Say what you will about the portrayal of M.O.D.O.K. in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, but he’s certainly got people talking. Instead of giving us a more comic book-accurate interpretation of the bulbous-headed supervillain, usually known as George Tarleton, the MCU’s Phase Five opener decided to take a pre-existing character and turn them into some kind of self-parodic cross between Humpty Dumpty and a Minion (complete with unwarranted nudity that is making fans worry about Marvel’s sanity).
For those complaining about the MCU’s M.O.D.O.K., however, just be aware that things could have been a whole lot weirder in Quantumania than they already were. The whole point of the character — whose acronym generally stands for Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing, although sometimes Mechanized is replaced with Mental — is that he’s often used as an outlet by Marvel creators to poke fun at their own universe. Something that’s made abundantly clear by M.O.D.O.K.’s many hilarious and off-beat variants in the comics. Don’t believe us? Take a look at these eggheads…
Zombie M.O.D.O.K.
Thanks to the existence of the Marvel Zombies universe — commonly known as Earth-Z — we have dystopian variants of many a familiar character. Surprisingly, though, despite his big brain, Earth-Z’s M.O.D.O.K. didn’t survive for long as Evil Dead crossover comic Marvel Zombies/Army of Darkness #3 featured a shot of Tarleton’s skeletal corpse being picked clean by Zombie Hawkeye and Zombie She-Hulk. Bleurgh.
Aldrich Killian M.O.D.O.K.
The MCU’s M.O.D.O.K. turning out to be a mutated Darren Cross was a wild take on the character, but surprisingly it’s not the first time the franchise has played with the idea of turning a prior villain into the big-headed bad guy. The non-canon Iron Man 3: The Official Game previously imagined that Aldrich Killian’s consciousness was downloaded by A.I.M. into a deformed clone body just before his death. Yes, basically he was Palpatine-d.
D.E.A.D.P.O.O.L.
Deadpool variants don’t tend to get along, as is the case with Dreadpool and his army of evil Deadpools who invaded Earth-616 in an attempt to kill the prime Wade Wilson. Among his troops was D.E.A.D.P.O.O.L., a M.O.D.O.K. mash-up. He probably wasn’t one of the smartest variants of either character, though, as he was quickly dispatched by Wade’s ally, Pandapool.
Mo-Skull
Sometimes you don’t need another universe to be introduced to get a weird variant, sometimes they can just be dreamed up by some random character in a bizarre fantasy sequence. Such is the case with Mo-Skull, who — as you can probably guess — is a blend of M.O.D.O.K. and Red Skull. When civilian Bernie Rosenthal had a vision of herself as Bernie America, she imagined stopping Mo-Skull from conquering the galaxy to… start his own chain of Pizza Huts? OK, you do you, Mo-Skull.
M.O.O.D.O.K.
Spider-Ham’s Earth is home to the greatest puns in the entire Marvel multiverse, with Peter Porker’s allies and enemies all being hilarious animalistic twists on familiar characters. There’s Kangaroo the Conqueror, Ducktor Doom and The Bee-Yonder, but right now we’re going to shine a light on the simple brilliance of M.O.O.D.O.K., who is indeed a variant of M.O.D.O.K. who just happens to be a cow.
B.R.O.D.O.K.
This one isn’t actually a variant from a different universe but another form taken by 616’s M.O.D.O.K. himself. During a short-lived attempt at redemption, George Tarleton built himself a new, much hotter, body, and dedicated his life to finding romance, rebranding himself as B.R.O.D.O.K. (Bio-Robotic Organism Designed Overwhelmingly for Kissing). Unfortunately, no woman wanted him and he swiftly returned to his supervillain ways.
M.O.D.O.R.D.
As evidenced in the above entry, many of the multiverse’s M.O.D.O.K.s are designed for other things apart from killing, some of which are strangely specific. That’s the case with M.O.D.O.R.D., aka Mental Organism Designed Only for Roller Derby. It’s unclear exactly what his purpose was originally, but he came in handy for the Grandmaster when he challenged the X-Men member Dazzler to a roller derby championship.
M.O.D.O.K. (but the K stands for Knitting)
The LEGO franchise has always supplied us with hilarious parodies or spoof versions of beloved characters, and that includes M.O.D.O.K. When the LEGO Avengers infiltrated A.I.M., they discovered the existence of one of the original M.O.D.O.K.’s experimental siblings. Although they sport the same acronym, this M.O.D.O.K. is actually a Mental Organism Designed Only for Knitting. Because sometimes even supervillains need some nice warm woolen wear.
Elvis Presley M.O.D.O.K.s
No, this isn’t an Elvis Presley variant who became a M.O.D.O.K. (at least, we don’t think), it’s much stranger than that. When anti-terrorist superhero team Nextwave — which includes the likes of Elsa Bloodstone and Monica Rambeau — infiltrated the Beyond Corporation’s State 51 facility, they were faced with a trio of M.O.D.O.K. clones who for some reason looked like The King. Could this be the perfect role for Austin Butler in the MCU?
M.O.D.A.A.K
The Elvis M.O.D.O.K.s come close, but the weirdest M.O.D.O.K. variant bar none has to be M.O.D.A.A.K. aka Mental Organism Designed As America’s King. Hailing from Spider-Gwen’s reality, M.O.D.A.A.K. is an extremely thinly veiled parody of Donald Trump, who was running for office of the comic’s publication. While it’s not pleasant to think about Trump existing throughout the multiverse, at least we know that in every universe he has tiny hands.