i'm not too familiar with Wonder Man outside of a few xmen related stories, how accurate would you say the show is to his character/personality?
I was actually really, pleasantly surprised.
To put it bluntly, the MCU historically doesn't care too much about being 1to1 with comic counterparts, and Simon especially as a much more obscure character was a character I was expecting to be a totally new guy who happened to be called Simon. For the record, I was okay with this; while 616 Simon is dear to me, I'm also realistic and he isn't particularly important to get right, and Yahya is talented enough that I was willing to go along wherever he took me.
So it was a really pleasant shock when I felt that Simon of the comics and Simon from the show are actually very similar. There are ,of course, differences; 616 Simon is a white, ambigously Jewish man from a wealthy family in New Jersey, while MCU Simon is a black second-generation Haitian-American from a (seemingly–I'm not well-versed on American class signifiers so feel free to correct me) middle class Californian family. 616 Simon was an Avenger before seeking acting as his true passion while MCU Simon has always dedicated his time and energy into acting. 616 Simon has a host of complex dynamics with The Vision, Wanda Maximoff, Hank McCoy, Carol Danvers while MCU Simon is quite detached from the rest of the Marvel Universe (one of the show's strengths). I could go on.
But the core of the characters feel the same. Both are very awkward people who regularly fudge social interactions but have a deep passion for what they do, even if it isn't very impressive, underneath. MCU Simon wants to elevate his roles as much as he can, even when it gets in the way of actually doing his job. 616 Simon desperately wants roles with weight and substance and artistic integrity, but finds himself pigeon-holed as an Arnold Schwarznegger type. Both of them have a desire to be more than the sum of their parts, but MCU Simon actually makes it as a significant, impactful actor, while 616 Simon finds more meaning in superheroics.
Both of them are desperate to please, over-think everything they do, and yet can go the other extreme and get self-absorbed easily. They're at once their own biggest critic and biggest fan, depending on confidence. Speaking of, both of them struggle once their confidence is shaken, and both of them really needed a more confident, more experienced presence to help them along the way. MCU Simon has Trevor, and 616 Simon had Hank McCoy. But they also are prone to self-sabotage.
I could go on, but I do think a lot of 616 Simon is in there, it just manifests differently because 616 Simon historically has been a lot more about being a superhero than he has been about being an actor. MCU Simon flips that around and really burrows into what Simon would actually be like on a set, what his best and worst characteristics would lead to in the film industry. And of course, the added layers of being black and hiding his identity have been pulled off wonderfully, if the pun hasn't been beaten to death already. It asks who Simon is when he doesn't have The Vision, or the Scarlet Witch, or Hank, and while I love Simon's relationships with those charaters I am really impressed with how they managed to create a guy who feels recognisably Simon without that, without the convoluted death plots and family origin and what else. He doesn't come from an abusive background in the MCU the way he does in comics, but he also clearly feels isolated, lonely and tense in his home environment, which is a perfect way of adapting the effect while changing the cause.
All in all, I'm really, really pleased, and I'm grateful I was lucky enough to get such a talented actor to depict one of my favourite characters. Very nice for me, after how MCU Wanda and Vision were massacred!