Name: Mike

Subject: Wonder Man One Shot # 1, 1986 Review by Mike

WONDER MAN!

writer: David Michelinie

penciler: Kerry Gammil

inker: Vince Colletta

STORY: After Henry Peter Gyrich downsizes the Avengers, Wonder Man tries to find and keep a steady job and paycheck.

CAST:

Scott Lang a.k.a. Ant Man

Mr. Oakly

Doctor Edward Wheetly

Dulcy Kimble

Captain America

Wasp

Vision

Sandman

ANALYSIS:

During an acting job on the soap opera Secret Hospital Simon screws up an important scene by letting his concentration slip and allowing his eyes to become red. Simon tries to smooth things over with the irate director, but he fires Simon anyway.

Frustrated, Simon collects his things from his dressing room, and angrily slams his fist down on the makeup counter attached to the wall and rips it and the wall down by accident. The hole in the wall reveals his female costar from the scene he just blew in her underwear. She yells at him, and the now embarrassed Simon leaves the building before he gets into more trouble.

Outside, Simon hails a taxi and during the ride to Avengers Mansion, he thinks about his life and what led him to this point. It turns out, that after he was cut from the Avengers lineup by Henry Peter Gyrich, Hercules set him up with some of his Hollywood contacts.

Simon comes out of his daydream and notices he's stuck in a traffic jam. Because he can't afford to sit there with the meter running, Simon lifts the taxi over his head and carries it to a side street. The shaken cabbie then takes Simon to the Avengers Mansion.

At the Mansion door, Simon is greeted by Scott Lang in his new identity as Ant Man. Ant Man flies into the mansion changes back into Scott Lang and let's Wonder Man in. Wonder Man is noticeably upset and heads down to the training rooms to work out and get rid of his pent up anger.

During the training room exercise, Wonder Man tears through the first few obstacles when suddenly a huge robot pops out of the floor and is about to smash his giant fists down on him and suddenly stops.

Scott Lang paused the training room sequence and comes in to talk to Wonder Man about a job prospect. Lang gives Wonder Man a business card for Cordco Incorporated, and tells him they are looking for a specialist with just the sort of powers and abilities that Wonder Man possesses.

Wonder Man takes the card and says he'll look into it. While he reads the card, Lang walks out and turns the training program back on and Wonder Man is promptly smashed into the floor by the robot he was standing near.

The next morning, Wonder Man makes his way to Cordco. The security guard and his guard dog at the main gate lets Simon in and tells him that Mr. Oakly is expecting him.

Mr. Oakly takes Wonder Man on a tour of the Cordco labs and explains to him that Cordco is a company that was set up by Tony Stark to take the most unusual and off the wall ideas and explore them thoroughly with no limits on funds or imagination. They look for any element that might benefit mankind or at least make a profit.

Mr. Oakly takes Wonder Man to Doctor Edward Wheetly's work area and the Doctor tells them that he's picking up images on his giant computer of what looks like a war of somekind in a parallel dimension, but he isn't too sure because the images are blurry and full of static.

Walking away from the doctor's work area, Mr. Oakly explains to Wonder Man that with such unprecedented experiments going on, they are bound to run into some kind of unexpected dangerous situations and incase that happens, they need a troubleshooter, and that's the job he's offering Wonder Man.

Wonder Man happily accepts the job offer and is then taken to the medical facility by Mr. Oakly to have their doctors run a full medical exam on Wonder Man. This is required by all new employees in order for them to qualify for their jobs.

Dr. Wheetly watches them walk out of the lab doors and is embarrassed by his poor showing in front of Mr. Oakly. It turns out he hasn't had any real progress in weeks and was hoping Mr. Oakly wouldn't notice, but now that he has, Dr. Wheetly feels he must show some progress immediately.

Re-channeling power from the surrounding labs, Dr. Wheetly sends tremendous amounts of power through his giant computer. The surrounding labs scientists notice the lights dimming and know that Dr. Wheetly is responsible, since he's apparently done this sort of thing to them before.

The angry scientists storm into Dr. Wheetly's lab and demand he shut down his experiment, because the power surges he is causing are ruing all of their experiments. Dr. Wheetly, frightened by his fellow scientists, shuts down his giant view screen and computer. All of the scientists, including Dr. Wheetly leave the lab and don't notice a strange blob of yellow energy forming nest to the giant computer.

Forty-five minutes later, Wonder Man has passed all of the doctor's tests at Cordco and now Mr. Oakly introduces Wonder Man to his new boss, Dulcy Kimble.

Mr. Oakly reads what the medical technos have discovered about Simon and he reveals, among other things, that Wonder Man doesn't need to breath if he doesn't want to, much to the surprise of Simon.

As Dulcy welcomes Simon to his new job, Dr. Wheetly walks back into his lab after settling things down between him and his fellow scientists when something screams and hurls a spear at him, just missing his head.

Dr. Wheetly is shocked to see that a dimensional portal has opened and the conflict he was trying to view before has spilled through it. Now two armies of yellowish orange gnomes in armor are battling inside of his lab.

As Dr. Wheetly runs for the control panels of his view screen, the emergency alarm sounds and Mr. Oakly, Dulcy and Simon look out of their window only to see a vast army of gnomes in a running battle coming out of the building next to theirs.

The security guards try to contain the battling imps, but are getting beaten. Dulcy orders Wonder Man to try and handle them alone and unarmed while she goes to get some weapons incase he can't do it. Although he's still suffering from his fear of dying again, Simon runs into the fray.

Finding what he believes are the leaders of the warring groups, Simon lifts them up off the ground and tries to speak to them, but the energy swords and staffs they are using melt the pavement beneath Wonder Man's feet and he sinks in up to his chest.

Easily breaking out of this, Wonder Man is ordered by Dulcy to contain them in the construction area where there fighting. Picking up a giant steel water pipe, Wonder Man splits it and makes it into a giant bulldozer scoop and plows through the heart of the gnomes and smashes the scoop into a concrete wall trapping them temporarily.

The gnomes bust out and Dulcy and some firemen turn hoses and fire extinguishers on the gnomes to confuse them while the security people get tear gas.

The battle rages onto the Power Tower, which is where all the Cordco facilities get their power. The tower breaks off at the base and is stopped by Wonder Man before it can crush the firemen and security guards.

The men run and Simon notices the guard dog that was at the main gate is trapped by high tension cables. Simon tosses the tower up briefly and at super speed, runs and grabs the dog and just makes it out from underneath the crashing power tower.

Dr. Wheetly, in a panic, blurts out that it was his lab that caused this. Dulcy overhears and sends Wonder Man to the lab to shut down the experiment. Crashing through the wall of the lab, Wonder Man battles his way through a living sea of the battling gnomes and literarily pulls the plug on the giant computer, shutting it down and sending all of the gnomes back to their home dimension.

Simon, having proved himself capable of handling extreme situations like this, gets the job as troubleshooter for Cordco.

Later, after his shift is through, Simon begins to walk home when the guard he met at the gate wants to take Simon out for a drink as thanks for saving his dog's life. Simon agrees and they go to a local bar.

Inside, Simon orders a coke and after the guard has talked to him for a while asks Simon why he looks worried. Simon explains to the guard that he thought he wasn't going to have to take such an active roll at Cordco and have to lay his life on the line. He tells the guard that the only thing he didn't like about being an Avenger was that fact that he might die again. Even though he knows he's practically indestructible, Simon still has a psychological fear of death.

The guard tells him that everyone dies eventually and he should just accept that and move on. While Simon thinks this over, a drunk bodybuilder comes over to try and pick a fight with him. The drunk crushes a beer can in his fist to show how tough he is, and Simon uproots a metal bar stool from the floor and crushes it in his fist. The drunk gets scared, Simon gets mad and walks out. The guard leaves a card for the bartender and tells him to bill the damages to Cordco.

The next day, Dr. Wheetly sneaks back into his lab and turns his dimensional computer back on in. He is convinced that his theories were proven true by yesterday's incident and he is now going to reverse the polarity on the computer in order to be able to make a doorway through which people could travel to other worlds.

Mr. Oakly notices noises coming from the lab that was shut down, and is shocked to find Dr. Wheetly operating the dimensional computer again. Mr. Oakly begins to berate Dr. Wheetly when suddenly a portal opens above his head and sucks him through into another dimension.

Dr. Wheetly is ecstatic that his experiment worked, but he then realizes that Mr. Oakly could be in danger.

The Cordco alarms go off and Simon rushes into the hall from his new office and is met by Dulcy and some guards. They hurry to the lab and put on special survival gear and are prepared to go into the dimensional door, when Simon's beeper goes off. Simon explains that this beeper is hooked into the Avengers priority network and that he must call them back immediately.

After making his call, Simon takes off his survival gear and tells them that a crisis has come up which could kill thousands, if not millions of people if he doesn't show up. He apologizes to Dulcy and leaves.

Dulcy must now go into the dimensional door alone and rescue Mr. Oakly herself. She tells the security guards to make sure the scientists reverse the polarity in thirty minutes. If her and Mr. Oakly don't make it out by that time, she wants the machine blown up.

A few minutes later, Wonder Man flies to the East Coast Medical Center which is surrounded by police and panicked people are running from the building.

Simon makes his way to Captain America and the other Avengers in the basement labs control room.

Cap explains that the center was treating William Baker, the Sandman, for cancer that he got when he gained his powers. None of their treatments worked and Sandman, hearing that they were conducting megadose radiation experiments in the basement labs, broke into them and took them over. The Sandman's fear of dying has made him dangerously insane and he is now releasing huge amounts of radiation at random in hopes of curing himself. The only problem is, that because of this, Sandman could trigger a meltdown that would render Manhattan Island a radioactive wasteland if not stopped.

Wonder Man is the only person, due to his ionic powers, who can go into the room and not be killed by the massive amounts of radiation. The heat is so intense, that the Vision, even in his intangible state, would melt.

Simon knowing he's everyone's only hope, makes his way down into the lower basement levels to stop the Sandman.

Simon confronts the Sandman and tries to reason with him, but Sandman's sanity is too far gone and he lashes out at Wonder Man and a battle ensues. After taking a tremendous amount of punishment, Wonder Man rips a water pipe out of a wall and blasts Sandman apart with the high pressure of the blasting hard water.

Wonder Man, must now push all of the raised dampening rods back into the hard water tanks by hand in order to avert a chain reaction resulting in a total meltdown.

One by one Wonder Man pushes the rods back into the water tank until finally an alarm tells him that he's averted the meltdown.

Relived, Wonder Man turns to see that the pile that is Sandman is glowing hot from the radiation it's absorbed. Taking two of the dampening rods that weren't lowered, Wonder Man plunges them into the Sandman's body and absorbs all of the excess radiation.

Later, after he's been decontaminated, Wonder Man is being congratulated by his fellow Avengers while they watch scientists on a monitor working on Sandman when a Doctor comes into the room. Apparently Sandman cured himself of cancer, but because of the random way he did it and the fact that the heat destroyed most of the lower labs, the process can never be duplicated.

Simon realizes that Sandman stumbled across the cure for cancer for himself, but because of his selfish fear of dying, that cure can never be used for the benefit of others. This causes Simon to question his own fear of death and he releases the negative effect it's had on him and those around him.

Wonder Man borrows a Quinjet and flies back to Cordco. When he makes his way into the lab he's shocked to see the dimensional machine being dismantled, but soon sees Mr. Oakly and Dulcy at the other side of the room. Relieved to see they were okay.

Simon is then told by Mr. Oakly that he was captured by the gnomes upon landing in their dimension. Using a crude form of sign language, Mr. Oakly found out that the war had started because the gnomes had no concept for mathematics and a trade dispute turned into a war.

Mr. Oakly taught them how to use a pocket calculator he had and this caused the war to cease. The gnomes were so fascinated by the new "magic," that they didn't notice Dulcy and grab Mr. Oakly and take him back to Earth.

Simon apologizes to Mr. Oakly and Dulcy for abandoning them, but Mr. Oakly tells Simon he would have done the same thing if he had Wonder Man's powers. Mr. Oakly told Simon he would be always welcome at Cordco as a friend, but Cordco needs a full time troubleshooter and the world could use a full time Wonder Man.

Simon shakes Mr. Oakly's hand and Dulcy tells Simon it was a fun twenty-four hours, tells him "good luck hero" and kisses him on the cheek. Wonder Man walks out of Cordco and thinks," Hero. Funny, for so many years, through so much emotional turmoil, I've looked for a place to belong. Maybe ... just maybe... I've been there all the time. Simon then flies the Quinjet back to Avengers Mansion.

Okay here are my thoughts on this one-shot:

I loved it! It's a good, solid story, which shows Wonder Man finally put to rest his long standing fear of dying and he comes out of this issue as a confident hero ready to take on the world.

The art is very detailed and the story moves along at an extremely good pace panel to panel. I liked the painted cover a lot. I think it was painted by Bill Sienkiewicz, but I am unsure since it's uncredited.

There are plenty of funny moments in the story and it really shows Simon as a hard luck kind of hero and makes him that much more real as a character.

The two things I didn't like was that twice in the series they refer to him as a being made of energy. Again, I don't know why writers keep doing this, but I wish it would stop already. And Simon's sunglasses were green instead of red. I know it's kind of minor, but still.

All in all I highly recommend finding this inexpensive one-shot in the back-issue bins at your local comic book shop or buying it off the Internet.

I really enjoyed this one-shot as well. It was nice to see some follow up on what happened to Simon after he got bumped from the Avengers roster.

I've always liked Michelinie's work, and he did a really great job here with Simon.