Powers and Abilities
Simon Williams gained his superhuman powers due to chemical and radiation treatments with "ionic" energy by Baron Zemo, giving him superhuman strength, speed, stamina, durability, agility, and reflexes. While Zemo's initial aim is to use ionic energy treatments to make Wonder Man at least as strong as "the equal of any Avenger", his treatments surpass his expectations and endowed Wonder Man with strength comparable to that of Thor. In Avengers: Children's Crusade #3, Captain America describes Wonder Man as having "Sentry-level" strength. Zemo's treatments also grant Wonder Man virtual invulnerability, immortality, and instantaneous reflexes. Zemo also outfits Wonder Man with a rocket pack in his belt to achieve flight.
During the beginning years, Wonder Man sometimes wore an ionic jet flight-pack which allowed him to fly.
Following his resurrection and metamorphosis, Wonder Man's physiology evolves to the point he acquires the power of true flight, independent of technology. Due to Wonder Man's self-regenerating ionic energy, he has the ability to exist indefinitely without air, food, or water, and he no longer ages. Wonder Man's eyes also glow a bright red courtesy of the ionic energy stored in his body. While with concentration, Wonder Man can make his eyes appear normal, he usually wears sunglasses to conceal the effect.
Before his "death" at the hands of the Kree, Wonder Man discovered new abilities of his ionic body, such as changing his size (enabling him to grow taller than his adversary Goliath) and emitting energy from his eyes. Since his resurrection, Wonder Man has not used these powers. When the Scarlet Witch resurrected him during Kurt Busiek's tenure as head writer, Wonder Man was often seen as being able to transform into a state of pure living ionic energy at will and back again.
Wonder Man has begun to "leak" ionic energy, allowing Iron Man to track him by following the energy, the other heroes speculating that his condition is responsible for his currently unstable attitude and anger at the Avengers.
Wonder Man is an exceptional hand-to-hand combatant, having received Avengers training in unarmed combat by Captain America. He is also a trained electrical engineer with an advanced degree in electrical engineering, and is a capable industrialist, experienced stuntman, and a talented actor.
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