Marvel Tv’s Surprise Man, now streaming completely on Disney Plus, is a contemporary, character-driven MCU sequence that blends superhero lore with Hollywood satire and requires no homework to know the plot, in contrast to many MCU tasks. The eight-episode story follows struggling actor Simon Williams (Watchmen and Aquaman co-star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who secretly possesses superhuman skills, as he and washed-up performer Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) pursue life-changing roles in a remake of the enduring pulp superhero film Surprise Man. However will Williams’ delusions and incapacity to hide his powers be his undoing?
Within the comics, nonetheless, Surprise Man’s origins are vastly totally different from his TV counterpart’s. Regardless of his deep ties to the Avengers, most notably Imaginative and prescient, his footprint in each the comics and the MCU has been surprisingly minimal. Add in his shut friendship with Beast and his broader connections to the X-Males, and there’s lots to unpack when digging into all the things it is advisable find out about Marvel’s subsequent installment.
Surprise Man’s origin in Marvel comics
Surprise Man, aka Simon Williams, was created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Don Heck. He first appeared in The Avengers #9 in 1964 because the son of a rich arms producer who inherited his father’s firm. When Stark Industries threatens the enterprise, Simon begins embezzling cash to maintain himself afloat. He will get caught, convicted, and thrown in jail, then bailed out by The Enchantress and utilized in an experiment by Baron Heinrich Zemo to actual revenge on Tony Stark. Due to their mutual hatred for Stark, Williams agrees to be remodeled right into a supervillain to go face-to-face with The Avengers.
Williams is bombarded with ionic vitality, granting him superhuman skills and reworking him into Surprise Man. Zemo then orders him to infiltrate the Avengers and activate them when the Masters of Evil strike, retaining him in line by claiming the ionic vitality will kill him inside every week with no common antidote that solely Zemo controls. When the second comes, nonetheless, Surprise Man betrays Zemo as a substitute, siding with the Avengers, and is seemingly killed when he’s denied the antidote.
Due to this, Williams’ brother Eric (Demetrius Grosse within the TV model) holds a grudge in opposition to The Avengers and turns into the villain Grim Reaper. Nevertheless, Hank Pym data Surprise Man’s brainwaves simply in case there’s a approach to convey him again to life. Shock, shock, Surprise Man wasn’t useless; he was simply in a coma and stored in suspended animation. However the brainwaves Hank Pym recorded had been later stolen by Ultron and used to create The Imaginative and prescient.
Kang the Conqueror later resurrects Surprise Man in The Avengers #131 as a part of the Legion of the Unliving, a group composed of deceased characters plucked out of time from the precise moments of their deaths and introduced collectively beneath his command. Finally, The Avengers defeats that group they usually return to their varied cut-off dates.
Subsequent, the Grim Reaper revives Surprise Man, this time as a brand new villain known as Black Talon. He fights the Avengers once more, goes again into suspended animation, and is lastly revived completely by supervillain The Dwelling Laser, who hypnotizes Surprise Man into attacking The Avengers but once more, as a result of it labored out properly so many occasions earlier than.
However now that Simon is in charge of his personal ideas, he defeats his brother and ultimately turns into a full-time Avengers member. A while later, Simon goes to Hollywood to pursue a profession in appearing, the place he later helps set up the West Coast Avengers.
What are Surprise Man’s powers?
Being pelted with ionic vitality granted Simon superhuman bodily attributes, like enhanced energy, sturdiness, velocity, and reflexes. In his first look, he’s mentioned to have energy akin to Thor’s, and in additional fashionable comedian tales, Hercules confirms this after Surprise Man punches him by a wall. All through his comedian e book profession, Surprise Man has taken on the likes of Abomination, Carol Danvers, Crimson Hulk, The Factor, and Namor. He additionally as soon as battled The Hulk to a stalemate. His energy has additionally been mentioned to rival that of The Sentry. Evidently, his energy is within the higher tier of the Marvel universe.
He additionally has a couple of sturdiness feats — as soon as, he swallowed a bomb and survived the explosion. He was knocked to the core of a planet by Gladiator, takes punches from Savage Hulk on the common, and eats vitality blasts from the Silver Surfer.
Surprise Man additionally discovered find out how to use his vitality to fly, though he initially wanted an ion jet pack to journey. Due to his honed potential with ion vitality, he can emit beams from his eyes and fingers. He may change his measurement and form at will, teleport, and share his vitality with individuals.
Most of all, due to his ion powers, which successfully turned him right into a being of pure vitality, Surprise Man is successfully immortal, as evidenced by simply what number of occasions he’s died and are available again. He seemingly turns into extra highly effective every time he’s revived, and he doesn’t want air, meals, or water to outlive.
Is Surprise Man a mutant?
It isn’t clear how Simon Williams bought his powers within the MCU, and the childhood look of an uncontrolled, hidden potential has some followers questioning whether or not he’s a mutant. One notable trace: Simon is beneath investigation by Agent Cleary (Arian Moayed), the identical authorities flack who got here after Ms. Marvel in her single-season sequence. And that sequence ended with a powerful trace that she is a mutant.
Surprise Man isn’t a mutant within the comics, although. However after he had a falling out with The Avengers over the Human Registration Act (the equal of the Sokovia Accords within the MCU) throughout the Civil Battle crossover occasion, he grew to become a de facto homie of the X-Males. Throughout Civil Battle, Simon vowed to by no means use his powers once more and to make use of his public relations expertise extra as a substitute.
In some unspecified time in the future, throughout a battle with a Celestial, Surprise Man permits Rogue to make use of his powers, however she additionally absorbs his consciousness. He’s freed when Rogue kisses Deadpool, gaining his therapeutic skills, permitting Surprise Man’s physique to be restored.
Now that he’s again, nonetheless a pacifist, Surprise Man maintains his X-Males ties: He’s developed a powerful friendship with the apelike mutant Hank McCoy, aka Beast, whose extroverted character enhances the extra introspective Simon. Surprise Man considers Beast his greatest pal, a friendship that developed throughout their time as Avengers. The final time we noticed Surprise Man within the comics was in Astonishing Avengers Infinity Comedian #30 in 2025, however the character has a self-titled restricted sequence anticipated to debut in Marvel Comics on March 18.
