To this day, “Iron Man 3” has one of the funniest plot twists ever to happen. That was until the newest plot twist: Trevor Slattery (Ben
Kingsley) in 2026.
He makes his comeback in Marvel’s newest TV show, “Wonderman.”
Let me take you back about 13 years ago, when the face of “the Mandarin,” a terrorist, was actually just an alcoholic and struggling actor named Trevor Slattery.
In the third Iron Man movie, Slattery was hired to be the “Mandarin” by Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce).
Trevor was desperate for a role, and was taking the fall for Killian. Taking the fall for evil.
Over a decade later, we’ve come full circle and Slattery is taking the blame for good.
The show “Wonderman,” starts with Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) as a child, with his father in the theatre watching the original “Wonderman” movie — a movie about a superhero and his best friend Barnaby.
In the Marvel universe, obviously, superheroes are the norm in reality. But in the show, Wonderman is a fictional superhero.
The story follows Simon’s struggling as an actor. It’s revealed that he has powers, but he keeps it a secret from nearly everyone he knows to continue acting.
Honestly, I was worried I was going to be a little bored when it first started. I should’ve kept my mouth shut because this show was the definition of basically all of my worlds colliding, with pull after pull.
I was already shocked less than 10 minutes in when not only was there an “American Horror Story” mention, but Ashley Greene, aka Alice Cullen from the “Twilight” Saga, was there. I audibly went “What the hell?”
I thought Greene’s appearance was just a fun little cameo. I had no clue what I was in for.
In episode three, Simon comments on his fear of becoming DeMarr “Doorman” Davis (Byron Bowers).
Then, in the fourth episode, we get a flashback to what he was talking about. We find out exactly why Simon can’t reveal his powers.
I wasn’t expecting much of it, but then Josh Gad shows up, and I think “oh, who’s he playing?’ Nope. He’s playing himself. He goes to a club where Davis is the Doorman, then proceeds to DJ and perform a mix of “In Summer” from “Frozen.”
I had to rewind to make sure I was seeing this correctly.
Shortly after Davis gets his powers by touching a toxic substance and becoming a mutant, he saves Gad and others from a club fire. How? Gad passes through David’s body, and so does everyone else.
Gad offers David a job, and David becomes a celebrity after going viral for his catchphrase.
Then, one day, during a job, Gad passes through David’s stomach and never comes back out. And that’s the end of him. Um what? I knew there was going to be some crazy backstory as to why Simon couldn’t go public with his powers as an actor, but I didn’t think it would be friggin Olaf going missing in a guy’s stomach.
Come to find out, that incident was why superheroes can’t act. It’s apparently an insurance liability.
Throughout the show, Trevor helps Simon overcome his issues and anxieties.
Well, like I said, Trevor is technically an ex-terrorist. He was broken out of Seagate Prison, and now, he’s been snatched by Damage Control. They give him a deal: help spy on Simon, and he won’t go back to prison.
However, along the way, we see Simon and Trevor become close friends. Trevor may have been acting the role of Simon’s friend at the beginning, but it becomes real.
I mentioned before that the beginning of the show opened with Simon seeing “Wonderman” with his father. In that version, Barnaby would never betray Wonderman.
Fast forward, when Simon has grown up, he and Trevor are given the opportunity to audition for the remake.
In this version, though, Barnaby, Wonderman’s only friend betrays him. The story is extremely parallel to the betrayal of Trevor to Simon.
I would be lying if I said I didn’t cry throughout multiple parts of this show. One of the parts being Simon’s mother, Martha (Shola Adewusi) telling Trevor and Simon never had any friends. We can see his struggle to fit in throughout the show, but when he finally has a friend, he betrays him. It’s heartbreaking.
What was unique about this show is that it put Simon as a person before a hero. Most of “Wonderman” was simply about his struggles, and it felt like the powers aspect was a side plot. Phenomenal story telling all around.
I also love when I can see a show’s roots to the comics. From Simon’s eyes, to the costume, I believe it did.
The bar is high for Marvel shows, with precedents like “Wandavision,” “Loki” or even nicher ones like, my personal favorite, “Cloak
and Dagger.”
Marvel has outdone itself yet again.
There’s no one a second season would ever top that picture. Impossible. But maybe it’s worth thinking about how they could do it.
