The Marvel Cinematic Universe has finally redeemed a character that was part of one of its most controversial movie twists. The new series, Wonder Man, is airing on Disney+, and it tells the story of Simon Williams, a man with superhuman powers who doesn’t want to be a superhero and just wants to be a movie actor. However, there are a lot of things standing in his way, including the Department of Damage Control (DODC), which wants to bring him in, and Hollywood itself, which has a regulation banning anyone with superpowers from working on a movie project. He also has a best friend who knows his secrets and is a highlight of the first season. Someone we’ve known for more than a decade now.
Thanks to an excellent story of friendship and honor, Wonder Man continues the redemption of one of the MCU’s most brilliant and misunderstood characters, Trevor Slattery, who was first introduced in Iron Man 3 as part of the most controversial twists in Marvel history. Whether on the page or the screen.
Wonder Man Helps Continue Trevor Slattery’s Redemption Story
Image Courtesy of Marvel
Wonder Man is arguably the best Marvel Cinematic Universe show on Disney+ since WandaVision, and there are several reasons this is true. Like WandaVision, this is not really about superhero battles, and it doesn’t need any real knowledge of the overall MCU to enjoy. Instead, this is the story of a man named Simon Williams who has superpowers but hides them because he doesn’t want to be a hero. He wants to be an actor.
Since this is a story about an actor, it makes sense that the series would bring in the best actor ever introduced in an MCU movie, Trevor Slattery. This would have seemed like a shocking statement 13 years ago. Marvel fans blasted the MCU for introducing Trevor Slattery as a fake Mandarin in Iron Man 3, ruining the excitement surrounding the arrival of Iron Man’s greatest enemy. However, as the short film All Hail the King and Trevor’s later appearance in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (which introduced the real Mandarin) showed, Trevor Slattery deserves all the praise he is now receiving.
In Wonder Man, Trevor Slattery works as a mentor for Simon Williams. While the Department of Damage Control (DODC) wants to either bring in Simon Williams or use him as an asset, they contact Slattery and use his past notoriety to force him to infiltrate Simon’s inner circle and help them keep an eye on him. However, Slattery does something in this Disney+ series that shows his true worth as a hero and a friend to Simon Williams, and once again steals the show in a role that fans initially hated.
Trevor Slattery Was Always a Brilliant Character, Even in Iron Man 3
Image Courtesy of Marvel
It has been 13 years since Ben Kingsley made his MCU debut in Iron Man 3 as the Mandarin. Since the Mandarin was one of Iron Man’s most iconic villains, it got a lot of fans excited about seeing Iron Man’s tech battle the Mandarin’s magical rings. There were also a lot of people at the time who were angry that Marvel race-swapped Mandarin, an Asian villain, with an English actor, Ben Kingsley. Ironically, those same fans complaining about that lost their minds when it turned out Kingsley’s character wasn’t really the Mandarin.
When this turned out to be an adaptation of the Iron Man Extremis storyline from Marvel Comics, and not one about the Mandarin, fans began to claim Iron Man 3 was a terrible movie because of this twist. That has always been hyperbole. The moment that Trevor Slattery revealed he was not the Mandarin, but was an actor hired to pretend to be a terrorist, was one of the best in any Marvel movie. Kingsley knocked it out of the park, and it turned the entire movie on its head. Honestly, it was a better creative decision than the racist caricature that Marvel presented Mandarin as for decades in comics.
This was an early attempt at Marvel to subvert expectations. Showing that an organization could spread mass fear in the public with lies and people pretending to be someone they aren’t is more topical today than it was in 2013. The biggest problem is that Aldrich Killian was nowhere near as interesting a villain as Slattery pretended to be when he portrayed the Mandarin. However, Trevor Slattery was a highlight in Iron Man 3. His twist was brilliantly pulled off, and it is a good thing Wonder Man is rehabilitating the character because he never deserved the viral hate he received from MCU fans.
Now, thanks to Wonder Man, Trevor Slattery has become one of the MCU’s most entertaining characters, and he is someone who deserves roles in any movie or Disney+ series that Marvel wants to cast him in. In the end, Trevor Slattery and the Iron Man 3 twist never deserved hate, as both were brilliantly executed, and now Shang-Chi and Wonder Man have proven how his character has always been misunderstood.
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