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Post by pinkfloydsound17 on May 26, 2017 8:27:50 GMT -5
Wonder Man is a character I am very unfamiliar with. Outside of recently reading a bit about his origin, I know nothing about the character. Was he ever used in any interesting capacity? Did he ever have any noteworthy moments? I saw he had a mini series (in late 80's early 90's?) and wondered if there was anything good there...I like offbeat stuff that entertains. However, reading about him makes him seem like a third rate-Supermanesque type character with a very boring costume so the draw visually is not there for me. If anyone has any more details or enjoyed anything with him in it, I would love to know!
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on May 26, 2017 9:25:29 GMT -5
There are two main character bits with Wonder Man over the years.
The first is that he died and came back to life. It turns out that because he's made of ionic energy now, he can't really die, but he was essentially dead - in a dormant state - for many years between Avengers #9 and #151. When he comes back, he has this intense post-traumatic fear of death and dying again, so even though he's incredibly powerful, he suffers from serious anxiety issues which sometimes cripple him in the middle of combat situations.
The second is that the Vision was made with Wonder Man's brain patterns, so the two are sort of like brothers, or fraternal twins even. They become close, but there is a lot of friction because Wonder Man ends up falling in love with the Scarlet Witch, and the two eventually have a relationship after Vision is destroyed in West Coast Avengers.
Beyond those things, he's also well known among avengers fans for his friendship with his best friend The Beast. The two of them often had two-man buddy adventures in the pages of Avengers. For my money - and a lot of Avengers fans - this is the best version of both Wonder Man and The Beast. The Beast is sooo much better in the pages of Avengers than he is in X-Men! And a good part of that is his interplay with Wonder Man.
And he's also a professional actor - he starts his career as a stuntman, but over the years becomes a full-fledged Hollywood action star.
Having said all that, he's not my favorite character. A lot of writers used those first two big plot points as crutches, so a lot of time he just got stuck playing out one of those plots yet again, and it kind of got tired.
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Post by spoon on May 26, 2017 15:50:05 GMT -5
Wonder Man is a character I am very unfamiliar with. Outside of recently reading a bit about his origin, I know nothing about the character. Was he ever used in any interesting capacity? Did he ever have any noteworthy moments? I saw he had a mini series (in late 80's early 90's?) and wondered if there was anything good there...I like offbeat stuff that entertains. However, reading about him makes him seem like a third rate-Supermanesque type character with a very boring costume so the draw visually is not there for me. If anyone has any more details or enjoyed anything with him in it, I would love to know! Wonder Man had an ongoing series in the early 90s written by Gerard Jones and drawn by Jeff Johnson, which is what you may be thinking of. I collected most of that series and enjoyed it. I think it has a good bit of "offbeat stuff that entertains." Wonder Man gets his own supporting stuff living in Hollywood and there's some humor around that. But it's a bit of a mix, because there's also the recurring theme of Wonder Man as someone whose come back from the dead. There are also crossovers with Galactic Storm and Infinity War with the Avengers. Generally I liked the light moments more. The series fades toward the end when there's a new artist. He also had a serial in Marvel Comics Presents that lasted about 8 or 10 issues, but it's not as good as his own title. It either came out shortly before his solo series or maybe it even overlapped.
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Post by Cei-U! on May 26, 2017 15:56:04 GMT -5
Beyond those things, he's also well known among avengers fans for his friendship with his best friend The Beast. The two of them often had two-man buddy adventures in the pages of Avengers. For my money - and a lot of Avengers fans - this is the best version of both Wonder Man and The Beast. The Beast is sooo much better in the pages of Avengers than he is in X-Men! And a good part of that is his interplay with Wonder Man. There's a 3-issue mini-series from 2000 called Avengers Two: Wonder Man and Beast by Roger Stern and Mark Bagley that does a wonderful depiction of their friendship. I recommend it. Cei-U! See? I *do* read comics less than 30 years old!
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 26, 2017 17:30:00 GMT -5
I second the recommendation for Avengers Two.. great mini. To go a little farther forward... in recent times, Wonder Man became a pacifist, and refused to fight people, thinking that heroes constantly fighting bad guys was CREATING the bad guys... I think that was after House of M, but I'm not sure.
He even went so far as to start fighting the Avengers, and put a team together to stop them from operating... It was kinda weird, but it's out there. It's notable to me because I think that's the only time since Force Works someone used Century (who I think I'm the only one who likes).
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Post by codystarbuck on May 26, 2017 18:29:11 GMT -5
Wonder Man is a character I am very unfamiliar with. Outside of recently reading a bit about his origin, I know nothing about the character. Was he ever used in any interesting capacity? Did he ever have any noteworthy moments? I saw he had a mini series (in late 80's early 90's?) and wondered if there was anything good there...I like offbeat stuff that entertains. However, reading about him makes him seem like a third rate-Supermanesque type character with a very boring costume so the draw visually is not there for me. If anyone has any more details or enjoyed anything with him in it, I would love to know! Ever do anything interesting? Why he proved that George perez might be color blind! Or at least fashionably challenged. And before you can say anyone can have an off day... To be fair, Captain Ultra was supposed to look stupid. Wonder Man might have worked if it had been simplified a bit and at least used different shades of green and red, though green and something else or red and something else would have probably helped. Wondy's reappearance, as a zombie, is worth reading, then his use in the Shooter era, especially withe the Beast. he also had a nice issue of Marvel Two-in-One (#78). Thing and Wondy always seemed to make a good pair.
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Post by james on May 27, 2017 4:59:52 GMT -5
John Byrne's run on West Coast Avengers added another storyline I think was worth reading in regards to Wonder man. Issues 42-56 I think.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2017 7:38:45 GMT -5
John Byrne's run on West Coast Avengers added another storyline I think was worth reading in regards to Wonder man. Issues 42-56 I think. That was a great run that had the Vision rebuilt, the return of the Original Torch, the Scarlet Witch betraying the team..
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Post by Dizzy D on May 27, 2017 10:24:29 GMT -5
I'm not a fan of Wonderman, but I like that Wonderman is an actor, but a terrible actor. The only other noteworthy appearance of him I can remember was in Incredible Hercules. Ares, who had joined the Avengers at that time, and Wonderman were sent after Hercules, who was a fugitive. What follows is a list of events where Ares repeatedly attacks Wonderman (usually from behind), while shouting warnings to him, to get at his hated half-brother. (It's not much of a Wonderman moment, it's more about Ares and his incredible lack of subtlety. Any hero could be in Simon's place, though him being invulnerable makes it more comedic).
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on May 27, 2017 11:27:45 GMT -5
Personally, I loathe the Byrne issues of WCA. he completely destroyed Vision, who has never recovered as a character. And his stuff with Wanda was both cringey self-fan-service and a tired rehash of the dark Phoenix storyline. I don't think I could dislike the run more.
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bor
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Post by bor on May 29, 2017 6:31:20 GMT -5
For me it was the friendship with beast that made him entertaining. I always liked them because they had an odd friendship.
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Post by Cei-U! on May 29, 2017 7:41:56 GMT -5
Personally, I loathe the Byrne issues of WCA. he completely destroyed Vision, who has never recovered as a character. And his stuff with Wanda was both cringey self-fan-service and a tired rehash of the dark Phoenix storyline. I don't think I could dislike the run more. I'm with you. I'd dropped out of comics by then, but a friend's son had these. I read them and was horrified by Byrne's choices. Cei-U! I summon the travesty!
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Post by Icctrombone on May 29, 2017 8:17:45 GMT -5
Wonderman was always a D list character to me. They never really knew what to do with him. He was even a villain opposing the Avengers at the end of Bendis' run.
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Post by Icctrombone on May 29, 2017 8:19:15 GMT -5
Personally, I loathe the Byrne issues of WCA. he completely destroyed Vision, who has never recovered as a character. And his stuff with Wanda was both cringey self-fan-service and a tired rehash of the dark Phoenix storyline. I don't think I could dislike the run more. Has he never recovered ? Waid is writing him pretty well in the Latest Avengers series.
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Post by tingramretro on May 29, 2017 8:24:12 GMT -5
Personally, I loathe the Byrne issues of WCA. he completely destroyed Vision, who has never recovered as a character. And his stuff with Wanda was both cringey self-fan-service and a tired rehash of the dark Phoenix storyline. I don't think I could dislike the run more. Yeah, I hated the way Byrne just casually destroyed twenty years worth of character development with Vision. Stupid and unnecessary.
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