Watched the Wonder Man series and it was great! I wanted your thoughts on Simon and Eric in the show? Wish we had more time with them but I liked what I saw
I'm a really, really big fan of how they adapted these two. As mentioned in my earlier post, I think the adaptation choice they made with the Williams' and Simon was very elegant, and that applies to Simon and Eric too.
Making Eric be not abusive, but just kind of unsympathetic to Simon and wanting the best for him but only in a way that aligns with Eric's values was a really clever way to maintain the complexity and nuance and tension of Simon and Eric's relationship from the comics, while also not making Eric a complete bad guy and making him feel more grounded and connect him more to his second-generation Haitian immigrant roots in the MCU.
Simon and Eric have always had a complicated relationship in the comics. Both are victims of abuse, and as the older and stronger of the two, Eric took out his resentment towards his father on Simon. However, both Eric and Simon both see Eric as Simon's protector, and despite his cruelty, Eric also clearly loves his younger brother and was the only person who tried everything to bring Simon back when he died. There has always been this tension, between Eric being a bad person, but also being someone who loves Simon and tries to protect him in his own weird, twisted way.
And I think the choice they made of Eric being this more successful, financially stable guy working in construction who wants to help Simon but also isn't sympathetic in the slightest to Simon's goals or life desires was a really good way to maintain their innate complexity and tension while not making Eric into a complete supervillain. Because he has a point! For the rude way he delivers it, Eric has a point and you can sympathise that he doesn't really want to see his 30 something year old brother be coddled by their mother when he is in a situation of his own making.
And Simon fearing the worst from someone interviewing Eric, and being surprised that he only had good things to say about them, further shows that there is love in their relationship, it is just complex and not always easy and hurts more than it helps.
I'm really, really pleased with how they adapted Eric, essentially. He was my biggest concern to be honest when this show was announced, because Eric more than any other character would be changed the most by reinterpreting Simon and his family as Black as opposed to the white, ambiguously Jewish family in the comics, as Eric in the comics is also vocally anti-Black during the Steve Englehart West Coast Avengers run. So the way they managed to maintain how strange their relationship is and the way it hurts Simon, without making Eric into a bad guy and making Eric feel tangible as a second-generation Haitian immigrant was really impressive to me. Truly one of the shining examples of adaptation from this show, I was super delighted with that whole episode.