Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the first film in the fifth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which promises to begin a three-year arc of adventures centered around the menace of the villain Kang the Conqueror.
But like Kang overshadowed quantum, there is another character in his shadow. He’s an evil genius, a grotesque lab experiment, and he’s one of the most popular Marvel Supervillains (because he’s the absolute worst).
He is MODOK.
Who is MODOK in? Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania?
Marvel Studios trailer for quantum We’ve made MODOK sightings easy – we’ve seen him dash around highly armored and firing lasers, but aside from those moments where he blinks or you’ll miss it, the full glory of how odd MODOK looks was captured below clasp held. However, it seems likely that he will be allied in some way with Kang, one of the enemies Scott Lang must triumph over.
MODOK is also played by Corey Stoll, which gives us a big clue as to its possible MCU origins. Stoll played Darren Cross, aka Yellowjacket, the main villain of ant man (2015). He was the last we saw of him shrink violently into nothing after Scott Lang damaged his shrink suit to keep him from killing his daughter Cassie and her new stepfather. But now, thank you Ant Man and the Wasp (2018) we know that if you shrink far enough you make it into the quantum realm, a strange world hidden in the subatomic structures of the universe. It seems possible, even likely, that Stoll is still playing Darren Cross quantumand whatever happened to him in the quantum realm since we last saw him, it turned him into the MCU version of MODOK.
Who is MODOK in Marvel Comics?
MODOK first appeared in the 1967s Stories of Tension #94 created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. It began its existence as a poor human test subject for the researchers of the mad science cabal known in the Marvel Universe as AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics). AIM scientists turned this human into the perfect weapon and gave him his own acronym-based name: The Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing.
And as MODOK himself yelled at Captain America in his first appearance, the scientists did their job “too well.” MODOK then took over AIM and ruled the organization for many years. His original incarnation is all about playing up his grotesque appearance as a result of his heightened intelligence (he’s all brains, not brawn – you get it). All the menace of a super genius and a pretty decent psychic wrapped up in a levitating harness that allowed him to channel his “mental energy” into laser beams that shot out of his forehead.
But these days, almost no one makes a serious MODOK story anymore. It’s just hard to avoid that its design looks pretty silly in the art style of today’s comics. And so his modern niche is that of one of Marvel’s finest pranksters, a character who lets writers and artists revel in the bombast of classic comic speeches and explosions, and gives their heroes a chance to bulldoze about a total wimp.
And then there’s the joke of the MODOK variant. When content standards look down on the use of the word “kill” in a children’s show, MODOK has become the mental organism designed just for butt-kicking, or MODOC – the mental organism designed just for computers (or conquest).
We have MODOT (speeches), MODOG (genocide), MODORD (roller derby), MODAM (a lady MODOK, mother of a MODOK baby) and the handsome, shirtless BRODOK, the bio-robot organism overwhelmingly designed to be kissed , seen. whose head was only Only significantly larger than the human standard.
No wonder he shows up Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – He’s the perfect butt of a joke for one of the funniest sub-franchises in the MCU.