And so we come to the end. And where we find ourselves at the top of the 2010s is a familiar place: MODOK is thought to be dead but…
Red Hulk wasn’t a great idea, and it wasn’t a great book. Until Jeff Parker got a hold of it and it became something really, really cool. It was full of intrigue and big fists, but best of all: MODOK Superior! He was superior before Spider-Man! Over the course of many issues, it’s revealed that MODOK played a critical role in the creation of Red Hulk. Then, MODOK, and a team of others, kidnapped the smartest people in the world (who modestly called themselves The Intelligencia) and managed to turn MODOK back into George Tarleton—the regular person he was before his body was twisted into the misshapen form of MODOK. But the world needs a MODOK. So, a cloned genius brain is given the memories of MODOK, and we get MODOK Superior.
And we’re gonna leave it there for now…
MODOK appeared in Hulk throughout Jeff Parker’s run—I’m not going to go into more detail. Instead, my next post will be my last in the series.
In recent years, MODOK has launched its “Marvel Now!” banner of titles and we’ve seen quite a bit of MODOK there and in other books over the last few years. He even took on Thor (and lost) in Avengers #12.1. But his best appearance was in X-Men: To Serve and Protect #4, in which we saw him as the Mental Organism Designed Only for Roller derby.
Recently, he’s been a part of Ales Kot and Michael Walsh’s wonderful Secret Avengers run—and absolutely brilliant book that everyone needs to read. It’s hilarious and awesome and easily the best Phil Coulson title ever.
What’s next for MODOK? I can’t wait to find out!
I hope you enjoyed this series. If you did (or didn’t), drop me a comment to encourage me to do another one!