7 Things Only Marvel Comics Fans Know About Wonder Man Before His MCU Show

Videos by ComicBook.com

Before Yahya Abdul-Mateen II brings Simon Williams to the small screen in the 2026 streaming series Wonder Man, here is a look at some things that only Marvel Comics fans know about the Hollywood hero.

7) He Started As a Supervillain & Immediately Died

Wonder Man was not a hero when he made his first appearance in Marvel Comics. Instead, he was the son of a wealthy industrialist who took over his dad’s company before his brother Eric (the villain known as the Grim Reaper) convinced him to embezzle funds while forming a connection to Maggia families, and he ended up going to trial and facing a prison sentence. This led to the Enchantress bailing him out and Baron Zemo offering him a spot in the Masters of Evil, where they used an ionic ray to turn him into a supervillain.

The twist, though, is that Simon Williams was never a bad guy, and he already felt regret for his actions at his dad’s company. The side effect of the ionic ray was that Simon would die if he didn’t get weekly treatments, so he had to work with Zemo to help him fight the Avengers. When the Masters of Evil attacked the Avengers, he fought alongside the heroes and died as a result, proving he was a hero in the end.

6) His Powers Involve an Ionic Energy Form

When Baron Zemo gave Simon Williams his powers, they involved an ionic energy form. This was an augmentation in strength and was supplanted later by Pym Particles to help him survive the original process. He has immense strength and can lift well over 100 tons, and is considered close to Sentry’s level of strength. He has beaten Red Hulk and Abomination in separate battles, showing his power. He is also invulnerable and immune to fatigue, so he never tires in battle. His ionic powers also allow regenerative healing when he is injured, and resurrection empowerment, which boosts his powers every time he dies and returns to life.

5) His Brainwaves Were Used to Create The Vision

When Vision showed up, it was a complete mystery of who this synthezoid was or where he came from. However, it was soon discovered that Ultron created the Vision in the same way that Hank Pym created Ultron. Thanks to the advice from the Mad Thinker, Ultron got the body of Jim Hammond (which was later retconned) and then incorporated the brain patterns of Wonder Man after Hank Pym had stored them away following Simon’s apparent death. This has caused so many problems over the years between Simon and Vision, as well as Scarlet Witch, who was often caught in between the two “brothers.”

4) He Was A Member of Several Avengers Teams

Once Wonder Man was brought back to life (he was in a death-like coma, and wasn’t actually dead), he became a member of the Avengers. However, he struggled as a hero for many years. Thanks to being “dead” for so long, he lived with the trauma of this experience and was shown to be scared and almost cowardly at times, limiting how effective he was when using his immense powers. Despite this, he was a member of the main Avengers, the West Coast Avengers, the Avengers Unity Division, the Mighty Avengers, and Force Works, the team Iron Man created after the West Coast Avengers were disbanded. However, he has also opposed the Avengers, saying the concept has killed too many heroes.

3) Wonder Man Is a Successful Actor In the Comics

The Wonder Man Disney+ series shows that Simon Williams is an aspiring actor who is fighting for roles and trying to earn the one casting that he feels he was made for. However, in the comics, he has been a successful Hollywood player for a long time. He was a very successful stuntman when he joined the West Coast Avengers, and was highly sought after in this role. He has since become a successful action star in his own right and is a much bigger star than he is made out to be in his upcoming series.

2) Wonder Man & Beast Were the Best of Friends

One of the best friendships in Marvel Comics history is that of the one between Wonder Man and the Beast. The two met when they were members of the Avengers, and something connected between the two men. For years, they were almost inseparable, and they even had a comic series with the two as the leads. Their relationship was strained when Beast began to become corrupted and started to exhibit evil tendencies. However, when Beast was at his lowest, it was Wonder Man who came into the picture to convince Hank to stop, and it was their friendship that caused Beast to sacrifice himself, allowing a cloned version with Hank’s old memories to replace him in the Marvel Universe.

1) Wonder Man Is Now a Pacifist In the Comics

Wonder Man has undergone several changes over his career, including when he formed the Revengers to fight the Avengers, claiming that the superhero team had done more damage than good over their existence. He finally relented that this was not the right fight for him, though he still has the same feelings about teams like the Avengers and other superheroes being a cause of problems as much as they are the people needed to solve them. As a result, Wonder Man is now a pacifist in Marvel and doesn’t want to be involved in any battles, preferring to stop the fights rather than make them bigger problems.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!