Biography - page 4
Back on the west coast, Wonder Man was kidnapped by Ultron-12 as part of another scheme by the Grim Reaper to bring his "real brother" back to him. Eric intended to use a "psychic sieve" on Wonder Man and Vision, filtering out all their individual thoughts and memories, leaving only the ones they had in common. He believed this would represent the "true" Simon Williams, whose mind would then be transferred into a specially-prepared zombie maintained by the Black Talon.
As Simon and the Avengers fought back against this mad scheme, Simon finally zeroed in on the nexus of his fears and sense of inadequacy over the years. When Wonder Man first came back to life, the Grim Reaper was already an established super-villain. Many of his comrades and the general public had concluded that Eric Williams was the true embezzler at Williams Manufacturing, and Simon had merely been covering for his brother. Simon and Eric's mother believed this version of events, and even Eric himself claimed to be the culprit as part of his manic belief that his dead brother was some sort of a saint. Simon took the easy route when he was resurrected and never corrected the presumption of others, but it had always weighed on the back of his mind, a feeling that he was a criminal and therefore unworthy of the acceptance of the Avengers and others.
Naming his fears took their power over him away, and Simon fought back against Eric and his Lethal Legion. As the Grim Reaper fled, Wonder Man and Vision chased him up the winding caverns where he made his secret base. In the course of this mission, Vision had met Martha 
Williams for the first time, and they accepted each other as mother and son. As Grim Reaper saw the bond between Simon and Vision growing ever stronger, his unstable mind began to see himself as the outsider. Eric ran from his brothers in a state of madness, plummeting off the edge of the cavernous path and falling to his death below. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #1-2, Vision & the Scarlet Witch (2nd series) #1-2]
Mulling over the recent changes in his life, Simon realized he could no longer live a lie. After his 
agent got Simon a guest spot on the Tonight Show, Simon announced on air that he was guilty of embezzlement despite the public perception otherwise. He expressed a desire to own up to his actions, and was willing to accept any punishment the law felt he deserved. With a great weight off his shoulders, Wonder Man felt freer than he had in years. His courageous act was soon rewarded -- the majority of public response was in his favor, and the authorities ultimately chose not to pursue criminal charges against him again. In fact, the word-of-mouth was instrumental in pushing forward Simon's Hollywood career. He graduated from stuntman to full-fledged actor playing the main villain in Arkon IV. With his career on a high note, an enjoyable fling with his teammate Tigra and an undeniable solo victory over Ultron, one of the Avengers' greatest foes, Wonder Man's confidence level was at an all-time high. Simon Williams had arrived. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #4-7]
After his glowing red eyes were incorporated into Arkon IV as free special effects for his character, Simon decided to stop hiding his eyes behind his sunglasses. Getting the full Hollywood 
makeover treatment, Wonder Man adopted a new costume, began dying his grey hair black, and let his eyes blaze openly for all to see. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #11-12] Simon also became an uncle when Vision and Wanda's twins, named Thomas and William, were inexplicably born. [Vision & the Scarlet Witch (2nd series) #12]
Wonder Man's fame began to feed his ego more than others were comfortable with, though. As the next strongest Avenger, Simon constantly measured himself against Iron Man, trying to outdo the Armored Avenger and prove he was better. When the Avengers were trapped in the past by a time machine that only went backwards in time, Simon muscled into Iron Man's territory, calling 
upon his long-forgotten days as an engineer with William Innovations to claim he could study the machine just as effectively as Tony Stark. Simon became more and more insufferable as that adventure continued. He showed off by crushing a dozen muskets together in the 18th century, trusting his invulnerability to save him. Unfortunately, his display seriously burned Hawkeye, who was standing next to Simon. As Hawk became too weak to continue leading, Simon tried to take command of the Avengers in his place and openly complained when Hawkeye named Iron Man acting leader before falling unconscious. He constantly tried to one-up Iron Man and generally made a pain of himself. Once the Avengers returned to the present, Simon seriously considered whether his "star" was too bright for the Avengers. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #17-24]
Fortunately for everyone, Wonder Man soon got a dose of humility. When the Collector and the Grandmaster pitted the East and West Coast Avengers against each other in a Game of Death, Wonder Man confidently matched off against Thor, but was soundly defeated for the first time since conquering his fear of death and fighting. He also technically died twice during the adventure, once after drinking a universally lethal poison from the Collector and again when Hyperion of the Legion of the Unliving carried him into the heart of a star. Even though he was resurrected, Simon's newfound confidence had partly been based on the idea that he was undefeatable and unkillable as an ionic being. Finding out otherwise shook his bravado. [West Coast Avengers Annual #2, Avengers Annual #16]
While showboating after the premiere of Arkon IV, Simon was confronted at a talk show by the Abomination. One of the Hulk's most dangerous opponents, Wonder Man recognized that Abomination could potentially kill him. After a long and harrowing fight, Simon beat the Abomination, only to find that the Hollywood camera crews hadn't bothered to film the fight of his life. The movie already had enough promotion, they said, and another fight just wouldn't be interesting to viewers. Simon realized Hollywood didn't care what was real or fake, and in fact could barely tell the difference. Seeing what a heel he had been, Simon came back to Avengers Compound and promised Hawkeye he was dedicated to the Avengers for the duration. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #25]
Wonder Man proved true to his word and became a steadfast and reliable member of the West Coast Avengers for months to come. He had an unexpected battle with the real Arkon, who 
arrived from Polemachus, fuming mad that his Imperial image had been co-opted by the Hollywood film industry. Simon and Arkon fought in a fierce duel of honor until Wonder Man had proven his mettle as a warrior to Arkon and convinced the Imperion that Simon would talk to the producers and warn them not to make any more Arkon movies. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #31]
The West Coast Avengers nearly broke up when the truth about Mockingbird's final encounter with the Phantom Rider in the Old West came to light. Several team members left at once for personal reasons or because they sided with Bobbi in the dispute, leaving only Hawkeye and Wonder Man on the roster. In response, Vision and Wanda moved their family from Leonia, New Jersey to the Avengers Compound in Los Angeles to pad out the roster. Simon was thrilled to be reunited with his brother, sister-in-law, and nephews on a regular basis. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #37]
Soon, however, Simon's family was put through an emotional whirlwind. Fearing a repeat of his previous computer takeover scheme, the world governments' secret coalition "Vigilance" kidnapped the Vision, deconstructed, dissected and erased him. All copies of his memories and personality matrix were also deleted from the Avengers' files. Hank Pym was miraculously able to reassemble Vision physically, but his mind was still a blank. Pym could program the Vision's memory banks with as much data and raw facts as he could recall, but in this state Vision was little more than a highly-responsive computer, able to recite details about his life but with no emotional connection to his past or his present. In many ways, he was merely the "ghost" of Wanda's husband and Simon's brother haunting the Avengers Compound.
Hank Pym believed the key to restoring Vision's humanity was another copy of Simon's brain wave patterns, which previously served as the personality matrix for Vision's mind. However, 
Simon found himself reluctant to allow another copy to be made. Vision's "death" had unearthed feelings Simon had never previously been willing to admit: he was in love with the Scarlet Witch. It made sense, after all... the Vision's humanity came from Simon's personality in the first place. Everything Wanda had done to encourage Vision's affections would have had the same effect on Simon. Only problem was, by the time Simon met Wanda, she was a married woman. With the Vision deconstructed, however, Simon wasn't sure if that was still true.
These were complicated emotions under the best of circumstances, and Simon failed horribly at explaining his feelings to Wanda when she learned from Hank what the hold-up was in Vision's recovery. Simon tried to tell Wanda about his feelings for her, but all she heard was that he was selfishly withholding the one thing which might bring back the husband she remembered (which was true as far as they knew, after all). The slap she gave him was emotionally painful even before she used her hex power to drop an entire cliff-side on him for good measure. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #42-45]
After that, Wonder Man watched from afar, pained at the downward spiral Wanda was on, but no longer in a position to console her. When the Avengers stopped looking for other cures for the 
Vision, Wanda rejected them and looked for outside assistance, with disastrous results. She began retreating from humanity in general, beginning to parrot Magneto's lines about mutant supremacy. She was brainwashed and manipulated by That Which Endures and the Disciples of Set in quick succession, before losing her children as well and discovering they were essentially figments of her own imagination. Wanda finally snapped and lapsed into a state of catatonia, completely unresponsive to her surroundings. Wonder Man declared then that he could no longer remain selfish and agreed to allow Hank Pym to copy his brain wave patterns for Vision's personality matrix. Unfortunately, Simon's sacrificial act was moot, as the Vision himself rejected his offer. The Vision had concluded Wonder Man's brain wave patterns would not restore his prior emotional connections to his memories... merely restore his capacity to feel emotions going forward. And since Vision was comfortable in his current state of being, he saw no need to take Simon's patterns at all. [Avengers West Coast #53]