Wonder Man is yet another one of the MCU series that seems to be getting barely promoted, and dumped out as a binge on a day few are probably aware of, January 27 in this case. But reviews are coming in for the underhyped series and Wonder Man is now…tied for the second-highest scored MCU project, movie or show, or all time. Whoa.
As it stands, Wonder Man has a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score from critics, which is especially noteworthy in this current era of the somewhat underwhelming MCU. Here’s how it stacks up with the all-time high-score list covering both movies and shows:
- Ms. Marvel – 98%
- Wonder Man – 96%
- Black Panther – 96%
- Agents of SHIELD – 95%
- Avengers Endgame – 94%
- Iron Man – 94%
- Thor Ragnarok – 93%
- Spider-Man: No Way Home – 93%
- Spider-Man: Homecoming – 92%
- Shang-Chi – 92%
- WandaVision – 92%
I mean, wow. While I thought the concept looked intriguing, I was not expecting reviews this glowing, or for it to rank this highly in the 50+ strong pantheon of MCU movies and TV shows. Here’s the very short synopsis, plus the trailer:
“Hollywood actor Simon Williams is thrust into the world of superheroes as he gets powers of his own and becomes the new superhero Wonder Man.”
Wonder Man stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the titular hero, who previously appeared in superhero land as Black Manta in the Aquaman movies. He was also in Candyman, The Matrix Resurrections, Us, Watchmen and more. Wonder Man’s budding powers in Marvel lore include strength, speed and uh, explosions.
The second half of the series is Ben Kingsley reprising his role as Trevor Slattery, the actor character who played The Mandarin in Iron Man 3, attempting to redeem himself after that fiasco.
The secret ingredients here are likely co-creators Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest. Cretton, most famously the director of Shang-Chi, and now the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which is widely expected to be a big hit like the other three. Guest, meanwhile, has written for 30 Rock, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and did two dozen episodes of Community, so he’s lending a comedic talent as head writer for Wonder Man.
It feels like the last time Marvel had a “oh that’s coming out?” series like this was Ironheart, the 2025 series also released as two drops of three episodes, seemingly disconnected from the rest of the MCU. But Wonder Man is reviewing much, much better, and this went from mildly intriguing to a must-see rather quickly with these scores.
Follow me on Twitter and YouTube.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
