In the years since the MCU turned its attention to the small screen, there’s been certain expectations every time one of these Disney+ series gets to its finale. Regardless of the approach the show takes as a whole, the vast majority tends to fall back on a sizable, CGI, action blowout that means they tend to end of a somewhat predictable (if often fun) note. However, when you have a show that’s already broken so many expected MCU rules and expectations as Wonder Man has, you have to wonder if the studio can manage to hold it’s nerve both one way or the other.
But without those expensive sequences of superheroics and multitudes of cameos and hints of things to come to fall back on, where will the misadventures of Simon Williams and Trevor Slattery take us in its final showing? The answer proves to be somewhere completely touching as Marvel’s latest bromance goes out on an absolute high.
It seems that Simon Williams’ hopes and dreams of making it big in the acting profession is about to crumble before it begins – and by crumble, I mean explode in a burst of repressed ionic energy. After discovering that Trevor only met up with him in the first place on order to spy on him for the Department Of Damage Control to get his remaining sentence reduced, Simon’s subsequent rage fit caused the resulting blast to obliterate the Wonder Man set.
Realising that the game is up and the authorities will soon be knocking down his door to whisk his superpowered ass to their expensive super-jail, Simon takes time to get his affairs in order by ringing his loving mother. However, after getting a call from a remorseful Trevor, the bumbling thespian claims he has a plan to make everything right and prepares to fall on his own sword to protect his friend. Once again donning the mantle of his fake Mandarin, Trevor releases a video that has his villainous alter-ego take credit for the explosion on the Wonder Man set. The result sees Trevor arrested by Agent Cleary who is looking to get a win wherever he can find it and Slattery is destined to spend the rest of his days rotting in a state of the art slammer.
From here filming eventually finishes, with Simon channeling recent events into a performance that guarantees him the accolades he’s always wanted (never mind that Joe Pantoliano ultimately got the Barnaby role – fuckin’ Hollywood), but while doors are opening up for him everywhere, Williams just can’t forget his friend. Taking on a slightly different role, Simon takes a trip to the Yucca Flats where he shadows a DODC guard under the pretence that he’s doing homework for an upcoming role. But after gaining entrance to the prison that was originally supposed to hold him, he makes a selfless act to protect his only friend.
From the very beginning, from the moment Simon and Trevor first met in a screening of Midnight Cowboy, Wonder Man has placed supreme importance on the tragic, mismatched buddy movie. While some other projects would have lent more towards the Riggs and Murtaugh angle for maximum quippibility, the fact that the show has cling so much to the doomed pairing of Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo from John Schlesinger’s 1969 classic has proven to be the beating heart of Marvel’s most underplayed, but heartfelt show. In fact, while some may revel at the fact that the show managed to bring back Slattery’s turn as the Mandarin (complete with topknot, shades and menacing drawl), his act may stand as one of the most heart-rending and sad MCU sacrifices since Peter Parker made everyone forget who he was in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Simply put, he gives up everything for his friend – his freedom, his newfound success, his innocence – and he also does it at the drop of a hat too, in order to make up for his betrayal by aligning himself with the DODC. Who would have thought back in 2013 when Kingsley offered up that reveal, that one of the most moving moments of modern Marvel would be him dressing up as his puppet terrorist once more to take the rap for Simon’s explosion? And don’t even get me started on Joe Pantoliano getting the role of Barnaby.
However, we soon see that Trevor’s Mandarin-flavoured, noble act was ultimately worth it as the final episode takes some rather unpredictable routes to get to its uplifting ending. For a start, the success of Wonder Man not only gives Simon the validation he’s always wanted, not just from the public, but from his family and watching the troubled actor finally achieve some sort of peace is actually quite comforting – especially when even his formally disapproving brother sheds a tear at the premiere. But what makes “Yucca Valley” so interesting is that not only does Wonder Man stubbonly refuse to end with a typical MCU blowout (he doesn’t even have a nemesis to fight), but it doesn’t even end the way that most other shows would end.
Leaving Hollywood behind, we watch Simon shadowing a prison guard, obviously to gradually gain entrance and bust out Trevor. But while other shows might speed past this part and get straight to the breakout, we focus quite closely on Williams forming a connection with the guard and his family. He discovers they’re floundering in medical bills and the father of the family is suffering mental issues from the pressure of maintaining such a stressful job of keeping an eye on superpowered criminals. But though this strangely slow, deliberate set up, we find something miraculous. After everything that’s happened to him, the socially awkward, sometimes difficult Williams has learnt to listen and show empathy despite the fact that he’s lying outright to this trusting prison guard. The day of the breakout, we find that Simon’s made an anonymous and rather large donation to the family to say thanks and apologise for the subterfuge and it seems that even locked in a government funded dungeon, Trevor’s influence has proven to have made Simon a much better person.
With the show cutting to black at the pinnacle of their escape (Williams can now control his powers to the extent that he can limit the damage and now can also fly), we give the pair the happy ending that eluded Joe Buck and Ratso while leaving a tantalising tease on what life could possibly throw at them next. Are they on the run? Has Simon thrown his career away? Does he have ambitions to becoming a real life Wonder Man? The fact that all this occurs while similarly dealing out the requisite comic book nods (comic accurate costumes!) means that this is one MCU that has been operating on a whole other level.
Possibly the smaller, more controlled shot in the arm the MCU’s TV branch has needed, it’s unclear how many lessons Marvel is going to learn in a year that’s seeing massive Avengers and Spider-Man movies hurtling into cinemas. However, while not every character in the Studio’s stable would benefit from such a refreshing treatment, more example of brains over brawn would be great appreciated.
But will we ever see more of Simon and Trevor, or will Marvel and up forgetting about them the way Moon Knight and She-Hulk have seemingly slipped their minds? I wonder…
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