Wonder Man
| Wonder Man | |
|---|---|
| File:Wonderman1.jpg Cover to Wonder Man volume 2 #1 Jeff Johnson, artist | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Avengers #9 (October 1964) |
| Created by | Stan Lee and Jack Kirby |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Simon Williams |
| Team affiliations | Avengers, Defenders, Force Works |
| Abilities | Vast superhuman strength, superhuman durability, virtual immortality, immeasurable endurance, supersonic flight capacity (Able to achieve speeds of at least 25,000MPH) |
This article is on the Marvel Comics character. For the DC character, see Wonder Man (DC Comics).
Wonder Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the Marvel Comics universe, and is a member in long standing of the Avengers. He was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Avengers #9 (October 1964). We must not forget that the 1st penciler to draw him was in fact Don Heck.
Character Biography
Simon Williams was born the son of a rich family, and inherited the family's company and fortune. Despite this, he embezzled money from the company and was caught. The supervillain Baron Zemo found the desperate Williams and offered him a chance to escape by transforming him into the ion-powered Wonder Man.
Wonder Man joined the Avengers on Zemo's behalf, but ultimately turned on Zemo and was apparently killed in doing so. He actually remained in a deathlike state of suspended animation for years, during which time the android Ultron based the brain of an android of his own, the Vision, upon that of Wonder Man.
William's brother, Eric Williams, became the supervillain called the Grim Reaper, and the process that had empowered Simon was also used to empower the villain Count Nefaria, among others.
Wonder Man was eventually revived as a zombie by Black Talon, by voodoo, and attacked the Avengers again. His body being made of ionic energy, or in the way to be so, was probably the factor why he was able to regain his own free will, and for his consciousness to finally re-emerge. He finally joined the Avengers full-time, becoming close friends with his teammate, the Beast.
With his zest for life, he became a stuntman, because of his invulnerability, in addition to a superhero, and was one of the major members of the West Coast Avengers team. This led him to be an actor, later on.
Wonder Man eventually came to accept the Vision as his "brother". However, the Vision was dismantled and rebuilt as an emotionless machine, his memory erased by several governmental powers worldwide which were afraid of all the information contained in Vision's brain. Vision's marriage to Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, was annulled.
The Scarlet Witch asked Wonder Man for him to lend him his brainwaves again for her lover to be reborn, but Wonder Man refused, having feelings for her which he could never really voice, and hoping this was his chance. She became mad at his refusal, and used her powers to throw a mountain at him which did not hurt anything but his feelings, sending him hurling and screaming into the airless space in which he is able to survive.
Wonder Man became romantically involved with the Witch when she "resurrected" him (see below).
When the Avengers West Coast disbanded Williams became a founder member of its successor group - Force Works, along with the Scarlet Witch. However, Wonder Man was disintegrated in a battle with the alien Kree in an early mission with the group.
The Scarlet Witch was eventually able to restore Williams to life with her chaos magic, and love, and in the process brought back the Grim Reaper, who at the time had been a ghost.
Although Williams and Maximoff resumed their relationship, they eventually drifted apart and Wonder Man has recently been romantically linked with Carol Danvers.
Powers and abilities
Initially, Wonder Man possessed superhuman strength and endurance that were comparable with the Thing. After his first "death", his powers increased significantly while in stasis, placing him in the "Class 100" strength range, equivalent to Thor; entailing that he can lift far in excess of 100 tons. Wonder Man also possesses superhuman speed but initially could not fly of his own power. After his revival, he gained a belt that featured a pair of rockets that tapped into his ionic power to give him the ability of flight. Without the belt, he could not fly, but eventually learned to leap great distances like the Hulk. After he was exposed to the energies of a Nega-Bomb in "Operation Galactic Storm", his powers entered a state of flux that lasted until his second "death" in combat with the Kree. At one point during this state of flux, energy erupted from his body and temporarily empowered a group of his non-superpowered friends and associates, who were briefly known as the "Crazy Eight". During an epic battle against Mephisto, the devil, he learned that his body made of ionic energy was able to do far more than he first fathomed. Among other things, he learned that he could fly by himself by projecting energy from his lower body. After that, he was "killed" by the Kree (see bio above and trivia below), and his atoms were dispersed worldwide. His body was later reformed by the Scarlet Witch, by her love and her chaos magic, and was now clearly in its natural state : a form of energy, allegedly ionic energy.
Trivia
Even though Wonder Man has seemingly "died" numerous times, he is actually immortal because his body is made of ionic energy and no longer ages. When he was shot and "killed" the second time, by the Kree, all they succeeded in doing was to disperse his atoms worldwide. Also, he doesn't need to breathe or eat, or maybe even sleep, but does so out of habit, not having known for a number of years that his body was made of ionic energy, or does so for general enjoyment of the pleasures of life. Because his body is made of ionic energy, Wonder Man's eyes glow bright red. He can consciously revert his eyes back to human-looking state through concentration (Simon's human eye color is grey), but only temporarily. We can assume his current natural form to be his "energized" one, and his "human" form to be "worn" out of habit of his human life.