‘Wonder Man’ And The Paradox Of The Pacifist Superhero

Later today, Disney Plus launches their latest Marvel superhero series, centered on Wonder Man. The series will focus on the character’s main distinguishing feature- his Hollywood superstar status. But in the last decade, another interesting trait was introduced that sets him apart from other superheroes.

In the original 2012 volume of Uncanny Avengers written by Rick Remender, we meet a team of superheroes that’s a unique blend of Avengers and X-Men, the unity squad. The team started with six iconic heroes from each team, but after the initial storyarc an additional three joined, including Simon Williams. It was on his first page in the series — page 4 of Uncanny Avengers #5 — that Simon declared he was done punching things. Ever since then, he’s been a pacifist.

The idea of a pacifist superhero is a great one. It was explored with Superman with a time when Joe Casey was writing Adventures of Superman. And thankfully, Simon has stuck with it ever since then.

The problem with that is the same problem that most comics writers seem to have with married couples. For some reason, one of the cores of superhero comics is punching, even when the best and longest running comics have been more about the interpersonal drama than the fisticuffs. Hell, one of Spider-Man’s many animated series ran for multiple years with Peter Parker never actually throwing a punch.

What has actually happened with Wonder Man though has been a mixed bag. In some cases, it focuses on him getting beat up because he refuses to throw a punch. In others, he simply acts as a human shield for the rest of his team. Hell, in some other cases, he simply fades into the background as other characters in the story are foregrounded.

And here’s my thing about that.

I love the idea of a pacifist superhero. As I hinted at before, the best superhero comics are essentially soap operas with some superhero shenanigans thrown in. Those shenanigans don’t require punching. These are numerous ways that a pacifist superhero can be written:

• Search and rescue
• Urban Firefighting
• Flooding
• Wildfires
• Other natural disasters in progress
• Relief aid after disasters

Instead of those fairly obvious things (which let’s be real, entire Avengers series could be written about), we get writers finding loopholes, making him a human shield, or just plain ignoring him until they think of something.

I hope this character trait of Wonder Man’s never goes away. It gives us something more interesting than the (admittedly very interesting) “he’s a superhero actor” aspect. But I do hope writers are able to turn it into something more engaging than what we’ve seen on the page so far. And hell, maybe bring some other superheroes along for the ride.