Wonder Man: Found Footage

I often have issues when they take a character who I know and like and turn them into something wholly different for an adaptation. Usually I say the more seemingly random changes they make, the worse the adaptation is. The MCU has managed to exempt themselves from this rule of mine a few times (really, it makes a lot more sense that techno-genius Tony Stark made Ultron than bio-chemist Hank Pym). They are doing so again with their take on Wonder Man, who has very little in common with his comic book counterpart, but they are telling a great story here, which continues in “Found Footage.”

Wonder Man: Doorman

Doorman, in the comics, is a minor character, part of a group of lesser-known, mostly used as joke characters called the Great Lakes Avengers. He’s actually not the first of the GLA to show up in the MCU, since a version of Immortal Man popped up in the She-Hulk series. He’s been referenced several times so far during Wonder Man. Now, we finally get to see what happened that led to the “Doorman clause” that prohibits superhumans from working in Hollywood movies. Probably tv shows, too, but that hasn’t really been spelled out yet. They use black and white to emphasize that almost the entire episode is a flashback, as we get the story behind “Doorman.”

Wonder Man: Pacoima

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.”

Wonder Man: Self Tape

There have been assorted changes made from the comics to the on screen world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So far, it seems like the adaptation of Wonder Man might be one of the furthest from the source material. They are definitely leaning hard into Simon Williams’ acting career, even if they are ignoring the rest of his history. The acting career and the Hollywood life are very much the focus of episode two of Wonder Man’s series, “Self Tape.”

Echo: Chafa

Marvel has a lot of interesting characters in their ever-expanding universe. One area they’ve been fairly lacking in is Native representation, although they’re working on it. Among their few Native characters is Echo, Maya Lopez. The MCU version turned up during the Hawkeye series, and now she’s off on her own adventure.

Boyhood (2014): Stream It or Skip It?

Well, now think about a movie that took 12 years to finish because director Richard Linklater wanted to make a movie about growing up and decided it would be interesting to film it using the same actors for all stages of the story. That’s Boyhood (2014). It’s not just a coming-of-age story—it literally grows up…