The Greatest Show on Earth

It is the opening night of Arkon IV, and its lead star Simon Williams — aka Wonder Man — puts on a spectacle to the gathered media. Outside the theater he clashes with what appears to be three crooks armed with high tech weapons and jet packs. However, this is all a publicity stunt and the “crooks” are nothing more than stunt men. After showing off for the cameras, Simon goes into the theater with his girlfriend Christina Carson.

When film starts, the audience cheers when Simon — who plays Arkon’s foe in the film — appears on camera with his glowing red eyes. Williams is pleased to see such a positive reaction from the audience.

Meanwhile, back at Avengers Compound, Hawkeye and Mockingbird are making up for lost time by spending the evening in the hot tub. The pair haven’t had a moment by themselves following their recent adventure with east coast team in the land of the dead.[1] Before that, the couple were split up when lost in time and space when Bobbi was kidnapped by the Phantom Rider. When Clint asks what the Rider did to her after he used a love potion on her. Bobbi assures him that nothing untoward happened and once again lies about how the Rider met his demise. She says he fell off a cliff by accident, hiding the fact that she could have saved his life but left him to die.[2] Bobbi instantly feels bad for lying to her husband and figures that it comes so easy because of her SHIELD training.

Elsewhere on the compound, Tony Stark heads to Simon’s bungalow to make peace with him since things have been tense between the two for a while. However, when it turns out that Simon isn’t home, Tony gets annoyed that Williams is more focused on his movie career than his duties as an Avenger.

Back in Hollywood, Wonder Man is being congratulated for his successful screening. Simon is pretty happy himself and is pleased that his career has blown up since he publicly confessed to his past crimes.[3] When the director says they should meet to discuss his next film role, Simon boldly says he won’t be playing a villain anymore and won’t settle for anything short of a three picture deal. Although the producer takes offense to this, the director is impressed and says Simon is going to go places in this town.

At that moment, Marc Spector is waiting in his guest bungalow at Avengers Compound for the arrival of his personal pilot, Frenchie. When he arrives in the Moon-Coptor, Moon Knight tells him that he won’t need his services for the time being since he has decided to join the Avengers. Frenchie understands and wishes Marc luck on his new endeavor.[4]

Meanwhile, Wonder Man is taking a limo to a nearby television studio to do a spot on a popular late night talkshow. On the way, Christina begins asking Simon how much money he makes working for the Avengers. As it turns out, all the profits for licensing and comic books go to charity and Simon makes a small stipend every well.[5] Simon agrees that he is worth far more than that and figures he’s going to have to reconsider his commitment to the Avengers.

While at the compound, Hank Pym is surprised to see La Espirita. She has just come back to say her goodbyes. After helping Hank Pym find a new direction for his life,[6] she has decided that she no longer wishes to become a member of the West Coast Avengers as she has a higher calling to answer. Hank is sorry to see her go, but wants to clear the air about their relationship. Although they recently shared a kiss, he realizes that he is a man of science and cannot give in to faith. He also isn’t romantically interested in Bonita and sees her as a sister. Bonita feels the same way and kisses him on the lips before leaving.

By this time, Wonder Man’s late night interview is over and he sticks around to answer questions from the gathered members of the press. This is interrupted by Tyrannus, who is trapped in the body of the Abomination.[7] A former ruler of ancient Rome, Tyrannus has become jealous of Simon’s good looks and fame and has decided to beat him to death. Wonder Man is unphased by this threat, since he has fought the Hulk in the past and figures the Abomination is going to be a pushover.[8] However, the Abomination is more powerful than he expects and Simon suffers a serious beating bad enough that he has begun fearing for his life again.[9] Pushing past this fear, Wonder Man manages to get the upper hand by electrocuting Abomination with a stage light. This stuns the monster long enough for Wonder Man to finally knock him out.

When he asks the press how he did, they are not overly interested thinking that this is another publicity stunt and think that Simon is overdoing it. Realizing that fame is fleeting, Simon decides that perhaps he should make his role in the Avengers a higher priority than his acting career. When he returns to Avengers Compound, Simon finds Clint and Bobbi in the sauna and apologizes for the interruption, but apologizes for being a dick recently, saying that he’s going to work on being a better teammate.[10]

Recurring Characters

West Coast Avengers (Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Iron Man, Hank Pym, Wonder Man, Tigra, Moon Knight), Abomination (possessed by Tyrannus), Frenchie, Christina Carson

Continuity Notes

1. The east and west coast teams found themselves manipulated into yet another game by the Grandmaster in West Coast Avengers Annual #2 and Avengers Annual #16.

2. The Avengers recent trip through time ran from West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #17-23. During that time, Bobbi was kidnapped by the Phantom Rider and left him to fall to his death. She won’t tell Clint the truth about the manner of his death until issue #35. While she states that the Rider didn’t do anything untoward to her, Hawkeye & Mockingbird #1 reveals that the Phantom Rider technically raped Bobbi. This is never outright stated in these earlier stories, probably because the Comics Code Authority. One could assume that Bobbi is lying about what really happened as well.

3. Before becoming Wonder Man, circa Avengers #9, Simon Williams was caught in an embezzlement scandal. Never paying for his crimes, the guilt ate at him for years until he made a televised confession in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #4. This confession landed him his role in Arkon IV in issue #6.

4. Frenchie mentions how Marc has been dealing with his girlfriend, Marlene Alrune leaving him. She left Marc in Moon Knight (vol. 2) #1, and returned to her ex-husband in issue #4 of that series. Also mentioned is how Moon Knight got his start in Los Angeles, as seen in Werewolf by Night #32.

5. It is stated here that Marvel Comics produces an Avengers comic book. The comic book company exists in universe and create adaptation of the “real life” adventures of the characters. This has been the situation since Fantastic Four #10.

6. Hank Pym suffered a series of set back and losses, including a divorce, getting kicked out of the Avengers, being framed, retiring from heroics, losing his “son” Ultron, and being dumped by Tigra, Hank Pym was about ready to end it all in issue #17. See also Avengers #213, 217, 227-230, and West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #7 and 16. He was encouraged by La Espirita to find a new purpose in life. He decided to become a scientific adventurer in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #21.

7. Tyrannus was trapped in the Abomination’s body in Incredible Hulk Annual #15. This will remain the status quo until the situation is reversed by Ghaur in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #23.

8. Wonder Man fought the Hulk back in Incredible Hulk #316.

9. Simon has had a long standing fear of death after spending an extended period of time in a death-like state that lasted from Avengers #9 through 151.

10. Clint reflects back on his relationship with the Swordsman, as he fought his apparent spirit in Avengers Annual #16. Clint had a long history with the Swordsman, who was one of the people who trained him in the skill of archery, as seen in Avengers #19-20. In that story, the Swordsman joined the Avengers as a mole for the Mandarin. After being a villain for a time, he returned to the team to redeem himself in Avengers #112-113. They remained with the team until the Swordsman’s death in Giant-Size Avengers #2, and Mantis leaving Earth in issue #4.

Topical References

• Wonder Man has encounters with not one, but two former late night talk show hosts in this story: Johnny Carson and David Letterman. These should be considered topical references as Carson retired from TV in 1992 and died in 2005. While, as of this writing, Letterman still does a talk show it is not a late night program, but a streaming series on Netflix. He probably won’t be doing it much longer either since he’s 74 years old as I write this in February, 2022.

• Simon’s director says that he can get Wonder Man a role in Rocky V as the opponent for Sylvester Stalone’s character Rocky Balboa, saying that this film will take set in outer space. While this is an awesome idea, this is a topical reference since they made a Rocky V, which wasn’t about Rocky boxing in space, but about Balboa training a new boxer. While Stallone went on to be in three more films, 2008’s Rocky Balboa and the two Creed spin-off movies and talks of another film as I write this, Stallone is 75 years old. He’s not going to be acting for much longer so references to him here should also be considered topical.

• Wonder Man specifically asks for a three picture deal based on Flash Gordon. An odd choice, this should be considered a topical reference since the last Flash Gordon film was in 1980 and was a commercial flop. They’ve talk about doing a reboot of the franchise since 2015, it was a cancelled project following 20th Century Fox being purchased by Disney, Marvel Comic’s overlord. There is talk about still doing a movie but there’s not much because, you know, COVID-19.

• Here, Simon states that the Avengers get a stipend of $1000 a week. This figure should be considered topical. Adjusting for inflation, this would be about $2400 in 2022 money.

• The TV studio that Simon goes to is identified as NBC. Again, this is topical, as this is a real world television network. As is the reference to Carson Productions, the studio that shot the Johnny Carson show.