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Barbelith Loves M.O.D.O.K.

  
  

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Jack Fear
02:52 / 05.10.02
For you, Mordant...



Come to think of it, the Mekon also looks like he's tooling around on a flying commode. Is macrocephaly linked to irritable bowel syndrome?
 
 
Murray Hamhandler
01:50 / 21.11.02
Looks like we aren't the only ones.

(message edited to remove broken link to the The Comics Journal message board discussion on the Journal For M.O.D.O.K. studies.)
 
 
moriarty
02:54 / 06.02.03
I have received the first issue of The Journal of MODOK Studies. My thoughts on this important piece of comics journalism is forthcoming.
 
 
Jack Fear
22:37 / 29.03.03
Bumping this, cos M.O.D.O.K. has come up in another thread... and I am horrifed that my life has come to such a state that I need to ask this...

...but, uh...

...is M.O.D.O.K. still dead?

As of 1990 or so, he'd been assassinated by the Serpent Society, in the employ of AIM: the guy was like the Rasputin of supervillains—he was poisoned by Death Adder, then gnawed on by Diamondback, then blown up. The MARVEL UNIVERSE HANDBOOK, BOOK OF THE DEAD supplement showed him on the cover, his vengeful spirit rising from the grave complete with ridiculous chair.

Now, I know in comics nobody stays dead; so please, please tell me M.O.D.O.K. is still out there, kickin' it giant head stylee.
 
 
moriarty
00:53 / 30.03.03
of course he isn't dead! He's not the Mental Organism Designed Only for Dying!

This site has a checklist of most of his appearances, along with a precis for each issue, though they don't have one for the issue where he comes back. I have one of the Defenders books he appeared in.

I'm not sure, but I think the issue of Captain America that Mark Waid refused to attach his name to was an issue with MODOK, not because MODOK was in it, but because of editorial tampering. This could have been Waid's great MODOK epic.

MODOK was also on the cover of a recent issue of Captain America called "The Extremeists" or something, where he was supposed to be a part of a gang of super-terrorists like the Red Skull, and, I don't know, Batroc the Leaper.

And if you need more MODOK goodness, here's a link to the announcement for the second issue of The Journal of MODOK Studies, which finally gets into the good stuff, like MODOK's appearance in the Marvel stockholders report, and a review of a novel in which MODOK appeared.

Know what's scary? My blog popping up in searches for MODOK.
 
 
Warewullf
11:54 / 30.03.03
Of course he isn't dead! He's not the Mental Organism Designed Only for Dying!

Cheers, Moriarty! This line has cheered me up no end.
 
 
doctorbeck
07:53 / 31.03.03
if there is a massive head war comic do any of shaky kanes massive head characters get to fight too?

didn't one of them complain about having a 'crappy kirby head'?

but then you would wouldn't you?


andrew
 
 
FinderWolf
17:28 / 01.04.03
I challenge someone to come up with a really cool, reworked, legit M.O.D.O.K. concept that could be taken seriously and even liked by Epic. I'm serious. I bet it could be done. Maybe you just take the name M.O.D.O.K. and keep what you want about the character (even if it's only just the name) & ditch the rest. Kind of like when DC was challenged by Julius Schwartz to come up with a new Flash in the 60s, a new Green Lantern - a different character using only the initial name & concept (also like DC's week-long "Tangent" event).

This was done to nice effect with Chuck Austen's WAR MACHINE, CAGE, and lots of other cool 'reimaginings.'

There are no bad ideas, only bad/good executions of an idea. How many times have you seen a movie/read a book or comic where you think "I can't believe they made me care that much about a character I thought I could never care about?" Priest's BLACK PANTHER. Jenkins & Lee's INHUMANS. And now -- Epic's M.O.D.O.K. There's too much excitement in this thread to not have a cool proposal come out of this. Whaddaya say?

Maybe M.O.D.O.K. is the code name of a covert ops SHIELD team -- or a HYDRA special ops team. I dunno. I'm not really a writer, just throwing things out there. Maybe the leader of the team has a sizable head but not really like the original Modok or Hector Hammond. Maybe he's a cyborg, like Deathlok ("Deathlok & MODOK" - it sort of rhymes!"). He commands the team like Peter Graves in Mission: Impossible. If the team is a HYDRA team then you have the cool 'drama with bad guys' element a la Waid's EMPIRE or The Sopranos. It's time for a good bad guys drama (after THUNDERBOLTS lost that element long ago) in Marvel, and HYDRA would be untapped territory. Gritty espionage action. Get Greg Rucka to write it! It'd be glorious!!!
 
 
FinderWolf
17:31 / 01.04.03
[If only to come up with a really cool acronym to justify M.O.D.O.K.]
 
 
The Natural Way
10:34 / 02.04.03
War Machine and Cage are not good examples of "cool reimaginings".

Whatever glassonion says.
 
 
FinderWolf
14:14 / 02.04.03
I hear ya, runce, but you get my drift. Any takers for the M.O.D.O.K. challenge?
 
 
The Falcon
15:43 / 02.04.03
Cage was fucking proper.
 
 
grant
18:30 / 02.04.03
Scene One: MODOK discovered in secret government laboratory. On ice. An angry, idealistic senator bumps the wrong control and MODOK awakens. MODOK hits him with a brain ray just as the automated security stuff vaporizes MODOK's body. The senator collapses.

Scene Two: Civilian hospital, senator begins acting strangely. He eats more. His head starts growing. He is turning into MODOK. By the time staffers realize something horribly wrong is afoot, it is too late. The new MODOK constructs a flying chair out of hospital monitoring equipment. His brain rays zombify an attractive (female) nurse and an attractive (male) x-ray technician. "They now exist only to serve MODOK!" explains MODOK. "And look! They are happy now!" He makes them into attractive cyborgs.

Scene Three: MODOK flies to an abandoned South Pacific island and leaves his two servants there, along with some construction equipment. He then tours the world to see what he has missed out on. During this sequence, several heroes try to attack him, but he wastes them all with his brain rays. "You fools! You act first and ask questions second! Thus will MODOK always defeat you!" He is shocked and appalled at the hunger and waste he sees, and envious of the influence television is having over the hearts and minds of people around the world. "Why do they watch these feeble lies, when they could behold the awesome truth of MODOK?"

Scene 4: MODOK goes to Hollywood and takes control of a major cable network. He "eliminates" all top-level executives and programming directors. They are to be replaced by MODOK. He creates an army of androids to replace the stars of top-rated situation comedies. Also, each cast now includes a new character: a large-headed android facsimile of MODOK. He creates a huge cargo-carrying vessel, and brings a news crew along with him as he uses the vessel to suck up silos full of grain from federally subsidized American farmers and deposits them in Eritrea, Somalia and Rwanda. "MODOK is kind. MODOK is benevolent. MODOK will REIGN SUPREME!"

Scene 5: Heroes and politicians realize they're facing a massive image problem here. One makes the mistake of calling MODOK an "ugly freak" during a press conference and is attacked by an angry mob of MODOK fans. Wearing really big homemade helmets. Captain America: "His methods seem unorthodox, but can we argue with his results?" Nick
Fury: "He's playing at something. The question is... what?"

TO BE CONTINUED....
 
 
Jack Fear
18:34 / 02.04.03
A benevolent MODOK? A Mobile Organism Designed Only for Kindness? Who'd believe it?
 
 
8===>Q: alyn
19:04 / 02.04.03
My story, HEART OF MODOK, has contract SHIELD agent "Slippery" Sam Weltschmertz, a Jewish ninja from the South Bronx and an expert on East Asia and the subcontinent, travelling up the Ganges in search of the Tallboy, another SHIELD agent who's gone rogue. Tallboy, obviously, is MODOK's SHIELD codename.

SHIELD, it turns out, in its hunger to destroy HYDRA once and for all, has cut a deal with MODOK. He's supposed to be in a secret base in the Himalayas, doing something technical involving his knowledge of HYDRA and his knowledge of killing, but he has disappeared and strange rumors are filtering back to headquarters.

When Slippery Sam finds MODOK, after a series of mildly racist misadventures, the Mobile Organism is living on a special ashram for superbeings, learning to enumerate the ten million names of God...

That's right. Mobile Organism Dreaming Only of Karma.

I don't know yet what happens next... Coppola had the same problem.

Now. Who else is on this ashram?
 
 
grant
02:15 / 03.04.03
A benevolent MODOK? A Mobile Organism Designed Only for Kindness? Who'd believe it?

Like Frankenstein's monster, all MODOK wants is love and understanding.

But the heroes, they won't let him be!
 
 
grant
02:17 / 03.04.03
Now. Who else is on this ashram?

Duh.

All the other big-head characters.
 
 
The Natural Way
11:24 / 03.04.03
What? Even Ego the Living Planet?

Grant, if you don't pitch that idea I'm going to give you a slap. Understand?

Synchronicitously (I thought it was a word, but it looks....wrong), Fraelyboy and I were getting down to some serious MODOK talk last night, when we flicked over to Iron Man...... And who should he be facing this week? You guessed it.

But Fraely was disappointed:

"His head needs to be bigger..."
 
 
moriarty
17:01 / 03.04.03
My brother is a huge MODOK fan. His email address is "IloveMODOK". We watched every episode of Iron Man, just for MODOK and The Green Mandarin. MODOK in the Iron Man cartoon was never on model. There were times where he was about the size of The Green Mandarin's pelvis, then he'd grow to about twice that size. I don't think he ever really reached Kirby proportions.
 
 
Undecided
21:05 / 03.04.03
I've heard tell about a lost M.O.D.O.K. tale, wherein the M.O.D.O.K. we know and love was preceeded by a prototype herd (a murder?unkindness?) of M.O.D.O.K.'s, living in disharmony among the K.L.A.M.A.T.H. (Killing, Looting And Maiming Android Terror Harbingers) in a hidden Oregon AIM base, awaiting the day of their utilization as soldiers in the HYDRA plot for world domination. In seeking a more peaceful AIM base in which to reside, the flock (shrewdness? pod?) of M.O.D.O.K.'s returned to their birthplace (where the Cosmic Cube was being constructed) enraging their AIM masters and setting off what came to be known in legend as..."The M.O.D.O.K. War!!!".
 
 
8===>Q: alyn
21:13 / 03.04.03
I think it would be a band, a hood, or a float of MODOKs.
 
 
8===>Q: alyn
23:07 / 03.04.03
Duh. All the other big-head characters.

I'm thinking either it's the other science-victim types, like Lizardman, Abomination, the Warpies, and so on.
 
 
fluid_state
02:20 / 04.04.03
a ceph of MODOK? a headful?

a glare of MODOKs.
 
 
Spaniel
07:59 / 04.04.03
I'm thinking either it's the other science-victim types, like Lizardman, Abomination, the Warpies, and so on.

No he isn't. He's with the big heads. Why would anybody want him to be with anyone other than the big heads?
 
 
Spaniel
12:25 / 04.04.03
The best M.O.D.O.K. comic would involve M.O.D.O.K. screaming and blasting head beams and killing absolutely everyone... in the entire universe.

That really would be an excellent take on the character.
 
 
grant
12:44 / 04.04.03
I'm thinking either it's the other science-victim types, like Lizardman, Abomination, the Warpies, and so on.

MODOK does have a relationship with the Abomination, from what I gather, but think about it... how cool would it be to have The Watcher in an ashram? Perhaps even leading the ashram? With a secret teleport gate to his base on the moon?

I also can't imagine the Abomination meditating. Perhaps if they kept the science victims in cells beneath the ashram as an attempt to ease their suffering and purify their souls...

Oooooooooo.... and they try to abduct Ben Grimm. Or the Hulk.
 
 
grant
12:58 / 04.04.03
Oh, and what happens next is obvious - Weltshmerz learns he's been tailed by agents of AIM, eager to assassinate MODOK for once and for all. It turns into a three way firefight with pacifist, ultra-powerful big-heads trying not to give into the temptation to crush the puny hu-mans as they disturb their serenity.

Ego the Living Planet can participate remotely, via viewscreen.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
13:47 / 04.04.03
I think that any take on MODOK that removes the part about MODOK being a homely guy with a gigantic head who sits in a flying chair would be a very very very bad mistake. After all, if you want to write some other story, go ahead and write it. Let MODOK retain his novelty.

It's kinda like revamping Wolverine so that he's no longer a tough guy with claws, but instead a District Attorney in Los Angeles.
 
 
Spaniel
14:04 / 04.04.03
Indeed. Can't understand anyone posting on this thread who doesn't appreciate M.O.D.O.K.'s unique attributes.

As an aside, it would seem that Ego has a real hard-on for Galactus - they are arch-enemies. Fantastic. Galactus has a massive head.
 
 
Jack Fear
14:23 / 04.04.03
Ego has a real hard-on for Galactus - they are arch-enemies.

Might have something to do with the fact that Ego is a planet, and Galactus, y'know, eats planets.

"Son of a bitch! Yew done ate my paw!"
 
 
8===>Q: alyn
15:03 / 04.04.03
I thought the big-head thing was a little obvious, but you're right. The big-heads are running the place. Grant, you my bitch. I'm going to pay your cell phone bills.
 
 
Spaniel
15:11 / 04.04.03
You would have thought so but my research suggests another factor: Rivalry.

From http://www.geocities.com/marvel_villains/

Working with Thor, Galactus sent Ego into inter-stellar space by attaching a Siderial Propulsion Unit (patent held by J. Kirby) to the planet's south pole. Ego gained control of the unit and, seeking revenge against Galactus, tracked the big G to Earth, where the Living Planet was all-but blown to smithereens by the Fantastic Four in FF 235 (hey, they beat back Galactus; a mere living planet is going to take them more than a single issue?). During Silver Surfer 22, Ego found that the massive quantities of energy required to run the propulsion unit forced it to consume others in order to continue to exist; in short, it became very like Galactus, cruising around the galaxy looking for cosmically-powered snacks to sustain itself.
 
 
MJ-12
15:50 / 04.04.03
It's kinda like revamping Wolverine so that he's no longer a tough guy with claws, but instead a District Attorney in Los Angeles.

Don't give them any ideas, Flux.

Then again, it would still be better than that stupid beard.
 
 
FinderWolf
16:38 / 04.04.03
I want to see the Watcher in an ashram. That is all.
 
 
8===>Q: alyn
22:47 / 08.04.03
Anybody else having a hard time keeping this cute and funny? My MODOK's a sick fuck.
 
  

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