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Wonder Man Reading Order

Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Don Heck for Marvel Comics in The Avengers #9 (1964), the character of Wonder Man, aka Simon Williams, is one of those who started as a villain before becoming a hero and a member of the Avengers–like Hawkeye for example. But the most surprising part is that he apparently died in that first issue and didn’t reappear for four years and, then again, it was not for long. It was not before the mid-1970s that he would start to play a bigger part.

All of this is because DC Comics sued Marvel Comics for the right to use the name. DC had Wonder Woman and didn’t like the idea that Marvel would use Wonder Man. Stan Lee didn’t want to fight it (he created She-Hulk to avoid someone else doing it, it was the game at the time), but when DC introduced Power Girl (Marvel already had Power Man), it seemed fair to bring back Wonder Man.

Simon Williams was an industrialist who gained superpowers after being imbued with “ionic” energy by Baron Zemo. As Wonder Man, he infiltrated the Avengers but ultimately betrayed Zemo and seemingly sacrificed himself to save the team. Resurrected later, Wonder Man became a loyal member of the Avengers and grew into a prominent hero. He also developed a career in Hollywood as an actor and stuntman.

Wonder Man helped form the West Coast Avengers, and later joined Force Works, but most of all he has been an Avengers!

Wonder Man, A Marvel Comics Reading Order

Note: Wonder Man has been an Avenger for most of his comic book career. As such, he appeared in a lot of books as part of the team. In the following reading order, I tried to put forward what was important, but I still had to list books where Simon Williams was barely doing anything for continuity’s sake. As such, the books that are not in bold are clearly optional for the character.

Starting with the Wonder Man Comics

Of course, you can start at the beginning of the Reading Order, but if you don’t want to read everything, Marvel published in its Marvel-Verse collection a volume on Simon Williams with some key issues.

  • Marvel-Verse: Wonder Man
    Collects Avengers (1963) #9, Wonder Man (1986) #1, West Coast Avengers (1985) #25, Avengers (1998) #14. 

The character of Wonder Man was way more active during the 1980s than in recent decades. You can jump into the West Coast Avengers or, if you can find it, his solo series from the early 1990s. After that, he was killed, so if you are planning to read a good run of the Avengers, check out the one by Kurt Busiek and George Perez launched in 1998 that brought back Simon Williams to life.

Wonder Man Comics: The Bronze Age

Wonder Man is the type of Marvel Comics character that is a bit hard to follow at first as he was not that regularly used for a long time. He appeared in storylines, but he did not always play a big part. Tracking all of his appearances was a bit tedious for a time, but there is now one big omnibus that collects what’s essential for the character during Marvel’s Bronze Age (and a bit further).

  • Wonder Man: The Early Years Omnibus
    Collects Avengers (1963) #9, 52, 131-132, 151-153, 157-160, 164-166, 181, 192-194, 197, 203, 207-208, 211, 239; Giant-Size Avengers (1974) #3; Marvel Team-Up (1972) #78, 136; Marvel Premiere (1972) #55; Marvel Two-in-One (1974) #78; Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1982) #3; Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1985) #2; West Coast Avengers (1984) #2; West Coast Avengers (1985) #1-2, 25; Avengers West Coast (1989) #66-68; Wonder Man (1986) #1; material from Avengers (1963) #201, Avengers Annual (1967) #6, Solo Avengers (1987) #13, Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #38-45, Avengers Spotlight (1989) #28, Marvel Super-Heroes (1990) #4, Avengers West Coast (1989) #65, Avengers Classic (2007) #9. 

This omnibus is collecting some of the West Coast Avengers stories. Look below for a listing of the collected editions for the complete series.

Wonder Man in The West Coast Avengers Comics

As previously stated, Wonder Man was a founding member of the West Coast Avengers. The team was introduced in a four-issue miniseries (in 1984) before getting an ongoing series. Simon Williams was a central figure throughout the 102-issue run.

In September 1991, Marvel Comics launched the first ongoing Wonder Man comic book series (there was a one-shot in 1986, see the first Avengers West Coast Epic Collection). It lasted for 29 issues, concluding in early 1994. The series has not been collected yet. However, a few issues are available as part of the Operation: Galactic Storm and Infinity War crossovers.

  • Avengers Epic Collection: Operation Galactic Storm
    Collects Avengers #345-347; Avengers West Coast #80-82; Quasar #32-36; Wonder Man #7-9; Iron Man #278-279; Thor #445-446; material from Captain America #398-400.
  • Infinity War Omnibus
    Collects Infinity War #1-6, Fantastic Four (1961) #366-370, Spider-Man (1990) #24, Deathlok (1991) #16, Daredevil (1964) #310, Warlock And The Infinity Watch 7-10, Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme 42-47, Silver Surfer (1987) #67-69, Wonder Man (1991) #13-15, Alpha Flight (1983) #110-112, Silver Sable & The Wild Pack 4-5, Guardians Of The Galaxy (1990) #27-29, Quasar 37-40, New Warriors (1990) #27, Marc Spector: Moon Knight 41-44, Nomad (1992) #7, Sleepwalker 18, Material From Captain America (1968) #408, Alpha Flight (1983) #109, Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #108-112.
  • Avengers West Coast Epic Collection: Ultron Unbound
    Collects Avengers West Coast #83-95, Annual #7-8; and material from Darkhawk Annual #1, Iron Man Annual #13
  • Infinity Crusade Omnibus
    Collects Infinity Crusade (1993) #1-6, Warlock Chronicles (1993) #1-5, Warlock And The Infinity Watch (1992) #18-22, Thor (1966) #463-467, Iron Man (1968) #294-295, Avengers West Coast (1989) #96-97, Darkhawk (1991) #30-31, Cage (1992) #17, Alpha Flight (1983) #124-125, 127, Marc Spector: Moon Knight (1989) #57, Silver Surfer (1987) #83-85, Deathlok (1991) #28, Material From Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme (1988) #54-56, Alpha Flight (1983) #122-123, 126, Web Of Spider-Man (1985) #104-106, Silver Sable & The Wild Pack (1992) #16-17, Deathlok (1991) #29.

If you have found the Wonder Man series, you can finish reading it here, before the conclusion of West Coast Avengers and, more importantly, before Force Works. The last issues of Avengers West Coast are for now only available in the following trade:

Following the Avengers West Coast‘s disbandment with issue #102, Wonder Man and other former members joined Force Works, debuting with the series’ first issue in July 1994. The twist is that, at the end of their first mission, Simon Williams perished (so, only read issue #1).

  • Avengers/Iron Man: Force Works
    Collects Force Works #1–15, Force Works: Ashcan Edition; Century: Distant Sons #1; material from Iron Man/Force Works Collectors’ Preview.

Wonder Man returns to the Avengers

Possible Entry Point! Following the events of the Heroes Reborn saga, Kurt Busiek and George Perez took over The Avengers comics in 1998. They relaunched the comics and quickly brought back Wonder Man. Well, sort of. He was only back in a purely ionic form, and he only seemed to be able to intervene when Wanda, the Scarlet Witch, was going through stressful situations. With the help of Agatha Harkness, Wanda would eventually return Simon to his physical form (in issue #10). That said, he was not a main member of the team after that, but he regularly came back.

Following the end of the Busiek/Perez run, Wonder Man became elusive. He resurfaced with the Avengers in Brian Michael Bendis’s Avengers Disassembled, but there are so many heroes he’s just in the middle of it all, only popping up at some key moments. That said, the story focuses on Scarlet Witch with whom he has a personal relationship. This event led to House of M and, once again, Simon is mostly absent, then in Civil War. He was mostly in the background during the main event, but got a recurring story in the Civil War: Front Line comics anthology (issues #4-7) and teamed up with Ms. Marvel (Ms. Marvel #6-8).

Once the dust settled, Wonder Man got a comics miniseries! Wonder Man: My Fair Super Hero is somewhat a take on My Fair Lady (or Pygmalion if you prefer) with Simon trying to transform the dangerous assassin named Ladykiller into a hero. Even with the help of Ms. Marvel and X-Men’s Beast, it’s a challenge.

At that point, Brian Michael Bendis was writing two Avengers comics and made Wonder Man a member of the Mighty Avengers … for the first 11 issues at least–during which he was also mostly a supporting character, as was often the case. Then came the Secret Invasion crossover event, another big event that Simon Williams is barely in it.

The end of Secret Invasion led to the Dark Reign era, one that started for Wonder Man in the first pages of The New Avengers #51 (May 2009) where he announced that his superhero career was an error. What happened next was explained in the three-part miniseries Dark Reign – Lethal Legion.

  • Dark Reign: The Underside
    Collects Dark Reign: Lethal Legion #1-3, Dark Reign: Zodiac #1-3, Dark Reign: Mister Negative #1-3.

After that, Wonder Man didn’t appear anymore during that Dark Reign era. It’s the Heroic Age and all those events that Simon was part of as an Avenger pushed him to this point. Because of everything that happened, he decided to refuse to rejoin the Avengers (see Avengers (2010) #1, 2, 7). In fact, from his point of view, the Avengers are responsible for everything that turned bad. This culminated in Wonder Man creating his own team to take down his old friends–in Avengers Annual (2012) #1 and New Avengers Annual (2011) #1. Later (#31), Simon comes back to make amends… and did it a few issues later.

Possible Entry Point! All those events made Wonder Man a pacifist, but he was still invited to join a new Avengers comics (Uncanny Avengers (2015) #5), the Unity Squad that combined Avengers and X-Men. He may not be in all the issues, but the series led to some serious development, including his disappearance for a few years.

Following the events of Uncanny Avengers (vol. 1) #21, Wonder Man is technically not here anymore. His situation is only resolved three years later in Uncanny Avengers (vol. 3) #22-23.

This is when the Secret Empire comics crossover took place, but as it’s often the case with Wonder Man, you can barely see him in the background. You can skip this one. Next, he got a conclusion for his time in the Uncanny Avengers comics with issues #28 & #30. But his days with the Unity Squad are not finished as the team is part of the Avengers: No Surrender storyline (with every other team). Talking about teams, after that, Simon joined a crew of secondary heroes for a road trip during the War of the Realms. And during the Empyre event, he was in the 3-issue miniseries Empyre: Avengers, just for a fight and not much else.

Following that, Wonder Man continued to make brief appearances, sometimes just cameos…The most notable has been a 3-issue team-up with Black Widow in the digital series Avengers Unlimited Infinity Comic #55-57. And Simon reunited with his friend Beast at the end of the Fall of X story, in X-Force (2019) #49-50.

But the story continues. Now, in the new Avengers Assemble comics, Wonder Man is once again part of the Avengers!

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