Simon Williams was the youngest son of Sanford Williams --industrialist and founder of Williams Innovations, a highly successful munitions-manufacturing firm. When the elder Williams died, the 22-year-old Simon assumed full control of the family business. Under his inexperienced management, Williams Innovations began to lose its competitive edge in the marketplace to such rapidly growing firms as Stark Industries.
Frantic, Simon sought his older brother's aid. Eric Williams suggested that Simon embezzle a sum money from the company to invest in a number of illicit enterprises, from which he himself had grown wealthy. Desperate to save his father's business, Simon did as his brother advised. But the board of directors discovered his embezzlement and criminal ties, and Simon was brought to trial. Found guilty and facing a prison sentence, he was released thanks to pressure exerted by the corrupt Legion-controlled U.S. government. These strings were pulled by National Security Advisor Sutherland on behalf of his long-time business associate, Helmut Zemo.
The son of Nazi war criminal Heinrich Zemo, Helmut had read of Simon's case. Intrigued by the media's assertion that Simon blamed Anthony Stark for his downfall, Baron Zemo hoped to recruit him for the Masters of Evil, Zemo's fascistic criminal enterprise which had been routinely thwarted by Red Knight, War Machine and NoMan for years. Zemo knew that Stark was closely allied with these heroes and supplied them with massive technological support, thus he was eager to turn any weapon he could against any who opposed him, especially while the Legion Crisis gave him an unprecedented advantage.
Disoriented by the upheavals in his life, Simon agreed to accompany Sutherland Corporation agents to Zemo's South American base. There, in a bizarre jungle lab that served as home to clandestine spooks, paramilitaries and thoroughly unsavory scientists toiling at a variety of nightmarish experiments, Williams became a test subject for Zemo's "ionic ray," which would endow him with superhuman strength and durability. After undergoing the arduous chemical and radiation treatments, Simon emerged with the attributes he had been promised. To ensure his newly created Wonder Man's cooperation, Zemo told him the process had altered his metabolism: Simon would die within the week unless he received regular treatments of an unspecified antidote.
As part of a business agreement with the Legion-controlled U.S. government, Zemo promised Wonder Man's participation in Legion's newly formed Justice League of America. Taken back to America, Zemo demanded that Simon join the new Justice League, whose first order of business was to hunt down and destroy every member of the former League, who were at that point on the run and desperately trying to organize resistance against Legion's tyrannical rule. It was decided that Wonder Man could be most useful if he could infiltrate the ranks of the heroes and lure them into ambush. Realizing the courage of the real Justice League, Simon decided he could not betray the heroes -- even if it cost him his life. Deprived of Zemo's life prolonging treatment, Wonder Man succumbed to the mysterious effects of his power acquisition. Wonder Man fell still, displaying no vital signs.
Although assumed dead, Wonder Man actually had fallen into a deathlike coma brought on by the still unstable mutagenic changes triggered in his body. His brother, Eric Williams, who had by now become a costumed criminal, himself, called the Grim Reaper, retrieved his younger brother's body sometime later.
Obsessed with reviving his brother, the Reaper brought Wonder Man's body to New Orleans, where he used his criminal contacts to arrange a meeting with a cabal of Voodoo priests who were rumored to have great power. The source of the Voodoo priests' power was soon revealed to be their secret master, the evil magician Murder Legendre. Legendre made a deal with the Reaper and used his magicks to reanimate Wonder Man, but as a mindless zombie.
Frustrated by the imperfect result, the Reaper demanded Legendre destroy the revenant. Legendre refused, and he and his cabal then vanished. The Reaper enlisted others to destroy Wonder Man, but Wonder Man fought free, even in his mindless state, and a few weeks later, began shaking off the effects of both the houngans' magic and Baron Zemo's detrimental radiation treatment. Within a few days, Simon was conscious and fully functional again, much to his surprise.
Simon Williams went to New York, where he enlisted the aid of Reed Richards--who was by now something of an expert on formerly dead people--in an attempt to figure out what had happened to him. Dr. Richards determined that Wonder Man had fallen into a coma while his body fully evolved from flesh and blood to an unspecified, superhuman flesh-like substance nourished by ionic energy. Somewhat disturbingly, Richards also noted many marked similarities between Wonder Man's new cellular structure and the cells of individuals know to have undergone The Patchwork Man's "Anointing" procedure.
Whatever the exact mechanism, Wonder Man suffered considerable psychological trauma adjusting to the change, as well as his memories of being "dead." With some time, he managed to adjust to these feelings, and fears. However, he still feels twinges of the same irrational anxieties from time to time, unable to vanquish them completely.
Simon entered the public limelight and quickly found work as a stuntman and actor. While he obtained some notoriety in this regard, it is nothing compared to the fame he has since achieved by agreeing to accompany the Zero Man-led expedition beyond the solar system in Reed Richard's experimental stardrive ship, the Argo. Negotiations to option a screenplay based on the the events of the expedition, written by Williams, himself, are currently ongoing at MGM. These negotiations paused, however, when Simon was again zombified by Murder Legendre (who still possessed a soul jar with his name on it), and used as a pawn to retrieve the magical Blood Diamond en route to one of CURE's vaults. Simon was released when Legendre was defeated by a team of heroes led by the Amazing Ghost Fighter. Simon has some reason to hope that the destruction of Murder Legendre's collection of spirit jars has freed him from Legendre's influence forever. Ironically, MGM assumed that Simon's sudden disappearance from the negotiations was a bargaining tactic and have upped their up-front offer. The crucial matter of whether Simon will turn over creative control of the project, however, remains undecided, and the search for the right director continues.
Despite his new world-wide fame, and a marked increase in film offers, Williams now seeks to join the Justice League in order to redeem himself for his shady beginnings.
It is important to note that while he was in space, Williams made a decision that will fundamentally alter the destiny of mankind. No one on Earth, including Williams, is aware of this.
Yet.
Powers:
Wonder Man possesses superhuman strength, durability
and stamina. His body is composed of ionic energy. Wonder Man no longer
requires food, water or air, as the energy that grants him life is far
more efficient and self-sustaining than the biochemical processes of an
ordinary human. As a result of his ionic form, he no longer ages. The jet-belt
that allows him to fly was built for him by Reed Richards, and is fueled
off of Simon’s Ionic Energies.
First Appearance: Zero Man #27
[Aaron Einhorn]