Everyone has their attention on Avengers: Doomsday, the movie that will give us Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, pit two teams of Avengers against one another (and maybe the X-Men?), and will restore the MCU to its place of cultural dominance. But before worlds live and worlds die and the MCU will never be the same, we have a smaller Marvel adventure to enjoy.
This December sees the release of Wonder Man, starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams. Wonder Man is one of Marvel’s stranger B-listers, a character first introduced as a muscular thug who gets duped into fighting the Avengers, and who dies in his first appearance in 1964’s Avengers #9 (by Stan Lee, Don Heck, and Jack Kirby). Several years later, Wonder Man appeared again, sometimes as an actual brother to the villain the Grim Reaper, sometimes as a sort of brother to the Vision, sometimes as an ionic being, and sometimes as a handsome Hollywood star.
It’s that last incarnation that seems to be the focus of the upcoming MCU show, as teased by a recent post from Abdul-Mateen. On his Instagram, Abdul-Mateen II shared a picture of a blue ball cap with the words “Wonder Man” written in yellow. Surrounding the words are corny icons of Hollywood kitsch, including a box of popcorn and a word balloon declaring “I love LA.”
Themed ballcaps are a long MCU tradition, as franchise boss Kevin Feige has one made for each production. But when it comes to a character as varied as Wonder Man, the hat confirms the tone and direction of the upcoming show. Wonder Man will likely draw inspiration from the character’s solo series from the 1990s, written by Gerard Jones (don’t google him) and Jeff Johnson. That series saw Wonder Man try his hand at working as a stuntman in the movie business, where he faced off with villains straight from Hollyweird: a bladed baddie called Splice or a would-be starlet whose beauty routine makes her into a Hulk-like monster.
