The Wonder Man TV show on Disney+ heavily features Simon Williams trying to make a name for himself without his superpowers, but those powers present him with constant problems nonetheless.
The thing is, we don’t get to see too much of those powers, given that constant suppression. We know he’s described as being dangerous, but there isn’t much else that’s really explored, so here’s what we know about how Wonder Man got his powers.
How Did Wonder Man Get His Powers?
In the Disney+ show, Wonder Man’s origin story is never actually explained. We see him as a child at various points, sometimes with his dad during or after seeing the original Wonder Man film, and other times after his father passed away.
However, while we don’t know exactly how or when he got his powers, we know that he was able to survive a kitchen fire entirely unscathed shortly after his father died, so he’s had his abilities for quite some time.
If we look at the comics for answers, things really don’t line up with what we see in the show. In the comics, Simon Williams got his powers from Baron Zemo performing experiments on him using ionic energy.
In the MCU, Zemo would have been a child in Sokovia around the time that Simon was a child in Pacoima, so it’s highly unlikely that Zemo would be responsible for giving him his powers. As for what was, we’ll just have to wait and see if they explain it for us.
What Are Wonder Man’s Powers?
Wonder Man’s powers in the Disney+ series seem to differ slightly from what he can do in the comics, although we haven’t been shown the full extent of those abilities. We know he has the potential to release massive amounts of energy, seemingly tied to his emotions, but at the end of the series, we see he can direct and control that energy to his benefit.
In the comics, Wonder Man can use his ionic energy to harness super strength, speed, durability, reflexes, agility, and more. He is essentially invulnerable, though he has been defeated on occasion.
After one such incident, he was resurrected by Scarlet Witch and could turn into pure ionic energy at will. Some of these powers are shown in the Wonder Man series, but it seems liberties are being taken.
At one point, he looked at a security camera and destroyed it, seemingly with his mind, as it crackled with ionic energy, but we only find out it’s ionic after Agent P. Cleary is seen going over the lab tests of the soundstage that Simon destroyed.
Even more of a departure from the comics, at the end of the series, Simon is shown to be able to fly (or at least launch himself very quickly and with great accuracy), something he could only do in the comics with a belt-mounted rocket pack.