M.O.D.O.K.
Character » M.O.D.O.K. appears in 694 issues.
M.O.D.O.K. is an acronym for Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. He has a plethora of psychic powers, which he used to take control of A.I.M.
Off My Mind: The Return M.O.D.O.K.—What Can You Expect?
Somewhere in his career, M.O.D.O.K. became comedy relief. He wasn't taken seriously anymore (was he ever really in the first place?). Finally we saw the return of a menacing big-headed villain. As part of the Intelligencia, he was partly responsible for the creation of Red Hulk. In World War Hulks, we saw how creepy and evil he could be. Then one of Intelligencia's weapons, the Cathexis ray, was used against him and he was reverted back to a simple human being. Simple as in he became a docile man seemingly with no recollection of his time as M.O.D.O.K. How the big-headed fall.
The good news for M.O.D.O.K. fans is his brain was cloned several times and used as an organic computer. Even though Red Hulk managed to destroy them, there was still one brain left intact and uploaded with M.O.D.O.K.'s memories. It was his declaration that he would put the KILLING back into M.O.D.O.K.
What will this new M.O.D.O.K. have up his tiny sleeves?
== TEASER ==
It was Jeph Loeb's intentions to turn M.O.D.O.K. back into a creepy menace. He succeeded in that but I'm not quite clear on why the original had to be reverted and a clone made to replace him. Why have this deadly version of M.O.D.O.K. only to have him so easily reverted back to a docile human? Is it possible that George Tarleton, now free from having a monstrous head, doesn't recall who he used to be?
During the birth of this new M.O.D.O.K. in Hulk #29, we hear mention that Tarleton simply wasn't a killer in his original form. It's almost insinuated that while as M.O.D.O.K. Tarleton foresaw the possibility of returning to his human form. While he had several brains cloned from himself, he allowed the one to be kept separate in order for it to develop.
All of this tells us that we can expect an even deadlier M.O.D.O.K. Hulk writer Jeff Parker said, "This one will get out and interact in a way the previous model didn't. And he's a bit of a charmer." What does that mean? Is the charming comment a bit of sarcasm?
The designs by Gabriel Hardman are meant to give a creepy appearance. Instead of the rocket thruster, M.O.D.O.K. will now have spider-like legs to move around. Will this addition add to his mobility to hinder his movement? What happens when Hulk (either red or green) grabs one of those legs and snaps it off? Will doing away with the rocket make him more environmentally friendly? The bald head was at Parker's request. The reason in the comic is a result when the cloned brained was inserted into the body and the top of the head was stapled together. I always thought his head of hair was one of his appealing traits. I'm not sure if the baldness necessarily makes him look more menacing.
I am happy that M.O.D.O.K. is getting attention and will hopefully get even more time in the spotlight. I don't like how easily he was taken out and reverted back to a normal human. Part of me hopes that the original M.O.D.O.K. actually created another clone that was used as a decoy and was the one we saw turned back into George Tarleton. That could be why Tarleton appears to be a little dim-witted. If Doctor Doom can create Doombots to stand in his place and if M.O.D.O.K. could create clones, it's completely possible that he could have been controlling a copy to take the risks in Incredible Hulk #610.
I will give this new M.O.D.O.K. a chance. I am curious to see what evil schemes he'll come up with. I have to admit I'm not too crazy about the spider legs and bald head but then again, the creation of a new M.O.D.O.K. could have resulted with the return of the Elvis-M.O.D.O.K.s.
...Design=original no laughs or relief in my mind. We have a character here who creates copies of himself to merely kill himself to harvest body parts for...himself. He kidnaps Betty Ross which takes balls harvested or not and turns her into The Harpy that of which defeats Savage Hulk then he turns her later into the Red She Hulk. Not to mention all of the other countless things he has accomplished with biochemistry, DNA and parts he obtains through harvest or death. To speak of his intelligence he was remade to make improvements to the Comsmic Cube and for mention of durability he is able to withstand a nuclear explosion so taking him down is not as easy as it seemingly should be. He is one of the smartest villains in the Marvel Universe and i am aware of this mainly do to the use of head sizes in Marvel to show intellect and he has obtained a mass army of soldiers and scientists to do as he wishes and if they do not he can use mind control to force their hand within a certain radius so to touch or not to touch that is his answer in any altercation with him. I believe this to be yet another character that most dont really know of but have been deemed low class and nothing more than "comic relief" thanks to cartoon representations such as Saturday mornings and the ever present douche bags over at WB which have done this to countless DC characters...need i mention the Gov. of California wielding a freeze gun?
just when you thought the guy couldn't get any uglier, its bad enough the SHSS version of him set his character back a decade but now he looks even more like Dr.Chang Tzu
lol youre totally right. DC is always one step ahead.
Im sure they werent thinking about that when they made modok's new design.
A character like MODOK isn't lame, it's the stupid ass writers who displays the oversized monsterous freak as a cartoonish joke for us to laugh at.
It's a shame how it was mentioned if MODOK was taken seriously from the start of his career in Tales of Suspense #93, which of course he was.
Believe it or not, the abnormal villain was a major threat against the likes of Iron Man and mostly Captain America. Yes, MODOK would served as a villain who had a personal sense of jealousy against the good Cap because of how he was perfect, and MODOK wasn't. But the guy was a serious slave driver for AIM and alot more than an annoying ass that many fans currently see him as.
I like MODOK because of how he surpasses beyond human intelligence and preys on those who didn't meet the same fate as he did when being forced by AIM to act as a guina pig for their mutated experiments on creating a being that could study and improve their newest design, the Cosmic Cube.
Yes that hideous face of disgust and rage that MODOK has for those who are not like him did gain the attention of many readers like myself back then because of how he first served as a curiousity and a major threat to where his own organization had to hire the Serpent Society to kill off the maniacal freak.
Great villain that sadly fell victim into the hands of people who has a sense of creativity compared to a garden slug.
I grew up with the not so great 90s Iron Man cartoon, where MODOK was pretty serious (or at least he seemed serious in it when I was 10; haven;t watched it since), so I'd never really seen him as a joke. He looked like a classic comic book villain, so I never had a problem with him in the comics.
His spider legs are too similar to the 52 character, but I miss his grotesque Kirby head. His monstrous over sized face, all gnarled up and stuff. And I think having blank eyes is creepier than having pupils. I also think it might be that his head was disproportionate too, wider than it should have been. The new design is nice an all, I am just missing the old design.
I also don't think the cartoon made him seem as scary as he is meant to be, the Iron Man cartoon where he was sort of Mandarin's lackey and made fart noises and stuff.
I always did see M.O.D.O.K. as rather creepy... He was pretty funny in the super hero squad show though!
" I grew up with the not so great 90s Iron Man cartoon, where MODOK was pretty serious (or at least he seemed serious in it when I was 10; haven;t watched it since), so I'd never really seen him as a joke. He looked like a classic comic book villain, so I never had a problem with him in the comics. "He seemed serious. Outside of one episode, he was depicted as a lackey for Mandarin.
Probably the only good versions of MODOK out there are in Armored Adventures and Avengers, where MODOK is still a big threat.
I'd like to see George Tarleton involved in stopping this new Modok. Like, he gets back his memories and helps ____ stop him.
It looks as though they took some notes from the Doc Ock redesign:
Bowl harcut shaved bald
Gets around on mechanical appengages
Atrophied legs dangling uselessly
M.O.D.O.K. Elvis I can handle. In fact, he's a pretty decent guy. It's M.O.D.O.K. Mother-in-Law that I have problems with. :-P
G-Man, I don't know if you noticed it. But the title of the article says The Return M.O.D.O.K. There is no of.
He's just not going to be creepy with those tiny little arms and legs sticking out. I never thought you were supposed to find MODOK creepy though, I thought you were supposed to feel sorry for him. That's when I think he's written best, when he hates the way he looks, and he wants to be normal, but he's at the command of another villain. This modification doesn't really do anything for his design though, to be honest.
I'm surprised no one's considering that Tarleton could be acting. Suppose he found a way to restore his powers while maintaining a normal human body? It would only make sense to then play dead and lull his enemies into thinking he was no longer a thread, and create a diversionary version of him (the bald head and spider-legs even add to the last-minute low-budget, didn't really take the time to complete thing.)
" he has fans? "yeah. after world war hulk i thought he was really cool and i think he would be a good villain in the Avengers movie.
" Imagine if you meet M.O.D.O.K. in real life... now that would be freaky! "i was thinkin the same...modok stay in your comics!
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