As many comic book readers know, Wonder Man/Simon Williams has a very complicated family history. His brother Eric is the supervillain known as the Grim Reaper, who has never been able to accept Simon’s return from the death that was part of his origin arc. Complicating things still further, a recording of Simon’s brain patterns was used by Ultron when creating the Vision, making them essentially brothers, and earning Vision a place on the Grim Reaper’s hit list as well. Things aren’t that serious, at least not yet, but we do get to see that Eric and Simon don’t get on in the MCU as well as the comics as we attend a celebration in “Pacoima.”

The episode opens with a scene from the past, with a young Simon at the doctor’s office. He apparently survived a house fire utterly unscathed, suggesting that whatever powers he possesses have been around for quite a while. After this interesting tidbit, we jump to the present and a very disturbingly familiar scene. We see a meeting of Damage Control agents, get another mention of the Raft, and a rant that they don’t have enough people in custody to justify their budget. This leads to the management pushing for arrests for arrests’ sake, which brings to mind current events with ICE, but maybe that’s just me. Agent Cleary, in turn, is passing this pressure on to Trevor.

Simon and Trevor are hanging out at Simon’s place while Simon is on the phone with his agent. Judging from the conversation, he’s pushing about news from his audition, but there’s no news yet and she is losing patience. She also brings up an “issue” Simon had on the set of the Rookie, which is a bit of an inside joke. The Rookie stars Nathan Fillion, who, in a deleted scene from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, can be seen on a movie poster starring as Wonder Man. Rumors swirled for quite a while that Fillion would play the part. Simon and Trevor get into an amusing quote-off, citing many different works in the sort of thing I can (and have) absolutely see actors do. Simon gets a text about his mother’s birthday party the next day. Under pressure from Cleary, Trevor talks his way into going along.

When they get there, Mom, at least, is happy to see them, and delighted that Trevor brought her flowers. Once inside, we see that there is a lot of tension between Simon and Eric. It’s the usual sort of dynamic of “responsible” brother versus the struggling artist. Trevor pokes around a little about the circumstances of the fire, but all he really gets is that Mom blames herself and Eric blames Simon, which seems to be a recurring theme. We also see that most of the party goers don’t seem impressed with Simon’s career, and one of them goes on about being a fan of Captain America, which it sounds like Simon isn’t. One thing we do get to see is a Caribbean custom of leaving clothes in a barrel. This is to send back home to people who haven’t immigrated and might be in need.

After some more random tensions, and an amusing run-in between Trevor and a neighbor, Eric announces some news. He’s been promoted at work, and his business is going to have some openings. This leads to Eric pushing Simon to give up acting, and a great deal more tension. Eric then turns his suspicions and unpleasantness on Trevor ,who answers assorted pointed questions as best he can. Trevor also does some snooping but doesn’t find anything of note. Later, Trevor shmoozes with mom and learns a bit about Simon’s childhood, but nothing that will help get Cleary off Trevor’s back. There’s a big moment with the cake and the Happy Birthday song, and the positioning speaks volumes about the relationships in play. It’s a brilliant bit of staging and acting.

Simon finally says they need to get going, and gives mom his present. Even this isn’t good enough for Eric, who goes on a rant about supporting Simon and not approving of his choices. Families are great at pushing your buttons, and Eric seems to be a master at it, which leads to another display of Simon’s still somewhat vague powers. Eric blames Simon for that, too. There’s definitely going to be some clean up needed in the Williams’ household.

The drive back is tense, and then Simon finally acknowledges the incident. We also get another mention of whatever is up with Doorman in the MCU. Interestingly, Trevor also seems to be ignorant of whatever this is about. In an attack of conscience, Trevor does a good deed that is almost definitely going to come back on him. The episode ends with a piece of good news for both Simon and Trevor, and they’re both overdue for that.

What I Liked: They do a great job of showing family tension, which is a factor even for people with superpowers. Even with the dubious origin of it, I like the friendship between Trevor and Simon. It’s very interesting that Simon might have had his powers since childhood. I wonder if this version of him is going to end up being a mutant and his powers emerged earlier than the usual age of puberty. I disliked the scene, but the meeting at Damage Control was disturbingly believable. I’m getting more and more curious about whatever happened with Doorman in this world.

What I Didn’t: I don’t like what Damage Control is turning into in this world. Especially with the Sokovia Accords undone as of She-Hulk, it doesn’t seem like they should be operating like this. I hope whatever the Doorman business is about doesn’t end up being some goofy union issue or something.

This series continues to impress me. I’ll give this one a 4 out of 5. I hope we get to learn more about Simon’s powers soon.