It seems that Marvel's new influx of Avengers titles will once again feature Simon Williams, Wonder Man. Every attempt to make him a major star has served only to prevent him from being one. His beginnings as a bitter, disgraced rival of Tony Stark, then pawn of Baron Zemo led to his *first* death. He became the reason for his brother, the Grim Reaper's vendetta against the Avengers and the template for the brain patterns of the Vision, all the while his body was preserved as no one ever embalmed, buried or cremated a super hero or villain.
He stayed inert from 1964 to 1976, with a membership in the later proven false Legion of the Unliving. He was semi-zombified but got better. He wore a series of costumes from bad to worse. He was powerful, frightened, filled with self doubt and revealed to be no longer quite human. He became a stuntman, chlidren's show buffoon and finally a movie star. He fell in love with the Scarlet Witch and became full of himself. He also got into a real bad habit of dying on a regular basis.
He was last seen in prison for defying Norman Osbourne, someone he should be able to quickly defeat. He has gone from criminal to dead to hero to dead to hero to convicted criminal. Can this one-shot Silver Age blip become an A-list star today and how?
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