A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.
If you were to rattle off a list of Marvel’s top villains, MODOK probably wouldn’t make the top ten. Thanos, Doctor Doom, Galactus, Magneto, they’re all getting top spots. MODOK, on the other hand, typically isn’t an A-stringer, but isn’t a B-stringer villain either, falling somewhere in between. And he’s gotten far more appearances ha you’d expect, if only for how weird he looks. And so, it seems, he is rife for comedy, and that’s the basis for the new Marvel TV series M.O.D.O.K.
The series stars Patton Oswalt as the titular MODOK (Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing) after having been ousted from his leadership position at his villainous organization, A.I.M. And because of it, he pretty much hates everyone.
As Oswalt points out, MODOK resents his placement in the hierarchy of villainy:
It’s just double-barreled resentment every episode. He really wants to have his amazing ominous entrances and they’re always undercut by something mundane everyday. And that’s what drives him crazy.
Patton Oswalt
Oswalt is joined by his costars Ben Schwartz (Lou, MODOK’s teenage son) Melissa Fumero (Melissa, his teenage daughter that looks very much like he does) Aimee Garcia (Jodie, MODOK’s wife) and Wendi McLendon-Covey (Monica Rappaccini, the current leader of A.I.M.).
According to the show’s co-creator/writer/executive producer Jordan Blum, the show seeks to honor the character’s frankly wild roots while giving the show a humorous spin.
This was born out of our love for Stan Lee and Jack Kirby who created MODOK and we wanted to honor that while still finding a comedic slant on the character and his world and kind of expand that beyond the comics.
Jordan Blum
Again, see what are the mundane moments of trying to run an evil organization. Or how does a giant floating toilet relate to his rebellious children or his wife? That’s what we wanted to explore. And I think what we did was, it’s fun and it’s action-packed and it’s very much a Marvel project but I think no one’s expecting this show about this monstrous, megalomaniacal supervillain to have hopefully a ton of heart [or] to be way more relatable than you think he’d be just from seeing him.
The show will apparently feature a deep dive on some of Marvel’s lesser known characters and artifacts, as well as some of their A-list stuff. Per Blum:
Marvel was great about giving us a lot of the toys [to play with]. A-listers and D-listers and people you’d have to dig deep into the Marvel Handbook to even find existed and all those characters, there’s so much comedy built into them. And using them in these big sci-fi stories that are grounded by these very human relationship stories between family or co-worker or whatnot. Mixing all that together, it was a blast.
Jordan Blum
The show is being animated by Stoopid Buddies, which is well known for their work on Robot Chicken, Supermansion, and Crossing Swords. And, to be honest, the stop-motion animation looks pretty damn good.
There were two sneak peeks at the show, as well as a half-hour look into the production of the show. which you can see below.
There’s no set release date for M.O.D.O.K., but it’s not hard to imagine that it’ll be relatively soon.
Source: IGN
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