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This article contains Wonder Man spoilers
In the fourth episode of Marvel’s Wonder Man, the world turns black-and-white as we explore events that led to a key incident in Hollywood’s recent past.
“Doorman” introduces us to DeMarr Davis (Byron Bowers), a club doorman who is loyal and trustworthy, but whose career is stagnating. All that is about to change when he takes out the garbage one night and gets more than he bargains for.
When DeMarr heads out to the alley at the back of the club, Wilcox, he discovers that the usual dumpster is full. Noticing one next to it that seems viable, he approaches cautiously and throws his garbage bag in, as the camera pans down to reveal a large “Roxxon” logo on the front. For Marvel geeks, it’s time for the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme, because that’s a company we are very familiar with!
DeMarr looks down and sees some very suspicious dark liquid oozing from a crack in the Roxxon dumpster. It appears to have created a kind of glittery, undulating sinkhole in the ground where it’s landed, and so he does what any normal person would do in such an “oh hell no” scenario – he sticks his damn hand into it.
The “good” news is that the gooey hole gives DeMarr some superpowers and subsequent fame. The bad news is that those superpowers eventually become scary and unpredictable. As a result, Hollywood decides the only safe way for the industry to function going forward is to ban superpowered individuals from working in it.
Roxxon’s Dark Past in the MCU
Anyone familiar with Roxxon’s Marvel Cinematic Universe history would have stayed well clear of whatever ended up in that dumpster. The company first popped up in the original Iron Man film in 2008, where it was established to be in the vicinity of Stark Industries’ headquarters. At that point, Roxxon remained a largely hidden threat, but in several popular Marvel TV shows, the company strayed from the shadows and became a rather more substantial evil corporation.
It was in Agent Carter that Roxxon finally emerged as a major recurring antagonist. In the post-WWII-set series, it competed with Howard Stark, stole Stark technology, and performed dangerous experiments with Isodyne Energy’s extradimensional substance, Zero Matter. We even met Roxxon’s villainous CEO, Hugh Jones (Ray Wise), in the series and saw the effects of the unstable Zero Matter on real people (it wasn’t good!).
Roxxon was back at it in Marvel’s little-seen Freeform show Cloak & Dagger in 2018, where the company was the main corporate antagonist. Roxxon’s dangerous New Orleans drilling operations into an unstable underground energy source caused a catastrophic explosion that killed several people and directly caused Tandy Bowen (Dagger) and Tyrone Johnson (Cloak) to develop powers. Tandy manifested light-based abilities (forming daggers), and Tyrone gained shadowy, portal-like abilities.
The Future of Roxxon in Wonder Man
Roxxon has more consistently embodied the human cost of corporate negligence as the MCU has evolved. It lurked in episodes of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Runaways, but in Wonder Man, it’s clear that Roxxon’s evil presence lives on in the MCU, and the company doesn’t seem to have strayed far from its former dodgy extradimensional matter experiments.
DeMarr Davis found that out the hard way. In the pages of Marvel Comics, DaMarr was a mutant with familiar portal-based powers. He could use Darkforce energy, much like Cloak. But in Wonder Man, Roxxon seems to be behind DeMarr’s brief highs and very low lows. Though the series doesn’t explore the details of the matter that DeMarr is exposed to, it wouldn’t be a huge leap to assume it’s related to Roxxon’s Darkforce dabblings in one way or another.
We suspect it’s not the last time we’ll see Roxxon’s dark dealings show up in the MCU. It’s one of the rare villains that never seems to die. But who will be the superhero that steps up and finally takes Roxxon out of the picture? Perhaps that avenue can be explored in a second season of Wonder Man if we get one, but more likely, Roxxon will pop up like just another Hydra head somewhere else in the future.
The post Wonder Man Welcomes Back One of Marvel’s Most Dangerous Companies appeared first on Den of Geek.
