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Over the last few years, the MCU has been in an era of self-awareness. From the sitcom style of WandaVision, to the fourth wall breaking of Deadpool and Wolverine, Marvel Studios is at a point where to they can’t NOT acknowledge their place in shaping the pop culture landscape for nearly 2 decades now. But amidst this cultural hegemony, what more is there to explore that hasn’t already been seen before? With a narrative fabric as tightly woven as the MCU’s is, how can Marvel Studios tell new stories about new characters without it feeling like homework, or merely the next step towards the next tentpole? The MCU is hardly the only franchise facing this dilemma right now (see: Star Wars), but it’s pulled off its finest trick yet with its Wonder Man show on Disney+. 

What’s remarkable about Wonder Man is that it doesn’t feel like an MCU show at all. It's not about finding items that create interdimensional portals or preventing the collapse of reality - it's about finding meaning and dignity as a marginalized artist under capitalism. This parallels how Tony Gilroy's Andor show wasn't about the typical Star Wars situations that we're used to. The conflict in Andor didn't revolve around the Force and whose father is whom, but rather the human cost of resisting fascism. Wonder Man, like Andor, found a way to tell a timely and grounded story, led by the humanity of its characters, within the architecture of a billion-dollar franchise. These are the types of shows you tell your parents to watch, even if they're not nerdy. 

Wonder Man stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as struggling actor Simon Williams, the son of two Haitian immigrants in Los Angeles. While this Hollywood is just like our own in many ways, the industry has a strict "no superpowered actors allowed" rule after a mysterious accident years before. Simon forms a friendship with notorious actor Trevor Slattery, played by the incomparable Ben Kingsley, after a chance meeting at a screening of Midnight Cowboy. Trevor is better known as the actor hired by the villain Aldrich Killian to play a terrorist called The Mandarin in a series of live broadcasts during the events of Iron Man 3 years earlier. After a Hollywood director named Von Kovak announces that he is remaking a Wonder Man film, both Simon and Trevor do everything they can to land a part in the film, even hiding the fact that Simon has superpowers. 

Part of what's interesting about Wonder Man is that the MacGuffin of the show isn't, like I said earlier, a sci-fi object whose name would immediately make my mother's eyes go glassy. Instead, it's a feeling and a memory from when Simon Williams first watched the original Wonder Man film with his Haitian immigrant father as a kid. Over the course of the show, when Simon recalls this experience, the camera doesn't linger on the actual footage of the Wonder Man movie. It instead locks in on the subtle changes on young Simon's face, the course of his life changed with every frame of the film. In other words, the Wonder Man show reflects on the impact that stories can have on us, whoever we may be, and whoever we may become. Young Simon's experience of watching the Wonder Man film at a time when he was bullied for being "different" in school was so powerful that it pushed him to pursue the Sisyphean task of carving out a career in Hollywood. 

It's hard to watch that scene of young Simon at the movies with his father and not think of how it mirrors our own relationship with the MCU over the years. After five concussions, there are a lot of things I don't remember anymore, but I still remember seeing the first Iron Man movie in theaters in 2008. I left the theater feeling as breathless and wide-eyed as young Simon from what I had just seen. I'm also old enough to remember seeing the first Fox X-Men movies in theaters. Because I was too young to grasp the concept of CGI and special effects just yet, I really believed that Halle Berry, Rebecca Romijn, and Hugh Jackman could just do all that. I couldn't yet read, but I became an X-Men fan for life. 

At first glance, it might seem like placing a scene such as this within an MCU project is, at best, naval-gazing, and at worst, self-congratulatory. But the Wonder Man show is so well-directed, written, and acted that it succeeds as a heartfelt moment. It's a scene that could only work in an MCU project that didn't feel like an MCU project, and it's a gift that there are so few reminders of the broader ongoings in the MCU throughout the show. I don't want to be reminded that there's a Celestial being mined for adamantium elsewhere on Earth when I'm invested in the simple quest of Simon Williams trying to achieve his dreams in Hollywood without his superpowers being discovered. Company brand synergy be damned, I just want to see Simon and Trevor get the chance to make a living as artists. I'll worry about the X-Men and Doctor Doom some other time. 

At this point, with there being so many MCU projects out there, it's about time that Marvel Studios reflected on how an entire generation of adults grew up watching these movies in theaters. In this sense, there is a little bit of Simon Williams inside all of us, which is a Marvel idea if I've ever heard of one. Considering how the MCU has made Spider-Man, once the company's marquee everyman and working-class character, into a Tony Stark-powered hero who's been to space and fought aliens, it's refreshing to have a guy like Simon Williams who isn't interested in being anything more than an actor and a lover of cinema. Like so many of us, Simon Williams wants to sit down in the movie theater and watch a film that moves him on a human level. Maybe, just maybe, the MCU can learn a lesson from Wonder Man for its upcoming theatrical fare. It remains to be seen if Lucasfilm ever did the same with Andor. 

Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:

• How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in release or chronological order
• The best Marvel Comics stories of all time
• All the MCU movies ranked from best to worst
• Our weekly Marvel insider's column, Marvel Matters