Wonder Man (vol. 2) #12
Angkor… and Anger!
After being defeated in battle by Angkor, Wonder Man was brought back to his apartment to recover. There, his fluctuating powers overload and he explodes in a blast of ionic energy bathing his friends and neighbors — Alex Flores, her daughter Jamie, Ginger Beach, her brother Spider, his landlord Gloria Angel, and neighbors Aundray Phelps, LaHoya Scripps, and Argus LaVecchio — in the process. Everyone seems unharmed by the exposure and Wonder Man soon recovers.[1] He explains that his powers are fluctuating and that they are now regulated by his own rage.[2] With Angkor slaughtering innocent people all over Los Angeles, he is about to go back out into the battle. That’s when Gloria tells him that she tried calling the Avengers for help but they are preparing to go to an emergency meeting being held in New York to discuss some cosmic threat.[3] Simon decides to head to Avengers Compound to see what’s going on as well as convince them to help with Angkor.
When Wonder Man arrives at Avengers Compound, they video conference with Reed Richards, aka Mister Fantastic, of the Fantastic Four.[4] He tells them that he is gathering nearly all of Earth’s heroes together to deal with a new cosmic threat and asks the Avengers West Coast to meet with everyone else in New York in the next 24 hours. Since they have a day to get there, Wonder Man tries to convince the Avengers — Scarlet Witch, US Agent, Spider-Woman, and the Living Lightning — to help him deal with Angkor. Hank Pym vetoes this idea saying that they have to focus on the cosmic threat. This angers Simon since innocent people will get hurt if they do nothing and he takes off to deal with Angkor himself.
Remembering that Angkor was once a frail old priest named Thommanon, Wonder Man heads to the Buddhist Church where he first met the old man and find out how he might have gotten his powers. Inside, he discovers Father Phim dealing with three severely burned corpses, Angkor’s first victims.[5] Phim tells Wonder Man that Thommanon has been praying to Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and rage. Somehow Thommanon had managed to tap into Shiva’s power and became a personification of rage itself and Shiva’s engine of destruction.
Meanwhile, Angkor’s reign of destruction has reached a munitions factory owned by National Ballistics. He has come here because this company provided bombs to the American military which were later used to bomb his native Cambodia. He smashes his way past the security fences in the hopes of setting off all the explosives inside and killing countless people in the process.
While back at Simon’s apartment, his friends and neighbors are trying to figure out what just happened as they have been feeling strange since being bombarded by Wonder Man’s ionic energies. As Ginger gushes over how attractive Simon is, it soon becomes apparent that Gloria Angel also has some feelings for Simon even though she is much older than he is. This prompts Gloria to mock her forcing Aundray and LaHoya to split them up. Argus Vecchio however, doesn’t have a very sunny opinion on Wonder Man after he turned down a role in the experimental film he wanted to make.[6] Alex tries to get everyone to calm down and then notices Spider hitting on her daughter Jamie. Alex gets between the two and scolds Spider, telling him that Jamie is only 12 years old and drags her out of the room. Outside, Alex tells her daughter that she is tense about everything that happens and wishes that she had superpowers of her own so she could help Simon out in some way.
By this time, Wonder Man has tracked down Angkor and the two begin brawling it out in the middle of the munitions factory. Now knowing that strong emotions fuel his powers, Simon gives into his growing rage to match Angkor strength-to-strength. As the two fight, Angkor once again tries to flood Wonder Man with images of the atrocities in Cambodia as well as images of the recent Kree genocide that Simon failed to stop.[7] The monster also taps into Wonder Man’s recurring nightmare that he has been having since returning from space.[8] However, this time, these images only boost Wonder Man’s anger beyond the point its already at. He also realizes that his own unstable powers were likely responsible for transforming Thommanon into Angkor.
Angkor tries to match Wonder Man’s rage and his powers surge to the point where he is set ablaze. Wonder Man however manages to outpace his own growing anger and ultimately tosses Angkor into the sky where he violently explodes.[9] Father Phim — who had come to witness the battle — rushes out of his hiding place to congratulate Wonder Man for winning over Thommanon’s anger. However, Simon turns on the old man since it was his own anger which won against Angkor, not peace and reason. Feeling the full extent of his powers and enjoying the strength it gets to him, Wonder Man revels in his new “savage” persona and vows to remain like this forevermore in order to maintain his power.
Recurring Characters
Wonder Man, Angkor, Gloria Angel, Alex Flores, Jamie Flores, Ginger Beach, Spider Beach, Aundray Phelps, LaHoya Scripps, Argus LaVecchio, Avengers West Coast (Scarlet Witch, US Agent, Spider-Woman, Living Lightning), Hank Pym
Continuity Notes
Although everyone present appears to be unaffected and unharmed by the ionic blast, over the next 8 issues they will learn that this exposure gave them all superhuman powers. They will use these abilities to become the Crazy 8 in Wonder Man (vol. 2) #19 and will retain their powers until issue #25.
Wonder Man was exposed to a nega-bomb explosion in Wonder Man (vol. 2) #9. He discovered that this somehow affected his powers circa Wonder Man Annual #1. His powers are now regulated by his temper. This will remain the status quo until issue #25 as well.
This being the threat posed by Magus. See Infinity War #1.
This really isn’t Mister Fantastic but one of the Magus’ doppelgangers who has taken Reed’s place. See Infinity War #1 and Fantastic Four #366. The real Mister Fantastic is a prisoner of the Magus and will remain so until he and other captured heroes are rescued in Infinity War #6.
These were men hired by Lotus Newmark to tail Wonder Man and find out what he is up to. They were murdered when Angkor first got his powers in Wonder Man (vol. 2) #10.
Argus pitched his movie idea to Simon in Wonder Man (vol. 2) #4, only to be rejected flat out.
During Operation: Galactic Storm, the Kree Supreme Intelligence instigated a war between his people and the Shi’ar. This was all to goad the Shi’ar into unleashing a nega-bomb in the Kree galaxy in order to jumpstart the Kree’s stagnant evolution. Wonder Man and the Avengers tried and failed to stop it. See Captain America #398, Avengers West Coast #80, Quasar #32, Wonder Man (vol. 2) #7, Avengers #345, Iron Man #278, Thor #445, Captain America #399, Avengers West Coast #81, Quasar #33, Wonder Man (vol. 2) #8, Avengers #346, Iron Man #279, Thor #446, Captain America #400, Avengers West Coast #82, Quasar #34, Wonder Man (vol. 2) #9, Avengers #347, Captain America #401, Quasar #35.
Wonder Man has been haunted by the experience ever since as seen in Wonder Man (vol. 2) #10.
As of this writing (October, 2022) Angkor has remained among the dead. He does get a brief mention in Avengers (vol. 3) #14, but not a whole lot else since then.
Topical References
Angkor is said to have fled to American from Cambodia to escape the tyranny of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge are a violent far-left organization that ruled Cambodia from 1951 to 1968 and again in 1975 to 1979. Their most heinous crime being the genocide of Cambodian minorities that claimed the lives of somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million people or about a quarter of the population. Making things extra horrific were the actions of the United States army during the Vietnam War where Cambodia was subject to targeted bombings, which killed countless innocent people as well. This should be considered a topical reference. Per History of the Marvel Universe #2, modern readers can assume that these are refugees from the fictional Sin-Cong Conflict instead.