MCU fans rejoice, Phase 5 is here. With the arrival of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (review) on February 17, the next era of Marvel movies begins. The Ant-Man trailers showcase an epic battle between Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Kang the Conqueror (Jonathon Majors) after the hero and his family accidentally open a portal to the Quantum Realm… again. But while we knew all of that before these multiversal trailers, it also looks like we're getting the arrival of one of Marvel's wildest and most maniacal villains, MODOK (or M.O.D.O.K. if you want to get technical)!
But who is the giant floating head? What does his moniker mean? And why is the actor playing him already familiar? Strap in, readers — you're in for an infinitely strange yet satisfying ride through M.O.D.O.K. history…
MODOK's Origin
Like many of Marvel's most inventive and awesome creations, M.O.D.O.K. came from the minds of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. He's first mentioned in Tales of Suspense #93 as Captain America is captured by the evil organization known as A.I.M. on a rescue mission to find Agent 13. While the government had believed that A.I.M. was disbanded, Cap discovered that they were still active under the leadership of the mysterious M.O.D.O.K. But it wasn't until the next issue that readers actually met the terrifying creation when he revealed himself to our hero.
The immense mutated head cradled in a flying contraption stands as one of Kirby's most striking visual creations. As he explains to Steve Rogers, M.O.D.O.K. was once a mere guinea pig for the scientists of A.I.M. but their experiments gave him immense power, making his brain incredibly dangerous. While he appeared to kill himself at the end of that story, he'd later return to exact his revenge.
It was during his reign as Captain America's most fearsome foe that readers learned his true origin. Originally, George Tarleton was introduced as a scientist that A.I.M. chose for a test in their attempts to create the ultimate intelligence. They succeeded, but that was only good news for M.O.D.O.K., who quickly killed his captors. Later, that origin would change with George being reimagined as the son of an A.I.M. scientist. But either way, A.I.M did him wrong and he would spend his life making them and the superheroic world who oppose them pay for it.
Oh, and if you're wondering what M.O.D.O.K stands for, there are multiple answers. It began as Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. It was once retconned that his original name was supposed to be Mental Organism Designed Only for Computing. The name M.O.D.O.K. stuck though, and during his tenure the M has also stood for both Mechanized and Mobile.
MODOK's Powers and Abilities
The experiments George was put through were what gave him his giant brain — hence the massive floating head — leading to his impressive intelligence. The powers he gained from that include incredible deduction, super perception, and an ability to solve the hardest puzzles. But his colossal cerebrum came with unexpected and deadly powers. M.O.D.O.K. is a man with very little patience and whenever it wears thin he breaks out his violent and fatal Mental Beam. Focusing the energy from his brain through his high-tech head sock, he can create a powerful ray of catastrophic power which is incredibly destructive.
And if that wasn't enough, he's also telepathic and regularly mind-controls people. He can also put that to good use by creating force fields, making it harder for his enemies to land their attacks. Basically, he's formidable.
A Time-Bending Look at Kang the Conqueror's History
MODOK Actor Corey Stoll and Marvel Universe Connections
In another casting rumor that has now turned out to be true, Ant-Man's Corey Stoll is returning to the MCU in Quantumania. But the actor who portrayed the villainous Darren Cross won't be returning as Yellowjacket. Instead, he's taking on the gargantuan task of bringing Marvel's most famous floating head to life. Stoll has been seen briefly in the trailers, his face enlarged to giant proportions. So is this just a case of Marvel recasting an actor that they really like in a new role — think Gemma Chan going from Captain Marvel to Eternals — or could something more canon-redefining be at play?
If we go back to the last place that we saw Yellowjacket, getting violently shrunk down to subatomic size by the titular hero in the first film, it all begins to come together. What if rather than Stoll being recast as M.O.D.O.K., the MCU is reimagining M.O.D.O.K. as an evolution of Darren Cross? When Ant-Man sabotaged Yellowjacket's suit by flying inside it, the stolen armor malfunctioned, crushing his limbs and mangling his body before he blipped out of existence.
So how did Yellowjacket survive? Well, the answer comes almost immediately afterwards, when Scott escapes the crushing weight of the imploding suit by venturing into the Quantum Realm. If Scott made it there, then why couldn't Cross? And as we saw him getting mutilated by his broken suit, there's a very real chance that the transformation could have left him with only an outsized head. In that case, he'd have a lot of reasons to hate Scott Lang. And as the trailers have showed him in his floating suit in the Quantum Realm, there's a chance it was built by none other than Kang too.
Interestingly, Quantumania looks like it's introducing a new look for M.O.D.O.K. as well as his classic aesthetic. We see him in a gold battle armor which has seemingly been designed to protect his face/brain. Could it be that this is a version of his Yellowjacket armor?
MODOK in TV and Games
- TV: It's understandable that M.O.D.O.K. has taken his sweet time to get to live-action, seeing as he has such an unusual and hard to bring to life look. But thanks to the iconic nature of the character, he's been adapted in many, many Marvel animated series over the years. He played a large recurring role in the '90s Iron Man cartoon and Iron Man: Armored Adventures. The latter was the first series that changed his name from M.O.D.O.K. to M.O.D.O.C., replacing Killing with Conquest. It was a trend that would continue throughout his kids TV career. Over the years he appeared as a villain in many Marvel cartoons including The Super Hero Squad Show, Ultimate Spider-Man, Marvel: Disk Wars, and Marvel's Spider-Man. It wasn't until recent years that he got his own titular series thanks to Patton Oswalt's animated parody on Hulu. Although it only lasted for one season, it introduced a whole new audience to the Marvel villain.
- Games: Impressively, M.O.D.O.K.'s number of TV credits (12 in total) pales in comparison to his history as a villain in Marvel games. The floating foe has played a role in 20 video games, most prominently as the final boss in Marvel's Avengers. Other places you might have tried to defeat him are Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, and Marvel Contest of Champions. So, basically, you've probably played as him or against him by now!
What do you think of M.O.D.O.K.'s look in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania? Let's discuss in the comments…