One of the great things about the superhero genre is that you can fit almost any other type of story inside it. Marvel clearly has embraced this idea, with a wide array of stories in the MCU, like espionage thrillers (Winter Soldier), action/comedy (Guardians of the Galaxy), and epic myth (Thor) among others. Now they seem to be going for Hollywood satire with “Wonder Man,” a character not known to many who don’t read the comics. In the comics, he’s one of the more physically powerful Avengers, immensely strong and effectively immortal. Here? Well, we don’t know yet, as the series opens with “Matinee,” the first of eight half hour episodes.

In the comics, Simon Williams is most often shown as an actor when there’s any job mentioned for him at all, and this Simon is the same. The episode opens with a young Simon at a movie, presumably with his father. The movie is, in fact, Wonder Man, who is wearing one of his comic book costumes from his time with the West Coast Avengers. It’s clearly a very cheesy movie, but young Simon seems utterly enthralled. Points to the wardrobe department for taking one of Wonder Man’s uglier costumes (and there have been many) and making it actually work in live action.

Now in the present, the adult Simon is working himself up for a scene. He’s a minor player in a small scene, and we quickly learn he’s one of the classic, over-thinking, “Hey, what if we tried this…” kind of actors. Eventually, he wears through everyone’s patience and not only gets fired, but his role is eliminated from the episode. That’s a pretty impressive version of blowing it. And that’s not the end of Simon’s bad day.

Getting home, he has to do some gymnastics to deal with someone encroaching on his parking space, only to find out his coming home early means another unpleasant surprise. The man cannot catch a break on this particular day. Clearly upset, he retreats to the bathroom, and we get a hint that Simon might not be just another frustrated actor.

Going to the movies to forget his troubles, he watches the classic Midnight Cowboy, and then meets Trevor Slattery. Trevor has previously appeared in Iron Man 3, and then Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. He does have a talent for turning up in unexpected places. After the movie, Trevor and Simon talk, including mentioning one of Trevor’s obscure roles (played in reality by Ben Kingsley, who portrays Trevor, for a nice meta-tip of the hat). Trevor drops a hint about a new movie, a remake of Wonder Man that young Simon liked so much.

In true Hollywood fashion, Simon rushes to his agent, who is not happy with his getting himself fired earlier. The agent, Janelle, has a talk with Simon that is somewhere between a scolding and a “get your act together” kind of discussion. Simon, having no shame, takes advantage of a situation to lie his way into the Wonder Man auditions. Interestingly, when he’s checking in, there’s a wavier he needs to sign that states he doesn’t have powers, called a Doorman waiver. This implies that A) powered people can’t appear in movies for some reason and B) references a Marvel character even more obscure than Wonder Man.

Doorman, DeMarr Davis, is a member of the largely joke group known as the Great Lakes Avengers. He appears as a black silhouette with white eyes, and his one power seems to be that if he stands against a solid object, people can pass through his outline as if he were a door. Yeah, there’s a reason he’s kind of obscure. In the comics, he has nothing to do with Hollywood or acting, so I’m curious to learn the backstory of this particular bit of business. While he prepares for the audition, he once again demonstrates there’s something special about him. Then, he sees Trevor, and Trevor takes Simon aside and seems to earnestly be trying to help him. He aces the audition, which is the dialogue from the scene we saw in the opening of the episode.

Later, Trevor and Simon go out to celebrate, and talk about their differing approaches to acting. Contrary to his previous appearances, Trevor seems to the calm and level-headed one, and he gives Simon a lot to think about. After they agree to keep in touch and Simon leaves, we see that Trevor is once again playing some kind of game, and at least someone else out there who clearly has some backing knows Simon’s secret. It’s an interesting note to end on, and gives several new layers to what we’ve seen so far.

What I Liked: I’ve heard a few people referring to this show as “acting over action” and I’d agree. It’s a very different approach. It was fun to see Trevor again. I was very intrigued by the end scene. Yahya Abdul-Mateen gave a really good performance. I was impressed with the live action version of that ugly costume.

What I Didn’t: Really, very little. I’m very curious about how the movie “Wonder Man” fits into the MCU, and whatever Trevor is up to, but we will hopefully find out about that, and Doorman, some time soon.

I’m giving this a 4.5 out of 5. I hope to get to the rest of the series soon.