The Real Reason Wonder Man Hates Iron Man — And How His Powers Fuel the Grudge

Marvel is finally bringing Wonder Man into the live-action mix, with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II leading a Disney+ series. If you are not up on your ionic super-beings with complicated feelings about Tony Stark, pull up a chair. This guy’s origin is wild, his power set is ridiculous, and his history is a full rollercoaster from villain to Avenger to thorn in the Avengers’ side and back again.

So, who is Wonder Man?

Simon Williams starts out as a regular guy. He inherits his dad’s company, Williams Innovations, promptly gets steamrolled by Stark Industries, and makes a bad call trying to fix it by embezzling. He gets caught, lands in prison, and decides Tony Stark is the reason his life went sideways.

Enter Baron Heinrich Zemo, who sees a very angry, very motivated recruit and puts him through an experiment: an ionic ray bombardment fused with Pym Particle–charged energy. Translation: Simon’s body gets rewritten into living ion energy. He does not bleed, does not breathe, does not age. He once flat-out acknowledged he is not flesh and blood anymore, which has a nice bonus side effect: alien symbiotes can’t infect him.

How the powers actually work

Wonder Man is one of those characters where the power list starts sensible and then keeps going. You get the basics: strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes, senses. Then it scales up into near-invulnerability, flight, energy blasts and beams, energy constructs, electromagnetic field tricks, and a healing factor that borders on absurd. He can shrug off high-caliber gunfire, fall from orbit and punch back through the atmosphere without a scratch, and reform after he has been completely disintegrated.

The odder extensions of his ionic body show up when the comics feel spicy: shapeshifting into more monstrous forms, growing in size, teleporting, beaming energy into other people and accidentally creating new powered folks, even straight-up power recycling and self-boosting. His strength can crest well past the 100-ton mark; he has been grouped with Hercules, the Hulk, and the Sentry for a reason. Also, every time he dies, he tends to come back stronger. He does not need food, water, or sleep, and space is basically just more room to float.

One complication the character leans into: his power levels can spike with his emotions. If Simon is spiraling, you will know it, because the feats get bigger and the temper gets shorter.

Why he blames Tony Stark

This beef goes back to the boardroom. Williams Innovations lost out to Stark Industries on key contracts, Simon’s brother Eric was doing crimes on the side, the company cratered, and Simon took the fall trying to patch the holes. He connected all of that to Tony Stark and swore payback.

Zemo handed him the chance. After the ionic procedure, Zemo told Simon he would drop dead within a week without a regular antidote, then sent him to infiltrate the Avengers and betray them. Simon played along… until he didn’t. Conscience kicked in, he turned on Zemo, saved the Avengers, and collapsed into a deathlike coma with no vital signs thanks to the unstable process.

From Zemo’s pawn to full-time Avenger (with detours)

It does not end there. Simon is later reanimated in New Orleans via Voodoo magic, controlled by his brother Eric, who now goes by the Grim Reaper. He attacks the Avengers again, breaks free of Eric’s control with their help, and eventually joins the team properly. He fights heavy hitters like Ultron and Graviton, moves to Hollywood to act again, then signs up with Avengers West Coast when the superhero life calls back.

During the Superhuman Registration Act era, he sides pro-registration and rolls with the Mighty Avengers, taking part in Secret Invasion and World War Hulk while dating Ms. Marvel. After that, he pushes back against Norman Osborn, forms the Lethal Legion, gets disillusioned (again), and creates the Revengers to take on the Avengers directly. That goes about how you would expect: they defeat him. Later, he makes amends by helping rescue the Wasp and joining the Avengers Unity Division, and he keeps showing up when it matters — including protecting Laussa Odinsdottir from Malekith during War of the Realms.

The show: what we actually know

Disney+ is set to drop the Wonder Man miniseries in January 2026 in the US. It is eight episodes, and Disney already teased it with a first-look trailer. No, they did not spell out how they are going to handle a hero who can reconstitute himself after vaporization, but the footage hints that Simon will be wrestling with the scale of what he can do — just like in the comics.

• Lead: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams/Wonder Man
• Also starring: Ben Kingsley, Demetrius Grosse, Ed Harris, Arian Moayed, Zlatko Buric
• Notable characters on deck: Trevor Slattery, Eric Williams/Grim Reaper, Neal Saroyan, P. Cleary, Von Kovak
• Format: 8-episode limited series on Disney+
• Release window: January 2026 (USA)

Bottom line: Wonder Man is not your standard guy-in-a-suit hero. He is ionic energy in human shape with a messy past and a grudge against the most famous industrialist in the MCU. If the series leans into his weird science, resurrection problem, and the Hollywood angle, it could feel like a very different flavor of Marvel show — in a good way.