Wonder Man Season 1 Review

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This is a DynaMic Network Podcast. Hi, welcome
back to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a Rotten

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Tomatoes-approved show that reviews superhero
films and series through the lens of the DC and

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Marvel fandoms. I'm Jonathan. You're not Johnny
DC anymore? Heck no, I'm so sick and tired of

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calling you Marvelous Joe. Okay, I'm Joseph. If
people haven't figured out that Jonathan is Team

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DC and Joseph is Team Marvel after 10 years, I don't
know what to tell them. Well, maybe people are

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listening to the show for the first time with this
episode. They're going to want to know things

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like, I'm your twin brother and we had a show where
we pit Marvel and DC characters going up against

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each other for 10 years and then we retired that
show and that we're bringing it back as a monthly

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podcast reviewing Marvel and DC projects. Yeah,
it's been just over a month since we reached this

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semi-retired phase. I got to say, I really missed
it. It's hard to get back into this now. I feel like

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I'm so out of practice. I don't even know what a
podcast is anymore. But thank you to our listeners

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for sticking with us as we transition into this new
phase. In this episode, we're going to be

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reviewing season one of Wonder Man. Jonathan, did
you watch it? I tried to. I think I got a little bit

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more than halfway through the first episode.
Well, that's okay that you didn't watch it because

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we're going to be doing non-spoiler reviews from
here on out. Those of you who are used to listening

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to our earlier reviews, you know that we typically
dive deep into the plot and we break down basically

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everything that happens and discuss spoilers.
But in this brand new era of dynamic dual, we're

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going to be taking a more traditional approach to
our film and TV criticism in that we're not going to

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be doing full story breakdowns. We're not going to
be discussing anything that would be considered a

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spoiler, hopefully. Instead, these reviews are
going to serve more as an overview of our thoughts

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on the project and whether or not we as longtime
Marvel and DC fans would recommend it. I think our

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new aim here is really to provide that superfan
perspective among the whole sea of other types of

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film and TV critics who may or may not have
familiarity with these characters. So our

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format's changing a little bit. Hopefully you
still enjoy it. But first real quick, our

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artificially intelligent co-host, AJ9K, is also
backing you as a quick message for our listeners.

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So listen up. Thanks, AJ9K. Before we get into the
review, since this is a Marvel and DC review

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podcast, one of the new things that we'll be doing
is going over the comic book characters that

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appear within the projects that we're reviewing,
giving people a refresher or an introduction to

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the source material, origins, and powers. This is
a new segment we're calling Who's Who. So let me go

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over the comic book characters that appear in
Wonder Man Season 1, starting with Wonder Man. A

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competitor to Tony Stark, Simon Williams was an
industrialist who lost his munitions company and

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was imprisoned after being caught in bezeling
funds. Baron Zemo freed Simon from prison and

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exposed him to ionic radiation, transforming him
into Wonder Man. He infiltrated the Avengers as a

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mole for the Masters of Evil, but later had a change
of heart and ultimately sacrificed himself to

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save his new heroic friends. Though believed
dead, Simon survived in a death-like coma and was

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eventually revived. He rejoined the Avengers and
became a prominent member of the team. Simon later

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co-founded their West Coast branch in Los
Angeles, where he also established a

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semi-successful acting career. Powers-wise,
Wonder Man's ionic form grants him vast

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superhuman strength, near-total
invulnerability to physical and energy attacks,

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and flight. On rare occasions, he'll expel his
ionic energy in the form of eye blasts. You can

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learn more about Wonder Man in his dual episode
against Captain Adam. Now, it was going to go into

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the backstory of the Mandarin, but I don't think
that will be helpful to people watching Wonder

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Man. The backstory of Trevor Slattery is more
important there, and Trevor is an original

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character to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So
let's dive into another character that appears in

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Wonder Man Season 1, called Dorman. Damar Davis
was a mutant whose ex-gene granted him the ability

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to act as a living doorway. Adopting the name
Dorman, he joined the unconventional and

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unsanctioned Great Lakes Avengers, quickly
becoming the team's primary means of

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transportation and tactical repositioning. By
merging his body with solid surfaces, Dorman can

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go intangible and open a portal through himself,
allowing others to pass instantly from one side of

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an object to another. You can also access the Dark
Force dimension using the realm as a conduit for

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longer-range travel. We never did a duel with
Dorman, but you can learn more about the Dark Force

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dimension in our Cloak and Dagger dual episode
where we pit the two characters against the Wonder

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Twins. The final character that I'll get into in
Wonder Man Season 2 is called the Grim Reaper. This

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is Eric Williams, who is the elder brother of
Simon, who refused to join their family munitions

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business and instead joined the mob. When Simon
became Wonder Man and seemingly died saving the

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Avengers, Eric blamed the team for his brother's
fate. Consumed by grief and instability, he

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adopted the identity of the Grim Reaper,
outfitting himself with advanced tech. Eric

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became obsessed with avenging Simon and later
fixated on the android Vision, whose mind was

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patterned from his brother Simon's brainwaves.
He became a recurring enemy of the Avengers and

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West Coast Avengers, although Simon eventually
returned to life. Eric's fractured psyche

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prevented their reconciliation. The Grim Reaper
is an experienced hand combatant with a

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cybernetic arm ending in a scythe-like blade
capable of projecting energy blasts and whirling

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as a shield or helicopter blade. He has a genius
level aptitude for electronics and robotics, and

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after he died in battle once, he was resurrected as
a zombie-like being and gained the power of

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Necromancy, able to reanimate the death. That is
Wonder Man's brother. We did not do a dual episode

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with Grim Reaper, but if you guys come up with a good
idea on who he could have gone up against, go ahead

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and let us know on our Discord, which is linked in
our show notes and maybe we'll run the stats on

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them. Yeah, him or doorman. Now that you know all
about the comic book characters that appear in

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this series, let's go ahead and get into our main
event, where we review Wonder Man Season 1.

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Alright, Wonder Man Season 1 was released by
Marvel Television in January of 2026 on Disney

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Plus. The series stars Yaya Abdul-Mateen II and
Sir Ben Kingsley. It's showrun by Andrew Guest and

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was co-created by Shang-Chi and the upcoming
Spider-Man brand new day director, Dustin Daniel

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Cretton. The series follows struggling actor
Simon Williams, who tries to land the role of

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Wonder Man in a remake of the 1980 superhero film of
the same title. He learns about the role after

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running into Trevor Slattery, an actor trying to
make a comeback after being imprisoned and

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disgraced in Hollywood for impersonating a
terrorist known as the Mandarin. And of course

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that happened in Iron Man 3 and we saw the fallout of
that event in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten

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Rings. Simon and Trevor befriend each other in
their pursuit of the roles of Wonder Man and his

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sidekick Barnaby, respectively, while Simon
struggles with the fact that his Ionic super

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abilities make him ineligible for the role under
an industry wide ban on superpowered beings. Now

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is Barnaby a character from the comics? No,
Barnaby is original to this particular series.

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They needed something for Ben Kingsley's
character, Trevor Slattery, to try out for.

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Obviously he couldn't be Wonder Man, they needed
somebody that was close to the character that

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would be like a lead role that they were both going
for. So Barnaby is like Wonder Man's Alfred in this

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series? Exactly, yes. All while this is
happening, Simon is under investigation by the

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Department of Damage Control who is seeking to
arrest him for potentially harboring dangerous

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powers. Now my biggest takeaway from the show is
that it is not anything like the comic book

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character. It's not faithful in any way, it's not a
satisfying adaptation of Simon Williams from the

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comic books. And in fact this might be one of the
poorest translations of the source material and

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certainly Marvel televisions for this
departure, even more than like Moon Knight, which

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was a pretty far departure. I might even label
Wonder Man season one as Wonder Man in name only.

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Now if you're not a fan of the comic book character,
the fact that Simon Williams in this show is almost

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nothing like his comic book counterpart isn't
going to mean anything to you. And if you are a fan,

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I'm going to say that it's not going to mean
anything to you either. Because despite the fact

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that we have a poor adaptation situation going on
here, what we also have I think is one of Marvel

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Studios most interesting and approachable
experiments that they've ever produced. Yeah it

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was shocking to see that this was produced under
the Marvel spotlight banner. I didn't realize

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that until I started the first episode. Of course
Marvel's other spotlight series was Echo, but I

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know spotlight is specifically used to highlight
projects that are tackling lesser known

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characters or unconventional stories, I
believe. Well it's for projects that are more

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standalone. I don't know what to think about the
Marvel spotlight banner as it pertains to this

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particular series. But the lack of adherence to
the source material as a Marvel purist, it did

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raise difficult questions for me about the trade
off between seeing faithful and exciting

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interpretations of the characters that I know and
love and seeing quality projects in general, even

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those perhaps entirely outside of the superhero
genre. Oftentimes when I'm watching something

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that is being adapted for film in a way that
completely deviates from the source material, I

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often find myself realizing different ways they
could have incorporated different elements from

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the source material into the series or the film,
but just didn't. Maybe because they weren't

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knowledgeable enough or I don't know, just missed
it. Which makes me respect it less. Well like let me

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raise a quandary for you. Okay you're a DC fan.
That's the quandary. What? No, no. Okay, so take

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the character of Booster Gold, who's not only a
superhero, but also a football player, right?

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Now, what if DC Studios released a Booster Gold
show that was 95% not about him as a superhero and

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rarely showed his powers, but was still one of the
better and more interesting sports shows that

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you've ever seen? What do your opinion of the show
as an adaptation affect your judgment of the show

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as a quality project? That's not the best example
because Michael Carter, Booster Gold, was not a

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football player for very long. He was caught
making sports bets and of course became a janitor

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in a superhero museum. That doesn't matter
because Wonder Man wasn't an actor for very long

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either. Oh. You know, in bits and pieces here and
there. But the fact is that regardless of that,

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because he has this history as a comic book
character as a football player, they decided to

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make the entire show about that. I would hate that
because Booster Gold is not about football. He's

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about time travel. Really Wonder Man, the comic
book character is not about acting, but yet they

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made the entire show about that. I'll say this. I do
have issues with Wonder Man, but nearly all of

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those issues stem from the series as an adaptation
and not as a show in itself. But I ask myself, what

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does that mean? Does that mean I have to be like an
apologist for the comic fandom? I don't know. Like

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really, I defer to your struggles, Jonathan, with
the Joker film. Like the first Joker film, Joaquin

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Phoenix's Joker was really Joker in name only. The
movie evoked the best of Scorsese's films,

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though. It also was not a superhero film. It's also
not a great example because it was tackling

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something that we really had no prior knowledge
of, which was the origin of the Joker. In the

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comics, it's sort of intentionally left
ambiguous. There's multiple versions, but we're

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not quite sure which one is the real one. The Joker
film tried to sell us on a specific version. So I

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guess maybe that's how you're approaching Wonder
Man. This is a very specific version. I guess all I

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know is that the Joker film was good. Wonder Man
season one was good. And what I don't want to do is

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make your mistake of coming down on a project for
not being what you expected and failing perhaps to

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fully praise it for the transcendent project that
it was. I think in hindsight, you yourself would

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have rated Joker the first Joker higher than the
four stars that you did. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, though

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I rated it low not because it was a bad adaptation,
but because it was just disturbing. Right. Right.

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The project as an adaptation didn't matter to you
was more about the story. Yeah. I don't want to get

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too far into the weeds here because Wonder Man is
not Joker, but I'll say that Wonder Man did evoke

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some other great Hollywood projects. Like I
watched it and found myself drawing comparisons

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to films like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,
Midnight Cowboy, or even dialogue heavy

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two-handers like Before Sunrise. There is some
action in the series. Don't get me wrong, but I'd

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say it's like less than two minutes total of
runtime in eight 30 minute episodes. Say no more.

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It's pretty crazy. Say no more. I'm not watching
it. It is pretty crazy for a superhero project. And

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I do wonder if people will find that appealing. I do
think people will need to check their

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expectations going in and not necessarily expect
your standard Marvel fare, but really expect

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something entirely different. Did you find
instances as you were watching where they could

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have inserted more action? No. I feel pretty
organic. I think what Marvel Studios has in the

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Wonder Man series is basically an attempt to
venture beyond the standard formulas, tropes and

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plot beats of good versus evil superhero fare and
do something unique. I've come down on Marvel

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projects for straying outside the comics in
previous reviews. I liked Moonlight, but I'm

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convinced it would have been better as a crime
thriller. There was She-Hulk, which tried to be a

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legal comedy, but failed as both a satire of
superhero tropes and as a legal procedural.

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Wonder Man is definitely its own thing. I would
define it as an American buddy comedy. And it

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succeeds at being that, which makes all the
difference in the world. You know, if something is

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done well, it makes me forgive what it could have
been, or maybe what I would have wanted as a comic

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book fan. There are three things that Wonder Man
gets exceptionally right. Probably more than

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that, but I'm going to narrow it down to dialogue,
performance, and cinematography. Starting with

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the former two, like, never in my wildest dreams
would I have ever imagined Yaya Abdul-Mateen and

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Sir Ben Kingsley as a quintessential buddy
pairing. But I am convinced that their chemistry

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is exactly why Yaya was cast. Now, Trevor Slattery
has always been an out-of-left-field gem of a role

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for Ben Kingsley, and to see Yaya match him line for
line reminds me of just how incredible Yaya is as an

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actor. Like I remember thinking back to his
amazing delivery in the HBO Watchmen series, that

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bar scene that he had with Regina King, that was an
iconic scene. And like between that series and

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Wonder Man now, I'm entirely convinced that Yaya
Abdul-Mateen II is one of the best actors of this

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generation. Not only can he act, he can act about
acting in this series. It's so meta that it feels

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like you're watching a real behind-the-scenes
process when you see him do his thing. He is good. He

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is really good. And it's funny because I think I
first heard about him when he was cast for Black

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Manta in Aquaman. I don't remember hearing about
him prior to that. Yeah, same. In the course of the

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series, Yaya convincingly lays out the arc of a man
who was alone and emotionally isolated from the

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world around him due to feeling different, and
begins piecing together through this newfound

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friendship that he retreats into acting as a means
to have any sort of semblance of emotional

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connection with the world around him. Yaya took
this insecure over-thinker character and made

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him endearing, while also making him the perfect
partner to Kingsley's infinitely quirky and

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charming Trevor Slattery. The two leads are so
good together, just in their acting, that they can

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take something as mundane and simple as
discussing their favorite movie monologues and

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make that worth watching. It's those personal
interactions that are so low stakes for a Marvel

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project, but they're like some of the best parts
about the show. The more toned-down, personal

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approach to the story is definitely reflected in
the look of the show. I don't think I've seen

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another MCU project with this type of
cinematography, this very naturalistic style,

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which serves to highlight that this is not only not
a superhero adventure with super saturated

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visual effects, it makes it feel like a
documentary almost, like a day in the life of an

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aspiring LA actor. It's really different, but it
works, and it makes you feel like you're watching

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some kind of art house fair. What's really
interesting is that the naturalistic

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cinematography makes it really fucking shocking
when on the very rare occasion that something does

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go down. Like, I don't think this is a spoiler, but I
will say that Wonder Man has one of the most violent

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single shots out of any Marvel Studios project,
and because of that documentary feel to it, I

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remember my jaw dropping at the moment. Like it was
very real and uncomfortable. And I'm talking like

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this is more violent than any of the playful
ultra-violent stuff in Deadpool and Wolverine. I

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remember going like, what the fuck? I was
surprised to hear you say that you thought the

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cinematography was good, just because I didn't
really notice the documentary style you're

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alluding to. Oh really? It definitely looks
different than any other Marvel Studios project.

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There's even an entire episode that's shot in
black and white. It's fucking gorgeous. It's in

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the middle of the season. It was really done well.
Regarding the story of the season, I really have to

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say it was so hard writing this review and
deviating from a spoiler format because I just

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want to talk about everything that happens. But at
the end of each episode, there's a decent turn that

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makes you want to watch the next one. And the series
plots along pretty nicely, even though not a whole

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lot happens in a couple of episodes. Like this
could have been a six-episode season. But at least

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nothing meanders for too long, like it would in an
hour-long episode show because each episode was

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only about 30 minutes. At the end of the day, the
show is less about the plotting or having

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characters reach the next goal or resolving any
single conflict. It's more about the

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relationship between the lead characters. And
more so than any other project, the story is about

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the journey. Not really the end. Although I will
say that the end will still leave you with a smile on

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your face. And still gets me really excited for
what comes next for these characters. I think

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we'll definitely need a season two, the way this
season ends before we see Wonder Man crossover

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with any other MCU characters. I would really love
to see Wonder Man join the Avengers though at some

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point. Even though it wouldn't be entirely
necessary for this version of the character, I

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think it would be fascinating. Yeah, maybe
they'll have him decide to join the Avengers as

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part of some study in Casper View for a role he wants
to audition for in playing Tony Stark or

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something. Who knows? I don't know. There's your
Tony Stark connection. He seems like he'd be more

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at home with the Thunderbolts team. Maybe that's
just commenting on the cinematography of the

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series. But I guess the Thunderbolts aren't
really a team anymore. They are the Avengers. So

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who knows? When the time comes for you to write your
first review in this non-spoiler format,

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Jonathan, I know you're going to have a hard time.
There's so much more I want to discuss about what

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happens here. The plot does raise some
interesting points regarding superhero ethics.

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And you know how much I love discussing superhero
ethics. I think it would be an interesting

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conversation as to whether or not Simon should
even be acting, but I can't really get into any of

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that without getting into spoilers. Oh, because
with great power comes great responsibility? No,

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not at all. Okay, that's not what I'm talking about
at all. It has more to do with the nature of his

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powers, which are not really like how they are on
the comic books. But I do think that it's actually a

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pretty cool interpretation. Ultimately, the
Wonder Man series I think is important for Marvel

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Studios. It's a really interesting first review
out of the gate for our new podcast format in that

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the show made me question my own inconsistencies
and my approach to criticism, which eventually

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made me land on the revelation that faithfulness
matters to me. So one of the most important things

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out there when it comes to my approach to these
reviews, but quality matters more. I think at the

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end of the day, I'd rather see a really, really damn
good project like Wonder Man Season 1 over a

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faithful one. That being said, faithfulness is
still important. Would you say that quality is

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more important to the survival of the genre than
faithfulness? Because as a fan of the comics, I'm

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always like, just follow the comic book. It's
there. Just do that. Like panel for panel and you

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can't go wrong because it's great. Right. But so
many Marvel and DC projects aren't as good or at

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least as exciting as I feel like they used to be. So
yeah, I'm not sure what's going to save the genre.

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Does Wonder Man save the genre in the way it kind of
promised to in the marketing? Does it beat

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superhero fatigue? Was that a claim that it made in
the marketing that it would beat superhero

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fatigue? Yeah, it was like, oh, yeah, this is the
answer to superhero fatigue. Yeah, I think so. I

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would definitely say that I think an out of box
approach is necessary in this era of alleged

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superhero fatigue. And that's exactly what
Wonder Man does. Like this series is the once upon a

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time in Hollywood for Marvel Studios. Like no one
does meandering character exploration like

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Quentin Tarantino. It isn't even until the third
act of once upon a time that you even realize, oh,

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this is revisionist history on the Manson murder
of Sharon Tate. But even that ending is secondary

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to the film's like meta industry commentary and
the personal relationship between the two lead

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characters, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. And
that's the exact same thing with Wonder Man, I

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think it's more about the relationship between
these two characters. There is a story in Wonder

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Man Season One, but it's secondary. And that's
pretty unique, I think, which is fascinating

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because I know there are films out there that don't
have too much story. They're essentially just

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plot for you to say that a comic book project has no
story and is just plot kind of has me a little

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intrigued, but also kind of has me a little
disgusted. I'll say that in all, though Wonder Man

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Season One falters as a comic book adaptation, it
succeeds as a worthy and unique experiment in

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dialogue driven chemistry fueled character
study and rating Wonder Man Season One four stars

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out of five, a fresh rating on rotten tomatoes.
Well, now that we know whether or not you recommend

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the project, you probably give us a few spoilers.
How about some out of context spoilers? Sure. OK,

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some out of context spoilers. In Wonder Man Season
One, you see Olaf enter another man. Also, you can

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see the most shocking head explosion since the
movie Scanners, I think. And you'll learn about

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Mandarin's Mandarin's. Take from that what you
will. I don't want to. I might go to dark places. All

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in all, guys, that was a review of Wonder Man Season
One. AJ9K helped close this out. Thanks for

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00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:38,380
listening to Dynamic Jewel. Visit the show's
website at dynamicjewel.com and follow us on

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00:24:38,380 --> 00:24:43,180
Instagram at dynamicjewelpodcast. Don't forget
to listen to the other shows in the Dynamite

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00:24:43,180 --> 00:24:50,160
podcast network, including Max Destruction,
Senjo World and Console Combat. Well, Jonathan,

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what else is coming down the pike that you're
looking forward to reviewing later on this year?

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Well, for DC, our next project is Supergirl, but
that's not coming down until the summer.

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Honestly, the thing I'm most looking forward to,
though, is Spider Noir. Oh, yeah, that looks

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really good. The trailer came out for that. I will
not be watching it in color. I will absolutely be

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watching it in black and white. Nicholas Cage
looks a little unhinged in it, but that doesn't

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come out until May. I know that Daredevil, born
against season two, drops its first episodes in

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March, but we probably won't get to that until
later when the entire series is out. That does it

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for this episode. We will see you guys in March. We
don't know what we're going to review yet, so look

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forward to that surprise next month. Yeah, it'll
probably be something DC. I'll find something.

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Thanks guys for listening. Up, up and away. True
believers. Turns out I suck a fat sack at playing

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the blues, so glad to be back, guys.