Marvel once again is the talk of the town following the successful release of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. That being said, the fan excitement hasn’t overshadowed the lingering discontent many fans have had over the company’s treatment of minority characters. The recent cancellation of Wonder Man season two was the latest in many instances of Marvel setting up their minority characters for failure. However, for many, the Wonder Man cancellation was egregious.
Following the release of Avengers: Endgame, many fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe had gradually tapped out. While WandaVision and Loki managed to maintain some interest, other MCU projects weren’t able to stick the landing. Wonder Man was looking to be a similar case of disappointment.
Additionally, within the modern comics industry, black superheroes have been getting the short end of the stick, and the mishandling of Sam Wilson’s Captain America, the cancelled Blade films, and Ironheart hasn’t helped things. That’s why, when the show turned out to actually be of good quality, people were eager for more.
However, it wasn’t just the fans that were loving it; Wonder Man was a surprising hit with critics, with a 91% rating on sites like Rotten Tomatoes. Additionally, the show was successful enough to land a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. Unfortunately, ratings ultimately sealed the show’s fate, helped even less by it launching on Disney+ as a series with all eight episodes simultaneously.
Regardless, the hype and fan excitement when season 2 of Wonder Man was announced remained. But since the cancellation, fans have determinedly argued that if the marketing were handled better then, maybe Wonder Man would have gotten better ratings. Wonder Man’s marketing was surprisingly bad, as there was very little promotional material prior to the show’s release following a surprise trailer.
This hasn’t been the first time Disney or Marvel has done something like this. There have been many cases in the past where projects would get little to no promotional material, with many audiences not even knowing they existed until right before release. Recent Disney films like Elio, Elemental, and Strange World have also had marketing issues.
