Suddenly going left-field with a show mid-season is a risky prospect. While the aim is usually to shock the audience with a whole new experience that either covers a previously untouched upon plot point, or is simply designed to throw the entire show for a loop, sometimes it can disrupt the entire floe of a season just to pull off something different. On the other hand, if it works, you get something like the comic-tragedy tinged diversion that is episode four of Wonder Man, an installment of the ever more endearing show that takes the MCU to Hollywood.
Swapping out our regularly scheduled plot for an overdue but expansive explanation for the oft quoted “Doorman Clause”, we temporarily kiss goodbye to the truly adorable bromance that built up between disgraced thespian Trevor Slattery and secretly powered actor Simon Williams to focus on the events that led to meta humans being banned from appearing in film and television. What could have brought such a law into play? Well, prepare to witness a tale that involves Marvel deep cuts, toxic waste and even (checks notes) Josh Gad…?
DeMarr Davis is something of a rarity in the town of Hollywood. Cheerfully working his job as a doorman at the Wilcox Club in LA, while most people are always looking to use their place as a stepping stone in order to jump to bigger and better things, but Davis has no interest in becoming an actor or a superstar and actually quite likes his station in life. However, his life of meeting new people and chumming around with actor Josh Gad (who insists on being called “J-Gad”), takes a superpowered turn when he comes into contact with some toxic goo leaking from a Roxxon dumpster and he develops the ability to both phase through solid matter and have others pass through him like some sort of trippy, multidimensional doorway.
After the typical, farcical, shenanigans that occur when a person in the MCU realises they have super human abilities, DeMarr soon shows the world what he can do when a fire breaks out at the Wilcox Club and the fire exits become jammed shut. Allowing Josh Gad and the trapped patrons to pass through him to safety, the actor behind the Frozen character Olaf is so impressed, he puts Davis on his payroll to be his own, personal, superpowered valet. However, things expand exponentially when, on the set of heist movie Cash Grab, he hits upon the idea of putting DeMarr in the film and has him use his abilities as the newly christened “Doorman” who even gets his own catchphrase (“Ding dong, motherfucker!”).
From here, we get the typical rags to riches story that sees Doorman get almost instant fame that soon sours when his fifteen minutes of fame soon starts to inevitably peter out. With the public rapidly tiring of his shtick and his booze intake rising alarmingly, salvation is seemingly at hand when Gad suggests Cash Grab 2. However, after a terrible accident occurs on set, the ramifications mean that the Doorman Clause becomes a precautionary story for everyone in show business – well, everyone except Simon Davis, that is.
It takes a special show to be able slam on the brakes slap-bang in the middle of the season and produce a stand alone episode that not only doesn’t break the flow of the main story, but actually enhances it. Well, with “Doorman” Wonder Man makes the impressive leap from great to awesome by extravagantly changing tactics and alters the game. For a start, aside from a final postscript which shows Simon Williams reacting on the set of a medical drama to the breaking news, the entire installment dispenses with Slattery, Wonder Man and the DODC and instead gives us a black and white side story which is as gleefully mean spirited as it is cruelly funny.
While basics of the story aren’t exactly mind-blowing (the Simpsons basically did this exact story with Bart back in 1994), the way it blends genres with reality to the world of the MCU in general is actually quite something to witness. But the first order of business it to point out that DeMarr “Doorman” Davis is quite possibly one of the impressive deep cuts the MCU has ever pulled off as he (alongside She-Hulk’s Mr. Immortal) is a member of also-ran super team the Great Lakes Avengers and it even manages to sneak in a reference to his comic-accurate mask as he takes advantage of powers that are fairly reminiscent of the Spot from Spider-Man. Watching a content, friendly doorman go from someone who genuinely loves their station in life to a man trapped in the Hollywood maelstrom as his frame gradually atrophies as he and his catchphrase is mishandled and crammed down the public’s throat. Comedian Byron Bowers mamages to evoke empathy as his likable Joe rapidly gets chewed up and spat out by the masticating jaws of fate after falling ass backwards into powers (courtesy of Roxxon’s lackluster safety practices) and having no idea how to responsibly manage them.
Better yet, we have Josh Gad playing a grossly exaggerated version of himself which, when it’s all said and done, may actually be one of the towering highlights of Mavel’s sixth phase. When he isn’t insisting on being called J-Gad, he’s singing bizarre club remixes of Olaf’s “In Summer” song from Frozen live and anyone who’s seen his unhinged turn as messed up children’s presenter Teddy McGiggle in the criminally underseen Little Monsters knows that the actor has zero issues mercilessly sending himself up to memorable effect. However, it’s the the ending which sticks the most, where a drink addled and fame desperate DeMarr appears on the set of Cash Grab 2 for his big scene. Simply put, Gad goes into a sozzled Davis, but never comes out and to this day, no one has a clue where the actor ultimately ended up or if he’ll ever return. While there’s a certain existential, Lovecraftian horror about what has occurred to the man who played LeFou in Beauty And The Beast, it’s still viciously funny too and more than justifies the creation of the Doorman Clause that’s currently dogging the superpowered Simon Williams.
However, with such an innovative episode and a whole clutch of jokes revolving around people “entering” Davis, one wonders if the main plot might seem a mite bland after such a risk taking installment. Not to say that we’ll lose interest in our chief double act, but after such a bout of monochromatic weirdness, the main plot might feel the need to pick up a pace that’s felt refreshingly deliberate.
Still, with the grateful sacrifice of Josh Gad (wherever the hell he’s ended up), Wonder Man is still going from strength to strength. Fingers crossed as we head into the second half of the season that this diversion has opened further doors to greatness.
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