M.O.D.O.K. is having quite an autumn, not only appearing in the big Avengers video game, but also preparing for the debut of his own show on Hulu.
The newfound fame of the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby creation is also translating into a comic series, as Marvel as announced that Jordan Blum and Patton Oswalt, the showrunners of the upcoming animated Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K., are writing M.O.D.O.K.: Head Games. Scott Hpeburn will provide the art.
“One of the things that tickled us about M.O.D.O.K. was his insistence on keeping up this intimidating/frightening front even when all visible evidence pointed to the opposite,” Oswalt said. “Even from the git-go, those early Kirby issues, he’s still frothing and gnashing about the majesty of himself even when he’s been knocked to the ground. The malevolent Weeble was love at first sight for us. So after exploring every aspect of that in the series — showing him in lonely moments when he’s got no one to impress but this desperate self-image he keeps trying to prop up — it was super-fun to bear down on M.O.D.O.K. trying to unravel a specific mystery about his origin.”
Here’s how Marvel describes the new comic: From Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum, showrunners of the upcoming animated Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. show on Hulu, comes a journey into the mind of one of the biggest heads in the Marvel Universe! M.O.D.O.K. is the ruthless and brilliant leader of the terrorist organization AIM, outsmarting heroes and outmaneuvering his cutthroat colleagues gunning for his position… but when he begins to be haunted by memories of a family he never had, it leaves him unsure if he is losing his freakishly large mind, or if perhaps there is a lot more to this enormous mind… or if there is something more sinister behind these visions.
“Obviously, we were huge fans before we ever pitched the show, but after Marvel agreed to make it, we went back and tracked down every M.O.D.O.K. appearance in the comics,” Blum said. “I had read a lot growing up, especially the Mark Gruenwald/Captain America Serpent Society issues, but reading everything really filled in some gaps. What you find is M.O.D.O.K. is an incredibly versatile character. He can be very Silver-Agey and arch, other times incredibly menacing and violent like in the video game and obviously very comedic like in Gwenpool or our show. Trying to marry all these versions is what led to the idea for the story we’re telling in the comic. … We were really stoked to write ‘Marvel Comics Proper’ M.O.D.O.K. and not just the funny version in our show.”
Look for M.O.D.O.K.: Head Games #1 in December.