Simon Williams (Earth-616)

Wonder Man
Name	Simon Williams
Current Alias	Wonder Man
Aliases	Nicknames: Actor-Man, Mr. Muscles, Mr. Wonderful, Pretty-Boy, Wondy Other Aliases: JQ-272712-K (Superhuman Registration Number), Professor Higgins
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Avengers Emergency Response Squad, Babysitters Club Formerly Avengers, Avengers Unity Division, Underground, Lethal Legion, Mighty Avengers (50-State Initiative), Avengers West Coast (founding member) (part of Shi'ar delegation during Operation Galactic Storm), S.H.I.E.L.D., Force Works, Masters of Evil, Revengers, Legion of the Unliving (Kang), Legion of the Unliving (Grim Reaper)
Relatives	Parents: Sanford Williams (father, deceased); Martha Williams (mother) Siblings: Eric Williams (brother, deceased); Vision (mind-duplicate / "brother")
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	6′2″ (1.88 m)
Weight	380 lbs (172.36 kg)
Eyes	Eyeballs: Red (permeated with shifting spots of energy, presumably ionic) Irises: No Visible originally Grey
Hair	Dyed Black, originally Grey
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Chemical and ionic radiation-induced human mutate. Formerly cyborg when merged with Vision.
Living Status	Alive; formerly deceased
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	Paterson, New Jersey
Cause of Death	Killed by Hyperion (resurrected by Death)
Personal Information
Identity	Public
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Adventurer, Vigilante; Former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., industrialist, stuntman, actor
Education	Advanced degree in electrical engineering
Base of Operations	Mobile Formerly Avengers Mansion, Manhattan, New York City, New York; The Mount, Nevada; Rogue's mind; Raft; Stark Tower, Manhattan, New York City, New York; Avengers Compound, California; Williams Residence, Paterson, New Jersey
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Stan Lee, Jack Kirby
First	Avengers #9 (August, 1964)
First	Avengers #9 (August, 1964)

You made one mistake, Eric. I'm sure you thought it poetic to use us as your puppets -- but we're Avengers. And Avengers will oppose you -- to the bitter end -- and beyond.

—Wonder Man[source]

Simon Williams is a former actor turned superhero empowered by ionic energy, granting him superhuman powers. The son of industrialist Sanford Williams, he inherited his father's company, Williams Innovations, but lost control after his brother Eric Williams' criminal dealings led to financial ruin. Caught embezzling funds, Simon was approached by Baron Heinrich Zemo, who transformed him into his Wonder Man to infiltrate the Avengers. Though initially a pawn, Simon turned against Zemo and sacrificed himself to save the team, entering a coma due to the unstable process.

Later revived by Voodoo magic in New Orleans under Eric's control now the Grim Reaper. Simon attacked the Avengers before regaining his will with their help. He eventually recovered and joined the team full-time, battling foes like Ultron and Graviton. Simon later moved to Hollywood and found success in acting once again. But rejoined superhero life with the Avengers West Coast. During the Superhuman Registration Act conflict, he sided with the pro-registration faction and joined the Mighty Avengers, fighting in the Secret Invasion and World War Hulk while dating Ms. Marvel.

Afterward, he opposed Norman Osborn and formed the Lethal Legion. Disillusioned, he formed the Revengers to confront the Avengers directly but was defeated. He later redeemed himself by helping rescue the Wasp and joined the Avengers Unity Division. He later adopted a more pacifist stance, however his ionic form was absorbed by Rogue but luckily was later restored. Simon continued his heroism by helping protect Laussa Odinsdottir from Malekith during the War of the Realms.

History

Early Life

Simon Williams was the younger of two sons born to Sanford Williams (an industrialist who founded the highly successful munitions factory called Williams Innovations). Described as a stern disciplinarian, Sanford had high expectations for his sons and was abusive towards Simon and his elder brother, Eric Williams, an experience which caused Eric to in turn become physically abusive towards Simon. When Eric declined his father's offer to join the family firm, Simon, the more studious, less athletic of the two, readily accepted. When Sanford Williams died, Simon inherited full control over the business, although he was only 20. Under Simon's inexperienced management, Williams Innovations began to lose its competitive edge in the marketplace to such rapidly growing firms as Stark Industries. Desperately, Simon sought his brother's aid, and the elder Williams agreed to offer his advice. Eric suggested to Simon that he embezzle some money from the company in order to invest in some business enterprises Eric had gotten wealthy from, namely the illicit racketeering run by the criminal Maggia families. Desperate to save his father's business, Simon did as his brother suggested. His company’s board of directors discovered his embezzlement and Maggia connection, and Simon Williams was brought to trial.

Masters of Evil

Found guilty and facing a prison sentence, Williams was released when Amora the Enchantress paid his bail and enchanted the authorities. Baron Zemo had read of Williams' case and, intrigued by the newspapers' assertion that he blamed Tony Stark for his downfall, dispatched the Enchantress to recruit Williams for the Masters of Evil. (Zemo believed Stark to be the employer of his enemy Iron Man; in fact, Stark was himself secretly Iron Man). Disoriented by the upheavals in his life, Simon Williams agreed to accompany the Enchantress to Zemo's South American base.

Williams agreed to become a test subject for Zemo's "ionic ray" treatment, a process that would endow him with superhuman strength and durability. After undergoing the arduous chemical and radiation treatments, Williams emerged with the attributes he was promised. Zemo then gave him a costume, dubbed him Wonder Man, and outlined his plan to use him to defeat his foes the Avengers.

To ensure Wonder Man's cooperation, Zemo told him that a side effect of the treatment that gave him his superhuman powers was that it altered his metabolism so that he would die within the week unless he was given regular treatments of an unspecified antidote. Not wishing to die, Wonder Man agreed to Zemo's plan and in a staged battle with the Masters of Evil, he won the confidence of the Avengers.

When he explained to them that he was dying, the Avengers accepted Wonder Man into their ranks and unsuccessfully tried every means of science known to them to cure him. Soon Wonder Man led the Avengers into an ambush by the Masters of Evil. In the course of the battle, Wonder Man had an attack of conscience and decided that he could not betray the Avengers' kindness to him, even if it cost him his life. Deprived of Zemo's life-prolonging treatment, Wonder Man succumbed to the mysterious side effect of his power acquisition. Telling the Avengers that he was glad that his final act was a noble one, Wonder Man fell still, displaying no vital signs.

His first costume

Although the Avengers assumed that he had died and brought his body back to the United States for identification and burial, Wonder Man had actually gone into a deathlike coma brought on by the still unstable mutagenic changes triggered in his body. Sometime later, Williams' brother Eric, now known as the criminal Grim Reaper, retrieved his younger brother's body. The Reaper wished to use his brother's cryogenically preserved body to bribe the Vision, the android whose artificial brain was cybernetically programmed with the memories and behavior patterns of Simon Williams, into betraying the Avengers. The Grim Reaper tried to convince the Vision that his consciousness could be transferred into Wonder Man's body, giving the Vision a more human form. Later, the Reaper claimed that Wonder Man could not be resurrected and offered to have the Vision's consciousness transferred into Captain America's body instead. The Vision pretended to go along with the Reaper's scheme in order to help the Avengers apprehend him.

Revival and Rejoining the Avengers

As an Avenger

The Grim Reaper managed to escape after the incident, however, and took with him his brother's seemingly lifeless body. Now obsessed with the idea of reviving his brother by any means whatsoever, the Reaper took Wonder Man's body to New Orleans hoping that the local Houngans (voodoo priests) could resuscitate it. Led by the Black Talon, the leader of their voodoo cult, the Houngans used their magics to reanimate Wonder Man, but as a mindless zombie. Frustrated by the imperfect result, the Grim Reaper had the Houngans instruct the semi-living being to accuse the Vision of "stealing" his mind. He then packed the body into a large crate and shipped it to Avengers Mansion. When the crate was opened, Wonder Man indeed did as he was bid, but to no real effect.

The Avengers subdued Wonder Man and followed him to New Orleans to investigate what had happened. Curiously, as Wonder Man began moving about again and after having been exposed to the powers of the Living Laser, he began shaking off the effects of both the Houngans' magic and Baron Zemo's detrimental radiation treatment. Within a few days, Wonder Man was conscious and fully functional once again, much to his surprise. The Avengers later examined him and learned that he had simply been in a coma while his body was fully metamorphosed from one of flesh and blood to one of an unspecified superhuman flesh-like substance nourished by ionic energy instead of blood.

Wonder Man suffered considerable psychological trauma adjusting to the change that had come over him as well as his memories of being "dead." During the initial months of adjustment, he resided at Avengers Mansion as a guest and frequently lent his aid to the team. Despite his vast strength and resistance to injury, Wonder Man dreaded the thought of dying and facing oblivion again, and was often overwhelmed by cowardice in life-threatening situations. Finally, while battling the near-omnipotent Korvac, Wonder Man was able to master his fears long enough to live up to his full potential. However, he still felt twinges of the same irrational fear from time to time, unable to vanquish it completely. He was eventually re-elected to membership in the Avengers, and became close friends with his fellow Avenger the Beast. Wonder Man later invaded his former plant which had been taken over by the Maggia, and fought Madame Masque and the Dreadnought.

The Grim Reaper, learning that his brother was now conscious and no longer zombie-like, stole into Avengers Mansion, subdued the Avengers, and held a mock trial to determine if this Wonder Man truly was his brother. Satisfied that Wonder Man was his brother brought back to full life, the Reaper planned to kill the Vision, whom he saw as an inhuman mockery of his brother. Wonder Man fought his brother to save the Vision and defeated him. The Avengers committed the Grim Reaper to a mental institution but he eventually got free. The Reaper was now convinced that despite the evidence of the trial, Wonder Man could not be his brother for his brother would never lift a hand against him. Thus both the Vision and Wonder Man were mockeries of his brother who must die. The Reaper made another attempt on the two that ended in failure.

Leaving the Avengers

While living at Avengers Mansion, Simon Williams decided to seek employment in order to give himself something useful to do and so he was not financially dependent upon the Avengers. Having no inclination to go back into a business where he had faced his greatest humiliation, he determined to become an actor, since he felt that during much of his time with the Avengers he was only acting at being a hero. His steadiest work was as a strongman on a children's television show. He eventually quit the job and also terminated his Avengers membership during a major reshuffling of the roster. Unable to get decent acting work, he accepted a job at Cordco Incorporated as a troubleshooter and security consultant. He only lasted there a day before deciding to move on. Heading out to Los Angeles, he decided to exploit his nearly indestructible body by doing stunt work for the movies. He was highly successful at this, and soon began getting acting work as well.

West Coast Avengers

When Hawkeye went to Los Angeles to form the West Coast Avengers, Wonder Man was invited to join the team. Despite certain qualms about living up to the Avengers' standards, he accepted. While helping the team in its struggle to establish its own identity, Wonder Man began to come to terms with himself and his role as a hero. Impressive victories over such foes as Graviton, Ultron, and his brother the Grim Reaper served to bolster his self-esteem, and his stunt work served to remind him just how impervious he was to mortal danger. His turning point came when he went on national television to announce that he was guilty of the embezzlement charge brought against him years ago and that he was sorry about it. Released from the grip of this personal devil of his past, Wonder Man was gratified when the public gave him a vote of confidence for his candid admission. He has also come to regard the Vision as a surrogate "twin brother" due to their psychological similarity, and Vision's new relationship with Simon's mother, Martha. But there was a setback when the Vision was dismantled and rebuilt as an emotionless machine by a global conglomerate. When the Scarlet Witch, the Vision's wife, asked Wonder Man to provide his brainwaves once again in order to rebuild the foundational personality matrix of the original Vision, Wonder Man refused, having feelings for her himself. The Wasp suggested that the Vision's original relationship to the Scarlet Witch may even have been predicated by Wonder Man's initial donation for the original personality matrix; at this, Wonder Man confirmed that several of his hesitations about providing his brainwaves again arose from these doubts and the subconscious desire he's felt toward the Scarlet Witch since her separation from her husband. This infuriated Wanda, and Simon later apologised for his behaviour, after Wanda and Vision’s separation had proceeded.

Operation: Galactic Storm

Wonder Man eventually left the West Coast Avengers to focus more on his personal life and acting career, which was derailed by old foes the Enchantress and Goliath. He moved into a new apartment building with a number of other creatives also residing in Hollywood, and was assigned a would-be sidekick, “Spider”, the younger brother of a romantic interest of Simon’s, Ginger Beach. Simon would also become romantically involved with a screenwriter named Alex Flores.

His life would be further derailed when Simon became a key member in the Operation: Galactic Storm conflict, where alongside fellow Avengers The Vision, Living Lightning, Scarlet Witch, Starfox, Captain Marvel and Thor, he became embroiled in an intergalactic war between the Shi'ar and the Kree. During the course of this conflict, the Shi’ar are revealed to have a massive weapon known as the Nega Bomb, with the intention to completely devastate the Kree Empire. While Captain Marvel managed to convince Shi’ar empress Lilandra to enter into peace negoations with the Kree, a group of Skrulls steal the negabomb, leaving The Vision and Wonder Man to attempt to sabotage the bomb before it can be detonated. The two fail, and 98% of the entire Kree race are killed instantly.

While it is revealed that the Supreme Intelligence engineered this event in hopes of creating a stronger race of Kree, the guilt and trauma from this experience with genocide effected Simon deeply for the rest of his time away from the Avengers, resulting in psychological instablity.

Simon would go on to have adventures while attempting to be a serious actor in Hollywood, and would eventually seek to join the successor to the recently defunct West Coast Avengers, Force Works. Unfortunately, Simon would not survive their first mission, as a group of Kree warriors known as Starstealth sought to kill him and his “twin”, The Vision, for their roles in the Kree genocide. While Vision survived, Simon was blasted with an ion cannon, which dispersed his particles, effectively killing him. The result of this blast left the L.A. area with pink skies for an indeterminate time after his death.

Avenger Again

Eventually, Simon would return from the dead when Wanda, mourning his death and requiring some emotional comfort after numerous traumatic experiences, channeled her chaos magic and brought Simon back to life. Simon would rejoin the Avengers and enter into a relationship with Wanda, which caused some conflict between him and The Vision. Eventually, Wanda and Simon would mutually agree to break off their relationship, deciding that they were better off as “old, old friends.”

Feeling unworthy of a second chance due to the mistakes of his past, Simon sought to reclaim his dignity and sense of self-worth. To help those overwhelmed by forces beyond their control, he established Second Chances — a non-profit foundation funded by the re-release of his movies and videos, plus countless new projects and endorsements. Finally free of his personal demons, Wonder Man became a confident, capable crime-fighter and staunch member of the Avengers.

Ladyfair

At some point prior to the disassembling of the Avengers, Wonder Man was manipulated into becoming involved in the rehabilitation of an assassin, Ladyfair and introduced her to the Avengers at Avengers Mansion, unaware that she was being used to try and kill the team. Ladyfair sacrificed her life to ensure the Avengers safety rather than trying to kill them, she revealed to him who was behind this plot as she died in his arms.

Civil War & Mighty Avengers

After the Superhuman Registration Act was passed, Simon registered and so became an officially sanctioned S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, tasked with hunting down and capturing unregistered superhumans. He followed an Atlantean agent to a warehouse, finding it to be a stockpile for Atlantean weapons. Shortly after, Simon tried, unsuccessfully, to defend them from an attack by the Green Goblin.

Carol kissing Simon

Wonder Man was pressured to continue working for the pro-registration side in the ensuing Civil War drama. In addition to capturing renegade vigilantes and criminals, Wonder Man was instrumental in creating televised messages to educate the public and yet-unregistered superhumans about the specifics of the Registration Act. He was one of the first established heroes assigned to lead the Fifty State Initiative training program for inexperienced hero recruits along with Ms. Marvel and various other former Avengers.

Iron Man and Ms. Marvel recruited him into the Mighty Avengers, a team of registered superhumans. During his time as one of the Mighty Avengers, Simon began a romantic relationship with Ms. Marvel; warning her, however, not to use her position as leader of the Avengers to keep him out of potentially dangerous situations just because of their relationship.

Simon participated in all of the group's activities, such as opposing the Mole Man's bio-creations, an Ultron-infected Iron Man, and an alien symbiote-mutated New York, arresting Doctor Doom, defeating an attack orchestrated by the Hulk and his Warbound, and opposing a full-scale invasion by the Skrulls.

Dark Reign

Following the events of the Secret Invasion, Norman Osborn created a new team of Avengers, effectively retiring Wonder Man. Wonder Man later appeared on television, lamenting his tenure as an Avenger, claiming it was all a waste of time and that using violence to uphold justice has caused nothing but heartache and death. He ended his speech by sadly admitting that having Osborn in charge was exactly what the country deserved. After this, Wonder Man was imprisoned as a member of the new Lethal Legion.

Wonder Man appeared alongside his old West Coast Avengers teammates, Ronin, Mockingbird, Tigra, and War Machine in battle with a new version of Ultimo.

Heroic Age

After Siege, Simon was the only former Avenger to refuse Steve Rogers' invite to his Avengers, going so far to say "I hope you change your mind or I'll have to change it for you." Simon later attacked the newest Avengers team during their first meeting, doing a great deal of damage to the uppermost floors of Stark Tower and destroying Noh-Varr's prototype time travel device before the Avengers could rally and force him to teleport away.

After their first mission together, Bucky and Tony found Simon and attempted to convince Simon to rejoin. Still, he adamantly refused, but was halted in his rant when Tony pointed out that Simon's body is becoming unstable and "leaking" his ionic energy. This suggested that Simon's current state was caused by his body's instability, and not any real mental choice.

The Revengers

Disillusioned with the Avengers after their numerous failings, Simon felt the team was the cause of more harm than good. Organizing a group of lesser-known heroes, he informed them of the failings of the Avengers and his own views, convincing them the Avengers had to be stopped.

Targeting Avengers Mansion, the group waited until Danielle Cage, daughter of New Avengers members Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, had left the mansion. With the entire roster of New Avengers present, Williams felt it was time to attack, with Atlas leading the charge. Overwhelmed, the New Avengers briefly held their own before being overwhelmed by the Revengers. With that team defeated, Williams set his sights on their next target: Avengers Tower, home of the main Avengers team.

Atlas attacked the Avengers Tower only to get the attention of the team, because they called a press conference at the court, where the Avengers appeared to confront them. After a failure at discussing the situation with Wonder Man, Iron Man trapped him in his ionic form in a containment unit. Not willing to fight with too many civilians near, Thor teleported the Revengers to Citi Field, where they were subdued by both the Avengers and the New Avengers and later imprisoned.

Simon as a member of the Avengers Unity Squad

After talking with Beast, warning them, and telling them what he thought, Simon vanished from his containment unit.

Uncanny Avengers

After redeeming himself by helping the Avengers rescue Wasp from the Microverse, Simon joined the new Avengers Unity Division, a team with the purpose of unifying mutant and humankind. Simon, upon joining the team, revealed that he had taken up being a pacifist, believing he could not solve his problems with his fists.

During a mission with the team involving the Apocalypse Twins, Rogue absorbed the powers of numerous heroes, including Simon. This overload caused Rogue to lose control of her powers once again, absorbing Simon's essence into her mind and his powers into her body. Simon's consciousness remained within Rogue during Red Skull's attack on Genosha. After the Inversion spell cast by Wanda and Doctor Doom, the X-Men and Avengers turned against each other, with both sides preparing for war. Rogue used Simon's essence and abilities to help the X-Men.

After Rogue was returned to normal and rejoined the Unity Division, Rogue, Simon, and the Unity Division traveled to Counter-Earth in search of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. They were captured by the world's citizenry, and Simon's consciousness was removed from Rogue by the Master Scientist. Although Rogue could no longer hear Simon's voice in her head and Wanda couldn't find him anywhere, it was later revealed that Simon had been in Rogue's mind all along. He was then released when she kissed Deadpool, due to his healing factor acting like a circuit breaker that allowed her body to expel Simon from her super-charged cells.

War of the Realms

Simon was contacted by Balder the Brave who asked him if he would join a select group of heroes in order to help protect his younger sister Laussa Odinsdottir from the tyranny of the Dark Elf, Malekith. Wonder Man jumped at the the chance and offered his RV for them to travel in so they could hide in plain sight. Wonder Man helped destroy half of a bridge to keep Sindr, Queen of Cinders's henchman Ares from following them in his all-terrain vehicle.

Wonder Man and the others decided to make a pit stop at the Bide-a-Wee RV Campground so they could relax. As they ran out of the camper, Wonder Man was introduced to some of the more permanent residents of the campground. The group and him were invited to a sing along around the campfire. During the performance a fickler of the fire burned the guitar that Sol was playing which revealed that the whole campground was a hiding place for a bunch of Skrulls who stayed behind after the Secret Invasion occurred. Wonder Man sprang into action against a Skrull who looked and posed like one of his favorite actors. Wonder Man and the group stopped fighting the Skrulls after the aliens were introduced to Laussa, who used her abilities to calm them down after Death Locket took her out of the camper.

During sometime on the road, they stopped at a an old western town called Six Gun Territory. Deciding that they wanted to meet some ghost cowboys, the group exited the RV and wandered around the town. Wonder Man pushed Laussa in a carriage while he talked to Death Locket about movie trivia and her life with her LMD family. All of a sudden they were attacked by the Phantom Rider and other apparitions who fought against the club until Druid's ability to talk to the ghosts revealed that they wanted the demon that was held up in their town. Wonder Man had Laussa in his arms not knowing what they were talking about until Thori brought up that the demon was Laussa herself who was more of a sister to Sindr then to Balder.

Empyre

Simon answered the call to join the Avengers during the threat of the Empyre led Cotati.

Target: Beast

Seemingly committed to his pacifist ideals, Simon would retire from superhero work, returning to Los Angeles and his career as an actor. He would also drift away from his friendship with Hank McCoy, with Hank becoming the intelligence director of the mutant nation of Krakoa and, eventually, a violent war criminal and terrorist. Simon's apartment would be broken into a clone of the Beast, whose memory and personality was that of the Hank that Simon had befriended while they served on the Avengers together. This clone would enlist Simon's help to help him defeat his villainous template and redeem his image in the eyes of mutantkind and the world at large.

Avengers Emergency Response Squad

Wonder Man was one of many heroes recruited by Steve Rogers for the Avengers Emergency Response Squad. While heroes Shang Chi, Wasp, Photon and Steve Rogers were battling Sin in Germany, Simon joined the other recruited heroes alongside Clint Barton, She-Hulk, Lightning, Hercules, Lightspeed and Night Thrasher.

Wonder Man later aided his fellow Emergency Response members on North Border Island in New York when the island, populated primarily by recently turned vampires in the wake of the Blood Hunt crisis, was targeted by a villainous group of vampires known as the Nightstalkers, seeking to kill their daywalker brethern. There, Simon held off the leader of the Nightstalkers, Abby Morris, as She-Hulk, Lightspeed and Lightning aided the town. Next, Simon aided the group when Victorious caused chaos in the contested land of Puternicstan while attempting to break the magical border around Latveria. He showed a certain level of compromise with his pacifist ideals when he and Lightning unleashed a joint attack onto her, although it did little but stagger her. Together, with Photon and She-Hulk, they convinced her to stand down and stop attempting to break the Latverian border.

The Avengers Emergency Response Squad then had to face the Serpent Society, who had been using the cover of some of these disturbances to further their own plans to turn whole cities into mutated snakes, via a vat of liquid poison called the Serpent Tears. While the rest of the Response Squad handled the Serpent Society, Simon removed the threat of the Serpent Tears by drinking the entire vat, unaffected due to his ionic composition.

Wonder Man appeared with the other members of the Emergency Response Squad playing a charity soccer match against the main Avengers team, which was disrupted by a crimson Monolith appearing nearby which garnered the attention of Tyrannus, who proceeded to invade the area with his army of Tyrannoids. Simon initially protected people using his body as a shield, but after Tyrannus was absorbed into the Monolith and the Tyrannoids went rabid without his presence, Simon entered the Monolith after him. The Monolith led to a kind of alternate dimension that ate at both Simon and Tyrannus’ bodies, nearly killing both of them. Simon managed to pull Tyrannus out of the Monolith, ceasing the Tyrannoid’s feral behaviour, but the Monolith still remained.

Wonder Man was next seen with She-Hulk investigating a suspiciously quiet Avengers Mansion after Hercules and Mister Immortal gave an update on the Monolith. There, they found most of the Emergancy Response Squad asleep under thick cobwebs. While trying to investigate, She-Hulk was soon affected by the cobwebs and fell asleep herself despite Simon’s efforts. Simon also succumbed to the webs, but not before using a Krakoan code to summon the mutant Somnus, taught to him by Hank McCoy in the brief interval where Hank was living with him.

Attributes

Power Grid

Powers

Ionic Energy Form: The tissue and bones of his entire body have been augmented in strength and to a certain extent supplanted by Pym Particle charged iota in the "ionic ray" bombardment procedure. Despite Wonder Man's statements that he is composed of "ionic energy," since his last revival, his physiology has changed a great deal and it's not clear if his external form is ionic energy or flesh. He stated during an incident in which all the living things in New York had been morphed into symbiotes that he was an ion being and not flesh and blood. This was the prime reason he himself had not been infected. He does not house blood in his body, and upon being touched by Rogue, his entire body was absorbed by her rather than becoming physically drained as is the norm with her abilities, again suggesting that he is a fully energy being.

• Superhuman Strength: Williams possesses vast superhuman strength, the limits of which aren't known, but he can lift in excess of 100 tons. Wonder Man was considered to have a Sentry-level strength, was referred as one of the most powerful humans on Earth, was considered the most powerful member of teams comprising the Iron Man, and was regarded more than once as one of the strongest men on Earth. Williams has also been compared to Thor numerous times. However, given that Thor and the Sentry usually hold back, it should be taken into consideration. In fact, Williams has recognized Thor as his superior, and he barely lifted for few seconds a mechanism in which Thor exercises. Despite this, he was reputed to be in the same class as Thor and Hercules, and when he actually fought Thor, he was able to match the god's strength and forced him to use Mjolnir in order to overpower Wonder Man. In effect, Spider-Man categorized him at the same strength class as the Hulk, Thor and Hercules, though he was ranked subsequently to them but superior to Iron Man at his armor's extreme capacity. However, again he was described as inferior to a high tier, namely the Hulk, even when his power was combined with that of three mighty Avengers. Regardless, his strength is so massive that Iron Man had to operate his armor at very high capacity to temporarily match Wonder Man's power, and even then Tony was unsuccessful. Wonder Man has also effortlessly overpowered the Red Hulk in battle, was able to overwhelm the Abomination after a difficult confrontation, and easily lifted a heavy equipment the Thing had difficulty to support.
  • Superhuman Leaping: His strength extends into his legs, as he is capable of superhuman leaps covering several hundred feet in long strides. In his solo series, while his jetpack was being repaired, Simon needed a way to get around town that was faster, and cheaper, than a taxi. He thought about the Hulk's method of transportation and realized that, while he cannot leap as far as the Hulk, he can get around much faster than walking.
• Superhuman Speed: He can run and move and react at speeds that are beyond the physical limits of the finest human athlete. He was easily able to close the distance between himself, a trained assassin, and her target from the street to the local restaurant she was with lightning pace.
• Superhuman Stamina: Williams' ionic body grants him unlimited stamina and is therefore immune to fatigue.
• Invulnerability: His bodily tissues are much harder due to being ionized organic matter instead of normal flesh and far more resistant to physical injury than the bodily tissues of a normal human. Williams is highly resistant to penetration wounds, even from high-caliber machine gun shells. He can also withstand tremendous impact forces such as falling from great heights, being repeatedly struck by superhumanly strong opponents or breaching planetary orbit and making re-entry without being hurt. Also showcasing high resistance to extreme changes in temperatures.
• Superhuman Agility: His agility, balance, and bodily coordination are all enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete.
• Superhuman Reflexes: Williams' reflexes are similarly enhanced and are superior to those of the finest human athlete.
• Superhuman Senses: Simon's powers attune him to a higher observational field than the typical human being. With further practice from Hank and Nadia, he was taught to feel and sense ambient energy; physical, radiological, or otherwise and interact with it through sheer focus.
  • Superhuman Hearing: His hearing has been enhanced to a superhuman degree.
  • Energy Vision: Williams can see beyond the usual spectrum visible to the human eye.
• Flight: He originally required the use of a sophisticated and advanced rocket pack attached to his costume to fly. However, following his resurrection and metamorphosis Williams is now able to fly through the air at great speeds, the exact limit of which isn't known. He could originally fly at subsonic speeds. After his metamorphosis Williams can fly at speeds in excess of 700 mph.
• Immortality: Williams is functionally immortal. Because of the ionic energy that empowers him, he no longer ages and is immune to disease and infection. This same energy sustains Williams' physical vitality far more efficiently than the biochemical process that sustain ordinary human life.
  • Self Resurrection: Thanks to the nature of his iokinetic anatology, Simon can not only retain self-perpetuating life force no matter how long time passes. But even if he were to be truely dissapated, Wonder Man would always revive in some form or another after veritable amounts of time have passed.
  • Self-Sustenance: As a result of his transformation he no longer requires food, sleep, water or oxygen to survive. Simon is now a fully energized entity who can sustain himself indefinitely without nourishment, easily able to live outside habitable planet orbit.
• Ionic Regenerative Healing: Williams' ionic form can heal itself from gunshot wounds, surgery, and even severed limbs. This allowed him to constantly survive death more often. This may be so because he has no bones, blood, or organs; he is a being of pure ionic energy, allowing him to reform after any injury.
• Energy Manipulation (latent): In his energy form, Williams learned he had the ability to emit ionic energy pulses of devastating force from his body. This was shown before his death at the hands of the Kree Empire. Since his resurrection, he has done so somewhat rarely.
  • Energy Construct Creation: Over time Williams would learn he could tangibilize his internal energy solid forms, using his powers to fashion a protective force energy bubble to defend against attacks.
  • Electromagnetic Manipulation: Williams, under instruction by Wasp and Beast, learned he could sense, siphon and/or disperse lingering radial fields by using the unique properties of his ionic energy to interact with the EM Spectrum or any form of energy signature in the world if he so chooses.
  • Ionic Blasts: More than once, Simon showed he could discharge condensed ionic ray burtsts from his hands of varying power. Being able to enrapture armored enemies in bionic chasis to downing incredibly robust superpowered beings with relative ease.
  • Ionic Beams (latent): Williams once showed he had a similar ability to Count. Nefaria to discharge ionic force from his eyes at will. These laser beams were potent enough to blow War Machine out of a building and across its front lawn once.
  • Flame Projection (latent): In his fight with Skurge and the like, Simon once projected twin streams of fire out of his hands that actually seared the Storm Giant/Asgardian hybrid. Causing the later to shriek in pain as he rained hammering blows upon him while wreathed in his own flames.
• Shapeshifting (latent): As a being of raw energy, Simon's physical form is purely subjective. What shape or form he takes is ruled by conscious thought as much as the Id and Ego. He once turned the hand of the soul of his dead brother gave him into an organic sickle, then taking on the physical form of a ferocious demon to battle the assembled villains under Mephisto.
• Size Alteration (latent): Another power his energy form granted him is the ability to alter his size, becoming even larger and (possibly) stronger than his adversary Goliath. He hasn't displayed this power since his resurrection, save the time while his energy form was tethered to Wanda as they battled Morgan Le Fay.
• Power Recycling (latent): When his energy form was inexplicably destabilized by his own guilt and self-doubt, Simon's powers were left unstable. As an effect he accidentally let off a massive ionic discharge giving friends and neighbors similar powers he may potentially possess. These abilities were either temporary or he could recall them back at will, the affected went on to form a short-lived super hero team called The Crazy Eight.
• Teleportation: In later comics, Simon has shown to be able to warp between unknown distances by sheer will alone. Once teleporting out of a containment bubble created by Stark and Hank and again when after he fought and bested Thaddeus Ross as the Red Hulk outside Avengers Tower.

Abilities

• Gifted Intellect: Williams is a trained electrical engineer and capable industrialist, though not on Tony Stark's level.
• Actor: He is good actor whose talents earned him a spot on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. His acting gives him a strong edge in undercover work.
• Stuntman: Before he was an actor, Williams was an expert stuntman who worked in many big action movies.
• Expert Combatant: Williams is a skilled unarmed combatant with training under Captain America in Aikido.
• Multilingualism: Williams speaks Russian.

Weaknesses

• Energy Weaponry: As he is an ionic energy being, Williams is susceptible to attacks that disrupt his unique energy pattern. Dispersion would be hazardous, as he might not be able to reform without further assistance from the Scarlet Witch. During the Kang Dynasty however, he was dispersed by one of Kang's weapons and was plenty capable of reforming himself on his own after traveling a great distance to avoid being discovered alive and making a grand escape, so this is unlikely. Williams can however, be rendered unconscious and it is possible for him to be injured.
• Mental Illness: He has shown some mental breakdowns that lead to him attacking the Avengers multiple times after he began to believe that everything bad was caused by the team.
• Anionics: uniquely charged items fueled by his own energies opposite signature can cause lasting damage even to his invulnerable energy state.
• Ionic Lock: A weapon of last resort Madame Masque had devised as a deterrent which has one of two effects on beings touched by ionic energies. Without the Intensifier device it only seals a their abilities reducing them to normal for a time, while with the Intensifier it causes their energies to drain away at an accelerated rate. Causing those effected to eventually dissipate into nothing.
• Extreme Pacifism: Ever since recovering from his latest breakdown, Simon has refused to resort to violence even when absolutely necessary. This makes him virtually useless in combat.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Formerly Avengers Identicard.

Also, Wonder Man once employed small jet-engines that he wore on a shoulder harness in order to fly. These engines, designed by Anthony Stark, enabled him to fly for up to 5 hours before refueling. He could attain a maximum altitude of 2 miles and a maximum speed of 80 miles per hour (provided he was not carrying any cargo). He could lift aloft up to 300 pounds before he exceeded the design limits of the jet engines. He could exceed the design limits by a maximum factor of 1,000 before causing a total system seize-up.

Trivia

• During his time in Hollywood, Simon played the character Kethulemes Kor in the movie Arkon IV: The Goblin Pit, opposite of Arnold Schwarzburger as Arkon. He also starred in a movie called "Galaxy Boy" . Simon was also meant to play Macbeth, although the production eventually fell through.
• Wonder Man was a vegetarian, but for cholesterol reasons.
• Wonder Man was brought back in Avengers #151 by Jim Shooter in response to DC Comics creating Power Girl shortly after Marvel had officially given Luke Cage the alias of Power Man. Shooter was under the impression DC had complained about Wonder Man when he had first appeared, due to their similarly-named character Wonder Woman (it's unknown whether this is the case or not). So when he noticed DC doing something similar to what they had allegedly complained, Shooter decided to bring back Wonder Man.
• When Ultron Pym returned to get his wife, Wasp, and his bride, Jocasta, back, he merged Vision with Wonder Man, similar to himself, and controlled the amalgam before being separated by Iron Man.
• In Avengers (Vol. 3) #14, Beast and Wonder Man shared the first on-panel kiss between two male superheroes in mainstream Marvel comic book history, 10 years before the more romantic gay kiss shared by Rictor and Shatterstar in X-Factor (Vol. 3) #45.
• Wonder Man is infertile, likely due to his status as an energy being.
• Wonder Man celebrates Hanukkah.
• According to Batroc the Leaper, Simon is a popular actor in France.

See Also

• 742 appearance(s) of Simon Williams (Earth-616)
• 26 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Simon Williams (Earth-616)
• 101 minor appearance(s) of Simon Williams (Earth-616)
• 80 mention(s) of Simon Williams (Earth-616)
• 19 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Simon Williams (Earth-616)
• 602 image(s) of Simon Williams (Earth-616)
• 33 quotation(s) by or about Simon Williams (Earth-616)
• 2 victim(s) killed by Simon Williams (Earth-616)
• 1 item(s) used/owned by Simon Williams (Earth-616)

Links and References

• Simon Williams on Marvel.com