If you weren’t familiar with Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. before the MCU threw him in your face, you’re probably uneasily fascinated now. Do you close your eyes and see him grinning at you from the back of your eyelids? Don’t worry, we’ve all been there — even DC Comics.
We don’t want to ruin the DCU before James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new universe has its Big Bang, but access to many characters capable of giving Marvel’s odd villain a run for his money.
The measure of M.O.D.O.K.
We all know the classic origin of M.O.D.O.K. that the MCU junked, don’t we?
Marvel legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing as another one of their men-turned-monsters. A technician in the wrong place at the wrong time, George Tarleton was mutated by the criminal organization A.I.M (Advanced Idea Mechanics). He gained a superhuman intellect and psionic abilities but also a hideously distorted body with an oversized head and ambition to match. After inevitably seizing control of A.I.M., he’s faced off against enemies as diverse as Captain America, Namor, and Doctor Doom.
The villain has been irresistible in Marvel’s expanded media. Variations on Tarleton appeared as a villain in The Avengers video game and headlined a self-titled Hulu comedy series before the MCU confirmed him as the stacked-but-goofy fate of Ant-Man villain Yellowjacket.
Could part of the reason be Patton Oswalt’s comparison of the Marvel icon he voiced for Hulu to Batman? Is he one of those rare comic characters with the versatility to be a sinister villain or comic relief? It would be newsworthy if the DCU’s Batman out-crazied M.O.D.O.K., but that doesn’t mean he can’t or won’t fight something similar.
The only way to overcome your building obsession is comic book immersion. Buckle yourself to that melodramatically named Doomsday Chair. Here are the DC mods that could be the new M.O.D.O.K.
Zilius Zox
How about M.O.D.O.K. but always angry? Zilius Zox’s face shows just how angry becoming a Red Lantern makes you. When one of Atrocitus’s rings found the Red Lantern leader’s future righthand-head, it recognized in him the innate anger it could channel.
Unlike M.O.D.O.K., the Red Lantern of Sector 3544 Zox works on rage, but his species is naturally known to be heavier on the grimacing face than the limbs. He’s also prone to fly around, showing off his heavy weaponry thanks to a power ring that manipulates electromagnetic energy. Want a furious M.O.D.O.K.? This is the face.
Dr. Psycho
An early Wonder Woman villain, Psycho has been repeatedly powered up over the years to become a leading DC telekinetic and telepath. He makes up for his short stature and on-point name by specializing in terrifying his opponents and siphoning their mental strength to boost his powers.
Through the decades, he’s retained his disturbing misogyny — that’s his main thing: He hates women. Despite that, the diminutive villain most recently seen in Harley Quinn can match M.O.D.O.K. as comic relief or a chilling adversary.
The Brain
An awkward DC villain and enemy of Doom Patrol, the Brain is a classic horror monster with a literal name. His disembodied brain preserves the intellect of a deranged scientist obsessed with domination and getting one over his sworn enemy, Chief Niles Caulder.
While M.O.D.O.K. has A.I.M., Brain founded the Brotherhood of EVIL (um, that’s B.O.E). Unlike M.O.D.O.K., he’s more likely to rely on his powers of persuasion to have others do his dirty work. That’s especially true of his devoted personal assistant Monsieur Mallah, with whom he has an uneasily close relationship. A mad scientist and his intellectually enhanced military ape companion? Yes, the Brain could even out-weird Quantumania’s M.O.D.O.K.
The Thinker
The Think is another villain who proves that super-intelligence doesn’t make you any better at choosing an imaginative name. Several incarnations of the Thinker have troubled DC superheroes. The original was Clifford DeVoe, a failed lawyer who saw that Gotham’s brutish villains lacked brain power. Unlike M.O.D.O.K., DeVoe mutilated himself, boosting his mental abilities with his metal “thinking cap” at the cost of his health.
When DeVoe appeared as a series villain in The Flash season four, the debilitating cost of his abilities confined his full-strength form to a floating chair with cybernetic enhancements. Gunn would have the chance to scrape some new levels of despicable if he resurrected Peter Capaldi’s Thinker and elevated him like that.
Cyborg Superman
What about flipping the cybernetics on their head? Cyborg Superman is the chance to clone and mutate a big-name superhero while his inspiration is still speeding around the planet doing good. Cyborg Superman is DC’s warning on science gone wrong, and he packs some deadly abilities.
Hank Henshaw was a NASA astronaut mutated by a freak solar flare he blamed on the Man of Steel. Before his body disintegrated, he transferred his consciousness into a Kryptonian birthing matrix and inhabited a Superman clone (supplemented with cybernetic parts). Less likely to grin, but imagine intense Superman staring down the real thing.
Chang Tzu
Let’s get it out the way: Chang Tzu is a criminal scientist previously known in DC continuity by the unfortunate name “Egg Fu.” The oval villain has often troubled Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor, showing remarkable resilience to certain destruction. In the New 52, he is presented as an agent of Apokolips and founder of the Science Squad, but let’s not get too serious.
Like M.O.D.O.K., Tzu’s distorted shape has been cybernetically enhanced, but unlike Marvel’s villain, he uses a spider-like machine to scuttle along the ground. It took a while for Marvel and the MCU to reveal the origins of M.O.D.O.K., but this villain’s appearance and cracked shell-like skin have never been explained. Tzu and his small prosthetic arms can undoubtedly put up a challenge on the cringe stakes.
Queen Bee
The Head of H.I.V.E. has to be in contention. The Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination was DC’s response to Marvel’s A.I.M. (although they resisted such an extravagant leader). The original master of H.I.V.E. was an enigma until his wife, the H.I.V.E. Mistress, overthrew him.
A better bet might be the organization’s most recent leader, Queen Bee, who took charge when the New 52 era mutated H.I.V.E. into the Holistic Integration for Viral Equality. Queen Bee boasted incredible psionic powers, including telepathy, mass mind control, telekinesis, and directional psionic blasts. In addition, Superman’s enemy Brainiac augmented her intellect to the “12th level.” This is the honey DC could tap into for some out-there humanoid bee villainy.
Brain Wave
Not to be confused with Brainwave, his similarly powered superheroic son, Brain Wave was a classic villain with an inflated head that grew along with his powers of telepathy and telekinesis. Henry King Sr. was a doctor and psychiatrist, but he used his image-projecting abilities to support crime, attracting the judgment of the Justice Society.
Unlike many comparably themed villains, Brain Wave’s powers were natural, and if DC wanted to throw up a Golden Age rival to M.O.D.O.K., they could do worse than reactivating this old rogue.
Metallo
Another Superman villain who could out-crazy the MCU’s M.O.D.O.K., Metallo has taken many forms over the years, but you can rely on him being a human augmented to various degrees with Supes-bashing power and a Kryptonite heart.
Like Kang’s hunter, Metallo is often shown as a henchman. He’s a brute force thrown at the Man of Steel by committee. If Cyborg Superman is the terrifying half-face of Superman, Metallo is the reckless force of unthinking destruction that can test the Kryptonian’s resolve. He better watch out. Metallo is a M.O.D.O.K.S. — a Metal Organism Designed Only for Killing Superman.
Hector Hammond
Green Lantern nemesis Hector Hammond is another supervillain with a cranium that struggles to contain his incredible psionic abilities. Hammond was mutated by extraterrestrial radiation, gaining psychic powers, immortality, and a radically increased head. His genius-level intellect and superhuman abilities come at a cost, though. He’s often shown with a body atrophied through lack of use, relying on a chair to support his weight and hold his head upright.
This is the DC M.O.D.O.K. both publishers have bet on before. The Amalgam imprint that combined DC and Marvel characters combined M.O.D.O.K. with Hammond to create the brilliantly initialed H.E.C.T.O.R. (Highly Evolved Creature Totally Oriented for Revenge).