Wonder Man is a very non-traditional Marvel series and can barely qualify as a “superhero show.” That’s interesting considering the main character, Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul Mateen II), has incredible powers. So the series doesn’t have a regular “hero vs. villain” angle, per se. However, if the show does have an antagonist, it’s the United States Department of Damage Control (DODC). In Wonder Man, they are keeping tabs on Simon Williams, recognizing him as a potential superpowered threat. The collective recruits the former Mandarin actor Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) to spy on him. The DODC hope to obtain conclusive proof that he poses a danger to the public and capture him. But are they truly villains, or simply trying to protect innocent bystanders?
We First Met the Department of Damage Control in Spider-Man: Homecoming
Our first on-screen mention of Damage Control happens in the very first Iron Man. We see a news ticker that mentions Damage Control cleaning up after the Iron Man vs. Iron Monger fight. Cleaning up after superhero battles is largely their function in the comics. But we truly first see Damage Control in the MCU in Spider-Man: Homecoming. A flashback scene taking place after Avengers shows them cleaning up after the Battle of New York and confiscating alien tech. Damage Control finally gets a face in Spider-Man: No Way Home with Agent P. Clearly, played by Arian Moayed. He interrogates Peter Parker after Mysterio reveals his Spider-Man identity to the world. In No Way Home, he takes Peter into federal custody and interrogates him and his friends, MJ and Ned. They also pop up briefly in She-Hulk.
Damage Control Reappears in Ms. Marvel
We next see Agent Clearly in three episodes of Ms. Marvel. He’s tasked with discovering the truth about Jersey City’s newest enhanced individual. He blunders through much of that investigation. Agent Clearly seems intent on proving that Ms. Marvel, whom he doesn’t know is teenager Kamala Khan, is a threat. When someone he’s interrogating mentions that she saved his life, he dismisses it. One of his agents, against his orders, sends a quad of armed goons into the high school where Kamala Khan attends. But the incident ultimately results in no arrests and the DODC looks bad in the media as a result. As Agent Cleary is the face of the DODC in the MCU, the organization comes off as controlling, trigger-happy, and bigoted.
The Role of Damage Control in Wonder Man
By the time we get to Wonder Man, it seems Damage Control is less concerned with cleaning up after battles and more interested in neutralizing threats before they happen. They’ve clearly had their eye on Simon Williams for a very long time, recognizing the pattern of incidents that have followed him around much of his life. They arrest Trevor Slattery when he returns to the United States, and give him a deal to keep him from going back to prison. He’s to befriend Simon Williams and get information on him, proving he’s a dangerous enhanced individual. After which, they won’t make Slattery complete his prison sentence for his role posing as the terrorist Mandarin in Iron Man 3. He reluctantly agrees.
However, Trevor genuinely begins to consider Simon a true friend. When Simon causes massive damage on the Wonder Man set thanks to his powers, the DODC believe they’ve finally caught their man in the act. But in a hilarious turn of events, Slattery releases a recording of himself as the terrorist Mandarin to the public, taking credit for the explosion. Once again, Damage Control and Agent Clearly have egg on their face.
They can’t arrest Simon Williams, who goes on to movie stardom thanks to Wonder Man. The DODC ends up putting Slattery in their new maximum security prison, after which Simon breaks him out. We have a feeling that the next time we see the DODC, someone else is going to be in charge. Because right now, Agent Cleary doesn’t seem to be very good at his job.
The MCU Future of the Department of Damage Control
As X-Men characters are soon coming to the MCU in a new reboot, we expect the growing mutant population to be a big problem for the Department of Damage Control. Although the version of Damage Control is different in the comics (which are mostly concerned with cleaning up after superhero battles), it could take on attributes of other Marvel organizations, like the Mutant Control Agency. Simon Williams managed to evade them in the Wonder Man series, but we certainly haven’t seen the last of Damage Control in the MCU. Up until now, this group has been portrayed as somewhat bumbling. But it could become sinister, and effective, very quickly.