Avengers: Wonder Man's Talent Agent Was...a Super-Villain

This is "I Remember Well," a brand-new feature spotlighting instances in which writers pull out long-forgotten plots or attributes of comic book characters. I have a similar bit called "I've Been Here Before" when writers pull out their own old plots/characters, but this is when different writers do it. I also have a bit called "Provide Some Answers," when writers resolve long-forgotten plots, but this is when writers don't resolve anything, they just bring back something that hadn't been used in a long time.

Today, we look at how Wonder Man's talent agent was brought back, only for us to learn a terrible secret about him!

Neal Saroyan made his debut in the first issue of Wonder Man's 1991 ongoing series. The whole point of the series was to sort of satirize 1990s Hollywood and Neal was one of the key characters to be used for making fun of the excesses of Hollywood. He was Wonder Man (Simon Williams)'s agent and there did not seem to be a line for what he felt was too far to go to promote his client. In the very first issue (by Gerard Jones, Jeff Johnson and Terry Austin), Wonder Man has a big battle with another ionic-powered character, Goliath (formerly known as Power Man). After a whole lot of mayhem has been caused, Simon discovers that it was Neal who had sent Goliath after him in the first place as part of a publicity scheme!

What's interesting is that a similar thing occurred during Wonder Man's earlier acting days in the West Coast Avengers and Simon balked at it back then and it was probably a sign of the times that, while he was disgusted at Neal's actions, he still stuck with Neal as his agent. From that point forward, throughout the series, Neal was one of the main pieces of comic relief (in a series that started off as a "fun" book and then became bizarrely dark for way too long). Even when Neal wasn't in the actual comic, he was helping to drive the action, like when he hired a "sidekick" for Wonder Man...without Wonder Man's knowledge, of course.

Generally, though, Neal's role in the comic was to pop in and occasionally get Simon a job or at least an interview (sometimes, supervillains would use Neal to get to Wonder Man by faking a job opportunity). Neal, though, was also used to critique the amoral nature of Hollywood. There's a good short story in the first Wonder Man Annual where Neal gets Alex (Wonder Man's sort of girlfriend and later sort of fiancee, who I wrote about recently here) a gig writing a blockbuster film adaptation of the then-recent Avengers event, Operation: Galactic Storm. Alex initially agrees but realizes that she can't sell her soul and write a movie that glorifies war.

Later, when Wonder Man's friends accidentally gain superpowers from Wonder Man, Neal was all about putting them into danger for the sake of publicity.

After Wonder Man died following the conclusion of his ongoing series, Neal was obviously put into comic book limbo for years, but when Wonder Man returned to life in 1998, Neal showed up in the 2000 Avengers Two miniseries, where Roger Stern, Mark Bagley and Greg Adams resolved a few plots from Wonder Man's ongoing series (including his fiancee). Throughout the series, Neal tries to take advantage of Wonder Man's return to make some money or at least drum up publicity, but Wonder Man was no longer interested in acting and at the end of the series, he instead announces a "Second Chances" foundation that Neal has to agree to work on for the sake of publicity.

Neal went back into comic book limbo but returned in a big way in the 2007 Wonder Man miniseries by Peter David, Andrew Currie, Drew Hennessey and Rob Schwager. Subtitled "My Fair Superhero," the series opens with Wonder Man and Neal having lunch when they run into an old friend of Neal's who is the target of an assassin known as Ladykiller. Before that point, Neal and Wonder Man were discussing Simon's old girlfriend, the Scarlet Witch, who had recently seemingly went nuts and killed a bunch of her teammates on the Avengers. Neal was arguing that some people are just born evil and Simon argues that anyone could be redeemed (and sure enough, Scarlet Witch was later redeemed herself). Neal then latches on to that position where he pushes Simon into doing a new documentary called "My Fair Superhero," where Wonder Man will try to reform Ladykiller and turn her into a superhero. Simon, who has this big ol' "Second Chances" foundation, reluctantly agrees.

The rest of the series is seeing Wonder Man and his friends try to reform Ladykiller into a hero by the name of Ladyfair. Along the way, Wonder Man and Ladyfair seem to be falling in love, while the group she works for continues to hunt her down. However, in the penultimate issue of the series, we discover that NEAL is actually the head of the group that she works for! And guess what else? Neal also has mind control powers! Does any of this make sense? I mean, does Wonder Man make any sense? So let's just go with it!

In the final issue of the series, the Avengers are throwing Ladyfair a party, but Neal cuts in and communicates to Ladyfair and insists that she must unscrew a cap in her teeth and use the poison hidden there to spike the punch bowl. Yes, this whole "My Fair Superhero" routine was just Neal manipulating Wonder Man into bringing an assassin into the midst of the Avengers so that she can kill as many of them as she can. However, despite his mind control powers, Wonder Man had changed Ladyfair so much that she chose to kill herself rather than become an assassin again...

With Neal's plans ruined, his fellow bad guys turned on him for failure to deliver on his promises and when Wonder Man broke into Neal's office to bring him in for justice, Neal ha already been killed by one of his clients...