Meet MODOK: The Big Head, Floating Toilet Villain Of The Upcoming 'Avengers' Game
MODOK has a big head.
That's the most memorable thing about MODOK when you're a little kid just getting into comics. The guy is 98-percent cranium with sad purple lifeless puppet limbs dangling around as he floats about. He's an apple someone stuck some Twizzlers into. He's also one of the Marvel universe's most fearsome villains. He's not as well-known as Magneto, Dr. Doom, or Thanos, but that might change soon as he's set to be the main antagonist in the upcoming Marvel's Avengers video game coming out in September. MODOK's getting a little bit of a makeover for his starring role, which you can see in the newly released trailer below.
The character has been around for decades but still might not be too well-known. So here's a quick summation: MODOK's backstory starts with A.I.M., a privately funded think tank of villains with a boundless technological reach hellbent on world domination. They are quite old-school in their motivations. MODOK was running A.I.M. when he was first introduced in a Captain America story back in 1967. A.I.M. created MODOK to help them take over the world, but they did too good a job, and he wound up taking over the entire organization. If you think that's all just so painfully cliched, even for a comic book, then this fact might kill you: MODOK is an acronym that stands for Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing.
MODOK used to be a human man. He was an A.I.M. scientist named George Tarleton, until A.I.M. mutated him into a giant living computer with mental powers amplified by a band he wears around his forehead. His head is so big because he's a superintelligent being. Using that logic, a guy with big feet should also be the fastest man in the world, and Nicki Minaj would be the best at pooping.
Every bad guy needs pathos. MODOK has it in spades. Beneath his megalomaniacal drive to take over the world is a man with deep body image issues. One of the reasons he hates Capitan America is because Cap is the very model of physical perfection. Wouldn't you feel a little insecure if you, an ugly child on the midst of a freakish growth spurt when he got stuck in a rollercoaster's shoulder restraints, kept having your world domination plans foiled by a man who would go on to be played by Chris Evans in a movie? That kind of shit messes you up for life.
Luis can be found on Twitter and Facebook. Catch him on the "In Broad Daylight" podcast with Cracked alums Adam Tod Brown and Ian Fortey! Check out his regular contributions to Macaulay Culkin's BunnyEars.com and his "Meditation Minute" segments on the Bunny Ears podcast. Listen to the first episode on Youtube!
Top Image: Marvel
