Wonder Man (vol. 2) #18
The Ashes Fall
Credits[1]
Wonder Man has gone berserk after losing all sense of his humanity, leading to a clash with his teammates in the Avengers West Coast. When the Scarlet Witch tries to reason with him, Simon knocks her to the ground and explains that he is no longer human and has embraced the violence.[2] However, rather than striking her directly he punches the ground next to her head. As he walks away he explains he needs to be consumed by rage from now on in order to maintain his powers.[3]
When Wonder Man tries to leave he is blasted with electricity from the Living Lightning who has come to Wanda’s defense. Wonder Man tells him to back off as he is quitting the Avengers and cautions them that if this fight persists they will only tear up the city. As he walks away he says they don’t want a monster like him, but a good boy “hero”, something he can no longer be. While the other Avengers — Hawkeye, US Agent and Spider-Woman — let Simon leave, Wanda still wants to help. The others convince her that right now probably isn’t the best time to do that.
Meanwhile, Lotus Newmark has decided that Wonder Man poses a threat to her new business venture, a private security firm called Armed Response. To this end, she has hired Splice and Rampage to work together to destroy him, figuring that the pair working together can succeed where they failed individually.[4] This is a crucial period in her plan as Lotus has been stoking the flames of gang violence in the city in order to convince the wealthy to lose confidence in the police and hire her services. Her assistant, Andrew, isn’t certain that this is the best course of action and suggests that they do something to preoccupy Wonder Man instead. Since the hero has always been an actor, Lotus decides to find a production company that is shooting out of town that will appeal to Williams’ goal.
Elsewhere, Spider Beach — Wonder Man’s erstwhile sidekick — is back at home after discovering that his exposure to Wonder Man’s ionic energy has given him fantastic powers.[5] He succeeds in creating two duplicates of himself before his concentration is broken by his sister Ginger, who has developed the ability to fire “snaps” of energy. Spider then shows off his powers to her, demonstrating that his duplicates can mimic whatever activity he was doing at the time of making a copy of himself. They are interrupted by Jamie Flores who has arrived in her dream form to show off her own powers. Jamie had just recently used her powers to explore the city and discovered that Armed Response is working with the gang. Since Wonder Man has gone berserk Jamie suggests that she and her friends use their powers to stop them instead. After a seconds consideration both Spider and Ginger — danger junkies through and through — both think this is a fantastic idea.
While Ginger and Jamie have already come up with superhero names for themselves — Snap and Dreamer respectively — Spider can’t come up with a name for himself. He decides to call his agent Neal Saroyan for advice. After hearing the nature of Spider’s new abilities Neal suggests that he calls himself Stat, after the photostat machine. The call is interrupted when Wonder Man arrives unannounced. Simon has come to fire Neal since he has failed at giving him his dream to become a movie star. This is because Saroyan has failed to find Williams any role of substance.[6] Desperate to keep Wonder Man as a client, Neal reveals that he just landed a role that Simon would find to his liking: a film adaptation of William Shakespear’’s MacBeth.
Meanwhile, the violent clashes between Armed Response and the local street gangs continues to intensify. Surprisingly, the citizens of Los Angeles begin to buy the idea that the private security firm can protect them better than the police and the subscriptions start rolling in. Even representatives with the LAPD start commending them for a job well done and are considering forming a formal deal with the organization.
Elsewhere, Spider, Ginger, and Jamie are driving back to the Flores home to tell Jamie’s mother about their idea. Along the way, they discuss how to go about making costumes since, something they have no clue about. Suddenly, Jamie is pulled back to her physical body because her mother, Alex, has come to wake her up. Jamie tries to tell her that Spider and Ginger are on their way over because she was just with them, but Alex dismisses the idea as just a dream. However, she is forced to eat her words when the Beach siblings show up moments later. The three youths explain their plan to become superheroes with everyone else that have been affected by Wonder Man’s ionic burst. Alex is totally against the idea but agrees that they need to meet with Gloria Angel, LaHoya Scripps, Aundray Phelps, and Argus LaVecchion and talk things over. Alex hopes that the others will agree with her that becoming superheroes would be too dangerous. As they leave, they are unaware that Wonder Man is watching them from the shadows. He thinks about how these people were once important parts of his lives and how they mean nothing to him now.[7] Still viewing himself as an engine of destruction he wonders what he can offer the city now and decides that he should let someone else play hero instead.
At that same moment, subscriptions for Armed Response keep rolling in, much to Lotus Newmark’s delight. She also learns that Wonder Man is considering the role in MacBeth and pressures her people to get Williams to secure the job as it is being used as a means for Splice and Rampage to ambush and kill the hero.
While back at the apartment complex where Wonder Man used to live, the Flores and Beaches meet with the others. Much to Alex’s dismay, everyone likes the idea of becoming superheroes and all start trying to decide on names for each other. Alex thinks this is absolutely insane and drags Jamie outside into the hallway to talk sense into her. There, they bump into Wonder Man who is leaving his former apartment after collecting some final things. Alex tries to get him to speak sense to the others but he tells them that he doesn’t care what they do. He no longer has such concerns because to him he’s just an immortal dead man who isn’t even human anymore. Before leaving he hands over his Wonder Man shirt to Alex, telling her that it’s a real Hollywood souvenir before leaping off into the evening sky.
Recurring Characters
Wonder Man, Avengers West Coast (Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, US Agent, Spider-Woman, Living Lightning), Rampage, Splice, Lotus Newmark, Armed Response, Ginger Beach, Spider Beach, Alex Flores, Jamie Flores, Neal Saroyan, Aundray Phelps, Gloria Angel, LaHoya Scripps, Argus LaVecchio
Continuity Notes
This cover pays homage to Amazing Spider-Man #50.
Wonder Man delves into his complicated relationship with the Scarlet Witch. The details:
Prior to even meeting Wanda, Wonder Man was given his powers by Baron Zemo. The process was claimed to be lethal unless he was given an antidote. He chose death by defending the Avengers and seemingly died a hero as seen in Avengers #9.
Before his death, copies of his brain engrams were taken in the event the Avengers might be able to bring him back to life. These recordings were stolen by Ultron and used to create a personality for the Vision, as explained in Avengers #57.
The Vision was a long standing Avenger where he served next to the Scarlet Witch. The pair fell in love and eventually got married in Giant-Size Avengers #4.
Soon after this, Wonder Man returned from the dead in Avengers #151. As explained in issue #164, he didn’t actually die. Instead he entered a death-like state while his body metamorphosized into him into a being of pure ionic energy.
Years later, the Vision was disassembled by a government agency. When the Avengers put him back together again he was bereft of his emotions. At the same time, Wonder Man discovered that he loved Wanda as well. See West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45.
When the Vision abandoned his wife in Avengers #312, Wonder Man pursued her romantically. The pair briefly dated from Avengers West Coast #63 through 69. Wanda broke off the budding romance because she just wanted to be friends.
Wonder Man has been experiencing an identity crisis at the time of this story. He has also experience his powers going out of whack since being exposed to a nega-bomb explosion in Wonder Man (vol. 2) #9. This has caused his powers to be regulated by his mood. On top of this, a mental probe from Galactus in issue #14 reawakened old fears about his mortality and his belief that he’s not human anymore.
Splice previously fought Wonder Man in issue #4, while Rampage fought him in issues #5-6.
Spider, as well as Wonder Man’s other friends and neighbors, were all exposed to a burst of ionic energy in Wonder Man (vol. 2) #11-12. Last issue Spider discovered that he could make duplicates of himself.
Wonder Man complains about his most recent gig which was voice work on the Avengers video game. At the time of this story, Marvel had licensed out the Avengers name to Data East who produced a beat-em-up arcade game titled Captain America and the Avengers. The game also received ports on nearly every home console of the time. The game was released in 1991. However, Wonder Man wasn’t part of the roster of playable characters. His comment about only having one line — “Okay, Go!” — is likely a comment regarding the hardware limitations of video games of the time. While arcade games (and some consoles) could reproduce speech it was usually short sentences or phrases of poor quality.
Wonder Man recounts how Ginger and Spider were forced upon him. His agent, Neal Saroyan, wanted to pair Simon up with other celebrities to boost his profile. Ginger as a potential love interest and Spider as his sidekick. See Wonder Man (vol. 2) #1 and 3 for the details.
Topical References
When showing off his “air band”, Spider thinks he ought to be on Star Search where they would pretend to play an Anthrax song. Star Search was a televised talent show that ran from 1983 to 1995 and again from 2003 to 2004. Anthrax is an American metal band that first formed in 1981. At the time of this story both the show and the band were at the heights of their popularity and their references here should be considered topical.
Conversely, Jamie Flores mentions rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot. He also started his carrier in 1981 and was at the height of his popularity at the time of this comic. Another topical reference.
Spider’s original idea was to call himself Xerox, but Neal quashes the idea pointing out that that is a trademarked name. He suggests naming himself Stat after the Photostat instead. A photostat machine was a precursor to the photocopier that was first invented in the 1900s. Incidentally, the word “Photostat” was also trademarked at one time. At any rate, the reference to Xerox could be considered a topical reference here since it is a real world company.
