching Wanda/Simon near-romance. If they don't do Grim Reaper that's okay, I guess, even though some of the covers of those issues (Avengers #160, anyone? Brilliant, I love that cover), while great, held even greater stories between them.
@@Matthew.E.Kelly. Grim Reaper's an interesting one for sure. I liked when Vision and Simon were like brothers but Grim Reaper refused to accept either as the original Simon. Then came Byrne who agreed at least about Visionnnot being a real person...
My most notable memory of Wonder Man actually comes from DnA's Guardians of the Galaxy run where he was a member of a variation of the 'original' team under the name of 'Hollywood'. It included a fun joke that called back to an early issue of the run where the 'new' Guardians called themselves 'the Butt Kickers of the Fantastic'.
Wonder Man is strange, he's indirectly part of Vision's creation. If I were going to bring him to the MCU, I would have Simon Williams experiment on himself, maybe Zemo is a consultant who warns against it (I'm thinking during Captain America and the Winter Soldier season 2 or 3) Have Williams be a well-meaning hindrance, trying but failing to help at the end of the season arc Sam and Bucky decide to help him work on his powers and train him, maybe have Kamala Khan, Kate Bishop, America Chavez and a few others practicing as they show the training space. Be a good way to tease a new Avengers movie.
@@jpboursaw4469 I took dance lessons from Zeno but kept getting out-danced by a tortoise because I had to take an infinite number of steps to cross the ballroom.
@@MattMcIrvin I don’t think UA-cam will let me, but at this moment I wish I could post that meme with Owen Wilson side by side with a Tortoise simultaneously saying “wooooow”!!!
My only real memory of Wonder Man was his cameo in the Data East arcade game, Captain America and the Avengers. At the start of one of the game's shoot em up sections he shows up and throws you a flying motorcycle thing if you're playing as Captain America or Hawkeye, since they can't fly. There's a really digitized voice sample that says "Thank you... Wonder Man!... Okay, go!" I can't ever remember reading a comic book where his part was memorable. I ... think I might remember him being in some event or other I read, but I couldn't guess which one or remember what he said or did. But I'm open to the movies making me care about him. It worked with the Guardians of the Galaxy.
I love Simon. He's kind of an odd duck. Originally a failed industrialist, then Hollywood actor. Often very insecure, without being a dick, when blessed with a good creative team, he's Wonderful. :)
Wonder Man is my favorite Marvel character of all time, albeit I found out about him a couple years ago he's still stuck true as my number one pick and he honestly will be for all time until the end. There's just something about his character that makes him so incredibly unique and amazing besides his already BOMBASTICALLY AMAZING POWERS, it's a helping hand with his character as well that really makes him stick out from the rest of the Marvel-Verse that solidifies him as my favorite character of all time! As worried as I am about the Wonder Man show coming to Disney+ in the future, I do have faith that they'll make a good adaptation of him, maybe with this more ABSOLUTELY DESERVED love will come to him. He's a fantastic character and honestly needs more things done with him, more solo series (with hopefully competent writers and artists) and a good story to show the Marvel fans casual and long time what they've been missing!
I forget, didn’t we already get teased for him in Guardians 2? The theater in Star Lords home town is running a Simon Williams film festival. Supposedly they had Nathan Fillion to play him.
this story was loosely adapted by the avengers assembled cartoon from the early 2000s, I have fond memories of watching that show as a kid as it introduced me to the larger marvel universe
Loved that character when he first reappeared, loved the costume, then Perez redesigned it as - the best super costume ever! then Byrne ditched it for a red safari jacket. Style disaster. Great days for the Avengers.
I have never been a fan of Wonderman , & am Frankly Pretty Shocked The MCU is planning on giving Him a series…in the comics there is basically only one page of Him that has always stood out for me , a Battle between Him & A jealous of Wanda Vision , Who uses His trick of phasing His fist into opponents chest & slightly solidifying it , which usually made most pass out from the pain , but Simon was able to take the pain & Slug Vision across the room…A first at that point of Vision’s existence I believe( at least the first time I saw it) …The Earth’s Mightiest Avengers animated Ionic Energy version was cool, other than that the year of WM’s creation 1964 is My being My Birth Year is the Best I can say about Him…Keep Up The Outstanding Work Sasha 🖖🏾
Great video, especially the observation that Marvel's Wonder Man story seemed to be following the same plot of the DC story. I wonder if anyone could really sue over the name "Wonder Man" considering all the different characters that have gone by that name. In the Golden Age, Fox had one, Nedor had two superheroes who were called 'Wonder Man'... there is even a whole website covering all the various characters who have used that title.
You can't copyright a name. But a name combined with a bunch of other substantive similarities like for example a super similar origin story arc and similar powers can add up to infringement
@@DavidJoh yep cause dc actually sued fawcett comics over the original captain marvel cause they said he His power set was to similar to Superman’s powers then wind up buying fawcett comics in 1972
Hmm.. I remember a Wonder Man from when I was a boy in the 20th century but I'm not sure it's the same guy. The character I liked was an energy being who moonlit as a Hollywood actor, even though he was apparently as handsome as ERG/Wildfire in his natural form. This Wonder Man you've reviewed looks much more human. I guess it's the same guy because I remember the link to the Vision, who supposedly had a copy of his memories or something overwriting Prof. Horton's memories. (Fun fact: this has no doubt been retconned, but at one point the Vision's red coloration was rust to keep him from bursting into flames a la James Hammond.
First time I saw him was in Earth's Mighiest Heroes show. Also where I know his brother is Reaper. Though he was very different in his apperance there. Great show though. Also... Stan was often full of it. Wasn't he?
6:05 Wonder Man looks so much like John Cena it's great. I honestly wouldn't be against it if he did Wonder Man as well as Peacemaker, but I doubt it'd ever happen.
Fuck, no. I want DC to kill off that version of Peacemaker, to get that piece of garbage Cena out of work. Fucking piece of shit kissing China's ass over (Is it Tibet or Taiwan?) The government of China is our enemy. (Government, you racist assholes who project your failing on the rest of us. But Chinese kill their newborn baby daughters, or leave them to die, because they want boy children.)
fun fact there was a golden age Wonder Man that got his publisher taken to court when DC found out about him. Funner fact the publisher ran out of the same building as National Comics
Great stuff as always. Wonder Man is a great Marvel hero because with all of his power in the back of his mind he fears he will die again ( he's done that a couple of times now). And the crazy relationships he's had due the complications from his "death". Not a perfect character by any means but they did a lot with a one off character. And you missed out on his very fun brother The Grim Reaper who doesn't believe he's alive (Zemo had fun with the Williams family.). I'm sorry but there's always trouble with Stan Lee stories. He weaves a nice little story and truth is another matter. The MCU will destroy Wonder Man to being being nothing more than a bad 70s sitcom silly guy with throw away bad jokes (the narcissistic bad actor trope). They can keep it and keep their stench off of Wonder Man. They missed the chance of using this interesting hero to make super hero Beach Blanket Bingo movies. The X Men and the Doom patrol are not alike at all other than the leaders are in wheel chairs. It's like saying Superman and Spiderman are the same because they work for a newspaper. The Doom Patrol is very much like the Fantastic Four due to the in fighting. But the Doom Patrol actually goes into physical abuse mode because Robot Man has bad anger issues.
The Wonder Man series of the '90s was a lot of fun. He was still a superhero, but there was a lot of focus on his Hollywood career which was an interesting angle. I think that would be a fun aspect to retain for his inclusion in the MCU. Maybe he could be playing well-established heroes in in-world movies.
I always loved Wonder Man's redesign under Busiek and Perez when he would turn into a being of pure purple energy...with an red energy W for reasons. I think that form lends itself to some interesting changes to powers too. I mean, if you're made of energy, why not also be able to blast energy? Why not make constructs/weapons out of it?
I can't wait to tell a mate of mine that Wonder Man is coming to TV screens soon. He absolutely hates the character (he calls him "the Satan of comics") and will no doubt flip his lid when he learns of this. I mean, what are friends for if not to poke fun at each other?
They should do a Defenders movie. Then they could throw in all the odd Marvel Superheroes the wanted to into it. But I really liked Wonder Man's out of the late 70s/early 80s, the red sport coat with the glasses, black leggings, and red boots. It really made him look cool.
Wonder Man and Hank Pym are like 2 characters that I feel are similar in that there are/is a writer/writers who LOVE them, but the general public couldn't care less. So the writer or whomever is like, I'll show you how cool and important these characters are! Which resulted in Wonder Man hating the Avengers in the 2000s for a bit before it was dropped and the utterly forgotten Age of Ultron mini
I think that the way that Disney + and Marvel Studios will make Wonder Man in the M.C.U. will be similar to his first appearance and origin but with a reboot/re-imagining/remake/retelling that not only makes him much more updated for the present in order to make him much more contemporary and modernized, but which is also less complex, complicated and convoluted, too. Simon Williams' character will keep things short and simple, but still effective, and straight to the point. Also, with the changes to his character in order for him to coincide with the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his origin as Wonder Man will have to also match the history of the M.C.U. just as well. The best, easiest and fastest way for an original series to do it is not make him a businessman because that would connect him to Iron Man which won't work because Tony Stark is dead. Baron Helmut Zemo is a villain, but he also has a very different kind of existence and his father, Baron Heinrich Zemo, is not only not a Nazi but is also already long since dead, too. Skurge, the Executioner is also dead and Amora, the Enchantress doesn't even exist. So the super-villain team called the Masters of Evil never formed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This eliminates Simon Williams being involved in an embezzlement scandal, and being experimented upon by the specific professional criminals involved in the original 1960s comic book story. So the all-different, all-new version of Wonder Man would have to have very different circumstances surrounding how he became mutated into a superhuman being by being exposed to the energy field from an advanced "ionic rays" machine. Whatever the writers of the show decide to do I just hope that it at least matches about 50% to 75% of the original canon source material. I hope that they give him the black and red costume from the 1990s and make him able to fly at supersonic speed by him creating an glowing jet red "ionic energy" force field around his body like he does in the present. The jet pack from the 1960s and the green and red costume from the '60s both look way too outdated. His powers should be superhuman "Class 100" strength, enabling him to lift (press) approximately 100 tons under optimal conditions, and superhuman and/or superhuman regenerative durability that grants him invulnerability, making him resistant to all forms of physical injury and able to regenerate any damaged, or destroyed areas of his cellular structure at an extremely accelerated rate. He should also be an action movie B actor who only does straight-to-Blu-Ray Disc low budget independent action movies where he films death-defying Hollywood stunt scenes as a professional stunt man and/or pro stunt performer, using his superhuman physical powers to his advantage because he is impervious and indestructible. His arch-enemies should be super-villains and professional criminals who are connected to his origin of the source of his superhuman powers. I don't think that his evil older brother Eric Williams should become the Grim Reaper because his character was connected to voodoo magic, voodoo priests and voodoo zombies. If anything, he should just be a corrupted and greedy wealthy businessman who had inherited the Williams Corporation family business from their late father, a ruthless corporate shark who was the founder, and leader of the powerful and rich company. Instead of it being similar to the Stark Corporation dealing in munitions only not as efficient, the incorporated enterprises could be a Los Angeles, California-based film production studio, and television channel network station whose industries are international in scope. His brother could be the Chairman of the Board, current owner, President and principal stockholder after following in their father's footsteps and then taking over the private company after their father had died from terminal cancer several years ago. Simon Williams didn't want anything to do with his family fortune and his inheritance so he was cut from his father's will and disowned by him. He was a studious man and an athletic one, so he became an intellectual, and a scholar, as well as a competitive professional Olympic-Class powerlifter and weightlifter, and a fitness model for fitness magazines. He was given the chance to appear as a 1920s circus strongman character named "Mr. Muscles" in a comedic children's live action T.V. series, and that's how he started out in Hollywood. But after he turned into a super-strong, super-fast flying, super-durable "ionic energy"-empowered, and enhanced super-being, that's when he became hired to play action hero roles and perform extremely dangerous and deadly stunts. This got him well-known and famous, both as an extremely powerful and strong costumed, super-powered super hero, professional adventurer and professional crime fighter, and as a small name B-List Hollywood celebrity actor who wasn't exactly always a big box office draw. They could make his manager be the one who comes up with the code-name of "Wonder Man" and his black costume with the red "W" and red "M" chest emblems logo, making him the premiere costumed, super-powered being of the U.S.A.'s West Coast. If the series Wonder Man is done like that, then the character could actually work in the M.C.U.
And my first introduction to him was when I attempted to do a review series. Did the show "Avengers: United They Stand" and he was there...a short time before they did the memory transfer thing to make Vision.
Wonder Man's arc in both Marvel and DC is eerily reminiscent of Tomorrow Woman who appeared in Grant Morrison's JLA run and was created by the mad scientist TO Morrow to infiltrate the JLA and destroy them only for Tomorrow Woman to heroically sacrifice herself.
I loved Wonder Man as a kid. I still have my 1st issues seeing him, the 2 Legion of the Unliving issues shown and a giant-sized one raping it up where we find out the original Torch/Vision connection. I personally liked his look and powers, but not his attitude. (They must've pulled him from when he was still bitter). I got his reappearance as a zombie the second I saw it, loving the idea of a zombie that use to be a superhero from older era. But was surprised that when he ended up living again. I remember quickly liking him as Simon as they regularly delved into his feelings about being a man out of time and inadequate since not a "real" superhero. But boy did he completely win me over once he got the shades and red jacket and started a bromance with my other 2nd tier fav, Hank McCoy. That was literally what got me to pick up a modern comic (Secret Invasion issue where the 70's Beast returned after decades of captivity) and follow a chunk kf the story line (sooooo many tie ins; what's up with that?). They really messed him up for me though when they had him become arrogant (and the onsie and mullet didnt help). I gave up on him then, but Perez redeemed him. If Marvel does bring him into the MCU how they do him will be a a key in me sticking with them or moving on. They almost lost me when they reduced Captain Marvel (Mar-Vel, the one I grew up with and who had such beautiful/tragic closure) to a cold, arrogant villain (and having him played by an actor that I never liked sure didn't help).
Can I quickly say, we need a Cat Grant video, and it needs to mostly focus on her portrayal in the 90's show Lois and Clark, the New Adventures of Superman.
Thank you for this cool recap. I suppose confusing the similar characters can happen to almost anyone. I like Wonder Man a lot. I bring him up a lot in conversation and my mom doesn't remember who he is. Sometimes she'll even ask me if he and Wonder woman have dated? As for bringing him into the movies, I think it could be an interesting idea if handled well.
introducing him to the MCU. Costume, comic book accurate to his more recent one, but green color scheme at first, changes colors in the final act/whem he is solidly in the hero team, he internally identify with and accepts the role and was accepted/recognized as a hero by the tram/other heroes in the debut story. Basic origin I would keep the sameish, but instead of Tony I would use one of the geniuses that are gonna join or remain part of the MCU instead. And I would flip the script on the double crossing a bit. He starts the series/movie as part of a super villain gang (who would be or at least be tied to the villain of the season/movie) in the middle of a scheme that gets quickly foiled and the gang is put away quickly, thanks to Simon sabotaging the plan. He is just there, we start mid their scheme being fouled. In custody, he says he has information for the hero and whoever is in charge of their prison, and so he is taken to talk with them. There he does the first time exposition of the backstory, says he was the one to botch the job because he figured he would rather have them all captured and ask help from the good guys with his imminent death. But, sicke, whoever did the science on him this time around actually planned this. You see, they needed to infiltrate the prison and smuggle in some device that would disable the defences so they could break out . They knew Simon would try to hand them over to the authorities and ask heroes for help the first time he had the chance, so the scheme at the beginning was a manufacturered chance for him to do get them legitimately arrested, lowering suspicion of their real plan and reducing chances the device was properly identified before it goes off. And of course, in the middle of the confession/hlep plea, it turns out either his new unique power and physiology was either the "device", it triggers the device, or camouflages the device hidden in his body - and it just went off in the middle of that confession and plea, which itself was already distracting the hero and prison leadership. Power and systems go down, villains escape with , and heroes now have reason to doubt Wonder Man's words. The basic elements and some drama are now set up, writers take it on from here. Power wise, I hope he gets a bit more defined than Danvers MCU, even if it has roomntonchamge and expand. Just don't make it ultra easy for absolute non sense "logical" follow ups not even Stan Lee would come up with (sure, he just tried to seem deep in research, but part of that still includes a modicum of internal consistency; he was largely about the cool factor as a hook, but it was far from an exclusionary priority or the meat of his creations). Edit: small change to the story though, make the reason for embezzlement to be specifically the heros now proprietary invetion solves a problem he faced in his own invetion, so he wanted to reverse engineer it but the board wouldn't approve the cost, specially because he planned tomak it an open patent (I think this fits his later characterization). So at the end the hero sees why just share the knowledge with everyone, and together they complete his creation and release the free plans as he originally planned.
All of the major stories that involve wonder man like the age of Ultron and everything with vision and Wanda have already come to pass so I didn’t expect him to be a part of the MCU. Not only bad but in relation to some other characters he’s very niche. I’m still jaded with how Wanda was handled so to be completely honest I’m just watching his movie bc I like his powers.
I have a bit of a soft spot for Wonder Man, but he is just not often used for good effect. I don't think there is much to the claims. Neither the characters nor their origins are all that similar, and it is not like people are buying Avengers stories because they mistakenly believe Simon Williams to be connected to Princess Diana or to Super-robot Ajax.
The West Coast Avengers honestly felt disjointed because it had all these characters with nothing but potential and really mirky back stories, save Hawkeye and Mockingbird. They oddly kept throwing Simon into love triangles: first with Hank and Tigra, and then (and far more ongoing) Vision and Wanda (which was super creepy to me since during the V&SW mini they regarded themselves and brothers, twins even). Then he decided to revisit the beef he had with Tony over losing his company to Stark's better product. It was so much overcompensation for a dude that the Marvel Encyclopedia put in the same strength class as Thor, Hulk, and Herc. He always felt wasted to me, and I REALLY wanted to like his character. There were hints of great story telling with his brother the Grim Reaper. Those were some solid, solid issues, in my opinion. People down here keep bringing up Avengers: EMH, and I was very sad it didn't get to tie up several story threads, but especially his. They were putting a great spin on his mythology. I know there's little to no chance, but wouldn't it be nice if Disney+ gave it the Young Justice treatment and brought it back to finish what it started?
I think West Coast Avengers is the real answer. We've already had Shang Chi, Ant Man and the Wasp on the west coast. We've also got the Pyms and various other likeable west coast characters and contacts. The showrunner for Wonder Man got the job after success with Shang Chi and was really invested in that project. I could imagine him talking with Feige about what they need to start fleshing out a MCU styled west coast Avengers series or movie. Some extra cheesecake is probably on the list. Past that we've had a few MCU teams so far. What if? has an amazing self contained phase 1 style arc complete with some pretty great insight into the characters being used and how they work in teams. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns into the MCU equivalent of the west coast Avengers but they definitely have the ability to craft a compelling team. I also think it might be the primary Avengers team in the upcoming phases. Possible without the name but a team up tied around traditional west coast heroes based on the west coast. It's a really smart way of seeing how much traction the team members get ahead of a major movie so they can shift before they commit.
"Emperor Doom" was peak Wonderman. "I'ma put you into a coma-tank for a month as an experiment, ok?" "Sure." :) "Emperor Doom" would be a great MCU movie to introduce both Doom and Wonderman; they could have Doom pull in David Tenant from an alternate universe to power the mind control machine.
Fox Publications had a Wonder Man back in 1939 mad by Will Eisner himself, but at the time DC comics was suing anyone who had a character that was even like Superman so it was a ver short lived character.
Obviously, the first Wonder Man was a 1945 movie (Oscar in 1946) with Danny Kaye: testifying against a mob boss and running away from his twin self as a ghost. Standard comic book stuff really. Difference is, with this Wonder Man, the Wasp would have been able to go dancing with the person who replaced Fred Astaire (in White Christmas)! It's kinda hard to figure out, but if RKO owned the Wonder Man name back then, (after many mergers and acquisitions) it would now belong to Warner Brothers… so DC! And even stranger… RKO used to be the distributor for all the Disney movies, before all the monopolies and vertical integration laws were scrapped to make the future brighter for budding Lex Luthors, 'cause that always works out well.
Stan Lee being salty about Power Girl is kind of funny considering The X-Men was a reskin(intentional or not is irrelevant) of Doom Patrol. Add the Captain Marvel drama between Marvel and DC it looks like Stan was just mad his Power Girl never got the spotlight.
I think I'm mixing up my characters. I could have sworn that Wonder Man was an actor who was so badly injured on a movie set that he was given a robot body in order to save his life.
My favorite fictional newspaper headline in a comic read: "Jack Abel still on the lam". The newspaper was just casually lying on a table and played no part in the story. Jack Abel was a legendary inker but not the inker of that particular comic.
IDK if you saw it, but in the new "Last 52" story there is an evil Lois Lane that kills Superman steals his powers and rampages across her world killing superheroes. I choose to believe it's because she secretly remembers all the golden age stories.
I envision it as her, night after night, standing over Clark as he's sleeping, wild eyed and crazy looking, kryptonite in hand, mumbling about cat fights with Wonder Woman, finding Lori Lemaris' Onlyfins page in his internet history, and being convinced she drove Clark to suicide, then just like... losing it
lol Just finished writing my (not as social-media savvy) comment, to scroll down and find you here with the Danny Kaye too. I really think that one would have made a great Gotham City story - except for the potato salad! 😁 Great shout with Captain Triumph!
Give me your finest Wonder Man puns...please lol
BEHOLD True Believer, the POWER of PETTINESS! :-). Wondaa … Wondaa … Wonder-Man … Hoooooooo!!!
When he became an actor he never got his own theme park named wonderland. Forever salty.
Danny Ketch Retrospective
Wonder-Man Wonderful for only week... Then Wonderful Death... lol
Go with the Classic: WHAT IF Wonder Man were a Woman, & Power Man Were a Girl ? Dear Marvel, Our Lawyers Advise You Not To Print This Gag Sincerely Your Distinguished Competition 🖖🏾
@@rebeccakickass1776 the wonderful wonder man wandering the whimsical world for one week whilst wilting away
I was at a panel where Stan said something along the lines of the “Thor’s flying is more realistic than Superman’s because he spins his hammer like a propeller, we’re scientific while DC isn’t” quote. Trust me, everyone in the audience knew his tongue was _firmly_ in cheek when he said that!
Happy you were able to get your iron man saying “let’s just disband “ line in there.
Yeah I love that quote... lol
Ennui Man
You are never going to let Marvel forget about that "disband while we have the chance" panel, and I respect that.
Hey, the Avengers are pickier than you’re implying. They don’t *only* exclude Spider-Man, they exclude Rick Jones, too!
I love that that was essentially Rick Jones’s entire identity for years in the comics: his one desire in life to become an Avenger and/or Bucky.
"They don't want me to be Bucky?! Fine!! I'll just become Captain Marvel instead! Or the Hulk!! THREE TIMES!!"
Of all the old Marvel Comics characters who have not been adapted for the MCU, I'm actually most surprised that Rick Jones never got cast. He had strong connections to the Hulk, Captain America, Captain Marvel (OK, Marr-Vell, but still) and the whole Avengers team. Even a version of the Swordsman has shown up in the Hawkeye TV show. In whatever parallel universe where these characters are real, that's gotta sting a little. SWORDSMAN gets adapted before pool old Rick.
Rick: "what do you mean you don't like it when I wear your dead sidekicks clothes, Cap???"
@@lucywillis4535
And the issue where Cap finally breaks down and is like “You know what, maybe I’m the weird one for angsting about getting a child killed by consistently putting him in harm’s way, go ahead Rick, go ahead and be my replacement Bucky.”
And then Rick messes up and Cap gets pissed at him. Those two are so damaged.
@@JoeOConnellAllNew Batroc Ze Leapair showed up remarkably early!
I think people who, like me, met Wonder Man in Avengers earth's mightiest heroes were surprised to find out what the character was like in the comics, like me. While in the comics his passage through the masters of evil is just his origin, in the show it took a long time for him to sacrifice and die. Also, since the show was cancelled, we never saw him as an súperhero. R.I.P.
Cancelled, so that Disney could relaunch an mcu-esque, dull looking cartoon (visually and otherwise) that would line up with the main product,
Maybe it will get a revival in a couple of years, like Young Justice that got 2 more seasons
Would he have joined the avengers eventually
I didn't see him there first but it's where I saw his origins. I assumed that purple form happened in the comics but it doesn't seem like it.
@@DSan-kl2yc It happened in the comics, or at least i remember it being in Ultron Unlimited, but it's just that it wasn't a part of his origin
Marvel could have gotten out of a lawsuit by pointing out that MGM made a comedy movie starring Danny Kaye, called "Wonder Man" in 1945. Its about a guy with ghostly abilities.
If Wonder Man doesn’t die at the end of the first episode of his series, I’ll be a little disappointed
I feel like Wonder Man getting a mind control girdle to use on others would be a very different story than Wonder Woman.
There's a WonderBoy too! He was from Quality in the golden age. He's actually pretty fun, basically orphaned Superboy-type who does what he wants, and doesn't seem able to fly.
I always enjoyed his design, I guess since DC bought Quality they might still own him, but they've never shown any indication of using him. It's possible he's public domain now.
The Iron Man voice is so great. Wonder Man has always been one of my favorite characters. Despite being almost as powerful as Thor, he's always had self doubts, fears about death, etc. Yet, he's almost always treated like crap by Marvel.
@mayssm TRUE
5:45 "We can make the word's first ionic man!" Personally I'd bring in Simon as someone that decided to take over the weapons market that Stark left behind after he became Iron Man. After hearing of Tony's sacrifice Simon decides to leave weapons manufacturing behind and concentrates on medicine once he's diagnosed with a terminal illness. He bases his cure for his condition on research the original Baron Zemo did during WWII and after the inevitable 'scientific accident' becomes Wonder Man.
Still mad that Baron Zemo is just a dude in the MCU and not the WWII one, would've been nice
Big fan of Simon Williams here, I actually hadn’t heard of DCs Wonder Man until your video. I remember talk of him having a cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 & played by Nathan Fillion, but I’m glad they’re waiting to bring him in. I hope they go straight to the purple ionic form.
Naturally, theyre gonna recast for someone younger. And it only makes sense to go straight to his ionic form instead of having to go though all that proccess. Similary, theyre probably gonna skip to the end with his chracterization as well, forgetting his short time as a villain and making him an actor from the start. Hell, it wouldnt surprisme if they actually went and make him the first pacifist superhero. Not entirely sure how would that work for the inevitably big epic fights hes gonna be in, but it could be interesting all the same.
The thing I like most about this Wonder Man story isn't even in the story, but from an issue released like a year later (in Avengers #21), when Enchantress decided to turn some random Masters of Evil mook into a knock-off Wonder Man - Eric Josten, to be exact, a later member of the Thunderbolts known as Atlas. But his first super-villain name? *Power Man* - adds a whole new dimension to the whole "Well if you're gonna introduce Power Girl..." debacle.
Marvel's Wonder Man will always have a special place in my heart because the origin story you have just reviewed was the very first superhero comic I ever read. Everything about it completely captivated me. The art, the costumes, the colours, the characters and their powers and all capped off with a noble self sacrifice at the end. Loved it!
When I hunk Wonder Man, I think of him as a mascot for Wonder Bread.
Like an advertisement sponsored super hero.
I knew better but couldn’t get the association out of my mind with the Hostess comic adverts. 🤣
I honestly never thought we would get Wonder Man I. The MCU, since the major stories with him in it have been already done without him. But introducing him now? Why not! They can do the adaptation that Earth's Mightiest Heroes did, by giving him his first suit, but later gets his pure ionic powers... Hell, Rogue can even absorb his power like does years ago and gets her current powers. I might be going TOO FAR, but hey I'm just happy he gets to do stuff, rather than being dead or in a coma, like for most comics and the 2000's show, United They Stand.
When did Rogue absorb his powers?
@@ChaosMechanica I assume it's because Carol Danvers is too popular to be put in a comma for years, and their powers are similar enough to get Rogues comic powers
@@ChaosMechanica in Uncanny Avengers, then they fought Apocalypse Twins.
😆 It still kills me how hard spiderman wanted to be an avenger and how they wouldn't let him join.
The disbanding clip makes me lol every time! As much animosity as there was between DC and Marvel by 76 they did publish the Superman vs Spiderman crossover. If you haven't already done so, I would love a deep dive of that!
I think it was the very first video on this channel.
The whole Simon Williams embezzelment plot gets expanded a whole lot in the late 70s early 80s. Particularly in the 2nd Vision and Scarlet Witch miniseries and the 2nd volume of West Coast Avengers.
The real barrier to getting people into comics is explaining the Summers, Allen, and Pym/Williams/Hammond/Maximoff family trees.
Captain Marvel is also somehow in that family tree
Marvel's "What If..?" issue 34 was their humor issue.
One of the gags was "What if Wonder Man were a Woman... And Power Man were a girl?" Along with a note from "Your Distinguished Competition" advising they not do that gag.
I always have a soft spot for B and C listers. The guys who are never in the front of the spotlight but whose course you can chart through their appearences to see where they pop up. I suppose it was instilled into me by those old A-Z handbooks.
DC comics in the 50's have a habit of telling 'hero for a day' stories.
These stories usually have a new hero coming to town, and showing up the established hero.
Then they find some way to get rid of that character...
Lol usually they either die, or have to go back where they came from
@@CasuallyComics Or worse, they discover now difficult it is to stay married to Lois Lane!
Many Legion of Superheroes characters were introduced that way
@@CasuallyComics very often it turns out to be batman or superman with amnesia...
@@mynardomacaraig2697 that was the start of the madness for the Legion.
I don’t get the “let’s just disband” iron man joke, and at this point, I’m too afraid to ask…
I personally love and miss his bromance with Beast. I hope that's something the MCU does if he shows up.
That & an absolutely gut-wrenching Wanda/Simon near-romance. If they don't do Grim Reaper that's okay, I guess, even though some of the covers of those issues (Avengers #160, anyone? Brilliant, I love that cover), while great, held even greater stories between them.
@@Matthew.E.Kelly. Grim Reaper's an interesting one for sure. I liked when Vision and Simon were like brothers but Grim Reaper refused to accept either as the original Simon. Then came Byrne who agreed at least about Visionnnot being a real person...
I got introduced to Wonder Man due to the animated show "Avengers: United They Stand".
My most notable memory of Wonder Man actually comes from DnA's Guardians of the Galaxy run where he was a member of a variation of the 'original' team under the name of 'Hollywood'. It included a fun joke that called back to an early issue of the run where the 'new' Guardians called themselves 'the Butt Kickers of the Fantastic'.
Wonder Man is strange, he's indirectly part of Vision's creation. If I were going to bring him to the MCU, I would have Simon Williams experiment on himself, maybe Zemo is a consultant who warns against it (I'm thinking during Captain America and the Winter Soldier season 2 or 3) Have Williams be a well-meaning hindrance, trying but failing to help at the end of the season arc Sam and Bucky decide to help him work on his powers and train him, maybe have Kamala Khan, Kate Bishop, America Chavez and a few others practicing as they show the training space. Be a good way to tease a new Avengers movie.
Just so long as Zeno doesn’t give him dance lessons!
@@jpboursaw4469 - oh no. The dance lessons are mandatory.
@@jpboursaw4469 I took dance lessons from Zeno but kept getting out-danced by a tortoise because I had to take an infinite number of steps to cross the ballroom.
@@CovenantD That fiend!!! To combat this madness, the Avengers must enlist the help of…AOC!!!!
@@MattMcIrvin I don’t think UA-cam will let me, but at this moment I wish I could post that meme with Owen Wilson side by side with a Tortoise simultaneously saying “wooooow”!!!
My only real memory of Wonder Man was his cameo in the Data East arcade game, Captain America and the Avengers. At the start of one of the game's shoot em up sections he shows up and throws you a flying motorcycle thing if you're playing as Captain America or Hawkeye, since they can't fly. There's a really digitized voice sample that says "Thank you... Wonder Man!... Okay, go!" I can't ever remember reading a comic book where his part was memorable. I ... think I might remember him being in some event or other I read, but I couldn't guess which one or remember what he said or did.
But I'm open to the movies making me care about him. It worked with the Guardians of the Galaxy.
I love Simon. He's kind of an odd duck. Originally a failed industrialist, then Hollywood actor. Often very insecure, without being a dick, when blessed with a good creative team, he's Wonderful. :)
Wonder Man is my favorite Marvel character of all time, albeit I found out about him a couple years ago he's still stuck true as my number one pick and he honestly will be for all time until the end. There's just something about his character that makes him so incredibly unique and amazing besides his already BOMBASTICALLY AMAZING POWERS, it's a helping hand with his character as well that really makes him stick out from the rest of the Marvel-Verse that solidifies him as my favorite character of all time! As worried as I am about the Wonder Man show coming to Disney+ in the future, I do have faith that they'll make a good adaptation of him, maybe with this more ABSOLUTELY DESERVED love will come to him. He's a fantastic character and honestly needs more things done with him, more solo series (with hopefully competent writers and artists) and a good story to show the Marvel fans casual and long time what they've been missing!
I would bring in Wonder Man just like they did in Earth's Mightiest Heroes, which is the best thing Marvel has ever done on the large or small screen.
I forget, didn’t we already get teased for him in Guardians 2? The theater in Star Lords home town is running a Simon Williams film festival. Supposedly they had Nathan Fillion to play him.
this story was loosely adapted by the avengers assembled cartoon from the early 2000s, I have fond memories of watching that show as a kid as it introduced me to the larger marvel universe
Loved that character when he first reappeared, loved the costume, then Perez redesigned it as - the best super costume ever! then Byrne ditched it for a red safari jacket. Style disaster. Great days for the Avengers.
Dude was the original "well I guess I'll die now" meme 😆😆
I watch a number of comics channels when I can but only this one and Comic Tropes make me laugh out loud. Totally entertained!
I have never been a fan of Wonderman , & am Frankly Pretty Shocked The MCU is planning on giving Him a series…in the comics there is basically only one page of Him that has always stood out for me , a Battle between Him & A jealous of Wanda Vision , Who uses His trick of phasing His fist into opponents chest & slightly solidifying it , which usually made most pass out from the pain , but Simon was able to take the pain & Slug Vision across the room…A first at that point of Vision’s existence I believe( at least the first time I saw it) …The Earth’s Mightiest Avengers animated Ionic Energy version was cool, other than that the year of WM’s creation 1964 is My being My Birth Year is the Best I can say about Him…Keep Up The Outstanding Work Sasha 🖖🏾
Idk why, but I think the Avengers 2 should have had the Masters of Evil as the villains with Wonder Man
Wonderman? I wonder how this went…
Marvel has a Vision for his future.
(i read Vision by Tom King. it was disappointing, dont recommend)
Great video, especially the observation that Marvel's Wonder Man story seemed to be following the same plot of the DC story.
I wonder if anyone could really sue over the name "Wonder Man" considering all the different characters that have gone by that name. In the Golden Age, Fox had one, Nedor had two superheroes who were called 'Wonder Man'... there is even a whole website covering all the various characters who have used that title.
You can't copyright a name. But a name combined with a bunch of other substantive similarities like for example a super similar origin story arc and similar powers can add up to infringement
@@DavidJoh yep cause dc actually sued fawcett comics over the original captain marvel cause they said he
His power set was to similar to Superman’s powers then wind up buying fawcett comics in 1972
Hmm.. I remember a Wonder Man from when I was a boy in the 20th century but I'm not sure it's the same guy. The character I liked was an energy being who moonlit as a Hollywood actor, even though he was apparently as handsome as ERG/Wildfire in his natural form. This Wonder Man you've reviewed looks much more human. I guess it's the same guy because I remember the link to the Vision, who supposedly had a copy of his memories or something overwriting Prof. Horton's memories. (Fun fact: this has no doubt been retconned, but at one point the Vision's red coloration was rust to keep him from bursting into flames a la James Hammond.
Same character. His powers would change.
Yes! I love Thursdays! Your videos really cheer me up and I really need it right now.
I like how Simon Williams is one of the few heroes that dyes his gray hair.
"LetJust Disband"... that line always gets me!!❤
“The COMING of WONDER MAN”
I read it in Gutter Translation, sorry
That would explain Giant Mans expression on the cover….
First time I saw him was in Earth's Mighiest Heroes show. Also where I know his brother is Reaper. Though he was very different in his apperance there. Great show though.
Also... Stan was often full of it. Wasn't he?
6:05 Wonder Man looks so much like John Cena it's great. I honestly wouldn't be against it if he did Wonder Man as well as Peacemaker, but I doubt it'd ever happen.
Fuck, no. I want DC to kill off that version of Peacemaker, to get that piece of garbage Cena out of work. Fucking piece of shit kissing China's ass over (Is it Tibet or Taiwan?) The government of China is our enemy. (Government, you racist assholes who project your failing on the rest of us. But Chinese kill their newborn baby daughters, or leave them to die, because they want boy children.)
Nathan Filion is playing him
fun fact there was a golden age Wonder Man that got his publisher taken to court when DC found out about him. Funner fact the publisher ran out of the same building as National Comics
Lawsuits everywhere
@@CasuallyComics you gotta respect the hustle tho copying from a company that lives literally a floor or two above you is baller
That Wonder Man was created by Will Eisner I read in an issue of Roy Thomas's Alter-ego.
Great stuff as always. Wonder Man is a great Marvel hero because with all of his power in the back of his mind he fears he will die again ( he's done that a couple of times now). And the crazy relationships he's had due the complications from his "death". Not a perfect character by any means but they did a lot with a one off character. And you missed out on his very fun brother The Grim Reaper who doesn't believe he's alive (Zemo had fun with the Williams family.). I'm sorry but there's always trouble with Stan Lee stories. He weaves a nice little story and truth is another matter. The MCU will destroy Wonder Man to being being nothing more than a bad 70s sitcom silly guy with throw away bad jokes (the narcissistic bad actor trope). They can keep it and keep their stench off of Wonder Man. They missed the chance of using this interesting hero to make super hero Beach Blanket Bingo movies.
The X Men and the Doom patrol are not alike at all other than the leaders are in wheel chairs. It's like saying Superman and Spiderman are the same because they work for a newspaper. The Doom Patrol is very much like the Fantastic Four due to the in fighting. But the Doom Patrol actually goes into physical abuse mode because Robot Man has bad anger issues.
The Wonder Man series of the '90s was a lot of fun. He was still a superhero, but there was a lot of focus on his Hollywood career which was an interesting angle. I think that would be a fun aspect to retain for his inclusion in the MCU. Maybe he could be playing well-established heroes in in-world movies.
They did the origin story in Avengers: EMH season 1 and reworked the motivation a bit and ditched the costume. But, he got to be the ionic man.
i've often noticed the similarities between Marvel Comics' Wonder Man & Grim Reaper and MLJ Comics' (later Archie Comics) Comet & Hangman.
🤔💭🧐
The more I watch Casually Comics the more I notice how often Stan Lee contradicts himself or blames others for his mistakes 🤔
I always loved Wonder Man's redesign under Busiek and Perez when he would turn into a being of pure purple energy...with an red energy W for reasons.
I think that form lends itself to some interesting changes to powers too. I mean, if you're made of energy, why not also be able to blast energy? Why not make constructs/weapons out of it?
I can't wait to tell a mate of mine that Wonder Man is coming to TV screens soon. He absolutely hates the character (he calls him "the Satan of comics") and will no doubt flip his lid when he learns of this.
I mean, what are friends for if not to poke fun at each other?
They should do a Defenders movie. Then they could throw in all the odd Marvel Superheroes the wanted to into it.
But I really liked Wonder Man's out of the late 70s/early 80s, the red sport coat with the glasses, black leggings, and red boots. It really made him look cool.
Even if it’s a passing joke/sight gag, they’ve gotta include his 70’s red safari jacket look. It would be a sin not to include that.
Wonder Man and Beast were pals? You know, I wouldn't mind seeing a video about that, or a video on other obscure friendships in comics
Tony never misses a chance to disband the Avengers.
I love your “dying from radiation” voice.
Wonder Man and Hank Pym are like 2 characters that I feel are similar in that there are/is a writer/writers who LOVE them, but the general public couldn't care less. So the writer or whomever is like, I'll show you how cool and important these characters are! Which resulted in Wonder Man hating the Avengers in the 2000s for a bit before it was dropped and the utterly forgotten Age of Ultron mini
Thanks for complimenting Don Heck's art. Fans have been defecating on the man's work for decades.
Honestly, I laugh every single time I see the panel of iron man wanting to disband the team.
Love the Iron Man "disband" call back.
Great video shasa.
I've only now connected how alike Vision's origin was to Wonderman's and the other Wonderman's.
I think that the way that Disney + and Marvel Studios will make Wonder Man in the M.C.U. will be similar to his first appearance and origin but with a reboot/re-imagining/remake/retelling that not only makes him much more updated for the present in order to make him much more contemporary and modernized, but which is also less complex, complicated and convoluted, too. Simon Williams' character will keep things short and simple, but still effective, and straight to the point. Also, with the changes to his character in order for him to coincide with the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his origin as Wonder Man will have to also match the history of the M.C.U. just as well. The best, easiest and fastest way for an original series to do it is not make him a businessman because that would connect him to Iron Man which won't work because Tony Stark is dead. Baron Helmut Zemo is a villain, but he also has a very different kind of existence and his father, Baron Heinrich Zemo, is not only not a Nazi but is also already long since dead, too. Skurge, the Executioner is also dead and Amora, the Enchantress doesn't even exist. So the super-villain team called the Masters of Evil never formed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This eliminates Simon Williams being involved in an embezzlement scandal, and being experimented upon by the specific professional criminals involved in the original 1960s comic book story. So the all-different, all-new version of Wonder Man would have to have very different circumstances surrounding how he became mutated into a superhuman being by being exposed to the energy field from an advanced "ionic rays" machine.
Whatever the writers of the show decide to do I just hope that it at least matches about 50% to 75% of the original canon source material. I hope that they give him the black and red costume from the 1990s and make him able to fly at supersonic speed by him creating an glowing jet red "ionic energy" force field around his body like he does in the present. The jet pack from the 1960s and the green and red costume from the '60s both look way too outdated. His powers should be superhuman "Class 100" strength, enabling him to lift (press) approximately 100 tons under optimal conditions, and superhuman and/or superhuman regenerative durability that grants him invulnerability, making him resistant to all forms of physical injury and able to regenerate any damaged, or destroyed areas of his cellular structure at an extremely accelerated rate. He should also be an action movie B actor who only does straight-to-Blu-Ray Disc low budget independent action movies where he films death-defying Hollywood stunt scenes as a professional stunt man and/or pro stunt performer, using his superhuman physical powers to his advantage because he is impervious and indestructible.
His arch-enemies should be super-villains and professional criminals who are connected to his origin of the source of his superhuman powers. I don't think that his evil older brother Eric Williams should become the Grim Reaper because his character was connected to voodoo magic, voodoo priests and voodoo zombies. If anything, he should just be a corrupted and greedy wealthy businessman who had inherited the Williams Corporation family business from their late father, a ruthless corporate shark who was the founder, and leader of the powerful and rich company. Instead of it being similar to the Stark Corporation dealing in munitions only not as efficient, the incorporated enterprises could be a Los Angeles, California-based film production studio, and television channel network station whose industries are international in scope. His brother could be the Chairman of the Board, current owner, President and principal stockholder after following in their father's footsteps and then taking over the private company after their father had died from terminal cancer several years ago. Simon Williams didn't want anything to do with his family fortune and his inheritance so he was cut from his father's will and disowned by him.
He was a studious man and an athletic one, so he became an intellectual, and a scholar, as well as a competitive professional Olympic-Class powerlifter and weightlifter, and a fitness model for fitness magazines. He was given the chance to appear as a 1920s circus strongman character named "Mr. Muscles" in a comedic children's live action T.V. series, and that's how he started out in Hollywood. But after he turned into a super-strong, super-fast flying, super-durable "ionic energy"-empowered, and enhanced super-being, that's when he became hired to play action hero roles and perform extremely dangerous and deadly stunts. This got him well-known and famous, both as an extremely powerful and strong costumed, super-powered super hero, professional adventurer and professional crime fighter, and as a small name B-List Hollywood celebrity actor who wasn't exactly always a big box office draw. They could make his manager be the one who comes up with the code-name of "Wonder Man" and his black costume with the red "W" and red "M" chest emblems logo, making him the premiere costumed, super-powered being of the U.S.A.'s West Coast. If the series Wonder Man is done like that, then the character could actually work in the M.C.U.
And my first introduction to him was when I attempted to do a review series. Did the show "Avengers: United They Stand" and he was there...a short time before they did the memory transfer thing to make Vision.
Wonder Man's arc in both Marvel and DC is eerily reminiscent of Tomorrow Woman who appeared in Grant Morrison's JLA run and was created by the mad scientist TO Morrow to infiltrate the JLA and destroy them only for Tomorrow Woman to heroically sacrifice herself.
I'm in my disband shirt while watching this lol
I really liked it when he was part of West Coast Avengers and was in love with the Scarlet Witch.
I loved Wonder Man as a kid. I still have my 1st issues seeing him, the 2 Legion of the Unliving issues shown and a giant-sized one raping it up where we find out the original Torch/Vision connection. I personally liked his look and powers, but not his attitude. (They must've pulled him from when he was still bitter). I got his reappearance as a zombie the second I saw it, loving the idea of a zombie that use to be a superhero from older era. But was surprised that when he ended up living again. I remember quickly liking him as Simon as they regularly delved into his feelings about being a man out of time and inadequate since not a "real" superhero. But boy did he completely win me over once he got the shades and red jacket and started a bromance with my other 2nd tier fav, Hank McCoy. That was literally what got me to pick up a modern comic (Secret Invasion issue where the 70's Beast returned after decades of captivity) and follow a chunk kf the story line (sooooo many tie ins; what's up with that?). They really messed him up for me though when they had him become arrogant (and the onsie and mullet didnt help). I gave up on him then, but Perez redeemed him. If Marvel does bring him into the MCU how they do him will be a a key in me sticking with them or moving on. They almost lost me when they reduced Captain Marvel (Mar-Vel, the one I grew up with and who had such beautiful/tragic closure) to a cold, arrogant villain (and having him played by an actor that I never liked sure didn't help).
MCU: Simon is a movie star that is revealed he has powers.
I like the art in that 1st appearance it's primitive but the action scenes are really dynamic somehow
I was JUST watching your Star Trek video-first!
Can I quickly say, we need a Cat Grant video, and it needs to mostly focus on her portrayal in the 90's show Lois and Clark, the New Adventures of Superman.
Thank you for this cool recap. I suppose confusing the similar characters can happen to almost anyone. I like Wonder Man a lot. I bring him up a lot in conversation and my mom doesn't remember who he is. Sometimes she'll even ask me if he and Wonder woman have dated? As for bringing him into the movies, I think it could be an interesting idea if handled well.
Finally Van Gogh Joker is revealed.
I'll be honest I have been wondering what that picture was.
Doesn't the quote say "we don't copy anyone" not "we don't copy anymore"?
introducing him to the MCU. Costume, comic book accurate to his more recent one, but green color scheme at first, changes colors in the final act/whem he is solidly in the hero team, he internally identify with and accepts the role and was accepted/recognized as a hero by the tram/other heroes in the debut story.
Basic origin I would keep the sameish, but instead of Tony I would use one of the geniuses that are gonna join or remain part of the MCU instead. And I would flip the script on the double crossing a bit. He starts the series/movie as part of a super villain gang (who would be or at least be tied to the villain of the season/movie) in the middle of a scheme that gets quickly foiled and the gang is put away quickly, thanks to Simon sabotaging the plan. He is just there, we start mid their scheme being fouled. In custody, he says he has information for the hero and whoever is in charge of their prison, and so he is taken to talk with them. There he does the first time exposition of the backstory, says he was the one to botch the job because he figured he would rather have them all captured and ask help from the good guys with his imminent death.
But, sicke, whoever did the science on him this time around actually planned this. You see, they needed to infiltrate the prison and smuggle in some device that would disable the defences so they could break out . They knew Simon would try to hand them over to the authorities and ask heroes for help the first time he had the chance, so the scheme at the beginning was a manufacturered chance for him to do get them legitimately arrested, lowering suspicion of their real plan and reducing chances the device was properly identified before it goes off. And of course, in the middle of the confession/hlep plea, it turns out either his new unique power and physiology was either the "device", it triggers the device, or camouflages the device hidden in his body - and it just went off in the middle of that confession and plea, which itself was already distracting the hero and prison leadership. Power and systems go down, villains escape with , and heroes now have reason to doubt Wonder Man's words. The basic elements and some drama are now set up, writers take it on from here.
Power wise, I hope he gets a bit more defined than Danvers MCU, even if it has roomntonchamge and expand. Just don't make it ultra easy for absolute non sense "logical" follow ups not even Stan Lee would come up with (sure, he just tried to seem deep in research, but part of that still includes a modicum of internal consistency; he was largely about the cool factor as a hook, but it was far from an exclusionary priority or the meat of his creations).
Edit: small change to the story though, make the reason for embezzlement to be specifically the heros now proprietary invetion solves a problem he faced in his own invetion, so he wanted to reverse engineer it but the board wouldn't approve the cost, specially because he planned tomak it an open patent (I think this fits his later characterization). So at the end the hero sees why just share the knowledge with everyone, and together they complete his creation and release the free plans as he originally planned.
All of the major stories that involve wonder man like the age of Ultron and everything with vision and Wanda have already come to pass so I didn’t expect him to be a part of the MCU. Not only bad but in relation to some other characters he’s very niche. I’m still jaded with how Wanda was handled so to be completely honest I’m just watching his movie bc I like his powers.
I have a bit of a soft spot for Wonder Man, but he is just not often used for good effect.
I don't think there is much to the claims. Neither the characters nor their origins are all that similar, and it is not like people are buying Avengers stories because they mistakenly believe Simon Williams to be connected to Princess Diana or to Super-robot Ajax.
Sasha! Lois was the ORIGINAL Power Girl in Superman #125! You HAVE to explore this story!
The West Coast Avengers honestly felt disjointed because it had all these characters with nothing but potential and really mirky back stories, save Hawkeye and Mockingbird. They oddly kept throwing Simon into love triangles: first with Hank and Tigra, and then (and far more ongoing) Vision and Wanda (which was super creepy to me since during the V&SW mini they regarded themselves and brothers, twins even). Then he decided to revisit the beef he had with Tony over losing his company to Stark's better product. It was so much overcompensation for a dude that the Marvel Encyclopedia put in the same strength class as Thor, Hulk, and Herc. He always felt wasted to me, and I REALLY wanted to like his character. There were hints of great story telling with his brother the Grim Reaper. Those were some solid, solid issues, in my opinion. People down here keep bringing up Avengers: EMH, and I was very sad it didn't get to tie up several story threads, but especially his. They were putting a great spin on his mythology. I know there's little to no chance, but wouldn't it be nice if Disney+ gave it the Young Justice treatment and brought it back to finish what it started?
I think West Coast Avengers is the real answer. We've already had Shang Chi, Ant Man and the Wasp on the west coast. We've also got the Pyms and various other likeable west coast characters and contacts.
The showrunner for Wonder Man got the job after success with Shang Chi and was really invested in that project. I could imagine him talking with Feige about what they need to start fleshing out a MCU styled west coast Avengers series or movie. Some extra cheesecake is probably on the list.
Past that we've had a few MCU teams so far. What if? has an amazing self contained phase 1 style arc complete with some pretty great insight into the characters being used and how they work in teams. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns into the MCU equivalent of the west coast Avengers but they definitely have the ability to craft a compelling team. I also think it might be the primary Avengers team in the upcoming phases. Possible without the name but a team up tied around traditional west coast heroes based on the west coast. It's a really smart way of seeing how much traction the team members get ahead of a major movie so they can shift before they commit.
"Emperor Doom" was peak Wonderman. "I'ma put you into a coma-tank for a month as an experiment, ok?" "Sure." :) "Emperor Doom" would be a great MCU movie to introduce both Doom and Wonderman; they could have Doom pull in David Tenant from an alternate universe to power the mind control machine.
Fox Publications had a Wonder Man back in 1939 mad by Will Eisner himself, but at the time DC comics was suing anyone who had a character that was even like Superman so it was a ver short lived character.
Obviously, the first Wonder Man was a 1945 movie (Oscar in 1946) with Danny Kaye: testifying against a mob boss and running away from his twin self as a ghost. Standard comic book stuff really.
Difference is, with this Wonder Man, the Wasp would have been able to go dancing with the person who replaced Fred Astaire (in White Christmas)!
It's kinda hard to figure out, but if RKO owned the Wonder Man name back then, (after many mergers and acquisitions) it would now belong to Warner Brothers… so DC!
And even stranger… RKO used to be the distributor for all the Disney movies, before all the monopolies and vertical integration laws were scrapped to make the future brighter for budding Lex Luthors, 'cause that always works out well.
"Calm down, Zemo"--Heh!
Can you imagine someone needing help and Iron Man can't help because he is stuck sitting by an outlet, charging his suit? 🤔😂🤣🔌
"Kerfuffle" is a wonderful word.
Stan Lee being salty about Power Girl is kind of funny considering The X-Men was a reskin(intentional or not is irrelevant) of Doom Patrol. Add the Captain Marvel drama between Marvel and DC it looks like Stan was just mad his Power Girl never got the spotlight.
I think I'm mixing up my characters. I could have sworn that Wonder Man was an actor who was so badly injured on a movie set that he was given a robot body in order to save his life.
Wait, does Enchantress also exist in both Marvel and DC.?
Yup, but since it is such a common name neither company can copyright it. That's the good side of single common worded names for characters.
They got rid of the magnet affecting him problem so he could fight Magneto.
Lol I want an Iron Man flying around in plastic armor to fight Magneto, and Marvel having to loudly proclaim "no he's not Plastic Man"
@@CasuallyComics That would be funny.
My favorite fictional newspaper headline in a comic read: "Jack Abel still on the lam". The newspaper was just casually lying on a table and played no part in the story. Jack Abel was a legendary inker but not the inker of that particular comic.
IDK if you saw it, but in the new "Last 52" story there is an evil Lois Lane that kills Superman steals his powers and rampages across her world killing superheroes. I choose to believe it's because she secretly remembers all the golden age stories.
I envision it as her, night after night, standing over Clark as he's sleeping, wild eyed and crazy looking, kryptonite in hand, mumbling about cat fights with Wonder Woman, finding Lori Lemaris' Onlyfins page in his internet history, and being convinced she drove Clark to suicide, then just like... losing it
He has to wear the red jacket costume at least once in the MCU
So it has nothing to do with the Danny Kaye movie called Wonder Man? Although that character was similar to Quality Comics Captain Triumph.
lol
Just finished writing my (not as social-media savvy) comment, to scroll down and find you here with the Danny Kaye too.
I really think that one would have made a great Gotham City story - except for the potato salad! 😁
Great shout with Captain Triumph!