Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here again. I had intended to split my reaction to the MCU’s Wonder Man miniseries into two halves, but it wasn’t a long series, and I got into the series. In short, Wonder Man is one of the best Marvel television shows in years.

First, Wonder Man is only the second Marvel project to receive the Marvel Spotlight moniker; Echo was the first. The idea behind Marvel Spotlight projects is that one doesn’t need to know much about the MCU to understand and enjoy the show. While Wonder Man has some references to the greater MCU (most notably Ben Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery, the fake Mandarin from Iron Man 3), it does a great job of weaving in the information you need to know about the character during the series’ runtime. Second, Wonder Man abandons most superhero tropes. This is a superhero show for people who don’t like or are tired of superhero shows. The show centers around Trevor Slattery and Simon Williams’s (portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) relationship.

The two of them are theater nerds, trying their best to break it in Hollywood. Their chemistry is electric. I’m struggling not to give away any spoilers. There will be some. You’ve been warned. Captured by the United States Department of Damage Control, Slattery is tasked with fetching enough dirt on Williams to lock him away for dangerous superpowers. But Williams only wants to be an actor. Unfortunately for Williams, there’s a ban on people with superpowers from becoming actors ever since Josh Gad–the actual actor, not a character Gad was portraying–disappeared into Darius “Doorman” Davis. There’s an episode in the middle of Wonder Man that chronicles Doorman’s exploits. It was a standout episode in a series filled with standouts.

Wonder Man manages to maintain tension and intrigue, despite the title character refusing to use his powers through most of the show’s runtime. This is one of the few Marvel shows that avoids an awkward middle. You know what I mean. MCU shows are notorious for losing their way and including filler episodes somewhere around the halfway point. The aforementioned Doorman episode occurs right when most MCU shows would falter. And it’s so good.

While it helped to already enjoy Kingley’s Trevor Slattery, pairing him with Badul-Mateen’s Simon Williams is brilliant. They make an unlikely pair of friends. But that’s skin deep. If you know the two of them, they’re more alike than one might guess. They’re both outsiders. Both have few if any true friends. They need each other, and their personalities play extremely well off each other. Trev is more laid-back, and Simon lives in his head. Heck, Simon overthinks everything. Trev helps Simon to relax; he literally teaches Simon the box breathing exercise. But Simon reminds Trev how rewarding acting can be; with Simon’s help, Trev rediscovers his passion.

The rest of Wonder Man’s cast is fantastic. While the show does include comedic moments (How can you not with Kingsley’s Slattery in the production?), it never loses sight of its emotional center. Wonder Man is one of the rare Marvel shows that avoids undercutting scenes with emotional weight with a bad joke. Kudos! I was not expecting that. Honestly, I thought Trevor Slattery would ham up every scene in which he was involved. I am happy to be wrong Unlike a lot of other Marvel shows, I’m going to return to this one. Wonder Man is worth your time. It reminds us of what the MCU can be. Fingers crossed that we’ll get other great Marvel Spotlight shows in the future.

What did you think of Wonder Man? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.