Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania's Spin On MODOK Makes The Odd Character Work In The MCU
This post contains spoilers for "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania." Please proceed with caution.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has always taken liberties with the source material. Whether it's changing the storylines (the "Civil War" airport fight, anyone?) to fit the mythology and timeline established by the movies, or changing the characters to make them unique and distinct for the movies.
Take Namor, for instance, a character with an origin that was deeply changed from the comics – or even the way the MCU has affected the comics that inspired them. Tony Stark forever changed once Robert Downey Jr. took on the role and the comics started making him more likable, and the current depiction of Nick Fury is based on Samuel L. Jackson's appearance (though, oddly enough, that change happened before Jackson was cast as Fury).
The third "Ant-Man" movie serves as the official start of phase 5 of the MCU, and it finally properly gives us a Quantum Realm adventure full of weirdness after a single, simple tease in the previous movie. This leads to a marvelous, pure sci-fi world full of strange creatures straight out of "Rick and Morty," and a formidable new villain with the best performance in the movie.
Then, there's M.O.D.O.K. — a fan-favorite villain who is finally making his live action big screen debut, this character once again changes the source material significantly, following director Peyton Reed's "grotesque" vibe for Kang's top hunter. The result is arguably the funniest thing in an already weird and funny movie.
Say hello to M.O.D.O.K.
M.O.D.O.K. was created by Marvel Comics legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. His name was George Tarleton, a former employee of Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.), who, in an effort to increase his intelligence, did an experiment that failed and grew his brain to the point where it stunted his body, giving him his signature look. What started as a weird but still menacing counterpart to Captain America (an experiment gone wrong, this time all about brain over brawn) has in recent years become more of an avenue for writers to indulge in homaging and parodying the bombast and weirdness of silver age comics. Nowadays M.O.D.O.K. is more of a joke about a silly villain who considers himself serious and powerful.
This is why the M.O.D.O.K. of "Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania" works so well. In this version of the character, it is not Tarleton or A.I.M. carrying out a failed experiment. Instead, M.O.D.O.K. is Corey Stoll's Darren Cross from the first "Ant-Man," who tried to copy Hank Pym's research by creating the Yellowjacket suit. Darren was ultimately defeated by Scott Lang, who sabotaged his suit and caused it to shrink uncontrollably. This sent Darren to the Quantum Realm, where the different parts of his suit shrinking at different degrees gave us the big-headed, baby-legged M.O.D.O.K. we all know and love. Now he works as Kang the Conqueror's enforcer, sent to hunt down Scott and his daughter.
From the moment he first shows up after being teased as a menacing killing machine — a scary and unbeatable villain — the reveal that M.O.D.O.K. is just the goofy dude from the first movie but looking even goofier is hilarious
Welcome to the Avengers?
M.O.D.O.K. is the best use of the "Rick and Morty" style of humor in "Quantumania." He thinks of himself as an unstoppable killing machine, but all Scott Lang and the other characters who knew him as a human see is a dumb loser turned even dumber. Using the Quantum Realm to explain M.O.D.O.K.'s origin is the best way of translating this character, and using crude humor prevents the character from dumbing down the whole movie.
Though he does get a bit of redemption, the movie avoids turning M.O.D.O.K. into a full-blown hero. It would have been so easy to make Darren a sympathetic villain that turns into a tragic and redeemed figure, and indeed that is what happens ... in Darren's mind. As he dies, he apologizes to everyone, giving the "Ant-Man" equivalent of Boromir's dying words to Aragorn in "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring." He tells Scott he always thought of him as a brother (despite only meeting him for like 15 minutes), and with his dying breath proclaims his happiness at becoming an Avenger. It's a great moment of dark humor, made better by Scott awkwardly going along with it.
Kang may be the greatest threat to the MCU, but with M.O.D.O.K., "Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania" gave us one of the funniest threats in the MCU.