I think we can all agree that Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was not the best. While there were some strong releases, such as Loki, Thunderbolts, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, we have now entered Phase 6, with the release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps and anticipated movies such as Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday. While I’m currently anticipating those movies, I was excited to see a different character appear on my screen. On Jan. 27, Marvel released all episodes of the new series Wonder Man on Disney+. Â
The series follows Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a struggling actor trying to get his big break, and land a leading role while hiding that he has superpowers. The series focuses more on personal lives and the state of the Hollywood acting industry, with less emphasis on superhero origin stories. Not only that, but the series also features a familiar face from the MCU, Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), who was first featured in Iron Man 3. This series was so well-received that it currently holds a Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an 89% love rating from critics and audiences.Â
Personally, this series is definitely second on my list of “Best Marvel Series” in the MCU, behind Wandavision of course. I loved that this series felt so grounded and real, not only because the setting is Hollywood and the acting industry, which is where I want to be in the future, but I loved that this series didn’t feel like an MCU series; it felt like a breath of fresh air and an amazing start for Phase 6. Mateen, for me, stole the show. Even from the moment he was cast, I knew he was going to be amazing. Not only that, but I also enjoyed how this series didn’t feel like a superpowered-man origin story. Sure, we get flashback moments here and there about Simon’s story, but I really enjoyed how it wasn’t just so fully packed with CGI moments that felt like a bloated MCU series. I also really loved the Disney shout-outs in this series. My two favorites were when Simon sang a bit of the song “My Year” from the Disney Channel Original Movie Zombies. I was also shocked to see a familiar face, Josh Gad, in this series.Â
The one thing I am a bit upset about is how little Marvel marketed this series. It felt as though Marvel didn’t care much about this series, or even the fact that it was dropping. I really hated how they just dropped all the episodes at once, but it was nice to binge them. Still, I think Marvel didn’t expect this series to be so well-loved now, because I’ve been seeing so many ads for it since it dropped. Hopefully in the future, Marvel takes this as a lesson to appreciate their stuff dropping instead of trying to hide it and expect audiences not to notice.Â
Overall, I’m very excited to see where Wonder Man will go. Hopefully, he’ll be featured in the new Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars, who knows? Plus, the fact that it was directed by the same director as Spiderman: Brand New Day, gets me even more excited. We can only hope this series will be renewed for season two, and that we’ll see more of Simon’s story in the MCU’s future.